The essential guide to getting started with chatbots

Why should I use a chatbot?

1. Your customers want to use chatbots

Messaging apps have soared in popularity during recent years. Your customers use them to connect with friends, engage with brands, and even to make online purchases.

Chatbots are like a messaging app for your website. They're an easy and engaging way for customers to learn more about your products or services.

2. Your competitors are going to use chatbots

It's never been easier to add chatbots to your website. The latest tools don't require coding skills or technical know-how. In fact, it takes just a few minutes to build, customize, and publish your first chatbot.

Unfortunately, it's also now quick and easy for your competitors to add chatbots to their websites. In fact, it's only a matter of time before they do.

3. Your team will love it when chatbots do their work

Chatbots are ideal for repetitive tasks. For example, they can capture contact information, qualify prospects, or schedule meetings. They can do this 24/7 and will never complain or ask for a pay raise.

Meanwhile, you and your team have more important things to focus on. Chatbots can't replace humans (at least, not yet) but they can lighten the load for your team.

Benefits of using a chatbot

Which chatbots should I use?

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to using chatbots on your website. You should think about creating a range of chatbots that target different audiences with different content. Personalization and focus are key to making your chatbots engaging and successful.

Here are the top chatbot strategies that you should consider for your business.

1. Informational chatbots

2. Lead capture chatbots

3. Lead qualification chatbots

4. Lead engagement chatbots

1. Informational chatbots

What are they?

• Chatbots that provide information or guidance to website visitors.

When should you use them?

• Ideal for situations where visitors are looking for more information about your products or services.
• Also ideal for situations where you want to provide short-cuts or fast-track routes to important content.

What's the benefit for your business?

• Capture valuable information about what your visitors are looking for.
• Engage visitors with an interactive chatbot instead of a static navigation menu.
• Save time by reducing the amount of emails or support calls to your team.

How could you customize them?

• Create different chatbots for different sections of your website. For example: visitors on a Support page could see a different chatbot to visitors on a Legal page.
• Create chatbots that include videos or photos. For example: you could include a short video of your products, services, or team.

2. Lead capture chatbots

What are they?

• Chatbots that capture information from website visitors who are interested in your products or services.

When should you use them?

• Ideal for situations where visitors are not quite ready to schedule a meeting but you still want to capture their details.
• Also ideal for situations where you want to review visitor information before reaching out to them.

What's the benefit for your business?

• Capture lead information for your marketing activities or sales funnel.
• Engage visitors with an interactive chatbot instead of a static form.
• Save time by ensuring that your team gets all the information they need.

How could you customize them?

• Create chatbots that offer exclusive content in exchange for information. For example: visitors could watch a video or download an ebook after entering their email address.
• Create chatbots that are playful and memorable. For example: you could create a fun quiz to help visitors learn more about your products or services.

3. Lead qualification chatbots

What are they?

• Chatbots that qualify website visitors with a few key questions before inviting them to join a live chat or an instant video/phone call with your team.

When should you use them?

• Ideal for website pages where you need to qualify leads before inviting them to engage with your team.
• Visitors who don't meet the qualification criteria can be invited to watch a video, directed to another page on your website, or contacted by email.

What's the benefit for your business?

• Increase sales by quickly converting visitors into qualified leads.
• Delight qualified leads by inviting them to join a live chat conversation or an instant video/phone call.
• Save time by ensuring that your team only meets with the right people.

How could you customize them?

• Create different qualification questions for different sections of your website. For example: you may have multiple products or services with unique qualification criteria.
• Create different chatbots for first-time visitors versus returning visitors. For example: first-time visitors might be interested in learning more about your business.

4. Lead engagement chatbots

What are they?

• Chatbots that invite leads to choose how they engage with your team: a live chat conversation, an instant video/phone call, or a scheduled meeting.

When should you use them?

• Ideal for website pages where you need to qualify leads before inviting them to engage with your team.
• Also ideal for paid campaigns and landing pages where you don’t need to qualify visitors before connecting them with your team.

What's the benefit for your business?

• Increase sales by instantly engaging with qualified leads.
• Delight qualified leads by letting them choose how and when they connect with your team.
• Save time by ensuring that your team only meets with the right people.

How could you customize them?

• Create chatbots that offer different lead engagement options depending on how the website visitor answered the qualification questions.

How do I get started?

1. Research existing chatbots

A good starting point is to look at chatbots created by other businesses. These could be direct competitors or a company in a completely different industry.

Your chatbot strategy should be as unique as your business, so it's unlikely that you'll want to just duplicate someone else's chatbots. However, it's a good way of seeing which chatbot ideas work well (and which don't work well). Why not start by taking a look at some of our chatbot demos?

2. Define your chatbot goals

Designing an effective chatbot is like designing a web page or an email: you need to define a clear goal. Are you looking to capture leads, schedule meetings, qualify prospects, or something else?

To define your chatbot goals, start by thinking about the most important pages on your website and how they help you achieve your business goals. Next, think about how a chatbot could make a difference to those pages by complementing and enhancing the existing content.

3. Build your first chatbots

At the beginning, it’s best to start simple with just a few chatbots on your website. Once you see how these are working, you can then build more complicated chatbots with advanced audiences and targeting rules.

To help you get started, we've created a wide range of chatbot templates for different industries. Think of these as inspirational starting points that you can customize with your own content.

4. Monitor and optimize your chatbots

Once you’ve published your first chatbots, monitor them for a few weeks to see how they perform against your goals. It may take some time to fully optimize your chatbots but the reward will be well worth the effort.

And that's it!