Chatbots as a CRO Tool: How Conversational AI Helps Convert More Leads

14th Jun 2019 –
But instead, I’ll tell you about how an AI-powered chatbot can provide the most unique and personalised experience to each user (24/7 and at scale).
There is no complex user interface to deal with. Few buttons (and users are not forced to use them), no popups, no forms — just a chat window.
I could tell you that chatbots can work at scale without missing a beat. A professionally developed chatbot can handle over 150 conversations per second without missing a beat.
Finally, and this is a personal favourite, chatbots help you learn more about your customers.
Now that we have covered the direct impact and got you all excited, it’s time to look deeper.
They are more than a clever tool that increases conversions. They can truly impact all aspects of your organisation. By 2020, over 80% of businesses will have some sort of chatbot automation implemented. Are you ready to harness the power of conversational AI?
Remember how chatbots allow users to ask questions whenever they want? At any step of their interaction (aka the funnel), the user can question this super smart robot about what’s going on.

Chatbots help increase conversions

Chatbots are conversational software. They provide users with a conversational interface, allowing them to simply… talk.
Using the same technique as above, your business will quickly learn the content that’s missing from your pages.
A professionally built chatbot can use its integrations to understand the user it is talking to, know where they are in their journey with your company, and offer the best next step.
I know generating more leads is really what gets you out of bed in the morning, so I’ll start with that. Please stick around for part two, though, as you’ll get an understanding of just how deeply a chatbot can impact your business.
Your users may experience this when your website’s copy, tone, and feel changes from one page to the next. If there is a gap between what you say on your homepage and your landing page, users are quick to pick it up and… well, give up.

1. By providing a more natural path to conversion

Then build the product.
I hope this article got you excited about the potential chatbots can bring to your business.
In this article, we will cover the many benefits of turning to conversational software (aka ‘chatbots’) to grow your business, increase conversion rates, and generate leads.
To deliver ‘more’ leads, some of the largest companies in the world are turning to artificial intelligence — more specifically chatbots.
In 2017, 69% of consumers interviewed said they prefer engaging with chatbots because they provide instant answers. Why wouldn’t you want to provide that level of instantly gratifying help? Answering the users’ questions has a direct impact on conversions, making them a lot more confident in your offer.
In 2017, 69% of consumers interviewed said they prefer engaging with chatbots because they provide instant answers. Why wouldn’t you want to provide that level of instantly gratifying help? Answering the users’ questions has a direct impact on conversions, making them a lot more confident in your offer.
How many leads do you want?
What can chatbots do about it?
Let’s look at how chatbots improve the mechanics of your business, better your offering, and continuously helping you perfect your flywheel.

3. By personalising the user experience

Missing content.
Whether it is missing FAQs, missing information on your product pages, potential blog posts — you will find it all in your conversation logs.
This is exactly what we will cover here.
Chances are, you’re missing out on conversions for the exact same reason, especially if you work in a complex or niche industry.
I could tell you about the fact that chatbots are fully automated, the most on-point lead generation assistant you’ll ever have, running 24/7 without ever taking a break or turning up late for work.
It’s often hard to use, hard to pull out insightful reports, hard to deal with cookied/non-cookied experiences, hard to tie sessions to actual users, and so on.

Beyond conversions: how chatbots help you know more

Then… sort of, maintain the product and make money? Shrug.
Trawl through your chatbot’s analytics and the conversation logs, and find out where users get confused. Confusion is a dead giveaway. Explore that step, compare copy, and make sure everything matches.
How can a chatbot help you plug the leak?

1. Diagnose funnel leakage

Funnel leakage — leads that just drop off your funnel without ever reaching the final step — is often responsible for your biggest lost. You spend all that money on marketing getting juicy leads at the top and poof, gone.
Here’s the truth: you’re never done talking to your customers. You’re never done learning about the challenge you’re trying to fix. Unfortunately, once things take off a little bit, finding the time to engage 1o1 with your audience to gather more intel takes a bit of a hit.
Though navigating the internet has become second nature to most of us, some of the aspects remain complex.
With chatbots, you get to log the entire experience in a coherent sequence. Not only can you see exactly how the user interacted with your funnel, it’s also all in natural language. No need to make assumptions, figure out attribution of a click from one page to the next — it’s all there in plain English.
Of course, the common advice you will find on this is to look at Google Analytics. While this is a fantastic first step, Google Analytics has limitations.
It also has a series of background, business-wide impacts that may not be immediately evident.
More.
What do you think the impact of a highly tailored and personal conversation has on conversions? Some businesses are achieving a 20%+ conversion rate thanks to this exact approach.
This is how a chatbot can help.

2. Understand content dissonance

By allowing users to simply talk, chatbots alleviate most of the pain and drive them (conversationally) to their ultimate goal. Oh, and grab that lead for you.
This is how you spot content dissonance.
Chatbots allow you to keep the velocity of those conversations (and learnings) up. Your brand can now engage with customers, log conversations, and keep learning at scale, forever.
How can a chatbot turn 28.3% of conversations into a lead and 23.7% of leads into sales?
How do chatbots increase conversions?
This is not news to us CRO people. It’s extremely common for websites to completely fail even the simplest user tests. Forms, buttons, navs, modals, menus, images, call-to-actions, copy — all these things can (and often do) prevent the user from achieving their primary goal on your website (and you from capturing that sweet sweet lead).

3. Understand missing content

To grow your business, it’s often best to first look at your funnel leakage before pouring more leads (or traffic, or phone calls, etc.) at the top.
Did you know that 20% of ecommerce purchases are abandoned because of missing or unclear information about the product?
The great thing about chatbots is they are on-demand goldmines of information. The keyword here is ‘on-demand’.
As a conversational interface, your chatbot sits between your organisation and the user. It can connect to tools like your CRM to know everything there is to know about the user it is talking to. It can connect to tools like your CMS to know everything there is to know about the content you have available.
Content dissonance is another reason leads fall through the cracks.

4. Learn from interactions

Conventional wisdom tells startup founders to ‘go out and talk to customers’. Engage with your target audience, they say. Figure out how they talk about the challenge you’re trying to fix, they advise.
What’s worse than content dissonance?
No wonder websites only convert at an average of 2.35%
What can chatbots do about it?
More is always the answer.
A chatbot, particularly one focussed on lead generation, will impact businesses in two major ways.
Where do people drop-off? What step is it they don’t understand? Which offer is just not resonating with them? At which point during the interaction do they ask lots questions?

Experts turn to chatbots, and so should you

Sure, you could remedy this by stuffing your website and landing pages with as much content and information as you can. But then you run the risk of over-stuffing your page, confusing the reader, and driving them away with a headache.
I guess you see where I’m going with this.