Chatbots are powerful tools for engaging with your website visitors, leads, and customers. They can help you provide instant answers, personalized recommendations, and seamless transactions. But how do you write chatbot copy that drives conversions? Here are some tips to help you craft effective and compelling chatbot messages that persuade your audience to take action.
Before you write any chatbot copy, you need to have a clear goal and a deep understanding of your audience. What do you want your chatbot to achieve? Is it to generate leads, book appointments, sell products, or something else? And who are you talking to? What are their pain points, needs, preferences, and objections? How do they communicate and what tone do they respond to? By defining your goal and audience, you can tailor your chatbot copy to match their expectations and motivations.
You're not going to get great copy from CGPT or any current publicly accessible LLMs. However, you can use it as a tool, similar to spell check, Grammarly, and other software solutions. You can enhance your copy by: -Using CGPT to gather relevant data points, facts, background info, etc. (always double check!) -Running sentences through CGPT to rephrase them -As a thesaurus/dictionary -Bounce ideas off of CGPT, like "How do I more effectively target men ages 15-35 when selling PC parts. This comes into play if you're not familiar with an audience. TL;DR: You can't use CGPT to write truly great copy. You can use it as a tool to enhance your own abilities.
My experience with several chatboxes has been poor. Crafting effective and persuasive chatbot messages involves understanding your audience, using clear and concise language for responses, personalization (using the user's name or referring to their specific needs or past interactions), segmentation, active voice, empathy (acknowledging users' concerns or problems), providing value, creating urgency, highlighting benefits, A/B testing (test different message variations to check effectiveness in persuading users), visuals, social proof, clear CTAs (call to action), and more. Continuous improvement, context relevance, storytelling with images (GIFs, or emojis) , and follow-ups are key elements to engage and persuade users effectively.
One of the key benefits of chatbots is that they can create a natural and interactive dialogue with your audience. To do that, you need to use conversational and human language that sounds friendly, helpful, and authentic. Avoid using jargon, technical terms, or formal expressions that might confuse or alienate your audience. Instead, use simple, clear, and engaging words that reflect your brand voice and personality. And don't forget to use emojis, gifs, or images to add some emotion and humor to your chatbot copy.
Questions are essential for chatbot copy because they invite your audience to participate in the conversation and reveal their interests, needs, and goals. But not all questions are created equal. You want to avoid asking yes/no or closed-ended questions that might end the conversation too soon or limit your audience's options. Instead, ask open-ended and relevant questions that encourage your audience to share more information, express their opinions, or explore your offers. For example, instead of asking "Do you want to buy our product?" you can ask "What are you looking for today?" or "How can we help you achieve your goal?"
People like to be heard; give them that chance. It's a matter of efficiency. However, it's also an opportunity to gain greater insights and more specifics about the audience's pain points and goals. You can tell which chatbots/LLMs have been developed with this in mind. If you feel like you're taking a survey, it's likely the result of a failure in this area. I can't tell you how many times I have had to respond to a yes/no question from a chatbot, only to feel like I had to compromise my goal just to get a response. Instead of saying, "Yes, but...", or, "Yes, with the caveat...", my "yes" answer is all that is recorded, leaving any nuance in my scenario undiscovered.
While questions are important for chatbot copy, so are answers. You don't want to leave your audience hanging or frustrated with vague or incomplete responses. You want to provide clear and concise answers that address their queries, solve their problems, or guide them to the next step. Avoid using long or complex sentences that might overwhelm or bore your audience. Instead, use short and simple sentences that deliver the most relevant and valuable information. And don't forget to use buttons, links, or menus to offer more options or actions for your audience.
One of the most effective ways to write chatbot copy that drives conversions is to create a sense of urgency and scarcity. This means that you need to make your audience feel that they need to act fast or they might miss out on a great opportunity or deal. You can do this by using words or phrases that imply limited time, availability, or quantity. For example, you can say "This offer expires in 24 hours" or "Only 3 spots left" or "Don't miss this chance". By creating a sense of urgency and scarcity, you can motivate your audience to take action and avoid procrastination.
Finally, you need to test and optimize your chatbot copy to make sure that it works well and achieves your goal. You can use tools like Google Analytics, Chatbot Analytics, or Chatfuel to measure and analyze your chatbot performance and user behavior. You can also use A/B testing, surveys, or feedback to compare and improve different versions of your chatbot copy. By testing and optimizing your chatbot copy, you can identify what works best and what needs to be changed or improved.
Test, test test. Plus, surveys! User-generated feedback is some of the hardest to get, but when you do, it's going to be extremely helpful as you optimize your chatbot copy. At the end of the chatbot conversation, before saying goodbye, ask them to fill out a quick "2 question" or "20-second" survey. This creates a few things: - An easy way to show customers their input matters - It tells customers how long they'll spend on the survey, something many people don't or won't do anyway. This could get them to participate.
Some people, myself included, are not fans of chatbots. I admit there are many valuable uses for them, though they can sometimes be more harmful than helpful. When you write your chatbot responses, you should know that others feel the same. It's integral to include content that apologizes to visitors and enables them to connect with live associates. This doesn't mean that an associate needs to be available immediately, but that you provide a way for the user to connect. Depending on the reason for the engagement, the person using the chatbot might already be frustrated. Don't make their frustration worse. Make the process easier and make the user feel appreciated. In doing so, you might make this person into a customer.