Are Chatbots Really Worth It? | Ep. #308

<p>In Episode #308, Eric and Neil discuss if chatbots are really worth it. Since chatbots are still in its early days, the effectiveness and profitability of the tool is very much debatable. Eric and Neil discuss the tests that they’ve run and lay out the benefits as well as the weaknesses they’ve encountered. At the end of the day, the incredible open and click through rates from using chatbots is something that CANNOT be ignored.</p> <h3>Time Stamped Show Notes:</h3> <ul> <li>00:30 – Today’s topic: <em>Are Chatbots Really Worth It?</em></li> <li>00:41 – Eric was moderating a panel with a guy from <a href= "https://www.hubspot.com/">Hubspot</a> and <a href= "https://www.wordstream.com/">Wordstream</a> <ul> <li>00:53 – Eric’s open rates was about 80%, his friend was at 94%</li> <li>01:07 – A broadcast through email can get you 20-30% open rate, with 5% click rate</li> <li>01:14 – With chatbots 80-94%, at 50% click rates</li> </ul> </li> <li>01:40 – Neil says it’s about opportunity costs</li> <li>02:21 – Neil was doing a test the other day and found that the opt-in rate was still quite low <ul> <li>02:38 – Open rates are great, but opt-in rate needs to be increased somehow—this may get better in a few months</li> </ul> </li> <li>02:56 – Send your bot to <a href= "https://manychat.com/">ManyChat</a> or <a href= "https://chatfuel.com/">Chatfuel</a> and you’ll have a URL to drive traffic to</li> <li>03:12 – Eric runs a page post engagement ad where people leave a comment if they’re interested and he then gets their email <ul> <li>03:33 – You can get a subscriber for a couple cents</li> <li>03:48 – You can also get people to click on a link that brings people to your landing page and then they can message you directly</li> <li>03:54 – Manychat will help you make widgets and landing pages</li> </ul> </li> <li>04:16 – Eric ran a small test, received 300 subscribers and paid about 50 cents per subscriber</li> <li>04:34 – Neil: The question is can you make them profitable? <ul> <li>04:47 – Eric shares a story about a guy