How to Combine Conversational AI with Direct Response Marketing
If you have a large volume of leads or traffic, but you’re not getting the conversions you want, a conversational AI agent or chatbot is a great way to gain more understanding. However, just having an AI / FAQ bot trained on your company data is not the same as using marketing and persuasion principles to qualify and lead the person toward your offer.
In this article, I aim to help you understand and combine direct response marketing with conversational AI to draw sales-qualified leads into your business.
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AI works best with subject matter experts to train and manage it.
Take, for example, you ask AI (ChatGPT):
“Help me write 500 words of copy to sell a coaching program. ”
OR…
You can ask AI:
“Can you channel the mind of David Ogilvy and write a lead of a VSL, using the private journal entry of a 45-year-old black woman in Atlanta who was recently divorced and searching for a health coach to slim up her thighs.”
See the difference?
Understanding direct response principles of sales letters.
Understanding the need to target the psychographics of the ideal avatar
Understanding prompt engineering to give AI an identity before giving in a prompt and command.
Those with the most experience in AI, chatbots, AND marketing are most capable of getting good results. So as we talk about marketing and conversational AI, let's steer our strategy with some core principles.
Why Care About Chatbot/ Conversational AI?
But before we get into the details, let me share why conversational ai bots in the first place.
A few weeks ago I referenced a story about a Customer Support Chatbot that Replaced 700 Full-Time Employees and added $40 million in profit.
Was that not a compelling enough reason to understand the power of AI chatbots?
Note: In this article, I do interchange the terms: “chatbots” and “conversational ai” and even, “sales AI agents.” They are pretty much the same underlying technology.
AND…
Another interchangeable part of my language and strategy is the channel through which your conversational AI can be used.
The most common channels are:
On websites (ai bots)
Email and SMS (ai bots)
Social media DMs like WhatsApp, FB, and IG.
Got it? Cool.
Now there is a wide range of products that offer AI-powered chat and conversations. You can do your own research to find the tool that works best and in the right channels for your purposes. My goal is to help you align and combine DRM principles with AI chat capabilities.
Direct Response Marketing (DRM) Principles
The DRM principles I’ll reference are… Headlines, Tracking, Testing, Timing, and Levels of Awareness. Yes, there are more principles but these are all I’ll reference today.
Based on the features and capabilities of the AI-agent/chatbot solution, we’ll apply DRM principles to influence our strategy and development.
(Below the article is a chart and video deep dive for paid subscribers.)
Now if your conversational AI is a web chatbot, I want to start off addressing two major common wrong ways to start.
The Big Problem with Today’s Website Chatbots
In my opinion, most chatbots start the wrong way.
There’s no guiding framework, strategy, or marketing principle in the initial message.
They either do nothing to get attention or they start with something like "How can I help you?" Maybe there’s a limitation with the chatbot software?
As a marketer, what if we reference a Russell Brunson framework: "Hook, Story, Offer." Ignoring the story and offer part, let’s just make our initial message a compelling hook that would get 10x better results.
Let’s look at some typical chatbot call-outs
If my goal is booking sales calls or qualified lead generation, I want a call out that’s a captivating hook that draws someone in and if possible prequalifies them in some significant way.
Why chit-chat or just shoot the breeze?
To make the most of everyone's time, think about how we can disqualify them immediately.
ie, What if it said, "Can I tempt you with a 20% off coupon for today only?”
Those who are in a buying mode would relish the change to save 20%.
This happens all the time with pop-ups in e-commerce, but I rarely see it in conversational AI.
Or if we had a database of leads and used voice, email, or SMS and our hook could be: "Are you still shopping for health insurance?"
That one question clearly lets us know if we need to continue further or not.
This is the mindset of direct response marketing, right?
These AI hooks are like headlines that we can test and split test.
Qualify, track, and only proceed if necessary.
Before we build out more intelligence, messaging, or prompts, it would be super valuable to test and split-test these initial callout. Just the initial message.
Note: IF your can system can detect cold or returning visitors, this will be a big factor in choosing your initial hook. The stage of the customer journey influences what would be the most appropriate hook. So again, your choice of AI platform will direct the complexity of your strategy.
The second big issue I see in website chatbots is gating the conversation.
I understand you want to capture a lead’s info, but imagine you were at a tradeshow… A man walks up to learn about your company, but you refuse to talk with him until you scan his badge or have them fill out a form.
Some will be willing, but not everyone. I’d rather start with a “hook/qualifier”, and then follow up with an irresistible relevant offer in exchange for their data.
Just having a name and email without context or qualification is a weak lead.
Data is cheap. Intent is fire.
Those are the two biggest issues that are very common.
But to finish off the full strategy of combining direct response with AI, look at this chat and video:
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