Are AI Chatbots the Secret to Generating Smarter Leads?

One of the biggest trends in website development is increasing levels of interactivity. Users don’t just want to read content anymore; they want to be engaged through quizzes that generate personalized recommendations, the chance to test out SaaS platforms and real-time customer assistance. While chatbots have been available to web designers for several years, it is becoming increasingly popular for websites to use chatbots for lead qualification. Implementing a chatbot on your website can improve your SEO and make a significant contribution to your lead-qualification efforts.

Related: What Is a Chatbot? Here’s Everything To Know

What are AI chatbots?

AI chatbots are software applications that simulate human conversation. While they are not new, they are becoming increasingly popular as their capabilities and applications are increased. When they are implemented on a website, chatbots can offer guides, provide discounts and answer questions, catching users’ attention and encouraging potential customers to convert faster than they would otherwise. Some examples of popular AI chatbots on commercial websites include Intercom and Tidio. Using AI chatbots also reduces the number of staff you need working at once and can allow you to create answers once for repeatedly asked questions, rather than needing to provide live support to every user asking the same questions.

The benefits of using AI chatbots to drive leads

There are many benefits of using chatbots on your business’s website. Using chatbots improves UX because it allows users to ask questions in a conversational form, rather than using a traditional search bar or hunting through your website. Chatbots boost dwell time by increasing the amount of time users are likely to spend on your page. When customers begin interacting with a chatbot, they are more likely to finish the interaction rather than click away to another page immediately. This not only increases the chances of conversion; it also signals to search engines that your page is engaging users and providing a high-quality user experience. These are significant ranking factors for many search engines and can contribute to your SEO success.

Chatbots that provide accurate, personalized information build customer trust and loyalty immediately, increasing leads and improving customer retention. Chatbots can also be programmed to ask routine questions to establish the level of interest a customer has, determine their budget, the services they are interested in and even gather their contact information and prompt them to schedule a sales or discovery call. By qualifying leads, chatbots can help you increase conversions and eliminate irrelevant leads that would otherwise waste your employees’ time and resources.

Strategies for using AI chatbots

Here are three strategies to implement if you’re starting to use AI chatbots on your business’s website.

Choose high-value pages

It may not be useful (or relevant) to have a chatbot on every page of your website. It’s important to choose high-value pages to feature chatbots in order to maximize lead generation. In fact, it can be overwhelming for users to have chatbot pop-ups on every page. Choose pages that are significant in the buyer’s journey and likely to encourage conversions. This may include your homepage, FAQ or contact us pages, and pricing or product pages.

Use chatbot transcripts to inform SEO

It can be helpful to regularly review transcripts of user interactions with your chatbot. This can help you identify content gaps and long-tail keywords. Using these opportunities in your SEO strategy can help you create content that is relevant to your target audience and therefore more likely to be featured in rich snippets, AI overviews, AI search engines and SERPs.

Automating lead qualification

What makes a lead relevant to your business? Once you’ve answered this question, you’re well on your way to using a chatbot to help you qualify leads. Chatbots can collect contact information, determine people’s interest, budget, industry or any other relevant information. This can help your team prioritize leads and streamline the lead generation process.

Related: How to Generate Leads in 2024 When Traditional Methods No Longer Work

Performance metrics to monitor

It’s crucial that you monitor how your chatbots are performing. Many companies implement chatbots on their website, but aren’t sure how to tell whether they are contributing to their SEO and lead generation. The following metrics can help you determine whether the chatbot you’ve chosen to use is contributing to your growth.

User engagement

What percentage of users are actually interacting with your chatbots? If the percentage is low, there may be an issue with the message that pops up initially, or you may need to consider which pages you are targeting. Once you’ve evaluated user engagement, it can also be helpful to look at chat handoff and user retention to assess the effectiveness of the initial engagement.

Session time and bounce rate

Evaluate the amount of time that users spend interacting with your chatbot and on pages that feature chatbots. This can help you determine whether they are effectively capturing users’ attention and providing answers to their questions. If chatbots are not significantly decreasing bounce rate, you may need to reevaluate your strategy.

Lead volume

Monitoring lead volume can help you determine whether you are getting the most out of your SEO efforts, including your website and any chatbots you implement. However, this metric will be the most helpful if you pay attention to where leads are coming from. This will allow you to determine whether a chatbot on your website is actually generating new leads, and whether those leads are relevant.

Related: If You’re Not Using Chatbots, You’re Failing Your Customers

Final thoughts

If you are not already using a chatbot on your website, you may be missing out on potential SEO and lead-generation opportunities. By identifying high-value pages and carefully monitoring performance, your business can use AI chatbots to maximize your customer service resources and build customer loyalty. Keep your website on the cutting edge of AI development with strategic use of AI chatbots.