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A chatbot can be a helpful marketing tool for your business, but selling your products to your customers via a chatbot takes more than just installing a bot and clicking “Get Started.” So, how do you know what strategies are right for your business? In this article, you find 3 money-making tactics you may want to consider when using chatbots. As always, testing is vital. Try each tactic in the first stage of your campaign, then move on to the next step accordingly. In the same article, we elaborate more on other areas that have to do with selling your products and services with chatbots. Let’s dig in, shall we?

What is selling with chatbots?

The term “chatbot” can refer to a variety of things. How it’s used in this article (and probably most others) is an automated messaging tool that helps you engage with customers, not just for customer service or marketing purposes, but for sales and recruitment. That’s where the money-making part comes in. More than half of consumers would prefer to shop via messenger, according to research by PYMNTS. For those who haven’t yet prepared their strategies for selling with chatbots, here are three tactics your business may want to consider when selling products with chatbots.

Tip #1) Be friendly and personalize messages.

One of the best ways to sell with chatbots is by creating a personal connection with your customer. It’s done using keywords that people often use in their day-to-day life and incorporate them into your bot’s interaction. How can you do this? Use friendly, natural language when talking to your customers through the bot. This will make it easier for them to understand what you’re trying to say and feel more comfortable about having an exchange with your company.

The main idea behind this tactic is building trust between you and the consumer. You want them to like your brand so much they’ll want to talk—and buy—from you again. And you achieve this by being friendly and personalizing messages appropriately. Be honest, direct, clear, and concise in your interactions with customers. And don’t be afraid of making mistakes – no one is perfect after all! The thing is, people will forgive you for a small mistake they can see you’re trying to correct without any additional explanations. You can always apologize.

Tip #2) Run Promos to Your Chatbot Audience.

Another tactic that’s popular among marketers who sell with chatbots is promotion campaigns. You run a promotion via messaging by offering something unique – e.g., discounts on your services or products, or even free shipping, which can be easily implemented by creating promo codes and adding them to the conversation when it fits naturally in the course of discussion.

This builds trust between your company and its customers because of 1 simple fact; People like getting things for FREE! However, the main idea behind running a promotion campaign is making sure to use it as an additional tool to boost bot-driven sales. First, you need to develop pricing that’s appropriate for the value of your service or product. Then, share this information with all interested parties via messaging. You do this by creating a messenger-based user segment in your chatbot to precisely target the customers who would benefit most from your product or service offerings. Yup. Laser targeted marketing, baby!

That said, don’t be afraid to make mistakes when promoting products – people will forgive you! The thing is, being personal and relatable is what makes your customers feel comfortable buying from your business. You want them to trust you just like they trust their friends in real life. You achieve this “real-life friend” status by engaging with potential clients in such a way that mimics how they interact with each other – face-to-face, or at least on social media.

Tip #3) Send Content That Nurtures, Educates & Engages.

Lastly, you can use chatbots as a tool to nurture leads and educate customers on your company, products, or services. You do this by sending out non-sales content to potential leads via messaging. Research shows that when people feel they have more knowledge about a product or service before buying it, they’re more likely to follow through with a purchase transaction.

Knowing how the human brain makes buying decisions may be the best way to get customers to part with their cash! This means understanding how people make decisions before making any attempt at selling is an invaluable skill for marketers looking to master sales techniques using chatbots. And, of course, you can use chatbots to engage with your audience.

You do this by creating relevant content about your service offerings, keep track of what people are saying in response to these messages, and then repeat that process over and over again until people either request being sent a sales message or make an actual purchase via messaging. How’s that for simple (yet effective) marketing automation tactics?

Why is Selling with Chatbots effective in Selling Products?

The one great thing about chat marketing is that you can reach out to potential customers wherever they are. This means zeroing in on the right people. And, as mentioned earlier, using personalized messages makes sure your business comes across as friendly and relatable – 2 things which make your audience comfortable buying from you.

It’s also worth noting that chatbots don’t get tired or bored, so it’s up to you to determine how frequently you want to reach out with helpful information. How well-timed your sales messages are, how often people see/hear from you, and how exciting and engaging your content is.

Impressive conversational marketing requires more than just optimizing a few of these metrics – and as with all things, mastering each metric takes time. That said, the potential long-term benefits of using chatbots for sales purposes are definitely worth the effort.

The importance of Psychological Triggers

People don’t always buy products because the price is right and the product/service offering meets their needs. You need to be aware of what psychological triggers play a role in their purchasing decisions and how you can tailor your chatbot messages to appeal to these triggers.

For starters, it all comes down to which part of the brain is most active when making any buying decision. It varies customer-by-customer and product-by-product, of course. However, research shows that there are certain parts of the brain responsible for liking/disliking (the prefrontal cortex), identifying opportunities and feeling safe or unsafe (the amygdala), remembering prior experiences (reticular formation) – basically, anything involving emotion – including fear, seizing an opportunity without hesitation (ventral striatum) and making decisions while under time pressure (cerebellum).

Samples & Free Trials are The Way Forward.

One of the best ways to get people to try out your product is by offering free trials. How do you offer them? By using a chatbot that supports this feature! Think about it – can you imagine yourself trying out an online service if such an option isn’t available? What’s stopping you from signing up for a service or buying a product without first seeing how well it works for itself? And why would someone go ahead and buy something without knowing what they’re getting into beforehand? 

There are many reasons, but we’ll highlight just one:  The fear of wasting money on something that ends up not being helpful. How else will this change in consumer behavior influence companies who want to sell their

Chatbots are 24/7 Sales Assistants

Chatbots are always available for communication. They’re great at answering basic questions and helping people get clear on what they want to buy. More complex interactions such as those involving detailed explanations or a series of follow-up inquiries can be handled by chatbot assistants, who can be upgraded with the skills needed to tackle more complex questions. Chatbots are an integral part of every online business. With their sheer versatility and the way they can help you automate different tasks, there’s no doubt that chatbots have unlimited potential to improve your business – if used right. 

Businesses worldwide are already using them in the most effective ways possible such as for sales purposes. And with the rapidly increasing use of chatbots as customer service assistants, it won’t be long before seeing them used in a much more comprehensive range of different tasks. Chatbots have come a long way since they first came into existence. They’ve made fantastic progress ever since then and have become increasingly more powerful and valuable.

Chatbots Improve Conversions Vs. Conventional Web Forms

Conventional website forms are outdated. How many times have you visited a site, only to be greeted by a wall of fields for you to fill out? How long does it take before you get bored and leave the site in disgust (or just go back to doing something else)? Often, a lot? Or somewhere in between. The truth is, most people hate filling out web forms, and it shows. The average conversion rate for conventional web forms is a little over 2%. This is not good.

But what if you could design your website so that it’s convenient for visitors to find the information they’re looking for, without having to fill out any forms? Instead of forcing them through a tedious process, where their attention can wander at any time, and they lose interest before the end, what if you could just let them interact with your chatbot instead? Promising to do anything they want, at their request.

Chatbots boast incredible conversions; in fact, just a few years ago, a company called X.ai managed to get an impressive 85% conversion rate with their email assistant (a chatbot). And this is not the number of people who tried it out. This is the number of people who went ahead and bought! Imagine that. A chatbot that doesn’t even have to convince people that it’s functional yet still generates conversions at a rate of more than 80%.

Why is Selling with Chatbots an effective way to Sell Online?

It’s pretty simple, really: the more people who know about your business and what it can do for them, the better your chances of making sales. But conventional online marketing methods don’t work that well when getting a big chunk of people interested in you. There are millions and millions of companies out there. It’s easy for someone to get lost in the crowd.

Describing your business can help people understand what you stand for. But it still doesn’t resonate with peoples’ hearts like having a long conversation does. In the end, this is all that matters. Conversational marketing makes it possible to describe what you do and why it matters and show people that you’re a reliable and trustworthy business. And that’s what matters; Know, Like, and Trust.

So, How do Chatbots Help Automate Sales?

Chatbots are there for your every need 24/7 to take care of all customer inquiries. They can answer basic questions by themselves or update their skill set as they go along, meaning they’re well-equipped to deal with not just one type of inquiry but any scenario that may come their way! But next to being your go-to support agent, they’re great in automating sales as well. But, if you think that other forms of online marketing are still effective in 2021, let me tell you: they aren’t. In fact, they’re not even remotely close to delivering the results they once did.

People are bombarded daily with messages and ads, trying to get them to buy or try something. It’s not surprising that many people don’t trust ads anymore. Instead of showing people that they really want to sell something, they just shove it down peoples’ throats. And who likes being force-fed? Nobody, that’s who. Some companies have even resorted to using irrelevant pop-ups and notifications, which is highly annoying to the user and will lead them to abandon your website sooner rather than later.

A chatbot isn’t that intrusive. Although, it’s right there when your prospects need it, making them happy, generating leads, and automating sales on your behalf. Let’s take a look at some of the most commonly asked questions regarding automating sales with chatbots, shall we?

How do you measure the effects of having a chatbot on your site?

You do this by looking at how the sales and conversions change after implementing the chatbot. You’re going to see that your website will be more resistant to leaving visitors and bouncing from page to page whenever they come across something they don’t like. On the contrary, they’ll have an easier time finding what they’re looking for, which means they’ll spend less time on your site while engaging with it. And when visitors spend less time on your site but engage with it more, that is precisely the point at which you’re going to benefit from higher conversion rates! So how do chatbots help drive sales? By keeping customers engaged and improving their interaction with your brand. Which means a higher chance of converting them into paying customers!

What do the best chatbots that sell products have in common?

The best chatbots that automate sales come with various features that enable customers to communicate with them using text, emojis, and voice. These bots should also be able to handle the most basic inquiries that come their way. It should also be able to answer questions about products or services by providing clear answers in a matter of seconds. In addition, it should be able to learn more about the customer as time goes on and tailor its solutions accordingly. When you go this far with your chatbot, you’re sure to increase sales and make your customers happy!

How can you make sure your chatbot is helping in sales?

You should identify which changes to your sales and marketing efforts were caused by the chatbot. The owners of the best chatbots that sell products do this by using this simple trick: Compare how much revenue the website generated after installing it with its former revenue levels before installation. See? Simple. But don’t stop there. You should also identify how much of an increase was caused by your chatbot. Plus, how much was actually generated due to other marketing efforts. This way, you can tell if it’s worth continuing to work on your chatbot or not.

What happens if the chatbot fails to deliver sales?

Some of the Clepher customers that automate selling their products via chatbot experienced this at first. Their chatbots did not perform as expected and thus failed to deliver sales. However, they didn’t give up! They still saw the BIG potential of automating sales with chatbots. They understood that at some point in time, a chatbot will fail to deliver. Whether that’s at the start, middle, or beginning of the campaign, it doesn’t matter. When you see that your bot is not performing, you need to change it up if you want your chatbot to deliver sales. You’ll have to make adjustments to the chatbot and then run another test. When you face this issue, adapt your chatbot. Try to tweak it until it does succeed in giving the desired results.

Closing Thoughts on How to Sell Products Online using Chatbots

And that’s how you sell your products and services online using a chatbot. So, how do you plan on using chatbots for your sales goals? And how have you been able to optimize them for maximum effectiveness? Feel free to share this with us in the comments below. Questions are welcome too! With that, whether you’re looking for a great chatbot to take your company’s sales and marketing efforts to the next level or want an experienced team of designers, developers, and content creators to help you create a stunningly effective chatbot from scratch.

Give automating sales with chatbots a try! Get started with Clepher today.

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