If you make staying up to date with marketing trends a priority, you’re no doubt familiar with the concept of chatbots. Although some marketers quickly chalked their popularity up to hype, chatbots don’t seem to be going away anytime soon.

That’s because they have the potential to be an extremely valuable marketing tool for marketers in all industries. In this post, we’ll explore what makes chatbots so valuable for marketing, and the role they can play in banking marketing, specifically.

Why chatbots matter for marketing

Designed well, chatbots can engage human users in relevant, contextualized “conversations” based on pre-written rules and responses. While they have already seen fairly widespread adoption for business functions ranging from customer support to sales, one of the most promising is marketing.

For example, chatbots can make learning about your company and its products and services much more engaging for your audience. With the right approach, they can also offer users a highly personalized experience that delivers your messaging with greater impact than simply reading written content.

Other consumer-facing industries have taken the lead in leveraging chatbot technology. In retail marketing, for instance, H&M employs chatbots to help users coordinate their outfits and place orders.

Still, for more service-focused industries like banking, figuring out how to incorporate chatbots into your marketing tactic mix can be challenging. Here are three examples that can help you get started.

Three roles chatbots can play in the banking industry

1. Engage audiences with personalized interactions

You designed your website and digital marketing campaigns to convince prospective customers to choose your bank for their financial needs. This requires getting them engaged with your content—often easier said than done.

No matter how well-written your copy or how user-friendly your site, many people simply don’t enjoy spending time learning about financial services. It’s in your best interest to make the experience as engaging and interactive as possible.

Chatbots suit this purpose extremely well. A bot can greet visitors as soon as they land on your site and simplify the process of guiding visitors quickly and easily to the information they need.

MongoDB, for example, displays a chatbot greeting soon after a user arrives on its homepage

If a visitor isn’t sure where to begin, they don’t have to waste time clicking through pages of content until they find what they need.

Today, banking websites can make the experience even better by personalizing interactions. For example, if a visitor provides their name to a chatbot, that bot can greet them during their next visit by saying, “Hi, James, welcome back!”

Even better, the bot might even use audience data to recognize a user’s place in the buying process, or where they left off in their last interaction. For instance, if a user started to fill out an application on a previous visit, but didn’t finish, the bot might greet them by asking if they’d like to complete and submit it.

2. Give prospective customers a head start

Most customers take choosing their bank very seriously. That’s why bank marketers focus so much time and resources on educating prospective customers.

You need to provide convincing information focused on what sets your bank apart from your competitors, why consumers should trust you with their finances, and what they can expect from their experience with your company.

Chatbots can deliver this information.

HSBC has a virtual assistant called Amy that provides the bank’s customers with instant answers to their questions about personal banking services.

Thanks to Amy, the bank’s audience members can find information quickly and easily—without requiring extra work from the company’s support team.

Beyond providing the list of documents, a more advanced bot could even offer to send over a file with pre-filled versions, so that the user only has to fill in the remaining blanks to move forward.

Anything you do to expedite the process can improve the user experience, and maximize on-site conversions.

3. Facilitate growth along with transactions

Although chatbots excel at answering simple inquiries from prospective customers, they can also take on more complex roles.

In the banking industry, for example, chatbots can help customers with financial tasks like checking their account balance, managing a budget, and keeping track of transactions.

This can simplify the banking experience and enable users to manage their finances in a more user-friendly way.

After providing transaction information, your bot could even suggest ways to offset expenditure or otherwise improve a customer’s finances.

For example, the bot might suggest looking into mutual funds or fixed deposits that align with the customer’s financial goals.

If your bot is able to make data-backed suggestions and give helpful tips, it could be a competitive differentiator for your brand.

Conclusion

Still a relatively new addition to the digital marketing industry, chatbots have the potential to make a major impact on any company’s ability to connect with customers.

Chatbots can help customers engage with your brand, give them the information they need, and even serve as a key differentiator for your brand.

They can create real-time, seamless interactions that assist current and potential members through the entire customer journey.

When integrated with emerging omnichannel marketing automation tools, they can even offer individualized experiences, tailored to each customer’s unique needs and goals.