Intelligent Chat Helps B2B Marketers Increase Lead Generation and Improve Sales Conversions, Botco.ai Survey Finds
85 percent of B2B organisations who run demand generation efforts also use chatbots or conversational marketing agents to support those initiatives, and in most situations, these strategies work very well. The quality and quantity of leads generated by B2B marketers’ demand generation campaigns have increased significantly as a direct result of chatbots, according to a new study released today by Botco.ai, the top HIPAA-compliant conversational marketing platform. This has led to increased lead volume as well as better and faster conversion rates.
The report, titled “The State of Chatbots in B2B Demand Generation,” looks at how these marketers are utilising intelligent chat agents within demand gen campaigns and their effectiveness thus far. It is based on surveys that were conducted in October with 1,000 B2B marketers from across the U.S.
Important conclusions from the study include:
83% of B2B marketers that conduct demand generation programmes claim that chatbots have raised their company’s lead generation volume by at least 5%. Chatbots aid in the growth of lead volume. 15% and 32%, respectively, claim that chatbots have raised their company’s lead generation volume by at least 30%.
They also boost a business’s lead-to-customer conversion rate: 56% of B2B marketers claim that chatbots have boosted their lead-to-customer conversion rate by at least 10%, and 99% of those say that chatbots have improved it by at least 10%. 17% and 14%, respectively, claim that chatbots have enhanced their company’s lead-to-customer conversion rate by 20% or more and at least 30%.
Other ways that chatbots help demand generating program include: According to 57% of respondents, the main reason demand generation marketers utilise chatbots is to better understand their audience. Lead generation (55%) was followed by prospect education (43%), qualifying leads for their sales team (42%), audience segmentation (42%), strengthening customer relationships (42%), scheduling demos, meetings, or signups (31%), and lead generation (42%). These use cases highlight the numerous advantages of using chatbots as part of a demand gen strategy.
Chatbots are used by marketers to sway all stages of the marketing funnel, but particularly the middle one: B2B marketers believe that chatbots can have the greatest impact on the marketing funnel at the top of the funnel to increase lead generation or promote content downloads (36%), and in the middle of the funnel for things like newsletter subscriptions and webinar sign-ups (43%). More than 20% of respondents claim that chatbots can effectively influence buyers by persuading high intent leads to take lower-funnel actions like scheduling a demo, initiating a free trial, etc., even though the majority of respondents claim that chatbots are less effective at the bottom of the funnel.
The most successful demand gen mix is email and chatbots: When given 13 options, 46% of respondents who work in B2B marketing cite email drip campaigns combined with a chatbot on their website or landing page as the most successful means of generating qualified leads for their business in recent years. Following this were email drip campaigns (40%), emails with embedded videos (41%), social media posts on Facebook and Instagram (35%), LinkedIn ads (31%), and webinars (30%).
“Demand generation has become a critical marketing strategy for B2B organizations today, and most are finding that conversational marketing agents can help give their demand gen programs a major conversion boost”, “As the results of our survey demonstrate, chatbots benefit demand generation in a number of ways, from generating and qualifying new leads for sales teams to educating prospects, segmenting audiences, retaining visitors before they abandon (or bounce) and booking demos. It goes to show that any B2B organization that runs a demand gen program can benefit greatly by incorporating chatbots into it.”
Rebecca Clyde, Co-founder and CEO, Botco.ai
