Why Chatbots are the Future of Mobile Marketing

With more than 87% of millennials having their smartphones by their side throughout the entire day and checking it more than 150 times a day, it is not surprising how marketers are expecting Mobile to be the next frontier and platform to explore.

What are Micro-Moments? Micro-moments are moments where we turn to a device – usually a smartphone, to find out information or take action on wants and needs at that particular moment. Google classifies them into 4 categories: I-want-to-know, I-want-to-go, I-want-to-buy, and I-want-to-do. 

Google has a great article on how you can place your company in these 4 critical categories to increase conversion. Automated targeting through Artificial Intelligence, is also another way you can leverage on micro-moments.

The concept of AI, where machines, computers or programs can think, learn, or behave without human guidance, has been around since 1956. Now, with AIM (Artificial Intelligence Marketing), you can sell to your customers using machine learning, geotagging, and algorithms based on their needs and wants from their purchasing or browsing habits.

Why are Chatbots the future of mobile marketing? Chatbots at its core, are customer service representatives of the company and serve as support systems for marketers. The rise of bots among agencies, can be attributed to the increase in use of messenger applications such as Telegram, Whatsapp and Facebook Messenger as these bots can be integrated into existing messengers, which is a much cheaper alternative than creating a separate application.

The rate of adoption of bots is also thus higher as customers do not need to download a separate application and can easily communicate with their favourite brands through the chatbot on their favourite messenger.

Facebook Messenger, is currently the top choice for businesses for bot development as it is also integrated with the Facebook for Business page and the Facebook mobile application. Here are 6 reasons why Chatbots are the Future of Mobile Marketing.

1. Chatbots are Mobile-Friendly

With developers using the Mobile-first approach, Chatbots is a mobile-ready application that is always available for automated interactions with people in real time. In addition, with the ability to reply in real-time, on the go, Chatbots are able to capture micro-moments.

2. Cross-applications

Chatbots can be easily integrated into various applciations such as Telegram, Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger and even Grab, Zalora, Qoo10 and more as a customer service support system.

3. Single Voice & 24/7

Chatbots help brands curate a single voice and personality with all their responses providing a unified front and character. In addition, customers can approach these chatbots at any time of the day, as they do not require a human staff for the interaction.

4. Big Data & Machine Learning – Predictive Tech

Chatbots can analyze big data, extract information and learn from it. Basically, it uses probability and patterns to make predictions based on information available, and then uses feedback loops to check if the prediction was right or wrong. The system gets smarter and improves its accuracy as it learns from its previous predictions.

5. Personalisation

Chatbots provide curated information personalized to the customer, instead of a unified response to a question. Chatbots can adapt and provide personalized marketing messages and product recommendations through AI.

6. Cheap to Produce

Chatbots are relatively simple and cheaper to produce as compared to a dedicated mobile application. Generally, it takes 75% less time the time to build than a mobile application. Chatbots also require minimum maintenance as it learns from user behavior.

Bus Uncle Chatbot

Bus Uncle Chatbot is a Chatbot developer based in Singapore. Chatbots are programs made to mimic human intelligence. Their pioneer product: The Facebook chatbot Bus Uncle that promises to provide the best commute experience through remembering your favourite buses, to teaching you how to get home when you're feeling lazy. 

Its really interesting to see a chatbot with a uniquely Singaporean Uncle personality. As a millennial myself, chatbots like these speak to my heart more than the typical "professional" chatbots. In addition, Bus Uncle is available on Telegram as well, a popular messenger among the millennials in Singapore today.

Bus Uncle integrates dynamic data sources and target branded content intelligently through geography, waiting times, jokes, and sentiments. In addition, if you talk to Bus Uncle regarding a post he posted on his Facebook Page, the chatbot Uncle will continue these conversations.

Chatbots are only one of many possible applications of AI marketing. We have yet to cover AI generated content, smart content creation, voice search, lead scoring, ad targeting, dynamic pricing, app personalization, re-targeting, marketing automation etcetera! Thus, it is not surprising how 80% of B2B marketing executives predict that AI will revolutionize the mobile industry by 2020.