When I first got into marketing automation, in late 2010, it was still a very new field. When talking with family or friends, anytime I tried to explain what I did with marketing automation, their eyes would roll back into their heads. It was obvious they had no idea what I was talking about.
Sadly, the case was the same even when I discussed marketing automation with most marketers.
It wasn’t until a few more years had passed before marketers began to know what it was and why it was so darned important.
Enter Chatbots for Marketing
About six months ago I began to experiment with chatbots, and how they can be used in marketing. I wrote a couple blog posts about chatbots and marketing, and right away marketing influencers began to reach out to me for more information. I had the opportunity to be on the Duct Tape Marketing podcast, and the Social Media Marketing podcast.
From these two podcasts, several articles I’ve written, and word of mouth, I’ve had clients lining up at the door asking me to help build chatbots for their business.
Crazy, huh!?
To think, six months ago I didn’t know how to build a chatbot… and now I’m considered one of the leading experts.
Side note: Michael A. Stelzner was kind enough to have me on his podcast and that has, by far, created the largest amount of buzz around me and chatbots. Huge thanks to Mike!
You Can Be a Chatbot Expert
And it’s not too late for you to jump into the fray either. You can become a chatbot expert and use that expertise to find new contract work, or find well paying primary gigs.
How big are chatbots going to be?
My prediction: chatbots are the next marketing automation and email marketing. I don’t think they’ll replace these two powerful solutions, but they will become as valuable of a tool in the marketers toolkit.
To see how quickly chatbots have become a main focus for early-adopter marketers, let’s take a quick look at Google Trends.
Notice that between 2010 and 2015 interest in chatbots (red line) was relatively non-existent. That’s not because they didn’t exist mind you — the earliest real chatbot, ALICE, was born in the mid ’90s. It took the magic of Facebook and other big communication platforms pushing chatbots into their own ecosystems to really ratchet it up.
Look at the latest Google Trends report and you’ll notice a big spike in Spring of 2016 (when Facebook opened their Facebook Messenger Chatbot API) and the steady and strong increase in interest over the last year.
So What?
Because I caught the marketing automation wave when it was just starting out, I doubled my already respectable, post-university salary in less than 3 years.
I envision you being able to do the same if you learn and leverage chatbots for marketing.
Next Steps?
There are a lot of Medium authors creating valuable content about chatbots… but none of them are focusing on how chatbots can be fully leveraged inside of marketing.
Thus, I’ll be attempting to fill that void.
I’m also creating a course on how chatbots can be used for lead generation. I’ll post more on that in the coming weeks. For now though, if you’d like to sign up for the course, you can do so over at www.chatbotleadgen.com.
