Chatbots are a hot marketing tool in online business because a well-programmed chatbot is a 24/7 sales assistant for your business.
Engagement is the name of the game in today’s world of fast-paced digital marketing, and selling with chatbots can give you an edge, as there is nothing more engaging for your customers than having a live chat.
Selling with chatbots can also help you gain extra insight into consumer behavior, as your chatbots can store the responses it gets so that you can enhance your e-commerce success.
In this article, we’ll review the super-effective secrets to selling with chatbots with digital agency founder Isaac Rudansky of AdVenture Media. Isaac’s agency uses paid advertising, conversion optimization, content marketing and chat marketing to help clients sell more online.
Here we look specifically at how to sell products online using chatbots like Isaac’s agency does for clients like Forbes Magazine and Sofamania.
In this article:
- What is selling with chatbots?
- How to sell products online using chatbots: 3 money-making tactics that drive sales
- Why is chat marketing such an effective way to sell products online?
- Do customers really want to speak to a bot?
- How do chatbots help sales?
- What do the best bots have in common?
What is selling with chatbots?
A chatbot is a piece of software that can integrate into messaging platforms like Facebook Messenger, website chat and SMS and take part in automated, interactive conversations with prospects and customers.
When done correctly, using a chatbot can play a vital role in moving people through your sales funnel.
If you’re looking for the best way to sell products online, then you’ll want to consider a chatbot platform like Customers.ai to help you scale your reach and achieve your sales goals.
How to sell products online using chatbots: 3 money-making tactics that drive sales
These are the 3 super-effective sales techniques that a sales chatbot needs to demonstrate in order to help a business effectively sell more online.
How to sell products online using chatbots: Tip #1) Be friendly and personalize messages.
If you’re just getting started with building chatbots, start here: How to Build a Chatbot in 5 Minutes.
Once you know the basics of creating a chat marketing campaign, you can understand the importance of being friendly and personalizing messaging when selling with chatbots.
You can’t go wrong when you open up your chatbot dialogue with a friendly question.
From a psychological perspective, people generally feel very compelled to answer a question if it’s asked of them. It feels rude to not answer a question, and you’ll see that the vast majority of people will reply.
This is a great way to get your first engagement from your visitor. This is not only valuable because the visitor is more engaged, but it’s also valuable from a Facebook perspective.
If your bot is operating on Facebook Messenger, then Facebook’s policies only allow you to continue interacting with a visitor if they engage with you first. Getting them to answer a friendly question will satisfy that requirement and allow you to continue the interaction!
Be sure to show plenty of humor and uniqueness in your message. Nobody likes a dull and boring brand. Keep it fresh and light!
After the user replies to your first question, you can then use the {{first name}} tag to address them by their first name in future messages, which is also a great way of making them feel welcomed, as well as for continued engagement.
Using Customers.ai you can also incorporate funny animated GIF images into your messages to add loads of personality to your chatbot. Don’t miss out on this tactic!
While all of these tricks are great, you should always remember that you’re not trying to get the bot to pretend that it’s human.
The purpose of the chatbot is not a pretense. The purpose of it is to show your visitor or customer that you take them seriously as a person and that by building a semi-personalized chatbot, you want to deliver them a wonderful, amusing and personal experience.
Not only does it set a great tone for the present moment, but it also gives them a clue as to how you’ll treat them in the future. So it’s worth setting that tone right at the start.
How to sell products online using chatbots: Tip #2) Run promotions to chat marketing contacts.
When your bot is up and running, whether a Facebook Messenger bot, an SMS bot or a website chatbot, you’re creating new contacts with every lead and customer who starts a conversation.
Next it’s time to let your subscribers know about products and offers, sales and promos.
Here we’re going to build a popular and effective chatbot use example: a sale or promo bot blast.
In the screenshot, notice how scarcity is used by emphasizing that the sale is running today. People want more of what they think they can’t have for much longer!
Notice also how subtle social proof has been added with ‘one of our most popular sectionals.’
Finally, at the end of the message a question has been asked, which triggers the impulse to reply with an answer that we mentioned before.
In one tiny chatbot message, we have used three powerful psychological triggers!
After the user replies to the first question, the second promotional message is sent, which mentions the product details.
40% off and free shipping are both fantastic value propositions, and the fact that they are delivered exclusively in a chat window makes it feel even more special and exclusive for the customer.
The scarcity has also been re-emphasized as well, with ‘only a few left in stock.’ This is again a great psychological trigger that encourages the sale right from within the chat.
You can add in some powerful imagery to help your sale too. This can be done using the gallery feature. It really helps to incorporate some tempting visuals into your chatbot sale interaction.
Let’s not forget that Facebook Messenger is a rich communications channel, so you can make full use of galleries, videos and GIFs to provide highly engaging visuals to your visitors.
Another thing you can do is provide an extra push by providing a discount code too! Again, you can stress that this has limited time validity.
To learn how to send a chat blast in Facebook Messenger, read this guide: “How to Chat Blast Your Facebook Messenger Contacts.”
To learn how to send a mass text message, read this guide: “How to Send a Text Message Blast.”
You can also initiate conversations about sales and promos using an automated follow-up that sends a coupon code to new subscribers. Learn more in “What Is a Drip Campaign? How to Do SMS Drip Marketing & Messenger Chat Drips for More Sales & Deeper Customer Relationships.”
How to sell products online using chatbots: Tip #3) Send non-sales content to chat contacts to nurture, educate and engage.
You don’t need to focus all your chatbot time and attention on the bottom of your funnel.
In fact, chatbots are just as great at the top of the funnel, or even without a sales objective clearly in mind.
You can make your chat visitor aware of some of your non-sales content as well. Think of it like having a casual conversation with someone about your business, without pushing sales at all.
Here in this example, we are framing a piece of content as a curious question. We’re making it very tempting and easy to engage with.
When you provide people with high-quality content that isn’t salesy and which provides them with free and useful information, you’ll trigger a reciprocity instinct. They will want to return favors to your business for being so helpful to them!
Naturally, when the time comes for this person to buy a rug, their mind will gravitate towards your business as they will view it as an authority in the field. This is a very powerful place to be in when you want to generate sales.
In this screenshot here, you can see how we present the piece of content. It’s delivered in a calm and practical way, without any hype or sales talk.
The only objective is to be useful to the person in that given moment. You can’t fool people into buying before they are ready!
Why is chat marketing such an effective way to sell products online?
In short, consumer behavior has changed so much in the last few years that previous generations wouldn’t even recognize it now.
Back in advertising’s golden age, the only place that consumers could get product information would be from the ads themselves.
In order to learn about products, people had to buy newspapers and look at the ad section to find out about the latest products on the market.
The importance of psychological triggers
Human nature is never going to change, and even though the technology has changed hugely, the same undying principles of persuasion in sales continue to persist as they always have.
The fundamental ideas of reciprocity, identity, information, value, social proof and scarcity will always work in sales, and we recommend that you study these at least a little before you build a chatbot flow.
Isaac is the expert when it comes to applying psychological principles of persuasion to marketing.
Be sure to check out Isaac’s advanced chatbot conversion video tutorials in Customers.ai’s Chatbot University.
Samples and free trials are the new normal
In today’s day and age, marketing is so far removed from that old tradition. Nowadays, samples and free trials are the new normal.
As well as wanting to try before they buy, consumers are now completely in charge of when, where and how they find product information.
Consumers now want to have a different kind of conversation with brands, and they are in charge of the flow of information. This is in stark contrast to the old days, when brands were in charge of the information flow.
Chatbots are 24/7 sales assistants
Part of being in charge of the information flow means that consumers also expect to be able to get in instant contact with a brand and get fast responses to their queries.
This is why using a chatbot builder can be such an asset for your bot-powered business. It gives you the ability to provide instant responses to a generation of consumers that has come to expect that as part of standard service.
You can of course achieve this with a call center or human live chat operators, but a chatbot gives you the ability to respond 24 hours a day, and is also a lot more cost-effective.
Chatbots can improve conversions vs conventional web forms
Also consider a conventional form on your website that requires various fields to be completed by your prospect. Perhaps not all the fields are relevant to them, and maybe the form is so large that they feel too lazy to complete it.
Our Facebook Messenger conversion forms can solve this situation too. You can design the whole chat flow to determine what’s relevant to that particular person, and ask them only the things that you need from them specifically.
This makes it much easier and engaging for them, and they’ll be much more likely to provide the information that you need from them!
Why is chat marketing an effective way to sell products online?
The number one concern that businesses have about using chatbots is that they will appear artificial.
Chat bots are not designed to replace the moments when a real human being is required.
There are obviously certain times when your leads and customers will need very particular advice from a real person, and your business should definitely have that person available when they’re needed.
Customers want fast answers more than anything
What’s actually surprising though, is that there are many cases when customers don’t want to speak to a real person, and this is where a chatbot can be ideal.
With their ability to listen for keywords, chatbots can also solve problems and queries that an information or FAQ page can, especially if these pages are too long and complicated, making some people leave your site because they can’t find an answer quickly enough.
Have you ever called a company on the phone, only to be put on an endless waiting list while you listen to music? Remember how frustrating that feels? Again, a chatbot can prevent this happening to your customers.
Lastly, a chatbot allows you to expand your reach into familiar communication channels such as Facebook Messenger, web chat and SMS.
This means that someone can switch from talking to a close friend to speaking with your business all on the same screen. It’s wonderful to be able to reach people in this special and almost intimate space.
How do chatbots help sales?
If set up correctly, chatbots move prospects from the consideration phase to the purchasing phase. That’s what makes them a key tool for moving people down your sales funnel.
Forget what you’ve heard about short, punchy copywriting being the best for selling products. In most cases, a sale will take a lot more writing. So why not take that writing into a chat window where it can be more engaging for your customer?
After all, brands are constantly underestimating the amount of information that consumers want before making a purchase. Not only can a chatbot help with providing this information, but it can also help the brand learn about what people are asking.
You can use your chatbot to notify visitors of new sales and promotions, or perhaps a valuable piece of content that you have just published. By having something there, you’ll always prevent some visitors from leaving that otherwise would have!
What do the best bots have in common?
The vital key to a successful chatbot is the correct setup. You have to take the time to set up the chat flows carefully, and try to address as many potential questions you can with helpful answers.
One of the most important tips is to have your chatbot admit its identity – have it tell your visitors that it’s a bot to set expectations, but at the same time let them know that your bot has some very cool features. This will encourage them to ask the bot some questions.
If your bot uses predefined buttons for the user to submit replies, then make sure that you spell this out to the audience segment. Make it as easy to use as possible.
Seeing as the success of a chatbot is all about the setup, we’re now going to have a look at 3 easy examples in Customers.ai!
Closing thoughts on how to sell products online using chatbots
Chatbots offer you an incredible chance to engage with your customers across new platforms and communication channels, and to form special personalized relationships with them that would otherwise be impossible without an army of staff on your payroll.
They are also capable of providing you with unique insights into the needs of your customers that you would otherwise have no clue about.
So don’t delay, set up your first chatbot today and enjoy a big difference in engagement and sales. You won’t look back!
Are you currently thinking about how to sell products online using chatbots? Let us know how it’s going and any questions you have in the comments.
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