If you’re into futuristic shows and books, then I’m guessing that you’re no stranger to the cool imaginings of writers from the past and how their visions primed us to expect flying cars by now. Still, the “imagined” future’s not as distant, with more and more manifestations of yesteryears’ visions being invented nowadays. One such manifestation? Chatbots.

Chatbots have gone a long way since their early days. Yes, we still have scripted messages and many capabilities are still getting developed, but they are no longer limited. Advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI) are opening more opportunities for this technology, leaving us with more intelligent, more conversational, and at times, even funny chatbots.

And this is why many marketers are using its benefits to promote their products and brands online.

In this blog, we’ll take a closer look at chatbots and how they’re changing the way we market products online. We’ll give you the lowdown on chatbot technology, its benefits to marketing, especially online, and show you some cool examples of chatbots in action.

Let’s get right into it!

What are chatbots?

We’ll bet that you’ve, once or twice, been greeted by chat pop ups on a website or in Messenger when you visit a business or product. That, my friend, is a chatbot. 

Hootsuite aptly called chatbots the “robot sidekicks”, and just like dependable sidekicks, chatbots are capable of doing wonders for a brand. The same Hootsuite report made passing mention of a prediction from Gartner, which said that the chatbot market worldwide is expected to hit $1.25 in 2025 and that immediately following that, chatbots will be the “primary customer service aid” of at least 25% of the organizations worldwide.

Simply put, chatbots are created primarily for customer service and support. Businesses rely on chatbots to handle a slew of activities, mostly related to customer management, including:

• managing customer inquiries
• helping customers track and trace orders
• providing product or service information

And so much more!

It’s also worth mentioning that yes, for this article, we chatted with one of the most popular chatbots of today—ChatGPT—and asked what it has to say about the technology.

Here’s a little sneak peek into our recent “conversation”.

And that’s only scratching the surface of what chatbots are capable of!

ChatGPT is a chatbot, developed by OpenAI and launched just last November. It falls into a specific type of machine learning model designed to hold conversations with its users and generate texts that feel “most natural” and conversational, having been trained to emulate and replicate the human language model.

How are chatbots useful to online marketing?

Remember our last article where we taught you how to automate your business for more growth? Well, we made a passing mention of chatbots in that article too, filing it under automation that you can do for “customer service”.

Because the chatbot program is built to engage with customers, the first step in integrating chatbots into your social media marketing strategy is first, determining exactly what information you want it to answer. So, ask yourself: “What do my customers want to know?” or, “What questions do I need to answer for my customers?”

Here’s where market research data will be useful. When you know exactly what concerns your customers—when you have data on your market’s behavior, especially their usual questions—the easier it is to create pre-formatted messages with the answers. These messages are revealed when prompted and can easily be clicked on to satisfy their enquiries. Doing this already minimises the need for human interaction, helping provide your customers with the information they need anytime, anywhere, especially when no one from your team is available to answer them.

Now, you might also be wondering: why the focus on messaging? That’s because there’s heightened interest in messaging lately. There is a need for speed, so instant answers are always welcome (if not demanded). If you need any proof of messaging’s importance in the chatbot industry, then just take a look at the sample chatbots below.

Chatbots in action

Let's now see how chatbots are being used by some popular brands across industries:

Domino's Australia's Messenger Chatbot

Singtel Satellite's Website Chatbot "Ask Max"

Singapore GOV's website's COVID 19 Chatbot

Resorts World Singapore's website Chatbot

Chatbots are a crucial tool in modern marketing because it satisfies people’s questions in real time.

But before adopting chatbots into your own strategy, it’s imperative (and wise) that you ask yourself a few questions first, like:

• What can these bots help me with?
• What should I be using them for?
• Do I have the platform that allows this integration to happen?

Chatbots are capable of so much more, and we’re really excited to see just how far the technology goes from here on out. 

Need a team of marketing experts to help you decide if chatbots are for you? Or perhaps, just an expert team who can take care of your web development needs (and more)? We’re here to help. Send us your questions today and our friendly team will be happy to answer them!