Chatbot Message Strategy that Converts with Mark Bryson
Overview: Mark Bryson, chatbot expert, goes over best practices with chatbot CTAs (opening messages) in this episode of Digital Conversations with Billy Bateman. They discuss best practices to maximize conversion.
Guest: Mark Bryson, Consulting Manager at ChatFunnels, is a chatbot and conversational marketing optimization expert who helps clients build, optimize, and use chatbots on a daily basis.
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Transcript
Intro
Billy Bateman: All right, everyone. Welcome to Digital Conversations. I’m your host, Billy Bateman. And today I am joined once again by Mark Bryson. Mark, how you doing, man?
Mark Bryson: Doing good. How are you today?
Billy Bateman: I’m doing good. I’m glad to have you back on.
So, today we’re going to talk about how to write great CTAs for live chat for chatbots for sales and marketing, to get people engaged, and you and your team do a lot of work with that. But for those, those people that don’t know who you are and what you do, like just tell us a little bit.
Mark’s Background
Mark Bryson: Yeah, like you said, my name is Mark, and I run the consulting team here at ChatFunnels. So that means I help people, our clients, implement chatbots to help them achieve some of their sales and marketing goals.
We engage their site visitors and help convert them into conversations eventually leading to demos, meetings, and other engagement goals.
Billy Bateman Cool. You guys do a great job.
CTAs: First Messages in Chatbots
Like I said, we’re going to talk about CTAs. How do you write a good CTA for a chatbot to get people engaged? So, I’m just going to turn it over to you to let you talk about what’s the team’s general philosophy when it comes to writing good CTAs?
Best Practices 1: Humanize the Bot
Mark Bryson Yeah, thanks. So, we want to make them as human as possible is the first thing. The old school way of building a bot was without much thought into making it an enjoyable experience for people and people made a very robotic. We want people to feel connected to it. And similar to they do when you’re chatting with the person over text on your phone or other application.
Best Practices 2: Match Brand Tone
We also like to match the CTA to the messaging and tone of the site, using similar acronyms, similar technical verbiage. Maybe they’re more slang, maybe they’re more professional, trying to be in sync with the other language that the marketing team is using.
Billy Bateman Yeah, no, I agree. Like matching it up. We’ve seen a lot of a lot of success doing that, as opposed to like, just trying to like copy and paste from one customer to the next. It doesn’t work that well.
How Aggressive Should you be?
But let me let me ask you another question. So, one of the debates that I’ve seen a lot of customers have is, okay, do we go like straight for the throat with our CTA? Or are we do we take a more subtle approach?
And when I say straight to the straight to the throat, it’s like, hey, book, the demo right now like that kind of CTA, or chat with us right now? Or is it more along the lines of being helpful and contextual to where they are on the website? Or where they are in their customer journey? What have you guys seen have the most success?
Determine Intent
Mark Bryson I think it depends on who they are. Who is this bot? What are the audience parameters of this bot? Who is going to see this? And depending on both the page that the bot is firing on and all and who is viewing it depends on what kind of approach you’re going to take.
So, somebody who’s already expressed some intent, typically, yeah, go for the throw, so to speak, because they want that bot to help them book that demo as fast as possible to get that quote, for the on the pricing page, as painlessly as possible.
Lower Intent
So go for it. Something on like a blog page, you’re going to as maybe kind of be a little softer, and just help be more of a guide and, and not as pushy.
Billy Bateman Great, great, man. So, let’s start with a few different areas, like you were alluding to the first time they’re on the site, maybe a little softer, they’ve already shown some intent, let’s be a little more aggressive.
Homepage Bots
So let’s start with the homepage. , like, when you’re on the homepage, and let’s just say this is for like, first time somebody comes to the site, what kind of CTAs work what kind of offers to get people to engage?
Mark Bryson Yeah, I mean, the homepage is the is the kind of the battlefield of like, anything can potentially go on the homepage, right? You’ve got, you’ve got your widest audience, like we don’t know who’s going to be there usually. And, and so I just want to run through a couple of different kind of high-level types of CTAs that we could use.
CTA Type 1: Statistic
The first one is a statistic CTA. So, you’re usually bragging about some kind of awesome performance that your software service brings prospective client, 100% increase in whatever or decrease in whatever it is that you’re offering. So that’s what a statistic does.
It’s very catchy. People love numbers, they gravitate to them. And they, they tell a story without using a lot of words. That’s why I like statistics. The value adds CTA. That’s something that you could show how your how you tell a story of why using your product or service is going to add value to that potential customer.
CTA Type 2: Pain Point Alleviation
pain point alleviation is another type of CTA, they’re here for a reason, probably to solve. They’re there, they’re having some kind of problem. And if what that problem is, generally, you can hit it right on the head and say, are you struggling with archiving your emails? then click here and talk with an expert. And, and if that’s the type of visitor coming, then that’s going to speak right to them when they’re going to be all about it.
CTA Type 3: Navigation
Another type is a navigation type of CTA, where we can say talk with an expert. Or perhaps some companies, especially software companies seem to acquire a lot of different smaller companies. Their website becomes really complicated to work through. And somebody’s first time on that homepage is like, Oh, no, I was on G two, and I want to learn about software security, but this company, has it done all kinds of stuff, how am I ever going to even get to the software security part.
The bot might just help you act as a navigator and say, Hey, let me get let me get you where you want to be. Why are you here? Let me let me direct you. And that seems to be the most common one, at least people start with is kind of the here, let me let me help you out and solve all of your problems.
How can I help you?
Yeah, that’s true. It’s I think it’s also the hardest to pull off. It’s been my experience to do really well. Because man, if you’re kind of just like, hey, how can I help you? You may have three options, like book a sales meeting, chat with support, get some content. That may not be what they would the visitor wants, and they may just be like, how do I get connected to somebody the fastest. But if you do it well, I think it’s a great, it’s a great play.
Conversation Review: Look over conversations
Mark Bryson I agree with your assessment there. And I think it’s important to do conversation review of the CTA after you’ve decided on an approach, especially on that type of the CTA and see what people are saying afterwards. And depending on what people are actually wanting, maybe craft your CTA button answers or responses to, to match what people’s intent?
Billy Bateman Yeah, I think it’s a great spot on especially on the homepage to run split test and how your CTA do so or perform. Alright, man, so I sorry to interrupt, I think you had a few more, so I’ll let you hit him.
CTA Type 4: Pain Point + Value Add
Mark Bryson: The last one I was going to talk about is a combination, which is the pain point plus value add. This is one of my personal favorites.
So, it does go something like this, are you trying to achieve x without having to go through y? Okay, and you put, x, y, or whatever you’re going to put in there that’s relevant to your business. And that really connects with a lot of people if you put the right terms in there.
Pricing Page Strategy
Billy Bateman Awesome, man, that that’s a good one. So, moving away from the homepage. There are a few different places where you guys have seen a lot of success implementing different bots and live chat campaigns. One of them being on pricing pages. Obviously, like, if you’re looking at the pricing page, a week, at least a little higher intent on buying then than just being on the homepage. So, what do you guys use there that you’ve seen a lot of success?
Pricing Page: Higher Intent
That’s right. And, of course, it depends on the pricing page, what kind of information is there and what isn’t? But, like you said, people have gone past there. They’ve, they’re past the discovery phase, and they’re into the consideration phase. And typically, they want to get someone to help them as fast as possible. If especially if the pricing isn’t exactly clear. They don’t clearly fit into like a category. Or sometimes businesses purposely withhold some of that information to try and do custom packages.
Yep. And so, you could actually do a CTA in the form of a button. Sometimes something as simple as a button that says, like, get a quote, and they click on that button and that fires a bot. You can do something like that.
Finding Information
Or you can have a bot that, just gets right to the point and says Hey, let’s, let’s connect you, with an expert to find the right package for you. Like, people are there for a reason they’re ready to potentially buy, and they want someone that can be everyone knows that can be a painful process sometimes. And have an escape hatch to, like, get it done faster.
For sure. Like, personally, when I’m buying, I hate it when I go to the site, and the pricing is not there. Like, it’s like, Hey, you got to talk to somebody. And I would like to just see that, like, Hey, here’s the price. But if I can get connected to somebody quickly, I’m still okay with that process. But if I can’t, I’m just moving on. And I think you’re right, the bot is an easy escape hatch to help somebody get connected really quickly and get answers.
Example
Mark Bryson And that’s a good point. In fact, we have a real-world example. There was just a week or two ago, we were helping a client, and somebody came to their to their bot and they said, hey into the bot and started chatting with it. I’ve got $75,000 and I need to have a solution in two hours. Like, what can we what can we do? And people view the bot to get answers quickly. And if your CTA, advertises that, like, hey, let’s get you taken care of, and then follow through by routing in somebody quick, or actually helping somebody out fast. Clients can see great results.
Product Page
Billy Bateman Awesome, man. Okay, so I want to hit a few other places. So, the other one is just like on a product page, like not as high intent as a pricing page, but like, they’re looking at your product, they’re, they’re starting to get into that consideration page. What kind of offers work really well, on those type of pages?
Mark Bryson On a product page, something like, how can I help you learn more? Sometimes those might be those might fire depending on how far they’ve scrolled down, like a percentage of the page. And you have a CTA that, understands, okay, they’re on this product page they’ve read this far.
Product Page CTAs
And so, you want to maybe use one of those, value add CTAs, or pain points where what they’ve read, and now you can craft a CTA that addresses that to that point. And invites them to maybe take, take the next step, or to redirect them to give them the opportunity to redirect to the right product for them if that wasn’t it.
Demo Request Page
Awesome. I like it. And then what about that demo request page? Because I think that’s right up there with the pricing. Like maybe it depends on how your website’s laid out, it may be higher intent. Then looking at pricing that may be about the same, or a little lower, but still, like, you’re right there. If you’re saying, okay, I want to see the demo. What are you guys doing on those on those pages to help people get more demo scheduled?
Mark Bryson Yeah, traditionally, a lot of people in those pages have some kind of a form where they’ve been capturing information. Inviting people to, hey, we’ll get back with you and schedule a demo. So, the bot is a great way to say, hey, do you want to skip the form? Or do you want to schedule a demo now.
And that way, people feel more control. They’re going to be able to pick the time that they’re going to be able to initiate this demo. And do it in a way that is interactive. That gives them a way to kind of control the conversation.
Forms vs. Bots
People don’t have a lot of faith in forms sometimes because they don’t know when they’re going to get back in touch with them. Whereas the bot, is a way to. And if you have the right CTA, Hey, want to book a meeting now with us, like, that you’re going to be able to count on a time and place and who it’s going to be with? And that’s a much more pleasant experience.
Billy Bateman Yeah, I agree. I’ve filled out the forms, it goes into the black box. I’m wondering, will they get back to me? Most of the time people do but sometimes you just never hear back for whatever reason. like maybe I wasn’t qualified. Maybe it just got lost.
But I feel like the bot, you get some finalities you’re like, Okay, here’s what’s going to, I know. something’s going to happen at this point, usually.
Blog Pages Strategy
So Oh, and then the last spot, and this is one that I really like, for more top of funnel, but it’s a great place to start engaging people. And then you can use the information here to retarget them and engage them in a more personalized way. is just somebody on your blog, reading different articles. What do you guys find? Is having success there?
Mark Bryson Yeah, the blog is a great place, and it’s usually a pretty generic type of body. People who are still on those that discovery page. And again, we like to use different audience parameters like scroll percentages time on page. and then we craft our CTA accordingly.
And it could be something generic such as. did this have what you were looking for? If it was like a white paper? Or is there a different topic that interests you more that I can direct you to? If they’ve got like, 80%? down the page, right? Yeah. So, something like that, so that we can continue to keep them engaged, keep them reading our content.
End-of-bot CTAs
And then maybe eventually, a lot of times, at the end of these bots, I know we’re talking about CTAs. But at the end of these bots, there can be a different CTA at the end. It’s kind of your end of bot CTA, which is, I’m ready to book a demo.
Now, maybe or I’m ready for some of these just buttons that are at the end of the bot flow that act as a CTA to reengage when the person’s ready. And oftentimes, maybe after reading your blog for a while, now they’re ready, where they weren’t, while they weren’t before.
Personas
Billy Bateman For sure, man. another one, that that I really love is asking them what their role is. you usually have a few different personas that that you sell into, or and are part of your buying cycle.
And asking them, like, are you this that? or that, A, B or C and then recommending con other additional content based on that. I think is a great way to also engage people when they’re on their blog. So, oh, hey, man. I think we’ve had everything that we wanted to cover. Is there anything we missed?
Mark Bryson I don’t think so. I think we put a pretty thorough vetting of the CTA world and when it comes to chatbots and again, with CTAs you’ve got to watch a conversation review and see how people react to it and then you’ve got to test them because we can you and I really can talk all day long about what we think is great. And if we’re not testing it and reviewing it, we know who really knows.
Wrap-up
Billy Bateman Oh yeah, man. Well, if people want to get in contact with you, Mark and talk more CTA for bots, what’s the best way for them to reach out?
Mark Bryson Definitely, email me or visit the ChatFunnels website and you can find me there. strike up a conversation with a bot. Mark.Bryce@chatfunnels.com is my email address.
Billy Bateman Okay, man. Well, we’ll chat later, Mark. Thank you. Alright, thanks.