Years back, when the first robotic movie came, it got us all thinking about what Artificial Intelligence is, and it became more faster, smarter, and stronger and eventually now is ruling the world. While all this might sound scary, but it’s not impossible.
With the rise in robots around us, it is only a matter of time until Artificial Intelligence will become the future of the Lead Generation.
Today, there are around 30,000 robots living on Facebook Messenger and Kirk alone, and with Artificial Intelligence technology like Siri from Apple and Alexa from Amazon, they are now living in our homes. What’s more surprising is that people don’t even seem to mind this idea and are in-fact, quite comfortable.
Read – Why and How are Banks Adapting to the Use of AI and Automation
Though the idea of Artificial Intelligence taking over sounds dangerous, it is useful in ways that it will help businesses save a great deal of money.
Chatbots make up the most significant portion of artificial intelligence, and they alone can save billions in the department of insurance, sales, customer service, and financial services.
10 Reasons Why Artificial Intelligence Will Become the Future of Lead Generation
#1. Lead Generation
We are talking about how Artificial Intelligence is going to become the future of the lead generation so let’s start with this most constraining point.
The current marketing methods are now getting boring, and Al is generating more and more leads, according to stats businesses with Al have 59% better sales profit, 58% increases revenue, 54% more traffic and engagement, and 52% higher conversion.
Al is proving to be better than social marketing as it is less expensive, less time consuming, and more productive. One might argue with the fact that Al lacks personalization; hence, humans will always have a place in the market.
If you look past the human brilliance, you will have to admit that robots are capable of learning more quickly. It is believed in the coming future; Al will change the face of the marketing industry.
If there has to be one convincing reason why it will rule the future generation, then it is because it will bring in a significant amount of money and profits.
#2. Lead Nurturing
People don’t just visit a website and make a purchase; instead they look at the product multiple times before buying it. This is where lead nurturing plays its role, as it provides the user with offers, information, and other details to help them follow up. The idea behind this is to turn the prospect from a lead to a customer.
Before Artificial Intelligence, lead nurturing was done through manual prospect messaging, email messages, and email segmentation. With Al taking over, we now have chatbots, which offer special offers and coupons to prospects. Many might think lead nurturing would be more effective when a human is involved, but according to stats, 59% of Americans prefer chatbots more.
Chatbots are winning over apps in terms of customer retention. This is because their response time is quicker; they never forget to send a message and are time-saving.
#3. Prospect Data
When it comes to the world of marketing, data is gold. Without meaningful data, digital marketers can’t function, as they need these authentic tests to guide them what is right and wrong.
A/B testing is one of the most used and accurate ways of running tests on prospects and customers, and with Artificial Intelligence and chatbots, this has only become better and accurate. Chatbots let you have high amounts of conversations in a short period, and every communication is considered data.
One example of this is Celebstyle, it is a shopping bot that lets you steal the style of your favorite celebrity. So every time a customer picks up a personality, they are providing some amount of meaningful data.
Source: bots.kik.com
In the coming future, bots will be able to provide more data than we ever thought was possible.
#4. Brand Engagement
Brand engagement is a big part of the marketing industry and something necessary for a successful business.
For years brands have been using email-marketing campaigns to engage with their customers, but now this idea is getting old. People are tired of having their inboxes bombarded with hundreds of emails every day.
Now people are more interested in chatbots, and this is also because it is a new technology and people want to give it a try.
Businesses have reported being receiving a significant amount of engagement through chatbots, take an example of the shopping bot, Madi, they ask customers to take a picture of their face and hair, and then Madi gives them hair color recommendations. It shows the level of brand engagement achieved through Al.
#5. Meaningful Conversations
A common argument is that robots lack the capability of meaningful conversations. But this depends on what meaningful conversation means to you.
If the question is whether a robot can comprehend with a person’s experience, then the answer will be no. But, if you ask if they can do that artificially, then the answer would most likely be yes.
When it comes to creating a meaningful purchasing conversation with a human, robots are fully capable of doing that. They can not only offer product recommendation but can also take advantage of emotional experiences.
Al can do what it has been designed to do so, but this does not mean it cannot reach that level of communication a human can provide.
How personal robots will become in the coming years, that only the future can tell, but with the progress, they are making in creating meaningful conversations we believe it is only going to increase.
#6. Customer Support
Customer support has always been a challenge for businesses. Customers often require help, and for that, it is crucial for a company to have a call center or a chat center. This increases manpower and costs, which can be hard to manage for many business owners.
But, with Al, this problematic process can become manageable. It is because having robots to answer customer queries, saves money and time. Also, most customers expect support centers to be available 24/7, and this is possible with robots as they don’t get tired or require any breaks.
A study showed, in healthcare and banking industries, having robots to answer customer queries, saves up to 4 minutes per customer. Also, a significant number of people prefer to chat instead of talking on the phone, because robots lack in having the human voice, it makes them ideal for chatting.
In the future, Al will become a big part of the customer support industry.
#7. Affordable Costs
The goal of the lead generation is to gain leads without having to spend much money. So far, with advertising and marketing costs, this has not been possible. But, with Artificial Intelligence, this can be made possible in the future.
Al itself is not cheap, the better you want your robot to be the more money you would have to spend on it. But, when chatbots were compared to the conventional lead generation methods, 58% of the businesses declared that Al cuts down cost.
While the idea of Al taking over sounds scary, it might just become possible because it saves money. And smart business owners understand how saving money is the path to earning profits. So, in the future, it is possible that Al might become a go-to business to save cash.
#8. Streamlined Segmentation
Do you know what email segmentation does? It sends messages to each customer based on their location and purchasing history. For example, a low-commitment prospect is sent low-friction emails, whereas a high-commitment customer is sent updates and launch of latest products.
Very soon, we will see this being adapted by Artificial Intelligence. Robots will be learning about customers and then sending them messages in accordance with that information; it might also be a much easier job for bots.
H&M bot has already started doing this on a small level. They ask users about their favorite outfit, and a profile is automatically created for each person, then the robots use this information in showing those customers what appeals them the most.
Source: neilpatel.com
#9. Faster and Better Salesmanship
Can a robot prove to be a better salesperson than humans? It is a question many argue on, but the truth may be surprising. Yes, it is possible for robots to be better at salesmanship than humans. They may lack reading other humans, but they aren’t too bad at it either.
A good salesman is who responds as quickly as possible, and is available for prospects and customers at all times. Humans get busy, take breaks, get tired and cranky, all this effect in their performance, whereas robots are always available and friendly.
Most customers also expect an immediate response from salespersons, an average company takes 10 hours to respond to a prospect’s message, but with bots, onboard customers would be able to get their queries answered in a shorter time.
With Al, it is possible for customers to immediately receive what they have requested, a task which is not even possible to be done by an expert salesman.
#10. Easier Comparison Shopping
Most consumers are always looking for good deals, it’s a part of their shopping plan and it is only fair, as it helps them save money. In the past, to find a good deal, one had to open several tabs on the computer or call different companies, but with AI taking over all that won’t be necessary.
Now we have bots that do all this work for us, we have to tell them what we need, and they give us the best deals possible.
One example of this is 5Gifts4Her; it is a shopping bot that helps users in shopping for gifts by comparing different products and prices. All you have to do is make a list of all the items you are interested in buying, the bot then finds best deals for each item, and even compares local prices based on the user’s location.
It proves that AI is making the shopping experience better than it has ever been, and as the years go by the bots will only get smarter at it.
Source: neilpatel.com
Conclusion
All this proves that Artificial Intelligence is going to be the future of the Lead Generation. So, instead of fearing the idea, we should be relishing it, as this will only help us in making things better.
With the expanding competence and capabilities of AI, services such as list segmentation, prospect data, and customer support, are faster, cheaper, and more easily accessible, which means that now more entrepreneurs can build successful businesses, without risking a lot of money.
These benefits are not just for small businesses, but larger companies will benefit from this as well. As the bots become faster, smarter, and better, we will see how AI leads over the future generation.