Email marketing has been one of the widely prevalent methods for brands to reach their customers. Email marketing strategies have helped brands in leveraging the benefits of a personal form of communication. It has enabled businesses to deliver customized content, develop long-lasting relationships and engage with customers on a personal level.
However, it is also important to note the rise in popularity of chatbots alongside the continuing applications of email marketing. Customers want instant responses with personalized attention more than ever. So, businesses are slowly shifting towards conversational marketing. On the other hand, businesses want to capitalize on the benefits of email and chatbots in marketing.
Therefore, many enterprises are trying to reflect on various ways in which chatbots have revolutionized email marketing in recent years. Let us find out more about how chatbots have played a crucial role in transforming email marketing in the following discussion.
Chatbots vs. Email Marketing- Is it a Tough Choice?
First of all, it is important to understand the implications that lead to conflict between email marketing and chatbots in the first place. As stated already, email marketing has been a traditional marketing practice for all businesses for many years. Marketing professionals can leverage email marketing for sending personalized emails to prospective clients. Many businesses have leveraged email marketing successfully for achieving the desired improvements in their ROIs (Return on Investments). On the other hand, the response rates in email marketing have been slowing down considerably in recent years.
At the same time, chatbots and live chat support have emerged as promising alternatives for brands to interact with customers. Almost 50% of customers have stated their preference for brands that they are able to message. At the same time, around 60% of Millennials have used chatbots already. Chatbots are basically software that could talk with humans by using predefined commands or AI for offering conversational interaction. Therefore, chatbots can help in solving customer problems instantly, depending on their design and functionality.
Capabilities of Chatbots for Transforming Email Marketing
So, brands could easily ensure that their message reaches the customer while addressing the needs of customers on a personal level with chatbots. In addition, chatbots present many other advantages that draw the attention of enterprises in large numbers them. A closer look at the prominent advantages of chatbots could showcase their potential for revolutionizing one of the traditional forms of marketing.
- Around 80% of customers have pointed out that almost 80% of customers require some form of immediate assistance in online shopping. Chatbots are capable of delivering real-time assistance to customers, thereby affecting customer behavior directly.
- The cost factor favors chatbots considerably over the manpower required for managing customers. Furthermore, the cost of development, installation, and maintenance could be easily recovered through the potential improvements in customer experience.
- Chatbots are capable of serving as repositories of data about customers that can serve a promising role in marketing efforts of businesses. For example, feedback obtained through chatbots can help in ensuring improvements in products or services. Therefore, chatbots could help in suggesting products and services to customers that would match their needs perfectly.
- The most prominent advantage of chatbots is the facility for reaching out to multiple customers in a limited time span. Chatbots can help you take your message to multiple users without any human intervention.
- Chatbots are widely prevalent on the most commonly used messaging platforms such as Facebook Messenger. Therefore, they can provide the benefit of reaching the customer where they are. As a result, businesses could achieve seamless interactions with customers effortlessly.
Now the question arises about the possible replacement of email marketing by chatbots. Will that happen soon? As a matter of fact, that will not be happening soon. For example, if a chatbot informs a customer about a product and increases the probability of the customer buying it, then the chatbot could not engage the customer further. The customer would have to engage with the chatbot again to make the purchase.
In this case, email marketing becomes important. Once you have delivered value to the user with chatbots, you can guide them ahead in the marketing funnel through email marketing. Email is still a prominently used channel for digital communication with people above 56, depending only on emails for engaging with brands. So, it is important to understand how chatbots can complement email marketing effectively for reaping the benefits of both tools.
Practical Ways of Transforming Email Marketing with Chatbots
With a clear idea of the potential of chatbots in revolutionizing email marketing, let us find some examples. The following practical uses of chatbots in email marketing can show their importance in transforming the traditional norms of marketing.
- Collecting Email Addresses
Chatbots can help in collecting email addresses of potential customers. Brands could engage customers to a point with chatbots, where they can ask customers whether they are interested in an email communication from them.
- Personalizing Email Marketing Campaigns
Businesses could configure their chatbots for collecting specific data according to different segments such as prior purchases, demographics, personas, and location. With the help of detailed conversation flow charts, businesses could plan out the various possibilities alongside visualizing multiple chat scenarios. Subsequently, businesses could use the information collected for developing targeted email campaigns with higher personalization to improve conversions and engagement.
- Generate Warm Leads with Chatbots
The higher availability of chatbots is also another beneficial aspect of its role in revolutionizing email marketing. Chatbots are always available and could begin conversations with website visitors, thereby generating warm leads. With the help of the warm leads generated by chatbots, businesses could send emails, which strengthens credibility.
Conclusion
So, the concluding inference from this discussion clearly points out the immense potential of chatbots. Chatbots are helping companies develop marketing strategies that are tailored more according to customer preferences. At the same time, the discussion also reflected on the significance that email marketing holds in the present times. It is never easy to think of replacing one of the oldest marketing channels with a completely new one.
On the other hand, businesses can think of using email marketing and chatbots in unison for strengthening their marketing efforts. The power of chatbots could improvise email marketing considerably. Most important of all, chatbots can bring the personalization angle to email marketing with ease. Now, it’s time to start with a completely new perspective on email marketing with chatbots!