Chatbots are growing in popularity as a way for companies to reduce contact center overhead while simultaneously providing customers with quicker responses. Chatbox PR efforts must adapt to cut through the din, as according to a Research and Markets report, the global chatbot market size will grow from $2.9 billion in 2020 to $10.5 billion by 2026, a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23.5 percent.
While the market growth is evident, not all chatbot providers will grow at the same rate, even though many of them have the same pricing, features, etc. Here are a few ways to up your chatbox PR game and drive business development.
Discuss Trends in Real Time:
As mentioned above, chatbots represent a solution that is growing in popularity, so blogs, articles and other content about the technology are constant.
Chatbot PR often means working directly with a corporate executive to write industry articles, like “best practices,” “industry trends,” and other sector analysis pieces.
These articles can be used to improve the company’s rankings for related Google searches, included or “teased” (one sentence with a link) on social media, and leveraged for media relations by being offered to appropriate blogs and publications to fill their content needs. The content not only provides exposure for the PR client, but helps establish the client as an expert in the field, which can generate future interest from more prominent bloggers and reporters when they need a source.
Brands are also encouraged to develop their own mini-webinars, complete with PowerPoint slides for download. The mini-webinars help attract those that would prefer to see or listen to the content, rather than read it.
Focus on Metrics
While breadth and depth of features are wonderful, what truly sells chatbots to the target audience is the business results – or projected results if no hard numbers are available, not the bells and whistles.
What benefits does the solution provide? This is what will impress your PR firm’s prospects – clear with any examples. You can certainly mention the features to satisfy your customer / client, but the best way to do so is to show what benefits different features provide, rather than just listing them.
Even better is to use actual, rather than hypothetical examples.
Customer Testimonials and Case Studies
Third-party endorsements are wonderful. Even a short, one or two sentence endorsement can be used on your website, Facebook and other social media pages, as well as within other promotional material. While some customers may not want to take the time to write an endorsement, a good chatbox PR professional can write a few that they only need to approve for use. When writing such an endorsement for the customer, the PR messaging can’t be too “over the top,” not only is it unlikely to be believed by the target audience, it’s also unlikely to be approved by the customer.
If there is a customer willing to discuss in more detail how his or her organization is benefitting from – not just using – the chatbot, that’s even better. See if he or she will discuss how the solution was chosen, why it was chosen over competitor solutions, metrics and plans for further implementation. Make the case study overview readily available on a website, while the full case study or elements (i.e., end client quotes) can be used with various marketing and sales materials.
The case studies can also be offered to bloggers and publications that may run the material as is, or, more likely, will use it for background for a case study.
Be Responsive to the Press
SEO-optimized chatbot PR efforts like content development and media relations will often push a company’s website up on Google and other searches. Executive spokesperson time is precious, but press opportunities are few and far between. Websites and digital publications run with a minimum of staff, so if a journalist calls looking for information or an interview, make every effort to facilitate it.
A good chatbox PR firm can achieve this by offering a couple of different times within the deadline, or offer to answer questions via email if there isn’t a workable time. If the preferred executive isn’t available, offer an alternative (CIO, marketing exec, etc.), as long as that person can discuss the technology and business case(s) intelligently. Even if not requested, provide additional collateral material (industry or company info, headshot of execs, etc.). It’s easier to have the information ready to go and provide it in advance than to search for it on deadline.
Chatbot PR Efforts?
FischTank PR has worked with innovative chatbot companies to help them stand out from the crowd. Interested in working with us? Shoot an email to [email protected] and we can discuss further.
