AI Chatbots and Conversion Flows for Funnels
If you ever walk into a store, you will likely be faced with a clerk who says, “Welcome, how can I help you today?”. That person would also help you find what you are searching for, provide you with some info, show you where it is, help you at the checkout counter, and assist you in any way they can to help you make a purchase.
Now, open up your landing page. Most likely, the content you have there is all the help that someone can get without writing a support email, which could take a while to get a response. This is where AI chatbots can be a great option. They can help your customer and guide them to make a purchase. They work 24/7 and are always helpful and friendly. With proper integration, they can guide your visitors through the sales funnel and help make more conversions over time!
What are Funnels and Chatbots?
You already probably know this, but funnels are a simple term for the journey a customer takes from the content they see to completing a goal like converting.
- Top of the Funnel (Awareness)
These are all of the people who visit your homepage or ad. This is the first interaction between them and your content.
- Middle of the Funnel (Consideration)
This is when your user starts clicking around, looking at products, getting informed on what they do and how they can help them, and getting more interested in what you have to offer.
- Bottom of the Funnel (Decision)
This is the last step, like the “checkout” or “sign up” page. Only a small percentage of your initial users will reach this step, and the better the funnel, the more people will get to this part!
AI chatbots, on the other hand, are huge machine learning language models that try and understand what someone says and give them answers based on their query and their knowledge about a topic. The ones we all heard of are ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok, and others.
Since they are not just simple predefined scripts, they can understand what the customer is having issues with and explain it to them, and interact with them like a salesperson would.
Combining Chatbots with Each Funnel Stage
Chatbots can do a lot more than simple talking; they can help you drive specific actions by interacting with your audience in specific ways.
Top of the Funnel
The goal here is to engage and be direct; this can prevent the “quick bounce” of visitors.
- Proactive, Contextual Engagement
Instead of a generic “Can I help you?”, the bot can trigger based on the page the user is on. Let’s say they are on a blog post about email marketing, it could ask, “Want to see how you can automate this completely?”. This is way more actionable and relevant and pushes your product or service right away.
- Lead Qualification
Not all customers are the right ones, and the right bot can help you filter them out and point them to the correct offers. You can optimize things by asking qualifying questions to segment leads before they even talk to a human.
- Content Navigation
Finding the right product on a big site can be difficult and time-consuming. The AI bot can act like a guide, ask the visitor what they are interested in, and point them to the products, articles, or whatever else you choose to keep them engaged.
Middle of the Funnel
At this stage, users often have questions and objections. The AI bot can help provide answers and build momentum.
- Instant FAQ
If the user has questions, they can ask the bot and get an instant response, without having to read though a lengthy FAQ. Since its also aware of context, it can sometimes give responses even if they arent exactly like the FAQ questions based on what it knows about the product or service you promote.
- Automated Demo & Appointment Scheduling
Depending on what you are promoting, the chatbot can introduce the users to a small demo or arrange an appointment with a sales rep if it's needed on the spot.
- Lead Nuturing
The chatbot can offer valuable content in exchange for an email address. This can keep the user engaged, interested, and give you more of their data you can use to re-target them later. An example of this could be “I see you are reading about SEO, would you like our free ebook on the ‘Top 10 SEO Mistakes to Avoid’?”
Bottom of the Funnel
The user is close to converting, and the bot’s task is to eliminate any friction.
- Abandoned Cart Recovery
If your user lingers in the checkout page for too long, the AI Bot can engage them with “Having trouble checking out? Can I help? or “Wait! Before you go, use code SAVE10 for 10% off today!” This can be effective at recovering sales that might be lost otherwise.
- Upselling and Cross-selling
Once the user adds stuff to their cart, your AI chatbot can make intelligent suggestions based on their choices. “Great choice! Customers who bought that product also frequently bought this with it. Would you like to add it?”
You can see how powerful this can be if the products match. You can turn one sale into multiple ones, and if the recommendations are good, the customer will be happy with their choices as well!
- Final Doubts
If your customer has any last minute doubts or questions, or just needs final reassurance, the chatbot has it covered! If you train it well enough it should be able to handle any questions that the customer might have before converting fully.
What to Watch Out For?
If done right, chatbots can be a great asset to your business, but if you implement them wrong, they can do way more harm than good.
- Annoyance
If your bot is too aggressive, pops up too often, doesn’t follow questions properly, or straight up gives bad answers, then you have a problem. Users tend to ignore these bots from that point onward,s and they often report having a negative opinion on the brand as a whole, considering it too cheap to have a working ai bot.
- Unacnny Valley
One thing a chatbot shouldnt do is act like a human. If a bot tries too hard, its easily spotted and then the whole conversation can be a bit off-putting. Its better for the bot to be transparent from the start.
- Human Handoff
One feature that is often overlooked but can have a positive impact is the ability for the bot to hand off conversations to a real human from time to time. In some cases visitors need information that only a human can provide or they just don’t want to interact with a bot. For those rare occurrences, its a good idea to have a handoff system where a human can take over.
Conclusion
AI chatbots are not just a support widget sitting in the corner of your website. When used properly they can be a dynamic asset that can help push conversions, sales, and improve the user experience of customers. Its a 24/7 available lead qualifier, upseller, question awserer, and many other things that you as a business should have!
By moving away from using bots for just simple support and Q&A and pointing it more towards funnels and improving the user experience, you can make a huge positive impact on your bottom line!