Have you noticed that forms or landing pages on your website are not being filled in as much as before?
Think about it: instead of filling out the ‘contact us’ form, sending an email to the info@ address, or calling them, you click on the ‘live chat’ icon in the bottom right-hand corner.
Human behaviour has changed significantly over the past few years. Think of the memes showing people walking into lamp posts or tumbling into water features because they’re fixated on their phones. Or worse — people sitting at the same table engaging with each other via chat on their phones.
Jokes aside, this signifies a monumental shift in how humans communicate.
For years, one of the most effective lead generation tactics was to put valuable content behind a form. Over time, however, the quality of content deteriorated. And much like Pavlov's dog, people learnt that by filling out a form they would most certainly be ‘sold’ to. This, coupled with the increasingly subpar quality of content, resulted in many potential leads being turned away.
Fast forward to the introduction of ‘live chat’. This tool is ideal for visitors who are ready to buy from businesses that operate in small volumes, with a team that’s able to respond 24/7, 365 days a year. But for marketers that need to drive large volumes of potential customers to a website, live chat just isn’t the answer.
Enter ‘the bot’.
Today, every brand should be looking into deploying chatbots — thereby replacing forms — to convert anonymous traffic into known leads in a conversational manner.
Developing a strategy that provides meaningful conversation, and one that can be handed to a human if necessary, is no small feat. I know this from experience: our own chatbots have failed several times! Just as you would continually optimise a landing page for conversion, you need to monitor the conversations to optimise your chatbot strategy and setup.
There are plenty of chatbot software providers out there today. Our favourite, of course, being HubSpot’s offering because it seamlessly integrates with your sales and marketing tools, giving you the all-important single view of your customer. Get in touch with us to chat about how to incorporate chatbots into your strategy and tools.
