5 Tips to Have a Successful Marketing and Sales AI Chatbot in 2023

Are you ready to revolutionize your marketing and sales process? With the help of a marketing and sales AI chatbot, you can do just that! In this blog post, we’ll explore the ways to have a successful marketing and sales AI chatbot. So, buckle up, and let’s get started on this customer-winning journey! AI chatbots are an increasingly popular tool for businesses from all industries looking to drive more customers. By creating a chatbot, businesses can leverage automated conversations to interact with potential customers in a more efficient and more personalized way.

Chatbots are most used for sales (41%), customer support (37%), and marketing (17%), according to Intercom. Studies show that chatbots increase sales by an average of 67%, with 26% of all sales starting through a chatbot interaction. 35% of business leaders said chatbots helped them close sales deals while the top three sales use cases are: collecting information and qualifying leads, booking product demos, and engaging website visitors (Intercom research). In fact, by 2024, Juniper Research predicts that global consumer retail spending via chatbots will reach $142 billion (up from $2.8 billion in 2019), while marketing campaigns would also be preferred doing with the help of an AI chatbot due to their spreading worldwide.

AI chatbots allow businesses to customize their conversations with potential customers, considering time, location, and customer searches and preferences. This makes them effective engagement tools for both marketing and sales. They provide unique opportunities for businesses to reach out to and start conversations with potential customers in a more meaningful way.
The key components of a successful marketing and sales chatbot with artificial intelligence include defining the target audience, understanding user behavior patterns, and using these insights to create personalized interactions with possible customers. Additionally, effective chatbots provide statistics for analytics so that businesses can accurately measure the results of their chatbot initiatives going forward.

By combining conversational AI technology with data-driven marketing and sales strategies, companies can be well on their way to building a chatbot that drives more business by engaging potential customers in meaningful conversations and converting them into current clients.

Marketing and sales chatbots are transforming the buying experience, providing users with an effortless way to find relevant information on products, services, and prices. For businesses, these AI-powered chatbots offer numerous benefits that range from higher lead conversions to improved customer satisfaction and better marketing and sales ROI.

Using a marketing and sales chatbot allows you to cut down on costs associated with sales and marketing campaigns while giving prospective customers personalized responses 24/7 all year round. Chatbots also have the potential to eliminate friction in the buying process by creating a seamless buying journey for your customers. By leveraging AI-based technologies, chatbots can understand user intent more accurately and answer questions quickly based on the information provided in their database.

5 Tips to Have a Successful Marketing and Sales AI Chatbot

Creating marketing and sales funnels in an AI chatbot is the key strategy to making it a successful marketing and sales tool in your brand’s strategy. According to Juniper Research (2021), sales through conversational commerce channels, in other words, conversational commerce (SMS, chatbots, and smart speakers), will reach $290 billion by 2025. Also, by 2025, half of all sales are expected to happen in chatbots – to reach $145 billion by 2025, an increase of 590% compared to 2021. In 2021, Drift reported that 58% of companies adopted a conversational marketing solution in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and 99% of them found it to be valuable to highly valuable, with 62% finding it to be highly valuable.

The global chatbot marketing revenue also reached $83.4 million in 2021. As part of the same study, Statista calculated the predicted revenue growth of the industry over the next few years. The study found that the market will continue to grow substantially and by 2027 it’s expected to be worth around $454.8 million. All these statistics confirm that businesses are already leveraging AI chatbots for their sales and marketing objectives and better strategies. So how to create marketing and sales funnels to improve your sales and marketing processes? Stay tuned and keep reading to learn the 5 tips to have a successful marketing and sales AI chatbot in the next paragraphs!

Tip 1: Direct links and QR codes to the AI Chatbot from Online and Offline

Marketing and sales specialists, prepare yourself for creating marketing and sales funnels in the AI chatbot of the company you are working for if you want to drive more sales and conversions. By creating direct links to the AI chatbot – to a specific webpage with a concrete element in the AI chatbot (form or information section),  you can direct potential customers with 1 click or scan in a personalized manner to important information your customers need to know, to promotion, form, or other interactive content. The AI chatbot would take care of the rest and assist customers in real-time 24/7. How could this happen?

Imagine you are making your next marketing campaign for new product releasement or a holiday campaign. Create a direct link in the chatbot platform that leads to a carousel of cards with the new products and a button to a request form to fill out. When submitted, the customer could be redirected to another card with a promo code for their next order. Direct links could also lead customers to a concrete element in the chatbot with a button for direct payments for your products, useful materials to download, sign-up for newsletters, services subscriptions forms, or many others. You can share these direct links in social media posts or ads, in emails sequences or anywhere else online, as well as share the QR code with a link online or offline on stickers, products, giveaways, posters, banners, and other objects, to lead your potential customers to the exact place where you want them to be and be assisted by a digital employee at any time of the day.

67% of marketers said that email is one of the most important marketing platforms, according to MoEngage and ClickZ report “Future of Marketing: Why Personalization Matters”. By combining your next email campaign with an AI chatbot and direct links to it in the email or custom-made QR codes that lead also to it, you could make your potential customers feel more special, and understood, and give them a more personalized experience. Different target groups could be sent to different website pages and placec in the chatbot to receive different information based on the group’s specifics and true needs. This functionality allows you to do A/B testing within the chatbot, directing different groups of customers to different content within the same chatbot.

Links to the AI chatbot content could be used for many marketing technologies. In addition to email marketing campaigns, it could become a crucial part of marketing automation, a marketing technology that comes second to e-mail and is valued by 57% of marketers. Links and QR codes to various parts of the chatbot from anywhere online, offline, and from the website, as well as built-in forms, are the chatbot functionalities that help accomplish the automation to and within the chatbot, being part of sales or marketing funnels.

The AI chatbot helps collect first and zero-party data (a reliable replacement for third-party cookies), a functionality that is becoming even more important in 2024 with the death of cookies. Insights into customer behavior and other statistics are helping marketers make better decisions on future campaigns and adding another source of structured data for the overall customer data management processes in the company. This is the 3rd most important technology for marketing professionals, the focus for 54% of the responders to the mentioned report. Links to forms in the chatbots that are 1 click away and make it fast and easy to make inquiries, sign up for a newsletter, or register for an event at any time of the day or night is just one of the ways.

Personalization is the 4^th most important strategy in marketing and 50% of marketers are looking for technologies that help them with it. The AI chatbot gives a personalized experience to users by answering all customers’ questions at any time of the day, providing searched information or forms to request a service, register, or purchase, as well as by being available 24/7 for users sent from social media posts and ads to a specific element within the chatbot on a precise webpage for customer engagement and nurturing – again with 1 click or a scan of a QR code.

45.6% of marketers are saying that multi-channel customer engagement is an important part of their marketing strategy. Direct links and QR codes from various communication channels and offline add innovation and Wow-factor to the campaigns for such marketers. Here is one example of a direct link placed in a post on the Facebook page of our client that leads the customer to a form in the chatbot to fill out. A customer is sent to make a direct room reservation for hotel complex Izgreva on their website at the precise place in the chatbot: an information card with room details and a button to book a stay. This way the potential customers are just 1 click away from the direct sale to be made. Just in a year, the AI chatbot of this family-run complex reached 50% of all bookings made to the property for customers from 17 countries, assisting on various topics with over 16,000 customers, and 42% of the communication happened outside of the working hours of the team. By the way, just a few of the employees know basic English. The complex has a very effective AI chatbot for both sales and customer support, don’t you agree?

Another example is to place QR codes at an event you have created for the opening of a new store or other. People could scan the QR code and be directed to your AI chatbot on your site to fill out a form and receive a promo code for their first purchase or anything that comes to your mind that could be used to trigger marketing and sales funnels and introduce them at the same time to your 24/7 working AI digital employee on your site. For example, at Beauty Point Beauty Salon, 100% of the service requests on promotion happen through the chatbot – once logged in, customers appreciate its convenience and use it constantly. In the chatbots on the Umni platform, on average 75% of users are repeated users.

The conversational AI itself help attract and keep users in the conversation with the brand as it is still a novelty for many customers and entertains them with the possibility to answer instantly many questions they have and to assist them with routine inquiries. With the addition of GPT to a conversational AI module, the enhanced in such way chatbots will provide another layer of human-like experience, which is expected to increase the value for marketers. Before ChatGPT, 33% of them were looking into AI instruments but the situation is rapidly and positively changing towards the usage of AI in everyday marketing operations. A marketing funnel within the chatbot triggered by a customer question and attached to a human-like answer by the AI module in the chatbot is a good practice chatbot builders for marketing purposes shall keep in mind.

Finally, mobile marketing is very important to 38% of marketers, and for them, the AI chatbot becomes an irreplaceable tool as conversational marketing (sales and marketing done in chat format through chatbots, smart speakers, and SMS) is the fastest-growing trend and an integral part of customers mobile experience. The chatbot is like a smart interactive mobile app without downloading and installing on the user’s phone and without the need to learn how to use it due to the chat format communication and the user-friendly interface.

Tip 2: Direct Links from Your Website to Your AI chatbot – link a button, text, or image on the site to a form or carousel in the chatbot for an instant pop-up of relevant information or form.

Create buttons or use words or texts anywhere on your website to turn them into a link and CTA to a concrete element in your AI chatbot – it will appear instantly in the chatbot for the user when clicked without leaving the page. This creates additional interaction and convenience for website visitors, adds personalization to their search, speeds up their assistance, and has a Wow-effect on the users, not to mention the unlimited amount of information and forms you can connect this way throughout your website to the chatbot. Think further – every page on your website can open customized information or action in the chatbot that enhances the page and personalize the experience.

For example, you can place a button to your top 10 read blog posts on your site – as we did on our website, and the AI chatbot opens a carousel with cards and links to read them all in descending or ascending order. The button could be the top 10 products that are most purchased or the top 5 tips to do something or anything else that could come to your mind. To make it more interactive, you can also use an image with a CTA that attracts more and when people click on it be also directed to the chatbot to fill out a form for a reservation, make an appointment, learn valuable information, or else.

You can see an example of how to do it or click on the contact us button at the end of the article to see it in action. Do not worry, it is not required anything from your side, but if you like this feature, you can contact us by filling out the form in the chatbot that opened and start your chatbot journey before your competitors outrun you!

Tip 3: Collecting First and Zero-party Customer Data is so Important

All companies are searching for ways to prepare for the upcoming cookieless world. Some of them may be already found their solutions or maybe they haven’t even started yet. We can share with you some key points on how to prepare on the upcoming changes. Collecting first and zero-party data along with providing real-time communication 24/7 could be done by one digital tool – the AI chatbot. What’s left for you is to analyze the collected data to improve your overall business processes.

61% of high-growth companies are embracing a first-party data strategy, using tools that collect customer behavior data such as website visits, searches, and interactions. Such data can be collected by AI chatbots, to provide customers with personalized online conversations through social media, email, CRM systems, and QR codes on one side, and help you learn more about your customer behavior on the other side. By doing so, businesses have a better understanding of their target audience and can better serve their needs. A Deloitte executive survey revealed that high-growth organizations are increasingly recognizing the importance of collecting first-party data to stay ahead in a rapidly changing environment. Seeking to gain insights into customers and make their marketing communications more engaging and tailored, marketers should explore ways to do so while still respecting customer privacy and trust in a digital world without third-party cookies and with full control of the process. AI chatbots can help them achieve this.

The AI chatbot is a versatile zero-party data-collecting tool that is available 24/7. Zero-party data is the information users deliberately share, such as intentions to purchase, choices, and personal preferences, as well as their personal information in exchange for service in forms, built-in the chatbot – for something useful, like information, e-books, appointment, a reservation, or a newsletter subscription. For example, an e-commerce business can create a marketing and sales funnel that leads to the chatbot forms to fill out for receiving promo codes, allowing the company to gather user emails. By placing a sign-up form in the AI chatbot on their site, businesses can allow customers to provide their emails in exchange for a tutorial, instructions on different products, or other lead magnets. After that, an AI chatbot can guide them through the next step and offer them a promo code for their next purchase, making customers feel more special and engaged. Additionally, the business will be able to collect the customer’s emails for future marketing campaigns in the form of a warm email sequence.

Tip 4: How Redirects in The Different Chatbot Elements Help Your Brand Strategy

Conversational AI in your chatbot helps to communicate with your customers, partners, and employees 24/7/365 but some modules like the one on the Umni platform could do something more. What maybe you do not know is that from an AI answer customers could be automatically directed to a form to fill out, to a card with up to 3 buttons (with links, more information, or others), or to a carousel with many cards with buttons with useful content. That means that only these people that asked a certain question could be directed further to that specific action the business created to fulfill customers’ desires, not only to answer their question but to encourage them to make a conversion and to add a Wow-effect to the conversation. This is how the extra mile in customer service happens in an AI chatbot.

For example, a person asks the chatbot what destinations your company provides tours to, and instead of mentioning all in a long text, the answer could be a short text with a redirect to a carousel of cards with links to more details and forms to book a vacation in various destinations. Here are some more examples to see the feature in action. If you still do not believe that AI chatbots help with marketing and sales processes, check all the good practices and you can contact us for a personal demo to help you with any questions you may have.

Tip 5: Ideas for Gamification in/With Your AI chatbot to Increase Engagement

We are going to give you some ideas for gamification elements in or with your AI chatbot that for sure increase customer engagement and improve the overall experience.

Rewards: One way to increase engagement is to create a rewards system for your users. This could be giveaways that users can earn for completing certain tasks, answering questions, and engaging with your chatbot. They can receive promo codes, useful materials, or others after asking a certain question or be directed to the chatbot-specific created game like finding QR codes offline that open secret tips or parts of the game such as a letter for them to collect them all, make a word and then use again the chatbot to fill out a form with the correct word and receive a prize.

Quizzes and Surveys: Quizzes and surveys are another great way to gamify your AI chatbot. You can create quizzes and surveys that users can take and set up rewards for users that complete them.

Challenges and contests: Challenges are a great way to increase engagement and motivate your users. You can create challenges that require users to solve puzzles or complete tasks to earn rewards. They can help engage your users and promote your products or services. Some more ideas and a real game example you can find in our tips and tricks section for more useful marketing and sales tips.

Want more tips for successful marketing and sales AI chatbot? Contacts us for a personal demonstration to see in action how an AI chatbot could help your marketing and sales strategy!