Can Chatbots and Lead Magnets Work Together?

Chatbots are everywhere nowadays and in many circumstances they act as a replacement to the humble opt-in form. Since lead magnets are usually hidden behind opt-in forms this might mean the end of the lead magnet, right? Not quite…

The #NoForms Movement

Way back in 2016 Drift decided to stop using lead capture forms on their website. Instead, they would just give away all their eBooks, guides and resources without asking for an email address.

This was (and still is) a pretty radical approach to marketing. Without any kind of email capture form, how could you nurture leads into customers?

Their solution was chatbots – a more conversational approach to lead generation and nurturing. Apparently lots of other people felt the pull towards chatbots and the #NoForms movement was born.

About Chatbots

Even if you haven’t heard of the phrase ‘chatbot’ you will almost certainly have encountered one. You know that little icon that pops up in the bottom right hand corner of most websites? That’s a chatbot.

Basically, it’s an automated system that imitates a live conversation with visitors to your website. You write some questions in advance and the person’s response to these questions determines the course of the conversation.

The main benefit of chatbots is that the ‘conversation’ can be hyper-targeted to the page that your reader is currently browsing. So if a customer is on your pricing page then a chatbot pops up to ask if they have any questions about pricing. Or, if someone is browsing a specific service page on your website then the chatbot could offer to book a meeting with a member of staff to discuss that service.

This contextual awareness is key to the success of chatbots. People are more receptive to starting a conversation if it’s about something they’re currently interested in.

Using Chatbots Inside Lead Magnets

If you’re considering joining the #NoForm movement and ditching opt-in forms altogether then you might want to try using a chatbot directly inside your lead magnet.

That way you get the best of both worlds – your content is readily available without opt-in forms but you can still collect and nurture leads when people are reading your content.

Because lead magnets are hyper-focused pieces of content you benefit from contextual awareness and so have the opportunity to start real, meaningful conversations with potential customers.

But How?!

How is this possible I hear you ask? Well, with Beacon’s Smart PDF technology you can add a chatbot just like you would on any other page. It’s as easy as pasting in a few lines of code.

You see, a traditional PDF is essentially a closed box – you can’t add web scripts like those needed to display your chatbot.

A Smart PDF on the other hand is essentially a web page designed to look like a traditional PDF so you can take advantage of the latest web technology.

Next time you’re publishing a lead magnet in Beacon, open the Smart PDF settings and paste in your chatbot code:

We used Continually to make the chatbot for this lead magnet. It’s a great product with a very generous free plan so if you feel like dipping your toes in the chatbot water then I would recommend giving Continually a try.

See It In Action

You can see our lead magnet with the chatbot working here. Feel free to play around with the different questions and permutations to get a sense of how it works.

We’ll also be promoting this lead magnet on social media in the coming weeks to see how it performs.