Marketing Campaigns: What You Need To Build A Chatbot For Your Business
It is unfortunate that the people in Nigeria and indeed most African countries are usually the last to join any emerging technology. We have refused to grow and that is why entrepreneurs find it difficult to survive here. Do you know that you can build a chatbot for your business? Well, that will depend on whether you have even heard of chatbot.
On a serious note, we need to augment. What Putin said yesterday is an eye opener but it has always been the truth. He asserted that “Africa has become just a cemetery for Africans.” That is painful but obviously the hard truth.
Well, political and economic analysts can analyze that later. Our concern is the inability of entrepreneurs to get hold of emerging technologies.
And we cannot continue to ignore these technologies. If you own a business or want to own a business, you will certainly not ignore the need to build a chatbot for your business.
Related: Great E-resources for your social media marketing
Maybe you can start a chatbot business or you want to become a chatbot builder, it is up to you. That is something you have to consider but our concern is to show you the needed things to build a chatbot for your business.
As I said, so many people have no idea what a chatbot is and that is not cool. So we will change all of that here. We will look into understanding what chatbot is before we can think of what you need to build a chatbot for your business.
What is a chatbot
Oxford Dictionaries defines a chatbox as “a computer program designed to simulate a conversation with human users, especially over the Internet.”
Is that explanatory enough? Maybe it is or maybe it is not. Let us go a step higher.
You should see a chatbox as an assistant that has the capacity to communicate with people through text messages. See it as a virtual companion that is not human but has the capacity to handle the chatting functions of humans.
They are usually integrated into websites, instant messengers and applications and they aim to help business owners and entrepreneurs get closer to their customers. The chatbox is automated to communicate with the customers or users at all times.
The reasons for choosing chatbox are enormous. According to a study, they include productivity, curiosity, entertainment, and social and relational factors.
Now we know what the technology is, let us quickly look at what you need to build a chatbot for your business.
What You Need To Build A Chatbot For Your Business In Nigeria
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You need to set measurable goals
For you to come out with success in your business, you will need to put goals that are measurable. Building a chatbot will require that you do same. This chatbot works for your marketing campaign so it is important to have something you need it to achieve. When designing the software, you must be conscious of where you want the chatbot to concentrate on. Having your goals in a measurable state in mind will help you pull this off.
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know your audience
For this program to work effectively, you have your part to play. It is your duty to know your audience, the people your chatbot will be communicating with. When you know your audience, you can create your chatbot to the best tone of voice, how to interact and the products to bring to the fore at different times.
The knowledge of your audience will help you deliver services through your chatbot better.
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Pick up as much information as possible
This also relates to the audience you would want your chatbot to interact with. To improve the performance of your service delivery, you must collect as much data or information from your audience and about your audience.
This is what chatbot can help you achieve because it can track the data of your users. Problems facing your customers can be identified and handled and your sales will be boosted.
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Your chatbot has to be proactive
Your chatbot has to be better than the reactionary businesses out there. That is how you need to build a chatbot for your business. Remember that this program is an interactive one but you need to ensure that it takes the lead.
When we say reactionary, we mean waiting for the other person to initiate the conversation. Your bot has to be able to initiate the first message. They can be automated to send a quick “hello” the moment someone lands on the page. This will enable you to get more leads as more conversations will be initiated.
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The customer-first mentality has to be infused into your chatbot
When you look at how to create a chatbot, you will find out that anything that does not put the customers first might not work. Today’s marketing can only be successful when the customers are the first variable to be considered.
Therefore, infuse in your chatbot the customer-first mentality. How do you achieve this? Simple, I presume. Design the programme to have duties and perform tasks that will be of value to your audience. Make their functions simple and beneficial to the audience and not too technical and glitchy. You don’t want to leave customers with a poor impression of your brand.
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You have to make it personable
Every brand should have a voice. That is what we have been talking about in building your brand name for your business. To build a chatbot for your business will also require that you put your brand voice into serious consideration. It does not have to come off as a misfit for your industry as this does not make a lot of sense.
In essence, you need to infuse the right personality to reflect your brand voice and that will ensure you achieve your desired end.
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Build your chatbot to deliver personalized content and promotion
When you want to build your chatbot, you should bear in mind that they now have the capacity to deliver personalized content and promotion. That will be infused in the design. They can achieve this by gathering data from the profiles and interaction of your audience and they can become aware of their preferences and consumer behavior.
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Nurture Your Leads
Your chatbot has the ability to nurture your leads. Sounds amazing, right? I know. Technology is amazing by the way. But you will need to create or establish your buyer personas first. When you have done that, you will be amazed at how your chatbot can reach out to potential customers. When they do, they will qualify them to bring you quality leads. It works with your marketing team and guides your leads through their buyer journey so are to bring them to your sales team.
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Build your chatbot to up-sell and cross-sell
Finally, you will need to ensure that every time your chatbot interacts with your audience and handles questions about your products or services, it does more than just that. How do we mean? It will go a step further and offer them insights on new products or more information on the product that could complement their choice. By doing so, your chatbot up-sells and cross-sells for you and by extension generate more sales for you.
Conclusion
The above is not the steps to create a chatbot. We will leave that to the developers. This is just about the necessary things you need to enable you to build a chatbot for your business. It is just on tips to help you tell your developer the features that you will need to have a great a chatbot.
