Can Email Hold Its Own Against Chatbots?

We’ve all heard chatbots heralded as the killer of email marketing. Is it just talk, or will email succumb to the power of the bot?

As chatbots become smarter and more ubiquitous, there’s been a lot of talk about whether chat is poised to annihilate email and emerge as the queen of all direct marketing channels. After all, people are so inundated by email spam that “inbox zero” is a legitimate New Year’s resolution. And open rates on email are so dismal that marketers are left wondering if anyone is reading their content at all.

Chat, on the other hand, boasts 90% open rates, is supported by AI that’s only growing defter and more sophisticated, and actually allows brands to procure coveted first-party customer data on a large scale, unlike email.

The numbers speak for themselves: chat’s click-through rates are 600x better than email, and 76% of people say mobile messaging apps have improved their lives.

That said, it might be a mistake to discount email just yet. Email is still an effective way to generate leads, reach a segmented audience, and it’s still one of the most effective e-commerce marketing channels. The mere fact that email has endured this long makes us doubt it’s going to die the swift death that pundits keep predicting.

But the question still remains: how does email hold up against chatbots, and will chatbots replace email, if not now then over time? To answer this question, we decided to measure some of the benefits of email against the benefits of chatbots:

1. Data

We mentioned data before, but we think it’s worth noting again. Chat, unlike email, gives brands access to the golden goose of data: first-party customer analytics. That means you know exactly who your customers are, and you understand what they want, because they tell you. This data enables you to provide a meaningful and customized user experience with little human intervention. It also enables you to provide a targeted sales experience and drive the highest ROI.

Email, on the other hand, most often delivers second-party or third-party data. While there is certainly merit to these types of data, they’ll never offer the same level of targeting and personalization as the data you get from chat. When it comes to data, there’s no doubt that chat comes out on top.

2. Personalization

Let’s talk a bit more about user experience. Both email and chat provide direct access to customers, and they can both be deployed to mass numbers of people at once, but how individualized are those interactions? Do people feel like they’re one of millions being spammed by the same message, or do they feel like they’re receiving personal attention?

One of the most notable features of chatbots is their high level of personalization. Because they’re providing you with first-party data, and because their underlying AI makes them smarter and more personalized the more feedback your customers give them, there’s no limit to how deeply personal your chatbot can get. It’s the next best thing to having a human in the room with your customers.

Say you’re an e-commerce homeware brand. A customer has recently purchased a dining-room table. Your chatbot can ask the customer how they like that table and where they’ve placed it in their dining room. The customer can even send a photo. Then your chatbot can recommend chairs from your collection, or silverware, or placemats. All this is done easily and seamlessly, right inside Facebook or a similar channel.

Email, conversely, is much more static than chatbots — and thus much less customizable. There is certainly some individualization possible in email beyond “Hi *|FNAME|*,” but it’s entirely dependent on the data email marketers are receiving. For example, if you know someone abandoned a cart in an e-commerce store, you can send them an email reminder — as long as you have their email address. That email might go straight to spam, and if it doesn’t the recipient is unlikely to open it, but with the right data, there is certainly some level of customization you can achieve. Again, it’s receiving that data that can be difficult.

That said, it’s clear that chat has the upper hand when it comes to personalization, both because of data and because chat enables two-way conversations, while email is less of a q&a and more of a lecture. It’s static and one way: unlike chat, email restricts you to talk at your customers instead of talking with them.

3. Long-Term Engagement

That brings us to one of the things marketers are looking to do most: engage people and keep them engaged over the long term. Sounds easy, right? Turning people into life-long customers is one of the most difficult — and most significant — things you’ll do as a marketer, which is why we recommend employing a comprehensive Chat Marketing strategy, instead of just sending out messages with no larger purpose or plan. So how do email and chat fit into that strategy?

Chat, again, has a huge advantage over email when it comes to engagement. When you chat with a customer, you join their buddy list alongside their trusted friends and family, where you can message them at any time. That means you can send people impactful, resonant messages at any point in their customer journey — and they can message you back at any time, too. You can also inject a personality and a voice into your chatbot that makes people want to interact with you. As AI becomes more advanced, so too will your ability to humanize your chatbot.

In this way, chatbots make it easier for brands to have deeper, more significant interactions with a large number of people. You create a personal, ongoing, two-way conversation — one that is more likely than any other channel to increase sales, sign-ups, and long-term customer loyalty.

Email, unlike chat, is one way and static. While you can message your customers, they can’t message you back. Even if your email copy is witty and engaging, you remain mostly elusive to your customers. That means you are missing out on a crucial opportunity to engage with your customers on a deeper, more persistent basis.

While email remains one of the most popular marketing channels, it’s clear to us that it can’t hold its own against chat. The numbers speak for themselves: click-through rates on chat are 2500% higher than on email. You can’t argue with that math.

What do you think? Will chatbots kill off email? Let us know in the comments!

Learn more about how Chat Marketing can help your brand at Chatkit.com.

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