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You’re sure to have heard the word “chatbot.” You may also understand what a chatbot is – perhaps you know it has something to do with AI or machine learning. Or you may know it’s a way for businesses to engage directly with millions of customers without their physical presence.

So, what exactly is a chatbot? What do they do? How can they benefit your business? When should you use a chatbot, and when shouldn’t you?

We’ll answer all these questions and more in this comprehensive guide to chatbots. By the end of this guide, we aim to provide you with an understanding of what chatbots are, what they do, how they can benefit your business, and why and how to measure their performance.
What Are Chatbots and What Do They Do?

A bot is software that performs automatic tasks. It’s a computer program that communicates with people through the internet.

A chatbot is a developed program that can have a “conversation” or a “discussion” with humans. For instance, any user can ask the chatbot a question, and the chatbot will respond or perform the appropriate activity.

Chatbots are programmed to answer certain questions in specific ways. However, they aren’t limited to this functionality, because chatbots can access and use all of a company’s resources to answer dynamic questions. Also, chatbots can use many systems and files simultaneously to find answers.

Chatbots interact in a format similar to chat platforms such as SMS text, website chat window and social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook to receive and respond to messages.

The simplest way to think of chatbots is as a virtual assistant on messaging channels like Facebook Messenger. By leveraging the power of AI, chatbots help businesses to engage with customers, build loyalty, automate routine tasks, and provide excellent customer service.

The work of a chatbot is to interact with website visitors like a human would and answer any questions they may have.

Thus, chatbots are typically used to automate customer service interactions for brands with a high volume of online inquiries. Also, you can use them to make it easier for prospective customers to get timely answers to their queries.

To scale your business, you need to leverage chatbots to streamline customer communications, marketing, and sales.

How Chatbots Benefit Businesses

Running a successful business requires you to be as productive as possible so expenses are lower and profits are higher. This is an obvious, basic fact of doing business.

However, many business owners don’t use the tools needed to make this happen. One new tool that’s gaining popularity but is not adequately used by all businesses, is the chatbot.

Chatbots’ simulation of human language and behavior offers many benefits to brands, including:

Save Time

One of the primary benefits of using chatbots in your company is that they save time.

When you use chatbots on your website, they can deliver fast, automated answers to most queries. Using chatbots reduces the waiting time so that customers don’t have to wait a day to get responses.

This way, you can serve many customers while boosting productivity and reducing operating costs.

Save Money

Chatbots are cheaper than hiring many customer support agents to offer fast customer communication, because hiring more support agents means additional costs and time. The costs are in terms of:

Salaries
Training
Infrastructure

By investing in chatbots, you can lower these costs.

According to reports, every year there are 265 billion customer requests and companies spend over $1.3 trillion to serve these requests. However, leveraging chatbots can help you save up to 30%. This is because chatbots speed up response times and can answer up to 80% of routine questions.

Offer 24/7 Automated Customer Support

No one likes waiting and neither do your customers. In fact, 91% of customers who are unhappy with a brand leave without complaining. Chatbots can help engage customers 24/7 with immediate answers to all the frequently asked questions. Offering excellent customer service round the clock will naturally have a positive impact on your customer satisfaction and retention.

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When it comes to getting the word out about your solutions, you have a lot of options for content publishing, from white papers to case studies to eBooks. Each has its benefits and drawbacks, and each can work to deliver your goals and objectives if you take the time to understand them.

White Papers

Businesses use white papers to engage with their audience and industries by teaching new information using a lot of facts and figures to influence the audience. White papers are valuable educational materials that can be used internally and externally and work in both businesses to business (B2B) and business to customer (B2C) situations. White papers drive top of the funnel needs by quickly improving awareness of the problem and the solution you offer.

Case Studies

Case studies prove your assertions by using facts, figures, and visuals to drive home what has worked for a given customer. Case studies show through storytelling, moving from problem to solution that gives the background and the results in a compelling way. Case studies are very effective because they easily illustrate the effectiveness of a solution using hard data.

eBooks

eBooks aren’t hard-selling documents. They usually take a short time to create, can be marketed easily, and are valuable to most audiences, whether they are B2B or B2C. They are cost-effective and easy to compile. For example, you can sassily create an eBook from previously written blog posts that tie together and deliver a message. You can include URLs and encourage your audience to get on your list, join your communities, and buy your products and use your services – all through eBooks.

These three content types are well-known yet subtle marketing tools that you need to use to ensure that your content marketing strategy will be successful. Plus, every single piece of marketing collateral you create can be reused, repurposed, and reformatted to increase the return on investment exponentially for all three types of long-form content marketing, while grabbing your audience’s attention and keeping it due to the design and information inside.

What Is Included in a White Paper?

A white paper is a datacentric multipage document that is written in a formal way, helping the reader understand the issue, solve their problems, or make the right choices. A white paper (sometimes written “whitepaper”) uses a lot of research and data to persuade the readers on behalf of a specific recommendation or solution.

A white paper is a great way to showcase your expertise and to market yourself to your audience without being in high pressured sales mode. Instead, you provide information that highlights the expertise, knowledge, and value of the solutions you are recommending.

Choosing Your Topic

When you decide that you want to create a white paper for marketing purposes and educational purposes for your business, it’s imperative that you first choose a good topic. Like anything else, when choosing a topic, you want to consider your audience and your expertise, and you want to create a white paper that is focused on the solution for the one specific problem that you’re highlighting within the white paper.

Preparing Your White Paper

A white paper needs to include a lot of data and research to make it a true white paper. Therefore, to prepare you need to conduct comprehensive research that includes references from internal documentation as well as industry resources that are authoritative in nature as well as reliable and credible. It will help to create a thorough outline or mind map (depending upon your preference) to ensure that you include all the information needed.

Formatting Your White Paper

The format of a white paper is consistent with most business reports and documentation, with the addition of a conclusion that is more of a recommendation at the end to guide readers toward making a purchase.

White papers take a considerable amount of time to research, develop, and complete. However, a good white paper can increase opportunities for your business and makes for great evergreen content that you can use throughout your content marketing efforts. This makes the hard work totally worth it in terms of your return on investment.

Sometimes the conclusion for a business report is written at the beginning of the document, but in the case of a white paper, the conclusion or thoughts and opinions of the writers are placed at the end. The final section is supposed to be the deciding moment for the reader, and the white paper takes the reader on a journey through awareness, consideration, and decision right in one report.

The main point is that you need to make your white paper persuasive and easy to understand for the reader. For this reason, you’ll need to format the document in an orderly way by choosing an accurate title, including an abstract or brief overview of the white paper’s main points, and so forth, which allows the reader to understand that this is the right document for them to read.

Then you need to state the problem and provide background information; all the original research, secondary research, and information should be communicated here. Finally, you’ll want to offer up the solution at the point of decision making, along with the major findings repeated in the conclusion. Of course, always provide a list of references. It helps to follow industry guidelines on formatting, using either MLA or APA citation formats.

White papers take a lot of understanding and knowledge of research methods, data collection, and subject matter expertise. Investing in creating white papers will pay off, though, in many ways (as mentioned before), because its content that can be reused, repurposed, and reformatted for use all throughout your marketing funnel. You can see an example of a white paper here, called The High Cost of Doing Nothing.

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Voice search is a big trend today. It has significantly crossed the threshold of early adopters. This is because it’s more convenient for users to speak with an assistant than to type. And the results of voice queries are faster.

Let’s look at the recent statistics…

Over 41% of adults and 55% of teens use voice search daily.

Nearly 20% of all Google mobile searches are voice queries. Also, voice search has grown 35 times since 2008.

The statistics show that voice search isn’t “the next big thing.” It’s already here. So, when and where are these users using voice search?

They use it on the go, with friends, family, and even in the bathroom. With the increasing use of digital assistants, optimizing for voice search is crucial to SEO success.

In this report, we’ll look at how to optimize your website and content for this search trend.

Voice Search Technology and Trends

The rapid innovations in the digital world seem to change how we all use the internet. And as voice search technology continues to grow, it’s changing the way most of us search online.

Voice search accounts for nearly 25% of searches on the Windows 10 taskbar. Apple HomePod answered 52.3% of queries correctly. And Siri also falls in the same place by answering 52.3% of queries correctly. By 2020, 50% of all web searches will be voice-based. And 30% of these searches will be done using devices without a screen.

Emerging Trends in Voice Search Technology

The voice search trend is a top-notch searching pattern and it is set to take over the traditional search type. Thus, voice search technology is here to stay, and it’ll be challenging to adapt to the changes to remain in the market.

If you want to build a sustainable and successful business, you need to adopt these new voice search trends to face the competition in the market. Here are some popular voice search trends:

AI and Machine Learning

The increasing demand and dominance of AI devices and machine learning is causing changes to search algorithms to process machine learning. Changes in AI and machine learning are making a huge impact on the way we interact with smart devices and also the internet.

Google’s RankBrain is a perfect example. It’s designed to recognize words and phrases to learn and predict better outcomes. When RankBrain encounters a word or a phrase it has never heard before, it makes its best “guess” based on the searcher’s intent and meaning, and it delivers appropriate matching answers. The ability to “think” makes AI such as RankBrain more efficient in handling unexpected search queries.

Nearly 75% of voice search results will rank in the top 3 positions for a certain question on a desktop search.

The increasing dominance of AI-powered devices means search algorithms must evolve to accommodate machine learning and the unique ways we use these devices in our lives daily.

Smart Speakers Drive Voice Search Adoption

Smart speakers are becoming popular in households across the globe. Initially, devices such as Alexa and Siri were merely entertaining because it was fun to ask Siri silly questions just to see how “she” would answer.

However, voice technology has now significantly improved, and new hardware such as Google Home and Apple HomePod are venturing into the market.

Smart speaker usage is projected to rise to a compound annual growth rate of over 48% to include over 76 million users by 2020. And as more consumers become accustomed to interacting with voice-responsive devices, smart speaker sales will continue to grow, and the use of voice search technology will increase accordingly.

As a result, voice technology will only become better and better.

Voice Used for Local and Hyperlocal Searches

More Internet users are searching for local results. And within the last year, over 58% of consumers have found local businesses using voice search. Not only is the number of voice searches growing, but the frequency of voice searches for local results also continues to increase. In fact, 46% of users repeatedly use voice search to find local businesses daily.

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If you’re like most other business coaches, you’re an experienced entrepreneur who can not only talk the talk... but walk the walk when it comes to building and maintaining a successful business.

And like so many others with your level of expertise, you possess a genuine desire to help other business owners become successful and have their dreams fulfilled.
What gives what you have to offer a struggling business owner a great deal of value, is your willingness and practice of being hands on.

In other words, when someone seeks you out, and or secures your services, they are not tapping into an anonymous internet persona or a text book.

But rather, they are gaining access to a living breathing business professional who generously gives them your time, talents, advice and proven expertise.

A client is a recipient of all of your experience and business know-how. And if that isn’t enough, they also receive it in a customizable fashion, tailored to meet their specific needs and goals.

However, just like numerous other business owners, it’s not uncommon for many business consultants to have difficulty scaling their operation.

The good news is...in this special report you can discover the ways and means to do exactly that, and do it simply and easily.

The following detailed steps will guide you.

What is Your Niche?

Step number one is... decide what your niche is.

Are you a big-picture individual who wants to focus on all areas of your client’s company...?

Or do you want to be a specialist and zero in on a specific department of a business?

Maybe you’re a sales wizard. Or you could be brimming with expertise in the areas of finance or securing joint ventures. Perhaps like the president in his former life, you are an expert at ‘The art of the deal”.

Only you know the answer to this... so you will have to decide.

But let’s use the practice of law as an example.

An attorney who practices law as a generalist, earns considerably less than a lawyer who specializes in, let’s say...personal injury law.

There’s a considerable difference between a generalist and a specialist

By specializing, you are perceived as someone who has, and can delve deep into your well of knowledge and offer solutions to obstacles and pressing issues a generalist cannot.

This kind of expertise is looked upon as having greater value than what would normally be possessed or made available by a lawyer who dabbles in many areas of the law.
Next, you need to look inside yourself and ask the following two questions:

Ponder your skill sets, acquired knowledge, and hands-on-experience. Then ask and decide what is the number #1 problem you can solve for your clients?

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Introduction

Tis the season for a lot of things, and getting in shape is no exception. With the hustle and bustle of New Year’s Resolutions, there couldn’t be a more perfect time to create a workout plan and kick it into high gear!

There are many things that cause us to wake up and realize the body we’re living in isn’t the healthiest of bodies. Stress, especially this time of year, can lead to overeating and increased cortisol- both of which are not conducive to getting or staying fit. Being overwhelmed with balancing all aspects of life- work, kids, home, school, etc., can also cause us to under eat or fly through a drive-thru without thinking twice.

There are a plethora of factors that can throw our healthy habits off track or just completely off the radar.

When we shed just even a small amount of weight, we reap a ton of health benefits. Our chances of developing diseases such as diabetes and heart disease drops. We are less likely to suffer from sleep apnea. Our blood pressure drops and we feel better about ourselves. Energy increases as we become more active and we produce more feel-good hormones when we exercise.

No matter how you slice it, medical or physical, the benefits of working out and losing weight are plentiful.

So with that said, it’s time to begin the journey that will ultimately change your life...are you ready? Let’s get started…

Chapter 01 – Building A Solid Foundation For Successful Weight Loss

Once you decide to start taking steps towards a healthier lifestyle, it’s important to follow some certain criteria in order to ensure success. From experience, the following things are what I think are imperative to any successful weight loss plan

Set Reasonable Goals-

If you have 50 pounds to lose, don’t plan on losing it all in two months. Losing 1-2 pounds a week is reasonable and maintainable, but not much more than that. So if you want to lose that 50 pounds, plan on doing so over a course of 6-7 months instead. This will not only be much easier for you to maintain if you drop at a steady rate, but it will also be a much healthier approach.

Practice Patience-

Remember that it took some time for you to get to where you are today. So don’t expect to see progress happen magically, and don’t get discouraged when things are taking longer than you hoped or anticipated. The most maintainable results are those that are achieved in a healthy fashion and not in a crash-diet style.

Acknowledge Mistakes and Move Forward-

In the perfect world, we’d never fall off track or make mistakes, but that’s just not reality. There will be times where you will experience setbacks- you’ll sneak in a slice of cake, skip a workout, find yourself at a McDonald’s drive thru. The only time mistakes will make a dent in your progress is if you let one turn into ten. Acknowledge it happened, understand the trigger, forgive yourself and move on.

Share your Goals-

We tend to feel most accountable when others around us know what we’re working towards. For example, if you tell your coworkers about a weight loss goal, you’ll be less likely or at least think twice before having dessert at a company luncheon. You may even be able to find support groups in your community where other individuals with common goals meet.

Celebrate Small Accomplishments-

Let’s go back to the example of wanting to lose 50 pounds. Perhaps part of your weight loss plan is to start working out, something you’ve never really stuck to doing. Set a goal of working out three days a week for a month straight. Once you accomplish that, reward yourself with something non-food related, like a trip to the spa or a new gym outfit. It’s the small steps that get us to the finish line, so celebrate them!

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Chapter 1: Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency – An Overview

In this guide, you will learn all about Bitcoin (BTC) and cryptocurrency, how they work, why they exist and what kind of technology is behind Bitcoin. It wasn’t too long ago when people started hearing the words ‘Bitcoin’ and ‘cryptocurrencies.’

Few people outside of the crypto-communities knew what they were and many thought it was just another fad that was bound to fail in a few years or so. The value of one bitcoin was just a few cents then so obviously it wasn’t worth a lot. For this reason, it was ignored by the masses. There were far more profitable investments one could make, after all.

Those who invested sums of money on the new digital currency either believed in the system proposed by its founder, Satoshi Nakamoto, or they simply wanted to see how it works.

Either way, those who believed were rewarded greatly, and continue to be rewarded, as a single bitcoin now costs thousands of dollars.

It only took Bitcoin five years to breach the $1,000 mark in late 2013, and just a few years later, Bitcoin prices are at an all-time high – way past the $10,000 mark for a single bitcoin!

With skyrocketing prices and extremely fast growth, more and more people are curious about bitcoins and cryptocurrencies as a whole.

A Look At Cryptocurrency and Bitcoin’s Colorful Past

Cryptocurrencies are digital currencies which are electronic in nature. They do not have a physical form like paper money or coins which you probably have in your wallet right now. You can't hold them physically, but you can buy things with them.

Depending on the merchant you're doing business with, they may accept more than one cryptocurrency as payment.

According to CoinMarketCap (https://coinmarketcap.com), there are more than 1,000 active cryptocurrencies right now. If you’re looking to invest your hard-earned cash but can’t afford Bitcoin prices right now, there are plenty of alternative cryptocurrencies to choose from such as Ethereum, Litecoin, Ripple, Dash, Monero, Zcash, and more.

We would, of course, advise you to do some in-depth research on the cryptocurrency you want to invest in as not all cryptocurrencies are equal. Some are more stable than others and would, therefore, make for better investments.

Bitcoin is not the world’s first cryptocurrency, but it is the most successful.

Many have come before it but all have failed. And the reason for failure?

Virtual currency had an inherent problem – it was easy to double spend.

You could pay $100 to one merchant and use the same amount of money to pay a second merchant! Scammers and fraudsters simply loved this loophole.

Fortunately, in 2007, Satoshi Nakamoto started working on the Bitcoin concept. On October 31st the following year, he released his white paper entitled “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System” which outlined a payment system that addressed the double spending problem of digital currencies.

It was a brilliant concept that drew the attention of the cryptographic community. The Bitcoin Project software was registered in SourceForge just a little over a week after the white paper was published.

In January 2009, the first ever Bitcoin block called the ‘Genesis block’ was mined. Days later, block 170 recorded the first ever bitcoin transaction between Hal Finney and Satoshi Nakamoto.

The very next year, in November 2010, Bitcoin’s market cap exceeded

$1,000,000! This was a very pivotal moment in the development of Bitcoin as this lead to more people getting interested and investing in bitcoins. The price at this point was $0.50/BTC.

However, in June 2011, Bitcoin experienced the so-called “Great Bubble of 2011” after reaching an all-time high of $31.91/BTC. Just 4 days after reaching its highest price, the exchange rate plummeted to just $10/BTC.

Many investors panicked at losing so much money and sold at a loss. It took almost 2 years for the exchange rate to recover and surpass the previous all-time high. Those who kept their bitcoins made the right decision as the price has continued to climb and surpass everyone’s expectations.

What’s really interesting about Bitcoin is that while all transactions are public and nothing is hidden from anyone, no one actually knows anything about Satoshi Nakamoto.

Many have speculated that he is not just one person but rather a collective pseudonym for a group of cryptographic developers. Some have come forward claiming to be Satoshi, but to date, his real identity remains a secret.

Why Do Cryptocurrencies Exist?

Many people have started thinking that cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin in particular, are on the brink of replacing our national currencies such as the US Dollar, British Pound Sterling, Euro, Canadian Dollars, and more. This is because cryptocurrencies have started to become very viable alternatives to traditional currency.

Cryptocurrencies exist to address weaknesses in traditional currencies which are, of course, backed by central banks and governments. This makes traditional currencies prone to corruption and manipulation, among a host of other issues.

Unlike traditional currencies, there is no governing body that backs

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies which means they aren’t subjected to anybody’s whims.

Bitcoin is completely decentralized, open source and transparent. This means that you can see all the transactions that have ever been done on the network and you can check and review the blockchain data yourself to verify the authenticity of each transaction.

Bitcoin runs on highly complex mathematical algorithms to regulate the creation of new bitcoins and to make sure no double spending ever occurs on the network (remember, this is the Achilles’ heel of failed virtual currencies before Bitcoin).

The Bitcoin code is so secure and advanced that it’s virtually impossible to cheat the system so if you’re thinking you can create an unlimited number of bitcoins, you’re greatly mistaken.

One of the main problems of traditional currency is that these aren’t limited in number. This means that governments and central banks can print more money when they see fit.

When more money is printed and enters the economy, this reduces the purchasing power of our paper money which means we need to spend more for an item we’ve only spent a few dollars on before; this is called inflation.

Bitcoin, on the other hand, is a different story. The Bitcoin Protocol states that only 21,000,000 bitcoins can ever be mined and created which means that bitcoin is, in fact, a scarce resource.

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Introduction

In today’s marketing environment, it is crucial that businesses have a presence in social media. Social media marketing can be intimidating and time consuming if you do not plan and establish a foundation from the beginning. It’s one thing to set up your LinkedIn page, but planning how and when you are going to post to you’re your clients, fans and future customers is another story. Keeping your followers engaged is where most businesses fail in the social media atmosphere.

But why Social Media you might ask? Social media marketing has many benefits. Through the different channels available for social media, you can increase exposure for your business, increase traffic to your website, increase search rankings, generate leads, develop raving fans, improve your sales, grow business partnerships, and best of all reduce your marketing expenses.

No longer do you need to take out costly ads in the yellow pages or in newspapers. Those are still great options, but social media provides quicker results you are able to measure and track month to month.

In this report, I will walk you through LinkedIn and how you can create your vision and goals for your LinkedIn profile. While it isn’t vital for you and your business to participate in LinkedIn, it is a good idea to at least have a presence here and point them to your website or a way to interact with your business. You do not want to lose a potential client just because you’re not found on LinkedIn.

So, Let’s get started.

#1: Critical Areas to Consider

In each of the social media sites, there is a basic funnel every business should follow. First, create the social media platform. A platform is “A raised floor or stage used by public speakers or performers so that they can be seen by their audience.” You want to be seen by your audience, or in this case, your clients and customers. In the next chapters, I’ll explain the LinkedIn platform and how to build it to fit your business.

Next, every business needs to build a community of followers.

Please understand, your goal should not be to sell within LinkedIn. Instead, you want to create a raving fan base that will be interested in what you have to say and what you’re giving away so you can build an email subscriber list, and THEN convert them to buyers.

Critical Areas

There are seven very critical areas each business or individual must consider in order to be successful in social media marketing and LinkedIn.

LinkedIn Vision

LinkedIn Goals

LinkedIn Voice

Building the LinkedIn Platform

The LinkedIn Publishing Plan

LinkedIn Community Building

Measuring and Tracking Results

We’ll discuss these in detail in just a few moments.

#2: Reasons to Use LinkedIn

But first, let’s discuss why someone should use LinkedIn. The #1 advantage of LinkedIn is it’s all Business! LinkedIn is a business oriented social media networking service. It allows businesses to build a personal and business brand by providing both personal pages and a business page. LinkedIn can also increase visibility of products and services for your company. Through LinkedIn’s groups, you can participate in targeted and relevant business groups to establish your authority and leadership in your area, build connections with prospective clients, and develop new strategic partnerships.

You might ask yourself, “What can LinkedIn do for me?”

Great question! LinkedIn is an easy and effective way to find like-minded people and business associates. LinkedIn allows users to read a person’s business history on a single page. You can also see whom they associate with and other people they know, allowing you to reach out and make a connection with them as well.

Top 8 Reasons to Use LinkedIn

Build your Social Reputation. LinkedIn is a great tool for people to outline their experience, accomplishment, organizations and network.

Find Qualified Employees. Looking for an employee? Use your connections to search out qualified candidates. LinkedIn also has a job posting board, for a fee.

Make New Connections. Use LinkedIn and do a search for people in your niche or area of business. LinkedIn has an introductions tool that you can use to give you a written introduction for a person you want to connect with.

Increase your Google Ranking. Well-written LinkedIn profiles typically earn a high rank on the front page of Google. The more information you have such as LinkedIn (or Blog articles), the higher your Google ranking.

Check out Competition, Customers, Partners. LinkedIn is a great tool for research and to see what groups your customers and potential customers belong to.

Groups. Groups are a great way to network. Use groups to make connections with others within the group.

Recommendations. LinkedIn has a recommendation system where you and your contacts can recommend individuals and other companies, and in turn, they can recommend you.

Use it on your smart phone/tablet. Log in just about anywhere to post an entry, make a recommendation or find a new contact.