Video: The Evolution of Experiences. A Webinar by Ronald Van Loon. Sponsored by Discover.bot

This vast, rapidly growing space has huge potential for brands to engage in.

With Facebook reporting over 1.3 billion users on Messenger and 2.3 billion users across their network, Messenger is now bigger than Facebook itself.

Facebook is the biggest player in chat and with the acquisition of WhatsApp and Instagram, it is reported that the company see it as their future. For companies looking to engage new and existing customers, Messenger looks set become the biggest marketing channel in the next five years.

And it’s just getting started. Messenger alone boasts over 300,000 chatbots which actually translates to a very small percentage of business using Facebook. The challenge appears to be figuring out how to become part of the conversation in a valuable way.

This is something specialist chatbot messenger marketing agency The Creative Robots are making headway with.

Chatbots were initially developed to provide information faster and more accurately than humans in customer service environments, without the logistics and resource cost of an employee. Accuracy and engagement has developed very quickly, with the goal being that it is impossible to tell if you are chatting with a human or a bot.

But Paul Tranter of The Creative Robots says ‘they see bots going in a different direction. We’re intentionally developing bots with their own personalities whilst remaining overtly ai.’

The bots they create have names such as BobBot & DaveBot, the host of their interactive Facebook Messenger quizzes (female bot coming soon!)

Paul says ‘a marketing revolution is underway. The bots we build are designed to engage before making any attempt to sell anything at all, turning users into friends and eventually into customers. Our bots are smart and through conversation, actually spend quality time to learn just what it is that a customer is interested in.’

With campaign open rates currently significantly higher than email, businesses deploying chatbots are using Messenger for purchases, customer service, lead generation, content distribution, market research and more.

The creative Robots have even developed smart scan code bots making packaging interactive. A bot can be fired up from a smart barcode and the conversation continues on the customer’s smart phone.

Further development has seen the launch of the Digital Business Card service. These smart qr codes connect instantly with other smart phone users sending contact details and location directly on their map, send relevant information, video, content and start a conversation anywhere, even from the physical products you’re already selling

Bots engage thousands of people simultaneously, in real-time. Highly individual conversations and interactions happen on a
scale that is literally impossible on a human level. Bots serve contacts a thoroughly personalized content experience while answering the questions they ask most.

As chat becomes the communication medium of choice, it appears that business has to evolve and innovate if they’re going to continue reaching out. Paul says ‘The Creative Robots is ready to help.’