Glance AI Series is a set of interviews where we invite smart accomplished individuals from digital marketing, data science, and AI to chat about interesting things.
We kick off this series with a discussion/interview on chatbots. Chatbot marketing has turned into a new lead channel. The method of enabling a bot to interact with a human as he visits your website has been revolutionary. In this article, we interviewed Angela Allen, founder of an award-winning chat marketing agency based in Melbourne, Australia. Without further ado, here are the 5 questions we asked, hope you enjoy the interview.
Q1. Chatbots have revolutionized the way people interact with brands. Where do we go from here in terms of chatbot intelligence?
If you look to the COVID-19 pandemic, a lot of governments, organizations, and businesses have adopted WhatsApp or Messenger chatbots, including the Australian and Indian governments, ICIC Bank, and the World Health Organisation.
Chatbots are now being used in times of crisis to give accurate information instantly and health advice. I think we’re going to see a lot more businesses adopt chatbots and move their businesses online, so they can continue to trade and stay in touch with their customers instantly, even when they can’t be in a physical space together.
It also means that chatbots – which help with customer service queries – will also be paramount to help answer questions in unprecedented times, to streamline your communications with your customers. And big brands will now have to start putting budget into their online operations, where before, most of them did not. This now forces them to start thinking of new ways to keep customers in a digital space, and chatbots are very effective in doing that.
Q2. Sales funnels rely more on AI than ever before. What do you think is the role of AI in simplifying the sales Funnel optimization process?
I come from a journalism and advertising background, so I look at sales funnels and AI in this way – if your offer and your copywriting aren’t sexy enough, no amount of AI (chatbots) or “funnel hacking” is going to save it.
You need to get the basics right first. What does your audience care about? What’s the pain point your business helps solve?
Chatbots can help in three ways: sales, marketing, and operations. If that strategy is working and refined as you go, you can replicate and tweak existing landing page funnels in the chatbot, and it makes it a personal, on-brand experience. In fact, I created a Sponsored Message Strategy that made 5x ROI.
Q3. The possibilities of AI and ML have enormous potential for B2B marketing. What are the different ways that these technologies can be a game-changer?
As I come from a journalism and marketing background, I do have a love and understanding of tech. (I taught myself to code when I started my own online magazine in 2014.)
However, my stance is no matter how awesome the tech is, or what fancy chatbot you build, if it does not make your business or your client money, it’s the equivalent of an expensive paperweight. It’s useful for one thing and looks pretty on your desk, but nobody thinks much about it and it DOESN’T DO ANYTHING.
For me, my clients aren’t going to hand over thousands of dollars for something that looks impressive but doesn’t do what it’s supposed to – i.e. generate revenue. They want this chatbot to make them money. In fact, one of the strategies I used generated 625 Leads and boosted my client’s ROI by 25% quarterly.
But I won’t discount that AI and ML are going to be great to help chatbots with personalization, understand customer queries better, and recommend products based on past sales, which is going to help businesses generate revenue. And that’s why I believe both AI and ML will be crucial as we move forward with using this technology in our daily lives.
Q4. A compelling, meaningful, and action-oriented copy has the power to reach millions. In your opinion, what are five things that a copywriter must keep in mind will drafting a good copy?
Copywriting for chatbots is different from writing for emails, landing pages, and websites.
I’ll give you some tips to help you craft chatbot copy that people actually want to read (and will make a good ROI!).
- It’s a conversation, so make sure you keep it that way. Think of how you text your friends and family. The same rules apply.
- Use personalization. Use your subscriber’s name, but don’t forget your chatbot has its own personality, so be sure to define that and play into that. For example, my chatbot is an extension of me and my agency, so it sounds like me and has to
- Choose Your Own Adventure flow with native videos telling stories of when I was a journalist for Rolling Stone and the people I interviewed, which is very much something I’d do to honor my writing background. You can test-drive my bot here.
- It’s a bot, but it’s also human. Make sure you keep it human and have real conversations, make sure it doesn’t sound like a robot.
- Use GIFs, videos, and images. You can use all of these things with great success, and make it a fun, on-brand experience for your audience.
- Create a tone of voice guide. Remember your chatbot is an extension of your brand, so you need to think about how it’s going to sound and what words it will use to communicate. Is it polished and more formal? Or is it friendly and uses slang?
If you’d like to learn more about how to craft chatbot copy that generates 5x ROI, you can sign up for my “The 3C’s Masterclass: Chatbots, Copywriting, & Cash” here.
Q5. As the founder of your own digital marketing agency, tell us your favorite client/campaign and why?
I’ve worked on a few campaigns in different industries (some of them are on the ManyChat blog). I’ve also worked on a highly successful campaign that I mentioned earlier that helped generate 625 qualified leads and 25% ROI.
But I would say my favorite campaign has been working on my own agency chatbot because it gives me the freedom to test, play, and refine things before I try them with my clients. As I mentioned earlier, my sponsored message strategy for my agency generated 5x ROI, and I am able to build on that success with my clients after proving it works.
Angela Allan Bio
Angela Allan is the founder of her award-winning chat marketing agency based in Melbourne, Australia, which helps businesses win more clients and outsmart their competition. She’s the co-founder of Bot Blondes, an online resource dedicated to helping entrepreneurs create a business that supports their wildest dreams (and fantasies).
She’s also a former journalist who has written for Rolling Stone, FHM, and Australian Penthouse. In 2012, Angela started her own online publication, Soot Magazine, where she taught herself to code and embraced the basics of web development. Soon, she was approached by ad agencies to fact-check and create content for big brands, like Telstra and GE Money, and that’s where she started to implement the magic of branding, copywriting, and digital marketing.
Since the inception of chat marketing about two and a half years ago, she has been working tirelessly to help businesses across the globe harness the power of Facebook Messenger to generate more leads and more sales. You can join Angela’s VIP Facebook Messenger community here.
Update: Angela is speaking at Conversations 2020, the world’s leading Chat Marketing conference. Her session is with her fellow Bot Blondes and is called “3 Blondes, 1 Business Plan: How to Turn $500 into a 6-Figure Chat Marketing Agency.” For more information, visit conversationsconference.com/botblondes
Our featured poster courtesy: Technology vector created by upklyak – www.freepik.com
No Comments
Leave a comment Cancel