How Do Chatbots Help in Lead Generation?

Are you searching for innovative strategies to supercharge your lead-generation efforts? Think of having a highly diligent team member who's available round-the-clock, ready to engage with potential customers.

Yes, you guessed it right! We're talking about lead-generation chatbots.

Chatbots are not just a fancy add-on but a game-changing tool that can significantly enhance your lead generation process. They work like your digital salesforce guiding your visitors through the sales funnel.

In fact, a study says 36% of businesses use chatbots to improve the lead generation process, and business leaders believe that the use of chatbots can increase sales by up to 67% on average.

Thus, the use of chatbots almost sounds mandatory as long as implementing an effective lead generation strategy is concerned. However, if you are new to the chatbot arena and unsure how to use these diligent assistants, we are here to help.

In this blog, we will discuss how chatbots help in lead generation and some effective strategy for lead generation chatbots.

Let's dig deeper!

What are lead-generation chatbots?

Lead-generation chatbots are AI-powered tools that automate conversations between your business and potential customers. They are designed to engage users in a conversational manner, gather essential information, guide customers through the buying process, and qualify leads.

However, they are not just about collecting data; chatbots can create meaningful interactions that keep potential customers hooked and prevent them from leaving your website. They offer a unique blend of automation and personalization, providing a conversational approach to lead generation that's available 24/7.

But how do they work? Highly efficient lead-generation chatbots are built with AI. They use machine learning and natural language processing techniques to understand your customer queries and offer human-like responses. They assist website visitors in navigating through different options.

Also, they can actively engage with prospects and guide them through a series of pre-determined questions. This process helps to gather customer information and qualify leads.

How do chatbots help in lead generation?

From qualifying leads to increasing conversions, lead-generation chatbots can change how your business works.

Here are the top 5 ways chatbots can help you in lead generation.

1. Qualify your leads automatically with chatbots

Lead qualification determines whether a prospect (potential customer) has the interest, ability, and authority to purchase a product or service. Through lead qualification, your sales team can maximize their efficiency by prioritizing leads that are most likely to convert.

That's why it's a crucial step in your sales process. However, lead qualification involves mundane tasks that lead-generation chatbots can easily automate. You can set up an AI lead gen chatbot to use a specific lead qualification framework.

Here is how to qualify leads using a lead generation chatbot,

Step 1: Set your qualification criteria

First, define what makes a lead qualified for your business. This could be based on their budget, purchasing timeline, decision-making power, and the specific need for your product or service. The BANT (Budget, Authority, Need, and Timeline) or CHAMP (Challenges, Authority, Money, Prioritization) frameworks are the most popular for successful lead qualification.

Step 2: Program your chatbot

Once you've set your criteria, you can program your chatbot to ask questions that help determine whether a lead meets these criteria. For example, if one of your criteria is that the lead must be in a decision-making role, the chatbot could ask, "Are you the person responsible for making decisions about [your product/service] in your organization?"

Step 3: Use a scoring system

To simplify lead prioritization, implement a lead scoring system where different responses to the chatbot's questions are assigned different point values. Leads that accumulate a certain number of points are considered qualified. For example, a lead who confirms they are a decision-maker could be given 10 points, while a lead who says they are not could be given '0' points.

Step 4: Direct qualified leads

Next, you can program the chatbot to take different actions based on whether or not a lead is qualified. For example, if a lead is qualified, the chatbot could schedule a sales call or send them a follow-up email with more information. If a lead is not qualified, the chatbot might direct them to educational resources instead.

Step 5: Constantly improve

Regularly review and refine the qualification process based on the results you're getting. This could involve adjusting your qualification criteria, tweaking your lead scoring system, or refining the chatbot's questions.

2. Boost engagement

Turning website visitors into leads is a challenging process. Your website needs to have some interesting elements that are not just text. According to a report on Hubspot, the average time a user spends on a website is 54 seconds. Hence, as a business, you have less than a minute to convert a website visitor into a lead.

Do you think a few walls of long text on your landing page babbling the same old message and explaining why you are best will be enough? Nay, my friend!

In fact, a study published by Nielsen Norman group says that users read only 20% of the texts during an average visit.

Hence, no matter how well-written the content is, until there’s an AHA factor added, the website visitor will return without performing any event. A sales chatbot can be that factor here! As soon as your user scrolls and stops or thinks of leaving, the chatbot is triggered and will save the day by generating a lead for you.

Boost your website engagement and conversions with these best 5 live chat apps aka lead gen bots.

3. Automate customer service

A chatbot can work round the clock. They can assist your customers even at odd hours, ensuring you never miss a lead even when your sales team or live chat operators are unavailable.

According to a study, 64% of customers say that round-the-clock service is the best feature of chatbots. Therefore, you must use a lead generation chatbot to automate your customer support and offer 24/7 assistance to your customers.

While a normal rule-based chatbot might not be enough to automate the whole customer support process, AI chatbots can do the job for you. An AI chatbot like Botsonic allows you to leverage the power of ChatGPT for customer service.

It follows machine learning techniques to observe and pick patterns from previous customer interactions. Not only that, these lead-generation chatbots use natural language processing technology to offer automated human-like responses to visitors.

Plus, chatbots can understand multiple languages and answer customer queries in different languages. Hence, with an AI chatbot by your side, timezone or language differences are never a barrier for your business.

Want to transform customer support with efficient AI chatbots? Here are the top 5 customer-support AI chatbots that can automate customer service for your business.

4. Increase conversion rate

Lead gen bot implementation can significantly increase your website’s conversion rate. These lead-generation AI bots work as digital guides for your customers. They can effectively push potential leads through the sales funnel. Wondering how?

Let's see an example,

Suppose you run an online electronic store on Shopify. Now think of a visitor who is searching for a new laptop in your store. Like a physical electronics store, your lead generation chatbot can work as a knowledgeable salesperson for your customers. It can check for the user's specific needs, such as the laptop's intended use, preferred brand, and budget.

Learn how to add live chat to your Shopify stores now!

Based on the responses, the chatbot provides tailored product recommendations, highlighting the features and benefits of each laptop and even offering comparisons between different models. If the user has any queries or concerns, the chatbot provides immediate answers, addresses objections, and makes them feel more confident about their purchase decision.

Not only guide through the sales funnel, but chatbots can also help to reduce cart abandonment. A lead generation chatbot on your website can ask if the user encountered any issues during checkout and offer assistance. Even you can train the AI bot to provide a special discount or free shipping to incentivize the user to complete the purchase.

It does not stop there! If the item remains in the cart after a few days, the chatbot can follow up with another reminder, encouraging the user to complete the purchase.

5. Offers a cost-effective solution

While 50% of marketers think lead generation is their top priority, the mean cost per lead across all industries is $198.44. So, no matter how you acquire leads for your business- it's costly. However, chatbots can take a fair share of your lead generation burden.

These AI chatbots come at an affordable price and can significantly reduce your human resource management cost. You can implement the AI chatbot to lower the number of sales representatives or customer support agents you currently have on your team.

Also, chatbots are easy to train. In fact, you can train a ChatGPT-powered AI chatbot with your own business data within seconds. Also, chatbots can handle a large volume of queries simultaneously, allowing your business to scale its lead-generation efforts without proportional cost increases.

According to a report by Juniper Research, chatbots are expected to cut business costs by $8 billion. While this figure includes cost savings from customer service and other areas in addition to lead generation, it gives an idea of the potential cost-saving power of chatbots.

Have a look at the top 6 free AI chatbots that you can try in 2023.

How to set up a lead-generation chatbot?

Building your ChatGPT-powered lead-generation chatbot is easy if you have a fast, intuitive, no-code AI chatbot builder like Botsonic at your fingertips. Here is a simple guide on how to create a chatbot for lead generation,

Step 1: Data Upload

• Go to Writesonic.com and sign up if you already have an account.
• In the Library, search for Botsonic and click on the Botsonic card.
• Upload your knowledge base on the Botsonic dashboard under source. These files contain information about your organization that the AI will use to answer queries.
• You can upload files, enter a link, add a sitemap, or upload FAQs in bulk using a CSV.

Step 2: Customization

Now that Botsonic knows your organization, it's time to adjust to sync with your organization's brand identity guidelines.

• You can customize the company name, logo, chatbot picture, color, subheading, input placeholder, welcome message, and chatbot guidelines.
• Also, select the quality of the AI engine you want to use, customize response length, language, and more.

Step 3: Starter Questions

Starter questions allow you to add a predefined set of questions and responses. These will be used by your bot whenever the given questions are asked.

Step 4: User Data Collection

Collect your user's data to store it for further purposes. You can choose what information you want your customers to enter before they start chatting with your AI chatbot.

Step 5: Integration

Here is your lead gen bot is ready to be integrated into your websites.

You can utilize the Embed Script to integrate a custom AI bot into your website. To get started, copy the snippet and paste it into your HTML code, where you want to display the Botsonic chatbot.

You can also utilize the Rest API to handle user queries.

Step 6: Analytics

Now that you have integrated Botsonic into your project, it's time to track usage. With Analytics, you can easily track the total number of words used, the total number of messages generated, and the total number of conversations done over the selected period of time range.

Chatbots for lead generation - Top 5 strategies to consider

1. Appointment booking in healthcare

Chatbots can play a significant role in streamlining the appointment booking process for the healthcare industry. For example, a chatbot deployed on a hospital's website can interact with patients, understand their symptoms or needs, and suggest an appointment with the appropriate specialist.

This simplifies the booking process and ensures that patients are directed to the right medical professional. Mayo Clinic uses a similar chatbot that assists patients in scheduling appointments and answering their health-related queries.

In this case, the chatbot acts as the first point of contact for the patients. By assisting with appointment bookings, the chatbot provides a valuable service and collects contact information and other relevant details. This data can be used for follow-ups or targeted health campaigns, thereby nurturing these leads.

2. Customer support in telecommunications

Telecommunication companies often have a high volume of customer queries. A chatbot can handle these queries efficiently, providing instant responses and resolving common issues. For example, a chatbot can assist customers in troubleshooting network issues, understanding their bills, or changing their plans.

Vodafone uses a chatbot named 'TOBi' to handle customer support. The chatbot has significantly reduced their response time and improved customer satisfaction. While primarily a customer service tool, a chatbot in this context also plays a major role in lead generation.

The chatbot contributes to a positive brand image by providing efficient and effective support. Satisfied customers are more likely to recommend the service to others, generating new leads. Additionally, the chatbot can upsell or cross-sell products during interactions, turning existing customers into leads for other services.

3. Product recommendations in retail

In the retail industry, chatbots can provide personalized product recommendations. For instance, a chatbot on a clothing store's website can ask customers about their style preferences, the occasion they're shopping for, and their size. Based on these inputs, the chatbot can suggest outfits that match the customer's needs. H&M has a chatbot for this purpose, providing a personalized shopping experience for their customers.

A chatbot that provides personalized product recommendations enhances the shopping experience, which can lead to increased customer loyalty and more word-of-mouth referrals. Both are crucial for generating new leads. Furthermore, the chatbot collects data about customer preferences, which can be used for targeted chatbot marketing campaigns aimed at lead generation.

4. Order tracking in e-commerce

E-commerce companies can use chatbots to provide real-time order tracking. Customers can ask the chatbot about the status of their order, and the chatbot can provide an instant update. This eliminates the need for customers to navigate through the website or wait for a response from customer service. Amazon's chatbot provides real-time order tracking, making the shopping experience more convenient for customers.

While order tracking primarily improves the customer experience, it indirectly aids lead generation. A positive shopping experience can lead to repeat purchases (generating leads for future sales) and positive reviews or recommendations that attract new customers. Also, during these interactions, the chatbot can suggest additional products based on the customer's purchase, generating leads for cross-selling.

5. Lead qualification in real estate

In the real estate industry, chatbots can qualify leads by asking a series of questions about the lead's requirements, budget, and preferred location. Based on the responses, the chatbot can determine whether the lead is a potential customer and direct them to a sales agent if they are. Zillow uses a chatbot to ensure that its sales agents spend time only on high-quality leads.

Here, the chatbot directly contributes to lead generation by qualifying leads. It filters out visitors just browsing and identifies those with a genuine interest in purchasing or renting property. Real estate companies can optimize their sales process and increase conversion rates by focusing on these high-quality leads.

Check more real-life chatbot examples to understand the problems AI chatbots can solve for your business.

Faqs

1. What is a lead bot?

A lead bot, or a lead generation chatbot, is an AI-powered tool that can automate the lead-capturing and qualifying process on digital platforms. They interact with users in real-time, answer queries, and gather essential information to identify potential leads.

Available 24/7, lead generation bots can simultaneously engage with multiple users, providing instant responses and personalized experiences, streamlining the lead generation process, and enhancing efficiency.

2. What is AI lead generation?

AI lead generation refers to the use of artificial intelligence technologies to automate the process of identifying and capturing potential customers for a business. However, it is not limited to chatbot implementation.

But AI can be used for creating predictive analytics to identify promising leads, content and offers personalization, email marketing campaigns optimization, etc. Also, businesses can use AI for brand monitoring on social media while identifying and engaging with potential leads. AI can make the lead generation process more efficient, ultimately saving time and resources while increasing conversion rates.

3. How much does using chatbots save companies for lead generation?

While there is no specific data on how much exactly companies can save by using chatbots for lead generation. We can definitely create some assumptions. As per data published on IBM, businesses can save up to 30% of their support cost with chatbot implementation.

These bots can simultaneously engage with multiple users by automating and streamlining the lead generation process, reducing human resource management costs. Additionally, according to a report by Startup Bonsai, 55% of businesses that use chatbots generate more high-quality leads, further enhancing their cost-effectiveness.

4. Can I train a lead generation chatbot with my own data?

You can train lead-generation chatbots like Botsonic on your own data. The platform allows you to upload your business data in different formats to train your own ChatGPT-powered customized AI chatbot for lead generation.