Have you thought to drive more sales with a chatbot? Chatbots are consumer-facing Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems that allow businesses to chat with their customers via messaging, text, or speech.
As today’s consumers expect an immediate, 24/7 digital response, chatbots are in high demand because of the vast number of requests they can handle instantly.
54% of respondents said they’d prefer to speak to a chatbot instead of a human customer service rep if it saved them 10 minutes (PDF).
Therefore, it’s unsurprising that 80% of companies have already used or plan to use chatbots this year, according to a report from Business Insider.
A friendlier, more effective customer engagement
But how do consumers feel about interacting with a chatbot?
In a world where we’re all familiar with phone trees that ask a number of questions and require a series of actions before our call is directed to an actual person, a chatbot is seen as a more user-friendly alternative.
53% of consumers prefer to shop with a business that they can communicate directly with online.
56% prefer writing a message rather than calling the business.
And because messaging is now a routine part of our mobile experience, chatbots are often more effective than an app on mobile devices.
Turn high quality leads into customers
With a chat box/chatbot, the consumer feels in control. Rather than a hard sell, a chatbot is an unobtrusive method of communication. It encourages more engagement, which in turn generates more leads. Better enquiries and more sales are what every business needs.
An integral part of a chatbot is its source material. Instead of a static FAQ page, the interactive element of a chatbot allows a potential customer to obtain information that’s relevant to them.
If you know the queries your prospective clients are likely to have, you can give them the answers they want. Armed with this information, and reassurance, they’re more likely to share their data with you.
This crucial initial communication provides you with the high quality leads you need to convert into sales.
Discover what a chatbot could do for your business
If you’re keen to explore what a chatbot could do for your business, but aren’t sure where to begin, we can help with you r lead generation,
Clever Marketing can provide all the content and advice you need. Here are just some of the services we offer:
High-quality content to push through the bot – asking the right questions to obtain maximum response.
Help in making the right decision about which software to use.
Entire back end set up.
Placement of the bot on your website.
Review of progress on a monthly basis.
Script creation if required.
Production of a quick user guide.
System set up and preferences, including when the bot is active and when it’s not.
E-commerce set up for the bot if needed.
Google Analytics integration to track progress.
Check out the Clever chatbot.
In 2019, Clever Marketing received three-quarters of our business through our chatbot – which puts us in a unique position to understand how significant a return on investment it is.
We saw our own conversion rates rise considerably – and we can help you do the same for your business development.
Ready to take your business to the next level? Open up a new channel and drive more sales with a chatbot.
Stay at home. Don’t leave the house. Unless, of course, you need basic provisions, one session of exercise, to collect medications, or to tend to a vulnerable relative or neighbour.
The effects of the coronavirus outbreak have been massive, both on a personal level and for businesses too. So, what advice does Clever Marketing have for firms in this current climate?
Is it a Good Idea to Cut My Marketing Budget?
As a business we understand that firms need to look at saving costs during challenging times. We saw this during the financial crisis of 2009 and, right now, there’s still a lot of uncertainty over Brexit. Now, in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, there are even deeper and more immediate concerns.
Right now is a good time to take a step back, and have a clear look at your business. Are you thriving or are you just surviving in the wake of COVID-19?
For some industries, particularly travel, hospitality, retail and leisure, the current situation is extremely challenging. Flights have been grounded, rail firms have sought government support, and the treasury has drawn up extraordinary plans of financial assistance for businesses and workers.
But can you secure your future through marketing?
If your business is quiet on the marketing front you may be forgotten or overlooked. Marketing visibility is crucial during a time when so many businesses have gone full digital and all employees are working from home where possible. If you don’t look after your brand it may not benefit when we all come through “the other side”. It is this very notion that forward-thinking businesses are focusing on right now.
A quote from a study by Harvard Business Review back in 2010 says:
“Firms that cut costs faster and deeper than rivals don’t necessarily flourish. They have the lowest probability — 21% — of pulling ahead of the competition when times get better…”
Let’s look at the pros of thriving through continued marketing spend…
Pay Per Click (PPC)
Pay Per Click campaigns get your message in front of the right internet searchers at the right time. PPC allows your product or service to stand above all others in a competitive and crowded marketplace.
At a time when your competitors may be reducing their ad spend on PPC, there is an opportunity here to make gains.
In terms of awareness alone, you can protect your brand through PPC. Brand campaigns will ensure that your intellectual property stays yours in the search engines, and they also make bidding on your terms expensive for your competitors.
Or how about the fact that you may actually just now have fewer competitors and so your ads may be cheaper? With fewer competitive bids, your PPC ad budget may stretch a lot further than it once did.
We manage individual PPC accounts with budgets over many thousands and have seen great successes over the years. From doubling enquiries for £100,000 products (and on the way to quadrupling these) to reducing effective ad spend from £5,000, with another agency, to just £1,000 a month. One client actually has too much work due to the sheer number of leads we generate for them every month.
PPC is a winning channel whether it be Google Ads or Bing Ads, we have a track record of success in paid search.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
More complex than PPC, Search Engine Optimisation gets you “free” organic results in search. If you keep up all the hard work that’s been invested in optimising your website then you will maintain rankings and keep ahead of the competition.
Anecdotally, our Digital Marketing Manager once worked on a large business advice website where he optimised the site daily. When he left there were no daily site updates in Google Webmaster Tools. Without the highly qualified staff, and no more attention to detail, a decade’s worth of effort was lost. The site tanked in the SERPs and eventually the project was abandoned.
The moral of the story here is look after your website, and your website will look after you. Keeping it in good shape means the search engines will appreciate your efforts and you’ll enjoy as much success as you’re prepared to put in.
Social Media
Remote working means that everyone is online right now. Your staff, your competitors, your clients and potential customers are all now digitally connected. For the benefit of everyone’s mental and social welfare, it’s good to talk.
Continuing to work on social media means that you keep talking, keep having those conversations. Whether it’s paid or organic, there’s never been a better time to be social.
Brands that have embraced social media and are regularly active, are the brands that people will engage with.
Updates to inform the world that you’re still open for business, that your staff are safe and to enquire on the well-being of your clients is a major positive. Use every social media channel that you feel comfortable with. And within those channels again use whatever tools are most appropriate – have you tried LinkedIn Conversation Ads for instance?
Inform, entertain, reassure. There is so much your business can be doing on social, so take to the airwaves or make sure your agency does for you.
To a Brighter Future
When we step out into the brave new world, things will be different. The world will be a different place and how you’ve readied and adapted for that change is key.
Businesses that are proactive now will be ahead of the curve when the new era comes. Necessity is the mother of invention and rising to the current challenges will make you stronger.
If you want to maintain your digital marketing in challenging times then speak to us now on 01276 534 680.
We’re here to assist with your SEO, PPC and social media, paid and organic, so take a look at our digital marketing services.
The current situation with the coronavirus is absolutely unprecedented. People are experiencing a great deal of anxiety on two fronts. There’s the health and well-being of themselves and loved ones, and the uncertainty in terms of their jobs, businesses and livelihoods.
We’ve outlined some steps for businesses to take and work around the physical restrictions that may impact them – whether government-mandated or as a result of more caution exercised by clients or the public generally. Your business can navigate and take advantage of the always-on digital world.
Digital Comms
With so many people now working from home, there’s been a sudden uptick in digital communications. Where once you’d shout across an office or walk to a colleague’s desk, we’re now going full digital.
Keeping in touch with your team is crucial, not just for staying on top of projects but also for maintaining morale too.
Beyond email and phone calls, you can FaceTime and WhatsApp your colleagues. Video calls add an extra dimension to voice communications especially when we’re confined to home working.
Better still, use Skype, or the more commercial Skype for Business or now Microsoft Teams (It’s already started to supersede Skype for Business). Your team can be sat at their home desks, on their laptops, with some great group calling features.
Other tools you can use for better digital comms are Slack, which is popular amongst web teams, Zoom and Cisco’s Webex. Ultimately, what you use is down to availability, cost etc. So see what digital communication tools you already have and might not have been using before.
It’s good to talk.
Cancelled Events
If your company or organisation has cancelled one or more of its scheduled events, provide delegates with an alternative digital experience. This can take the form of streamed presentations, online workshops or forum/Q&A discussions.
Set up a series of webinars that reflect the content of the conference, festival or event. Webinars are informative, engaging and interactive – as well as flexible. They can be effective as a learning tool, especially when accompanied by supplementary digital materials. Webinars add benefits to your participants in a way that face-to-face sessions are not always able to do.
However, just as you would provide directions to a live event, your delegates will need to know that the webinar is available and how to find it. Manage communications via email, social media, digital advertisements, and drive traffic to the webinar on your website.
Revisit and Audit Your Own Website
With much of the world going full digital to conduct business, it’s a great time to audit your website. Taking the time to conduct a website audit allows your business to take stock of its role and successes.
Is your website up to date? What do you need to add and how often in this time of digital-only transactions?
Does your website do what it’s supposed to do? Is it fit for purpose?
Are there goods or services that are not usually available online that can be posted or downloaded?
Does your website express the ethos and message of your company to its online audience in the best possible way?
Completing these vital steps now is essential for when business picks up, meaning your company and your website will be ahead of the game.
If your business is short on resources or knowledge, let us know and we’ll be happy to help you audit your website.
Digital Marketing
With staff having to work from home, businesses are spending more time online. Activity has fallen for some industries, like travel, but generally there’s been an uptick in digital activity as workers stay indoors and away from offices and public places. Some service providers have released unlimited broadband to help consumers and businesses alike.
Digital marketing is perfect to reach out to your clients and customers whilst they spend more time online. Use the digital marketing channels at your disposal to create and maintain brand awareness, order online, earn discounts for recommendations and referrals, or sign up to online video classes.
If there are ways you can help your clients or customers let them know. Do you have useful information they can act upon, or guidance and advice relevant to their life or work?
All this information can be distributed via emails and social media. Remember that people are bombarded with information at this time, so you will need make your message stand out.
Digital Brochures
Digital brochures are a great way to get information and news out to clients and customers, especially in a visual way. These can be sent out as links in an email campaign or signposted in your website.
A digital brochure acts like a mini website, with integrated forms, animation and videos, and it is a proven way to keep business flowing and maintaining a connection with those served by your business.
Clever Marketing takes the coronavirus and its impact very seriously, however our team are all working remotely and open for business as usual. We’re passionate about helping businesses during these tough times and keen to help you go full digital.
Good habits of digital marketers? What are they then?
I’ll come clean straight away on this post – I was reading a blog post one of my predecessors had written about 18 months ago entitled 5 Bad Habits of Digital Marketers and my first thought was – why the negative slant?
My own professional and personal take on things is far more positive. I am a realist and totally understand that things may not always go to plan. But there’s always a positive direction in my thinking and doing. Hence, why I decided to write about the 5 GOOD habits of digital marketers.
And when I thought to positively counter the original post, I actually wondered why would I list just 5 good habits of digital marketers, but here they are…
1. Always Measuring Digital Campaigns
One issue with the original blog post was about “forgetting to measure”, failing to take stock and evaluate, for a number of reasons ranging from the pace of work to fear of failure.
Well, every digital marketing campaign is under some sort of pressure, from better results to time-lines, so it’s a fact of life in the fast-paced digital world that time goes whizzing by and expectations are high for some campaigns. But that’s no excuse to “forget to measure”.
It’s a given that you should be measuring your campaigns. You cannot run an effective campaign without measurement so just do it!
The sheer amounts of data are a lot to handle at times but good digital marketers filter through all the big data and only present the important stuff to clients. More signal, less noise, to use an analogy.
The numerous tools these days, from Google Analytics, Google Search Console and Google Ads (Formerly Google AdWords – Ed) to Moz, Ahrefs and SEMrush, all have dashboards showing historical data, some more than others. So rely heavily on the tools that capture ALL data and just be aware of the ones that only show the last 90 days worth. Any digital marketer worth their salt knows which ones they are. Feel free to ask us for our professional opinion.
Download that data, label it clearly, have a good system and that will be the basis of your campaign measurement.
2. Being Cool About Data Capture
Customers, whether they’re businesses or consumers, are usually happy to divulge some data in return for information or free services. It’s acceptable these days to give some information away for free, just like we do in the Clever Marketing blog. We’re happy to give you tips and insights in the world of digital marketing, graphic design and web development, for nothing in return other than a smile on your face that we’ve helped you out. Better still is an acknowledgement or a social share and we’re always delighted when you share our blog posts and content on Twitter or over on our Facebook.
(Ultimately, we’d really love you to be a customer of ours, whether you take us on for a print job, a website redesign or an SEO/PPC campaign, but let’s just get to know each other first)
However, if you want one of our free website audits, they will take a member of our digital marketing team at least half a day to complete; that’s 4 hours out of a skilled professional’s day, so it’s not much to ask for an email address to send your report to and to take a name with which to address the person who requested the website audit.
There are times when it would be useful for us to know, in return for our knowledge, which sector you’re in, how many staff you have etc. But some recipients of your email campaign, for instance, might baulk at divulging their turnover. That’s cool, we understand.
So, go easy on the data capture. The best, most experienced digital marketing agencies know where to draw the line – what to ask, when to ask it and how often. That’s a skill that comes with experience.
3. Knowing Content is Still King
I’ve been a digital marketer for over 20 years now, being involved in SEO since 1998 and PPC since 2002. In all that time, the one thing that has always been at the heart of every website I’ve been involved in is good, solid content. Content is King, as the adage goes.
There have been some interesting situations in that journey, such as traditional marketing managers saying that some of the content on their website was just “waffle” and that it either needed to go or be completely hacked down. Only when I pointed out that the content was both technically excellent and the top-performing article on the site by a country mile, did the person in question decide not to lose a quarter or more of their traffic overnight in a hasty hack.
Or how about the content curation for one client that involved a suite of articles around one fairly short-term topic that saw them dominate the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) for that term for a number of months and, for a few days, saw their traffic spike something like fifteen-fold!
Or what about the client who built a brand new website and canned nearly four years of blog posts! We’re talking about not just a loss of traffic and losing a wealth of long-tail search terms but also the investment in time, effort and cost into those valuable pieces of writing.
So, good digital marketers understand that content is king still and they have a good habit of integrating content into digital strategies, both in-house and for their customers. Content marketing can deliver a massive boost to your website and get you better results. so being serious about your current is something we will always advise you on the benefits of.
4. Selling the Sizzle Not the Steak
A traditional old sales and marketing adage is “sell the sizzle, not the steak.”
What this means is that even if the product is great and has the latest spec, top stats and all the bells and whistles, what differentiates the product or service from everyone else’s is that it brings certain benefits, it provides a solution to a particular problem.
We recently discussed this subject with a client who sells some very technical equipment. We aren’t experts in their field so we don’t understand all the technical specifications of their product, but we asked what the practical applications were and they were happy to give us some examples.
And this is the approach that is a good habit of a digital marketer – all the technical specs are fine but if you can provide a solution to an existing problem then you will resonate with potential customers.
So, this is where a good digital marketing agency will excel – they will mine out the benefits of your product or service and, with clever marketing, sell your sizzle and not just the steak.
5. Knowing that Specialisation is for Insects
Of course, your digital marketing agency should specialise in digital marketing, that should be a given. But it’s your agency having a truly holistic understanding of all the interconnected aspects of the digital and the marketing world that will help you shine as their client.
At Clever Marketing in north-east Hampshire, we do graphic design. That often ends up in print. It can be everything from business cards, to flyers and brochures, pitch books and full-on publications such as technical manuals, year end reports. There are trade and exhibition stands, you name it, we print it.
These designs can very easily cross over to your digital assets too, we’ll re-brand and refresh your website design, revitalise your e-commerce site and then drive qualified traffic to it through digital marketing – that is, through organic SEO (That’s Search Engine Optimisation), Pay Per Click and social media too.
We are a full spectrum design and digital agency and we know how virtually everything interacts. So that’s the bonus you get from a Digital Marketing Agency that also understands print, web design and web development too.
Those are the Good Habits of Digital Marketers
At Clever Marketing we eat, sleep and breathe digital marketing so for us, it’s in our blood, it’s a daily routine and a perpetual habit. And there are many more good habits we could divulge but we’re already out of time…
If you’d like to work with our Hampshire digital marketing agency then please do pick up the phone and call 01276 534 680 or complete our contact form and we’ll be happy to be an extension of your business.
Paul Mackenzie Ross
Digital Marketing Manager
Clever Marketing
Digital Agency
Hampshire
SEO, PPC, social, web development…
Blogs are an essential element of the digital marketing mix as each post drives traffic to your website. It’s relatively easy to set a blog up and build a following but it takes time to ensure it receives regular traffic.
Successful blogs deliver quality content on a regular basis, which means they’re crawled more often by Google with the opportunity to generate potential leads higher. We take a look at what you can do to maximise your visibility and drive more traffic to your blog. Read more
As marketers in the digital world, we’re always looking forward. What new platforms do we need to consider? What new technologies should we adopt? With some much noise and buzz going on in the industry, we rarely take the time to examine existing processes and values and really evaluate these for effectiveness. However, in reality, it’s sometimes our ingrained habits that are holding us back more than lack of moving forward.
In this post, we’ll be taking you through 5 of the bad habits in digital marketing we see most often, and how you can make sure you’re not making them. Read more
We’ve talked before on this blog about how getting to know your customers is one of the most valuable things you can do when it comes to improving your conversion rate.
In a fast-paced digital world in which everything revolves around marketing campaigns and sales targets, it’s all too easy to become disconnected from the customer who’s actually buying your product/using your service at the end of it all. Read more
Marketing automation is here to stay and, with the economy finally on the upturn, businesses are getting busier and confidence is increasing. For many that means the “to-do” list is getting longer and, despite the extra daylight around, there still aren’t enough hours in the day.
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Ready to take your business to the next level? Open up a new channel and drive more sales with a chatbot.
If you want to maintain your digital marketing in challenging times then speak to us now on 
