The 3-Part Chatbot Marketing Strategy for Virtual Summits with Nadine Anderson
With every new marketing strategy, there’s a window of opportunity to start early and see the best results before it becomes an industry wide practice. This was true about webinars, email marketing, Facebook ads, and even websites at one point!
My guest on the podcast today is here to share about a new emerging strategy that I’ve been super curious about and had the chance to test during one of my recent events. Chatbot marketing is a new and currently underused option for engaging with your audience, and can be super impactful for creating a positive and engaging summit attendee experience.
There aren’t a ton of businesses using chatbots yet, which means those who ARE using them can provide a unique and personalized experience that really stands out. And the results speak for themselves!
In this episode, you’ll hear from Nadine Anderson why chatbots are such a powerful strategy for you to start implementing right away, and how you can use them in your summits to improve attendee experience and cut down on your customer support inquiries.
In this episode Nadine shares:
- What chatbots are and how they work
- Why they don’t deserve their reputation as being spammy (and how to avoid coming across that way!)
- How to change up your chatbot strategy at different phases of your summit for the best attendee experience and marketing impact
- Additional ways to use chatbots beyond summits
Listen to the episode
Download the episode transcript here.
Episode at a glance:
[0:24] Chatbots are one of those strategies that, despite being incredibly powerful, many people overlook as being too complicated, or even avoid because they think they’re spammy. We kicked off by having Nadine set the record straight, starting with a better understanding of what exactly chatbots are.
[2:58] In really simple terms, a chatbot is a platform that enables you to send automated conversations to a user. Now, to some people that might sound really impersonal or like you're talking to a robot. But actually, in practice, it's surprisingly human.
It feels like a one-to-one conversation that you're actually speaking to somebody, and that's part of what makes it so powerful. Just imagine being able to have a one-to-one conversation with all of your followers, everybody who follows you on Instagram. Chatbot software can handle that and do it simultaneously to 1000s of people at the same time.
[3:57] What makes chatbots so effective compared to other marketing strategies is that it creates an interactive experience. If you think about it compared to email marketing, in an email you’re sending a monologue that your audience might find interesting and engaging, but they’re not able to interact directly like you can with chatbots.
When you compare it to email, a good open rate on an email is only 20%. But when you're comparing it to something like Instagram direct message automation, that open rate is between 90 and 99%. That's part of what makes it so powerful. You can get your message in front of multiple people, and also the click-through rates are higher, so people will read your message and take action on it.
[5:29] People prefer interactive communication with their friends and family, and they want to communicate with businesses in the same way. Many businesses use manual DMs as part of their marketing strategy, but it’s important to be set up in a way that allows you to respond to messages from customers quickly. That's where chatbots come in.
[6:47] Nadine’s chatbot strategy focuses on custom interactions based on the stage of the funnel or customer journey each person is in. At the top of the funnel, the first interaction is more about getting the lead excited about your summit and nurturing them with questions. At later stages, chatbots can be used to answer questions about your offers and handle customer support inquiries.
[9:43] Using chatbots to answer frequently asked customer support questions can save a ton of time during promotion and running your event, but it does take some planning ahead of time to set everything up.
I recommend breaking the different questions you want your chatbot to answer for you into 6 categories. From there, the chatbot can ask the customer which category their question fits into, and ask additional follow-up questions to figure out what they need. With the right setup and planning, the bots are able to get it right and answer the question about 80% of the time.
[10:18] Not only are you making your life easier with automation, but it's better for the user as well. They are getting an instant response and don’t have to wait for somebody to get back to them. They get the answer they need right away.
[10:41] There are so many ways to use the information you gather through chatbot conversations with your leads. Nadine absolutely blew my mind by sharing the idea of categorizing leads as beginner, intermediate, or advanced, then sending them different offers, or even different sales pages for the same offer, based on their chatbot conversations.
[12: 36] This strategy makes so much sense for businesses to be able to send people to the offer that makes the most sense for them, and it’s also beneficial for the customer.
There are so many wins. Overall, it is the best experience for the customer that gives them an amazing experience from start to finish. It’s so consistent. They get what they need when they need it. And the information is right there in their DMs so they can go back to it at a time that suits them if they need to.
[13:16] Despite how powerful chatbots can be in providing useful information and improving customer experience, they have a bit of a reputation for being spammy. But when used correctly, there is nothing spammy about them!
When you think about what spam really is, it's either something that's unsolicited, something that you never asked for in the first place, or something that's completely irrelevant to you. The way this chatbot strategy is different is that it’s all permission-based, and the user needs to initiate the conversation.
[15:36] We focused on how chatbots can be used for virtual summits in this episode, but there are so many other ways that chatbots can be used! These same strategies can be used to incorporate chatbots into challenges and webinars and improve your attendee experience.
[16:50] Nadine’s advice for business owners thinking about using chatbots: get started sooner rather than later. Chatbots aren’t going anywhere, and as more people start using them, they will eventually become less effective. So take advantage of this strategy while it’s new!
When the internet came out, people were reluctant to set up websites. And then they were reluctant to build an email list. And now chatbots are here, and they're not going anywhere. So the longer you leave it, the results won't be as good. You won't always get that 90% to 99% open rate. So if you want to take advantage of it while it's hot, this is the best time.
About Nadine
Nadine Anderson is the Founder of Radium Marketing, a specialist Chatbot Marketing agency that helps businesses take advantage of the next big shift in communications: 1-2-1 conversations at scale.
Nadine has made it her mission to help business owners take advantage of this untapped marketing channel, enabling them to extend their reach so they can serve more people and ultimately make the impact they truly desire.
Radium Marketing serves online course creators and membership sites by creating chatbot strategies on Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and SMS that dramatically increase conversions, drive new sales and automate customer support all with an engaging and interactive customer experience.
DM me the word SUMMIT on Insta for more info!
Resources
- Episode 84: Create Raving Fans & Dream Customers Through A Virtual Summit With Desola Davis
- Episode 97: Designing The People Experience Of Your Virtual Summit With Ashley Shuler
- Episode 190: Virtual Summit Is A Full Funnel - From Lead Generation To Launch!
- Summit Host Hangout Facebook group
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