The world’s current crisis has undoubtedly affected many businesses and has distorted our normal routines, including mine. The lockdown forced many to put their lives on hold while some had to work from home.
Although freelancers like me may be used to this kind of lifestyle, the circumstances surrounding this new way of life made it difficult to manage this new schedule.
It was hard to motivate myself during the lockdown. Thankfully, certain tools helped increase my productivity.
Here, I will like to share how I was able to maintain an optimum level of output on my e-commerce website while working from home, despite the lockdown.
- I Used Chatbots to Automate Several Processes
I have experienced the power of chatbots, and I can say for a fact, they are the future of marketing.
- Higher conversions for my business
The lockdown changed the way customers approached e-commerce. Isolation meant many people had to do their shopping from home, and more often than not, they needed help.
I was able to bridge the gap between brick-and-mortar shopping and e-commerce using a web bot.
With a Facebook Messenger chatbot, I converted at a higher rate from Facebook, while I used my web chatbot to personalise shoppers’ experience.
Consumers could shop just like they would at a physical store from the comfort of their homes because the chatbot gave a personalized and tailored experience, much like a sales associate would give in a physical store.
Just like Walmart experienced up to 97% e-commerce sales during the lockdown, I was also able to drive-up my sales remarkably at that time.
- Customer support was always available
The 24/7 availability of chatbots also meant my customer service was round-the-clock. Whether on Facebook through the Messenger chatbot or on my website using the web chatbot, consumers got quick and immediate answers to their queries.
Also, due to difference in time zones, some customers made orders when conventional stores would have ‘closed’ for the day.
However, as my web chatbot is always live, it continued to take orders and receive payments regardless of time.
- To schedule and automate
Research shows that certain hours of the day are more effective to make product posts, especially on social media platforms like Facebook.
9 AM, 1 PM and 3 PM are believed to be effective hours in getting engagements, especially on Thursdays through Sundays.
However, I am not always available at some of these hours, or sometimes I may just forget to post. Therefore, I used my Facebook Messenger chatbot to automate product posts.
All I needed to do was create campaigns, schedule them, and the product posts would go on for as long as a month or more without supervision unless I needed to update a price or detail.
This simplified the repetitive task, so I focused on shipping orders and sorting out a few other things.
- I Created Sales Videos with Text to Voice Tool
Visual content is one of the most preferred types of content, and it was on the increase during the lockdown. I created a few in-house videos with a text to voice tool, and the results were fantastic.
- More views led to increased traffic on my website
Creating promotion and marketing videos with a compelling voice was also key to improving my sales and productivity during the lockdown.
However, not all voices are ‘compelling’ enough to retain your customers’ attention all through the video. Therefore, while I created my in-house videos, I used a text to voice tool to make them more appealing.
The sales video was enough marketing for me. I was able to show my e-commerce website’s products and services without constructing large blocks of text that may bore consumers out.
All they needed to do was watch the video with a voice that captivates and holds their attention all through.
Thankfully, it was very easy adding a voiceover with the text to voice tool. All I did was write down what I planned to say, and the text to speech software did the rest.
- Reached customers of diverse nationality
The software also helped me create sales videos with voices that matched what most of my customers could understand.
For instance, I could create videos with a British intonation, Canadian, US-English, Indian, and many others.
I was able to create videos in several different languages. Although I can only speak English, the text to voice tool helped convert all of my text to the preferred language so all my customers could understand every sales and promotion video made.
While I understand it has been a crazy year for businesses, you can still be productive with e-commerce marketing via your website or social media.