Connecting with Consumers in the New Digital Era
For better or worse, our society is hooked on digital content. The outlets people previously turned to for content–newspapers, TV and radio–are going digital to join an endless stream, with stories, music, ads, videos, and everything else on the web. However, this content only garners our attention for a few fleeting seconds, before we move on.
These conditions spell bad news for all sorts of content providers, but the hardest hit may be advertisers. It takes time for a message to be absorbed, and time is the one thing modern users won’t–or can’t–provide. There’s just too much out there to see and hear everything being thrown at us. According to one now infamous study, smartphones have so meddled with our attention spans that goldfish can sustain their interest in something longer than the average human.
To connect with their audience, advertisers (or anyone else who wants to connect to an audience) are going to have to up their game. The most promising way to do that is via chatbots–the technology that provides opportunities for one-on-one conversations with users on messaging and social media platforms. Over the past few months, well-known brands have expanded their vistas using chatbots to take their personalized services to the next level.
An important advantage of chatbots is their ability to grab consumers’ attention. Chatbots interact with users using the same platform that they prefer to use to interact with each other: messaging apps. By taking advantage of these apps, brands can increase their reach and improve their interactions with consumers. It’s like a second chance for a brand. With a chatbot, consumers can get to know a company’s offerings in a way that might not have been possible via traditional advertising or marketing channels.
Of course, like anything else, chatbots can be abused. In order to ensure chatbots’ effectiveness, advertisers and marketers need to use their chat powers wisely. An effective way to do that is to build a relationship with a consumer in the same way one would build one with an acquaintance or a friend. That means building a responsive chatbot that is helpful, makes positive and useful suggestions, is there when needed, and knows when to lay off.
With a strategy like this, consumers will begin to look at chatbots as their useful and trusted personal advisors. By providing value to their customers, chatbots will turn into a big win for brands, as customers happily pursue relationships with them. Chatbots are going to make improvements not only for consumers, but also to the marketers and advertisers who tap into their capabilities.
