Thinking of creating a Chatbot? Chatbots are the hot new channel for eCommerce marketing thanks to the benefits they extend to both the buyer and the seller, so it’s only natural that you’d want to build your very own chatbot for your online store or Facebook page.
After all, integrating a chatbot into your marketing, sales, and support is simple right? Shorter copy means less work…right?
Wrong. Even though creating a chatbot is simple, it’s not easy. Here are the nuances you’ll need to master before taking this on for yourself:
Creating a Chatbot Strategy
Creating a chatbot strategy is again, simple on the surface, but complex under the hood. Let’s take a strategy for customer support. At the top level, your strategy might look like this:
Use our chatbot to answer common questions on our site’s checkout page.
But, as you dive deeper, there’re plenty of considerations that must be made. For example, what will your chatbot sound like? An important part of chatbot strategy is establishing your bot’s voice or personality. Questions like those below can help uncover your bot’s voice:
- What will be your chatbot’s name?
- What are your chatbot’s values?
- What is your chatbot’s age?
- Where is your chatbot located?
Knowing your Chatbot
What will your chatbots’s main objections and pain points be?
This is where things start to get really hard (especially if it’s your first time building/using one). Before implementing your chatbot, you need to attempt to predict and overcome your chatbot’s main objections and pain points.
In other words, what will people throw at your chatbot that will cause it “pain”. Will they attempt to give it a task it can’t handle? Will they grow frustrated over limited choice or overwhelmed with too many?
Often times, you’ll need to keep an eye out as even if you make a good prediction, you never truly know how your audience will interact with the chat bot. Being able to make adjustments and compensate for those objections and pain points on the fly will be as crucial as attempting to predict them in the first place.
Chatbot copywriting
Another area in which you’ll find things difficult is chatbot copywriting. This step can make or break your bot as it’s the only true user interface. If your chatbot’s messaging isn’t clear, quick, and imparted with personality, it just won’t work.
Even veteran copywriters will struggle with creating messaging for a chatbot. It requires messages to be conversational, and that’s something that can be surprisingly difficult. Considerations need to be made for:
- How many messages you’ll send before waiting for a reply
- How long each message will be
- Whether to use buttons or quick replies
- If using quick replies what to say for the audience
- And more
You best bet may be outsourcing
Ultimately, chatbots are still very young, and the technologies and strategies behind them are still rapidly changing. For this reason, it may be best to outsource the work to an agency or consultant who’s had previous experience in the field.
We’ve recently integrated chatbot marketing services into our offerings at Arora Project. If you’d like to learn more about how we can help you, contact us
