Now, more than ever, businesses are turning to AI and chatbots to keep communications with the rest of the world open.

Filling the Gap

Chatbots are helping fill the gap left by human operators currently restrained by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. This helps businesses stay relevant and respond to the uptick in queries. Businesses that have already deployed chatbots are reaping benefits such as:

· Quick response

Chatbots, unlike human operators, are not restricted by time. They are never tied down by other tasks. They can also serve thousands of people simultaneously. To this end, responses to queries are almost immediate.

People hate waiting on the line, so the quick response improves the customer’s user experience. It can also help nurture a long-term relationship with customers as they will feel more valued and appreciated.

· No hold time

Holding is just as frustrating as waiting. It is, however, inevitable when using human operators. Oftentimes the operators have to consult their colleagues or run searches to answer customers’ queries satisfactorily. Some operators also do it just to get the customers to hang up.

Chatbots don’t ask callers to wait or hold. They are advanced algorithms programmed to answer customers’ questions. Answers come quickly to them, so callers don’t have to wait. They also don’t mind working with annoying customers so that no one will be ignored or cut off.

· No human interaction

People apparently prefer having their queries handled by chatbots instead of human operators. A study published by Zdnet found more than half of respondents prefer chatbots to human operators. 69% of the respondents also acknowledge the quick response time afforded by chatbots.

People prefer dealing with chatbots because they are quick and straight-to-the-point. Human operators, as mentioned, can be rude to customers and don’t always go all the way when answering queries.

Benefits Beyond the Pandemic

More businesses were switching to chatbots and AI even before the COVID-19 pandemic. This trend is expected to continue well after the pandemic is over, and the benefits will be bigger and better.

Developers of chatbots are using Artificial Intelligence technology to try to make these bots more human-like. The goal is to make them so efficient that callers think they are talking to real human operators.

Chatbots currently have limited capabilities. Most only answer commonly asked questions, but some are sophisticated enough to understand unique queries and come up with relevant answers, albeit the answers sometimes seem inappropriate or bizarre. Some chatbots are also sophisticated enough to answer voice calls and mimic speech.

Chatbots are also getting integrated into CRMs. This gives them better access to data that helps them respond to queries. Their scope of utility is expanding beyond the basic FAQs to being able to answer individual, unique queries using data analysis.

As such, besides the benefits discussed earlier, chatbots will have long-term benefits such as:

· Saving money

Businesses will not need call center services or in-call customer support departments once chatbots become sophisticated and widespread enough. This will save them lots of money since chatbots are basically free and can handle thousands of queries simultaneously.

· Improving brand-customer interaction

Most brands don’t interact with their customers as much as they should. They do not have enough time or resources to communicate with as many of their customers as necessary. This, however, will change in the future as chatbots will be capable of holding direct conversations about virtually anything regarding the business with as many people as necessary.

Conclusion

Chatbots will help you keep in touch with your customers despite the lockdown imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. They may also be instrumental in the future growth of your business as they become more sophisticated.

Any business, including yours, can and should use chatbots. Eligible industries include medicine, fitness, real estate, manufacturing, and more!

For more information about chatbots contact soolis at soolisai.com

Both mobile apps and chatbots are key means of maintaining customer relationships. Mobile apps are effective, but unless you can get yours to be regularly used by those who download it from you, there will be a steep drop off in the effectiveness of such apps to manage customer relationships.

In this writing we’ll go over several reasons why the professionals tend to favor chatbots over mobile apps in terms of digital methods to manage customer relationships. A few things you’ll definitely want to consider include:

• People Prefer Bots To Representatives, Reducing Messenger App Value
• Mobile Apps Are Getting Old, Boring, And Sometimes Even Irritating
• Expedited Communications Through More Streamlined Interaction
• Simplified Interaction Optimizing Customer Relationship Management
• A Potential For Cost Reduction From Several Angles

People Prefer Bots To Representatives, Reducing Messenger App Value
Representatives generally take longer to respond through a messaging app, and they may not have all pertinent information readily available. Additionally, they have the propensity to incidentally render incorrect information.

Meanwhile, chatbots can respond instantaneously, and if there is an issue that isn’t something they can take care of, they can certainly funnel clientele to the appropriate representative immediately. The majority of issues will be something the bot can handle, and those which aren’t represent a prime opportunity for conversion or up-sale.

Mobile Apps Are Getting Old, Boring, And Sometimes Even Irritating
Back when the iPhone was getting popular in 2008, everyone had that fun little “lightsaber” app. That was twelve years ago. Since then, mobile apps on smartphones have become ubiquitous, and operating them is often difficult. Furthermore, they take up time, and many users are flat-out bored.

So if this is what you offer when clients come to your company, it’s not likely to foster positive engagement. A few years ago it definitely would have. The winds of change have come. Chatbots, by contrast, are novel, effective, and burgeoning.

Expedited Communications Through More Streamlined Interaction
The majority of users who interact with a chatbot don’t even realize it. Oftentimes what users want to know is information that an automated AI can produce more swiftly and accurate than a representative interacting with the individual over an app. Also, apps that don’t include messenger functions have diminished interaction potential. Accordingly, chatbots are more efficient from either angle.

Simplified Interaction Optimizing Customer Relationship Management
Interaction is simplified through a bot. With an app there may be a FAQ section, some promotional section, and perhaps a messenger; perhaps not. With a chatbot, the client visits your site, the bot pops up, they type in their question, and they get their answer. It’s simpler, and more straightforward.

A Potential For Cost Reduction From Several Angles
If you have your own app, good luck getting it made for under $10k. It’ll likely be much more expensive. Also, you’ll need tech support, and you’ll have to manage it. Logging, upgrade, troubleshooting–the works will be necessary. A chatbot you just put in place. It saves money in acquisition, production, and management over an app.

What To Take Away
Well, chatbots save you money, simplify interaction in client relationship management, have novelty owing to their newness, and are preferred by many clients to apps. Unless you’ve got a very lucrative customer management option in place, consultants will likely recommend looking into chatbots.

However, before we get too deep into the reasons behind this, it’s helpful to get your head around what the term “chatbot” really means in this context. Essentially, AI text interaction between your system and site visitors is managed through a chat interface. The idea is to “ape” or “mimic” a human conversation.

Ideally, most who interact with a chatbot won’t even realize it. You might even have encountered this already when perusing a website where a chat window popped up the moment you arrived. The idea is for you to feel like you’re talking to a sales representative from the company of the site you’ve visited. Good chatbots feel like authentic representatives communicating via direct messaging window.

Several Bots
Two primary types of chatbots are out there right now: those based on scripts, and those based on AI. AI chatbots can be both better and worse than script-based chatbox owing to their mild unpredictability. They talk like a human, ostensibly, but can populate some strange responses on occasion. Meanwhile, scripted chatbots are easily identifiable as “robotic”, and so don’t impart quite the same impression on visitors.

Distinct SMB Advantages
As an SMB, you might do better to have a chatbot functioning from AI principles; however this isn’t always the case. The value is this: you get high return for low investment. A chatbot is much cheaper than a team of dedicated employees, and can produce more value. Consider these distinct SMB advantages which stem from an efficient chatbot option:

• Chatbots Provide More Value Than Their Associated Cost
• A Clear Customer Service Perception Emanates From Chatbots
• SMBs Incorporating Chatbots Can Align Focus With Core Prerogatives

Chatbots Provide More Value Than Their Associated Cost
As an SMB you want to appear as professionally viable as corporate enterprises, but without having to expend the same level of resources. A big corporation will have salespeople and secretaries pounce on any visitor. You can’t afford that as an SMB, in all likelihood, without a good chatbot.

A Clear Customer Service Perception Emanates From Chatbots
When clients are immediately interacted with as they visit your site, that lets them feel important. It may be better to go with AI chatbots in this scenario; though you can present scripted chatbots as such, and straightforward action tends to have the intended effect. Also, when users have questions scripted chatbots can’t handle, this is a fine opportunity to send a line out to a flesh-and-blood person on your team. Additionally, scripted or based in AI, 24X7 visitor support is available at the click of a mouse through chatbots.

SMBs Incorporating Chatbots Can Align Focus With Core Prerogatives
You need to get all the mileage you can out of every employee of your SMB. If they’re playing selling games with a potential customer who will never buy, their efficacy across the surface area of your business is diminished. Chatbots help facilitate routine task automation, freeing up your team.

Maximizing SMB Chatbot Efficiency
Chatbots facilitate customer service, maximize core prerogatives, and produce ROI. Be gradual about things starting out. Let chatbots handle basic tasks and expand their shadow of responsibility manageably. It’s also advisable to use chatbot platforms that have already been built. Together, AI and automation can help your SMB retain competitive viability even among larger corporations.

The effectiveness of AI has progressed exponentially as technology has. It can be expected this trend will continue. One way this continuous innovation directly affects businesses in the form of AI chatbots. These cut time in customer query resolutions, reducing physical personnel needs for your business.

It’s expected by 2020’s end, 1 out of 4 digital customer service activities will be the responsibility of chatbots. It’s expected within five years of that, the market for this particular AI will be worth one and a quarter billion dollars. What AI chatbots are, and what they do, is something your business should take into consideration. In this writing, we’ll briefly examine them in more detail.

Chatbot Applications
Businesses choose chatbots for a few reasons, including:

• Facilitation Of Better Social Experiences
• General Entertainment Value
• Exploration And Curiosity
• Productivity Enhancement

In terms of social experiences, chatbots drive conversations and allow people to ask any question free of human judgment. In terms of general entertainment, it’s hard not to crack a smile at what an AI algorithm thinks you intend with a question; plenty of people kill time this way, and you can even design chatbots expressly for this purpose.

Similarly, since AI “personalities” are a relatively recent innovation, people are curious to test chatbot abilities. Lastly, chatbots can provide people immediate assistance on a website as necessary.

Ways Chatbots Help Your Business
Several key positive outcomes of chatbot applications that are already known include:

• Personal Assistance
• Continuous Availability
• Reducing Operational Expenses
• Exposition Of New Business Features
• Promoting Greater Customer Satisfaction
• Expanded Opportunities For Effective Marketing

Customers want to talk to somebody whenever they have a need, not during regular business hours. Chatbots make this possible, and in a way that’s more cost-effective than options like live-chat. They’re available around the clock. This can be additionally convenient in terms of personal assistance–you can send search queries to bots, rather than a secretary or intern. Accordingly, you conserve personnel resources.

Chatbots are also excellent at helping provide exposition into new features of your business with a friendly tone, and a comprehensive nature exactly matching your requirements for showcasing products. This is, again, direct and immediate, facilitating greater satisfaction among clientele.

Finally, they can be used to send clients matching a specific criteria varying offers. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software utilizes chatbots directly and indirectly: directly when clients interact with them, and indirectly when clients match criteria for later messaging along CRM profile protocols.

Designing Your Own Chatbots
There’s a four-fold strategy to pursue in designing your own chatbots:

• Goal Definition
• Channel Specification
• Methodology Of Approach
• Customization Of Final Products And Their Launch

You need to know what you want out of chatbots; consultation helps you define goals. You need to know where you’ll use them, the way you’ll implement them, customized components of their launch, and how best to launch them. These things are reasonably straightforward, and certain best practices are already becoming common.

What To Take Away
Chatbots are here to stay. They’re growing in popularity, they make things better for customers, save money, and you can configure them to directly enable the your business needs. As a cherry on top, they’re perfect for marketing. You may want to look into them if you haven’t.

For more information on chatbots or to request information about having a chatbot created for your business, contact soOlis at 877-789-8773 or soOlis.com.

Get started with these four steps to storytelling for gyms to promote your brand, build customer engagement, and gain a loyal following.

1. Set the Goal

Before you do anything else for your storytelling campaign, you need to determine the intent behind your efforts. Is the goal to get people into your gym for a tour? Do you want to add people to your email subscriber list?

Whatever it is, make sure your story emphasizes fitness marketing and has a clearly defined objective. Without that, you might as well be reading a children’s book to your customers. It simply won’t produce results.

2. Choose Your Target Audience

People across the world are trying to achieve a wide variety of fitness levels. Some want to lose weight and shed body fat, while others may want to gain mass and pack on some muscle. It would be extremely difficult to tell one story that would be of interest to both of these customer types at the same time.

Storytelling for gyms should have one focused persona you are trying to reach with your message.

3. Create & Share the Story

Once you know what you’re trying to accomplish and who the story is for, it’s time to compile all the necessary information. Find key details and statistics that will grab the attention of your viewers to provide value in your fitness marketing strategy.

And when you have all the data you need, generate written or video content to share it on your website, blog, and social media platforms.

4. Evaluate & Start Again

Whether you’re telling the story of your gym or other fitness-related material, most aspects of marketing require what is called A/B Testing. It is the process of producing multiple pieces of content that surround the same topic and determining what gets the most engagement from your subscribers, readers, or followers.

As you evaluate your findings of which one is the most successful, you can use those results as part of your plans for the next storytelling campaign.

Ready to Tell the World Your Story?

Fitness marketing can be a difficult venture due to how flooded the industry can feel at times. The use of quality storytelling for gyms can make a huge difference in customer engagement and getting people through your doors.

If you’d like help with your online marketing endeavors, get in touch with the SoOlis team today. We use powerful tools that generate real results!

The Statistics

This first stat is sure to pique your interest; the TurnTo Network found that 90% of all consumers in the US find UGC to be the most influential when making purchasing decisions. This tells you that people are paying attention to what their friends, family, and acquaintances are doing. You want your users to show they are enjoying your space virtually.

When people see others that they personally know using a product or service they are more likely to use and trust the brand. As you can see in the image below UGC plays a significant role in user decisions as well as their overall reported experience.
Read more!

Credibility and Customer Experience

As mentioned above, when people see others that they know benefiting from things they may be interested in doing they are more likely to choose the products their friends use over others. This occurs because people making decisions about products or services want to know they are going to have a good experience. When they see their friends having a good experience, they want the same for themselves.

This, in turn, enhances the new customer’s experience because when they come into your gym, they already have expectations. If you can meet and exceed those expectations, you may just have a new customer for life.

Free Marketing

There is nothing better than a free lunch; you savor every bite. For every minute of work, you put into your social media accounts you will be paid many times over. Encourage customers to interact with you on social media by tagging them in photos, liking their posts, or even holding photo contests.

When customers post photos of themselves in your gym with tags, you have access to new possible members. Businesses that run social media accounts for different amenity services will look into the demographics of your followers and tailor social media posts specific to their interests.

You gain exposure to the community as well as a list of new possible members. Using UGC will give you a leg up on the type of people you should be marketing to in addition to some free ad space.

Interacting with the Community

It is hard for small businesses to keep up with their communities. A gym should be part of the lifeblood of a community, where people interact and meet on a daily basis.

Your personal interaction with UGC and your customers will help to keep your finger on the pulse of the community. You will know what they need and be exposed to creative ways to get more of the community’s attention using UGC.

Increase Membership

UGC is a hands-on well-loved way to garner attention for your establishment. It is all in the statistics above. If you can generate quality UGC, people will be influenced to come and at least check out your fitness space.

Once you have new people in the door, it is up to you to get them excited about enrolling and coming back. In addition, customers that are influenced by UGC to join your fitness center are more likely to add to your treasure trove of UGC customers than ones attracted by a sign or coupon.

Using UGC will establish your credibility as a gym that people want to go to. It will solidify your place in the community. You will gain membership and free marketing from using it. Every penny and second spent on your social media accounts to gain UGC will benefit you greatly in the long run.

Click here for our samples user generated content collector!

For more information about user generated content, contact soOlis at info@soOlis.comor 877-789-8773.

Instead of going out and taking out a loan for the latest and greatest equipment, think hard about marketing tactics.  Just over 60% of gyms have fairly tight marketing budgets. The majority, 41% spend between $100 and $500 a month on marketing. With a small budget, it is important to be sure that dollars are being used in the most economical way possible. recent survey of professional marketing businesses, specializing in fitness center marketing reported that the top three marketing channels as far as return on investment (ROI) are:

Word-of-Mouth – This is part of getting people involved with the gym to the point that they are talking about it to their friends and bringing in referrals.

Social Media – Paid social media marketing had the second-best ROI, this type of marketing has a bit of a learning curve and can be time-consuming.

Signage – Signs and flyers that hit customer pain points make great reminders for potential customers that might be on the fence about joining a gym.

When it comes down to it, what type of people get excited about a shiny new treadmill? These are people that are already signed up at fitness centers. The trick to acquiring new customers is to get people talking about it. How is that done?

Atmosphere – The atmosphere of a gym should cater to its niche market. Let’s say a gym wants to attract soon to be moms to take yoga classes with a new instructor. This customer base is not likely to return no matter how many free classes they are offered if the place is decked out in black and silver and smells like sweaty socks. Carefully crafting ways to go about capturing particular markets is essential.

Social Media – Social media marketing is a fine art. Hiring a social media marketer that gets results is money well spent. They will craft niche and location-specific posts that grab the attention of potential customers.

Website – Having a user-friendly fitness website where folks can learn about the center, book appointments, or pay their monthly fees is a big must. Two-thirds of people shopping for something, including gym memberships read reviews and check out the company website before deciding to purchase. Without a website, you are leaving 67% of potential customers guessing about the facility.

While your gym may need an extreme makeover, for most, dollars are better spent on exceptional marketing. The mainstay of marketing, especially for a small business, is to be smart with the dollars that you have. Enlisting help with formulating the perfect marketing strategies could be the best thing you ever did. If you are looking for marketing assistance soOils is a full-service marketing and information company with over 50 years of experience in the industry. Contact soOils today for a free marketing consultation, visit the website or call 1(877)789-8773.

One effective way to generate more interest and boost your visibility is to set up a booth at trade shows. What can you do before, during, and after the event to make sure you’re getting the most out of your time and efforts?

1. Set Goals and Plan in Advance

What business objective do you want to achieve by attending this trade show?

Make sure your marketing materials, messaging, and targeting is in alignment with your overall business objectives so you can attract the right visitors to your booth.

Knowing what your goals are can also help you map out pre- and post-show promotional activities so you can drive more traffic to your booth and follow up with the leads strategically.

2. Complement Your Marketing and Product Launch Calendar

Do you have any new product launch coming up?

Trade shows are perfect venues to drum up attention and excitement around your new product launches. Take a look at your marketing calendar and see what new products you can promote to attract visitors to your booth.

If you don’t yet have a new product to show but got something in the works, you can offer a “sneak peek” to pique interest and entice visitors to get on an early notification list so you can nurture the leads and continue the conversation.

3. Create a Post-Event Follow Up Strategy

What are you going to do with all the business cards and emails collected from your booth visitors during the event? Well, the work has just begun!

A well-designed follow-up strategy consisting of email, social media, and remarketing can help you make the most out of the event by building relationships with the prospects you have met. For example, add them to a new segment on your email list so you can send them a personalized message, a piece of high-value content, and a lead nurturing campaign.

You can keep the buzz going by sharing valuable content and offers through your email, blog, and social media channels (e.g., by setting up a custom audience or through remarketing campaigns.)

For more information on fitness marketing contact soOlis at info@soOlis.com.

However, for many gym owners and managers, using social media to market their businesses is challenging. It’s understandable… there are many different strategies and it’s overwhelming just to parse through them to identify the right ones, let alone finding the time to implement the tactics effectively.

Not to mention, without the right guidance, you could be spending an arm an a leg without getting the ROI “as advertised.”

But you shouldn’t overlook the power of social media marketing for your gym. Here are some benefits you can reap from investing just a small budget in executing a strategy that suits your business:

Boost Your Local SEO

Getting ranked in relevant local search results is one of the best ways for gyms to get found by prospects with high purchase intent.

Consistently sharing relevant content on social media can build backlinks and drive traffic to your website, both of which are positive ranking signals to help improve your SEO.

Leverage Word-Of-Mouth Marketing

Consumers rely on online reviews as much as they trust recommendations from friends and family.

Social media platforms offer great opportunities to share customer reviews and recommendations. For example, you can ask your happy clients to post reviews on your Facebook business page.

Drive Traffic With Contests and Promotions

Promotions and contest (or giveaways) offer great opportunities to attract new prospects and build brand awareness.

Using the right hashtags or creating a Facebook Event, you can get your offers and promotions seen by the right audience and drive more traffic to your business.

Build Trust and Relationships

Social media allows you to engage with your audience and have a two-way conversation that builds trust and relationships, making them more likely to become your clients.

For example, you can ask questions to spark a conversation or answer queries to provide values. You can also nurture a personal connection by sharing photos and videos.

Ready to tap into the power of social media for your health club? Learn more to see how we can help.

As a gym owner or manager, one of the biggest challenges is to make sure you’re using the right marketing strategies to acquire and retain members.

Remarketing has become a very effective marketing strategy for local businesses and here are a few reasons why this strategy is great for gyms:

Image source

Multiply the Power of Local SEO

Most consumers search online when they’re looking for local services. Optimizing for local SEO is the key to getting found but that’s only half the story… what happens after visitors come to your website?

Most people aren’t ready to make a purchasing decision right away and remarketing ads allow you to keep showing up in front of these visitors, who have shown interest in joining a gym, to progress them down your sales funnel.

Engage With Your Email Subscribers

Email remarketing is a tactic that targets subscribers who click on your emails so you can create ad campaigns based on the specific content or offers they have engaged with.

These prospects are already interested in your services and remarketing ads give you the opportunity to accelerate them down the sales funnel by staying top of mind, nurturing the relationships, and directing them back to your website to complete an action.

Establish a Multi-Channel Presence

Remarketing strategies allow you to connect with those who have visited your website on other online touchpoints, such as Facebook, YouTube (as part of the Google platform,) and websites in the Google Display Network.

These ads help you deliver the most relevant content and offers based on the prospects’ prior interactions with your brand and drive traffic back to your site so you can further engage with them.

Improve Client Retention

A membership business model means you have to be constantly “marketing” to your clients so they stay on as members.

Remarketing allows you to continue engaging your members by sharing the latest news, relevant content, and upgrades or special offers based on their interactions with your website.

By consistently communicating with your members and providing value, you can stay top of mind and improve your customer retention rate.

Ready to use remarketing to get more clients? We’re here to help. Get in touch to get started.