Chatbots have become an integral part of B2C marketing. But when it comes to business-to-business marketing, chatbots are still a rarity.
This is also shown by the 2019 online retailer survey conducted by Swiss Post and the ZHAW under the direction of Darius Zumstein.
In the following article, I will explain use cases for chatbots and digital assistants in B2B marketing and explain why chatbots can also be used effectively in B2B.
1. chatbots for lead generation
If a potential customer is interested in a certain topic and therefore visits your company’s website, a chatbot can find out which specific content could be relevant for them through dialog. The chatbot asks the user 2-3 questions and then knows which topic the user is interested in. The chatbot then provides the website visitor with the appropriate content. This can be an e-book or a link to a landing page, for example. It is important that the user must enter their contact details at some point. For example, if they want to download the e-book. And the chatbot has already generated a lead without the support of a sales employee.
2. chatbots as shopping assistants – around the clock
B2B companies in particular often have customers all over the world. This means that everyone works at different times and it is sometimes difficult, especially for smaller providers, to always have a customer service employee available.
Chatbots help to close this gap.
By connecting to a product information management database (PIM-DB), the chatbot can access extensive information. If a customer is looking for a specific product, the chatbot can replace the cumbersome navigation and confusing search filters and deliver the right results quickly and easily using simple text or voice input. Chatbots are already widely used in B2C e-commerce, so why not in B2B too? A chatbot makes particular sense when B2B companies offer a broad and highly differentiated product portfolio.
3. everyone is used to chatbots
Chatbots in B2C are no longer a rarity. Users are used to getting an answer to their question in real time. However, these customer expectations are now automatically transferred to B2B companies. If a user receives an immediate response for private use, then they also want this for professional use. Users expect an immediate response, at least for simple queries, and chatbots can provide this quickly and easily.
These three points explain above all why chatbots should be used in the B2B environment between companies and customers.
However, there are also many reasons and opportunities to use chatbots in the company. Here is some food for thought:
– Chatbots for onboarding new employees
– Chatbots for frequent employee queries (focus on HR topics)
– Chatbots as digital assistants for employees, for example for time tracking
– Chatbots for internal training (knowledge transfer via chatbots)
– and much more.
You can find more ideas for chatbots in B2B marketing here:
- 3 possible uses for chatbots in B2B
- SURVEY: WHEN ARE THE B2B CHATBOTS COMING?
- The three important questions for implementing chatbots in B2B
If this article has made you curious to find out more, please send me an e-mail and we can arrange a non-binding telephone call.
