Hello Tars Registration and Sign Up Information | hellotars.com

[Product Update] Meeting Chatbots ????+????=????

By Ish from Tars • Issue #127 • View online

I�ve been told by a lot of people that I am a bit of a calendar fanatic, and you know what?????

They are right!????

I schedule every single detail of my life, big or small.�

Take a bath?�????

It�s in my calendar????

Lunch with a friend?�????

It�s in my calendar????

Those three minutes where I look up from my laptop and question my life choices?�????

You guessed it! Est� en mi calendario????

Recognizing my appreciation for good scheduling, the TARS tech team surprised me with a gift this past Monday.????

TARS Meeting Chatbots????

The idea is simple

While I�m out in the world not looking at my calendar???????, a friendly little bot buddy of mine books meetings for me? and automatically sends a GCal invite to the customer who booked the meeting!?

I tried the product out in our sales emails and we saw a staggering 48% jump in demo calls booked????

The best part? ????

You can use it as well????

If you want to take your appointment booking game to the next level check out our Producthunt launch for TARS Meeting Chatbots????

TARS Meeting Chatbots | Product Hunt

TARS Meeting Chatbots help your customers book appointments with you through a conversation. The chatbots are integrated with�

www.producthunt.com • Share

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Hi Gabriel,

What do a local auto repair shop in Sun City, Arizona, and a billion dollar financial services provider have in common?

They both used Tars conversational landing pages to supercharge their marketing stack.

Seriously! Check out these case studies to find out more, and reply to this email if you want a Tars customer success manager to help you achieve similar results:

1. Selling more credit cards through Chatbots

2. Supercharging local business through Conversational Landing Pages

Best,
Ish

Founder @ Tars

www.hellotars.com
+1 (408) 617-9159

.emailview

Hello Gabriel,

You might not realize it yet but today, you made the most important decision of your life.

You signed up for Tars Chatbot Builder and in doing so you unlocked the secret to a 2x higher conversion rate.

Of course, to see any of this value, you need to understand how chatbots lead to a higher conversion rate! To get you up to speed on this topic we conducted a chatbot basics webinar for marketers like you.

Check it out over here - https://hellotars.com/blog/webinar-conversational-landing-pages-basics/

Regards,
Ish

Founder @ Tars

www.hellotars.com
+1 (408) 617-9159

.emailview

Hi Gabriel,

Time flies doesn�t it! It feels like it was just yesterday that you signed up for Tars and began your conversational landing page journey.

Well as the saying goes all good things must come to an end.

Your Tars free trial is ending in 3 days.

After the end of your free trial, you'll be downgraded and you won't be able to:

Test your existing bots or create new bots
Export the leads coming through your bots
Access premium features like making design changes, send data to other apps and a lot more.

Want to keep all these features? Upgrade your plan and it will be done :)

Upgrade to Pro Plan

Have questions? You can book a quick call with me over HERE to discuss further or reply to this mail and I'll be happy to help.

Cheers,

Ish

Founder @ Tars
www.hellotars.com
+1 (408) 617-9159

.emailview

A New Series: Chatbot Templates Roundup ????????

By Ish from Tars • Issue #125 • View online

After a week of trust falls and goat yoga on the beach, the TARS marketing team came back? from their team retreat with a fresh content idea????

Chatbot Templates Roundups????

Every week, we are going to share 5 chatbot templates united by a common theme????

In this inaugural edition, the theme is ????�

Home-related Financing????

We know seems like a boring choice, but it turns out that a lot of people live in these things, and the process of buying, selling, or leasing one of these things really sucks????, so it might be interesting to see what CRO shenanigans we can get to using chatbots????

Let�s get started????

The �How much does my bank love me� chatbot????

If you have good credit, banks offer you the enviable privilege of filling out super-long and super-boring mortgage quotation form!????

This chatbot makes that process a little easier by transforming it into a conversation????

The �I�m sick of all these chatbots get me a human� chatbot??????????????

Sometimes people just want to talk to another human being about their home financing needs and that is totally cool with us! ????

This chatbot connects you with a mortgage officer who will personally walk you through the application process!????

The �Should I buy or should I rent� chatbot????

You know just because a bank is willing to give you money for a home, doesn�t mean that you should take it!????

Indeed Forrest Gump!

Sometimes renting is cheaper than buying and this chatbot is here to help figure out which one is right for you????

The �Which loan should I get� Chatbot????

Banks have created this neat little set of products that allow you to borrow money against the value of your home????, but let�s face it, the thought of researching the intricacies of �asset-backed securities� is mind-numbingly boring.????

This chatbot flips the script. It makes the research process surpringly fun through the power of quizzes!?

The �How much money will they give me?� bot????

While we are on the scintillating topic of asset-backed securities????, a lot of people are curious about how much money they can borrow against the value of their house, but they have no idea how to figure out the exact number because� well� they aren�t risk assessment experts!????

This chatbot allows users to calculate how much money a bank will give them while they�re sitting on the toilet. ????

FINALLY! I have an offer for you :)

Send me your website/landing page URLs if you want us to turn it into a chatbot template and Tars team will do it for FREE!???? You can then start using this chatbot right away.

Best,

Ish

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By Ish from Tars

Thoughts and Opinions about Conversational Interfaces

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5 Awesome Quiz Chatbots ?

By Ish from Tars • Issue #126 • View online

A lot of businesses are able to generate more leads and drive more business while having fun???? through the power of quiz chatbots????

Check it out ????

The 5 Best Quiz Chatbots ????

Market Research Bot?

I love coffee ????

It�s the fuel that keeps TARS running? and it�s the only thing that keeps me from being a total rage monster every single morning????

That being said, if a marketer asked me to fill out a survey about my love of the caffeine-y liquid, I�d probably spit in their faces ???? (I�m really socially awkward that way)

This awesome chatbot shows how you can conduct market research in a way that isn�t mind-numbingly boring.

Social Media????

Speaking of highly addictive things� the number of social media sites???? has ballooned over the last couple of years and it can be hard to figure out which ones your customers surf while they�re chilling in bed on a Sunday morning????

This bot helps you choose which social media is right for your marketing campaigns, so you can see better results????

Crypto Bot????

Is your product super technical or boring?

Well quizzes are a great way to make them seem more fun!

This crypto quiz bot� is also a great example of how you can keep your users engaged about super technical topics using quizzes.

Travel Quiz????

Coupons are a great way to get customers into your funnel but let�s face it, there are so many coupons ???? in the world???? that it�s hard to make yours stand out from the crowd??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

This Travel Quiz chatbot is a great example of how you can make your coupons more appealing????

Business Compliance Quiz????

Few words elicit as much dread as Business Compliance.????

When employees hear the words they assume it�s going to mean hours of pointless training and pages of boring handbooks that they are forced to read.????

But what if there was a better way?????

What if you could transform compliance training into a fun experience?????

This chatbot turns compliance training into a quiz and guarantees better retention among employees????

Before I sign off�

I have an offer for you :)

Send me your website/landing page URLs if you want us to turn it into a�chatbot template and Tars team will do it for FREE!????�You can then start using this chatbot right away.

Best,

Ish

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[Product Update] A More Frictionless Way to Create Your Chatbots???????

By Ish from Tars • Issue #129 • View online

This email is going to be a bit of a short one???? We�re in a bit of planning/strategy/transition phase on the content creation???? and marketing front, so our regular blogposts and such will resume next week????

That being said, the TARS product team is still slogging??????? away in the trenches to bring you guys mind-bending product updates????

This week they officially rolled out a small, but novel update that I think is delightfully pleasant.

Chatbot Creation Modal Refresh

Alright, I know that sounds super jargon-y but it�s actually pretty simple.

If you want to create a new chatbot in the TARS builder the first thing that you do is login and hit the blue �Create a Chatbot� Button?

In the days of yore (i.e. three weeks ago), the screen that popped up after clicking this button looked like this????

It worked but honestly it was kinda meh???????

The templates weren�t up to date? and a lot of people found it confusing????

Now when you click on the same button you will see a screen that looks like this????

The main change in this update is that we�ve put our chatbot templates???? front and center.

Chatbot templates are the quickest way to build your own chatbots???? and with this update it�s a lot easier to find, clone and tweak a them to your specifications:

For the chatbot nerds out there (lookin at you Levi), you can still create a bot from scratch? or by duplicating one of your own old bots???? by hitting the My Chatbots Tab in the top left

This update is not a fundamental change to the way the builder works, but we think it�ll make it easier for those of you out there who want to build a chatbot but find the process to be a little intimidating????

Let us know what you think about the update by responding to this email????

Also, before I forget, if you�re interested in getting a behind the scenes scoop on how we are going about planning our content strategy for the next couple of months, respond to this email???? and we might turn it into a blogpost if there�s enough interest.????

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Hi Gabriel,

So you�ve now been using the TARS Chatbot builder for some time, and you are in one of two camps right now.

1) You know exactly what sort of a bot you want to build and are relentlessly executing (kudos to you!)

OR

2) You are thinking to yourself, �oh god why did I sign up for yet another service. I don�t actually have any real use for a chatbot and these mails are quite annoying."

Either way, you should check out our Chatbot Templates Page! It exhibits some pretty damn awesome bots that other bot makers like yourself have created and can serve as a valuable source of inspiration for your bot creation process: https://hellotars.com/chatbot-templates

If that seems like too much work, then respond to this email with a link to your website or landing page and one of our experts will create a chatbot for you for FREE.

Cheers,
Ish

Founder @ Tars
www.hellotars.com
+1 (408) 617-9159

.emailview

Hi Gabriel,

A few months ago I was on my way to a conference in New York when I bumped into a longtime Tars user on the plane. We got to talking and he suggested that I practice my elevator pitch with him in case anyone asked me what I did.

I started listing out a whole bunch of jargony marketing statistics when I had an epiphany! Conversational Landing Pages will help you achieve your marketing goals but you do NOT need to use Tars to build one!

So why then should you choose us?

People.

As someone who works with them every single day, I know that the team behind Tars is the nerdiest, most passionate, and most humorous group of conversational experience enthusiasts in the world.

If you want that kind of eccentric passion in your corner, helping you get the results you desire, book a one on one marketing consultation with one of our conversational experts over here : https://hellotars.com/demo/

Best,
Ish

Founder @ Tars
www.hellotars.com
+1 (408) 617-9159

.emailview

Hi Gabriel,

Well� the day is finally here.

Your Tars Free Trial ended today.

This means that your current bots will be inactive and you will not be able to make any more bots.

To reverse the effects, you can upgrade your account by clicking on the button below:

Upgrade to Pro Plan

If it makes your choice any easier, here are some cool features of the pro plan that you should know about:

Keep using your current bots and make new ones
Export all the leads to excel file
Personalise your bots with design customisation
Send the leads to other apps and CRM like Mailchimp, Hubspot, Salesforce etc

If you have any questions, you can book a quick call with me over HERE to discuss further.

Cheers,
Ish

Founder @ Tars
www.hellotars.com
+1 (408) 617-9159

.emailview

Hi Gabriel,

Did you hear that one story about the company that dropped its cost per lead by 50%!!

This is not a joke or a cheap gimmick!

HCAH, a leading healthcare company, used a Tars conversational landing page to reduce cost per lead by 50%.

Check out their story and see how you too can achieve similar results: https://hellotars.com/blog/conversational-landing-page-ppc-cpl-reduce/

You can also check out more case studies here - https://hellotars.com/case-studies/

Cheers,

Ish

Founder @ Tars
www.hellotars.com
+1 (408) 617-9159

.emailview

Hi there!

A few weeks back I�d sent you an email about our brand new Zapier Integration, and I was wondering if you had a chance to try it out?

If you have, I�d love to get some feedback from you!

If you have NOT, though, I highly recommend that you do because it will help you automate hours in manual data entry work ????

Offer: If you respond to this mail in the next 24 hours, my team will help you set this up.

In case you�ve forgotten, the Zapier integration allows you to automatically send your chatbot conversation data to your favorite CRMs(Hubspot, Pipedrive etc) and ESPs(MailChimp, ActiveCampaign etc) as it is captured.

This means that leads captured through your chatbots are automatically available where you need them, when you need them.

- You can learn more about the importance of this feature here:

https://hellotars.com/blog/product-update-tars-zapier
- Or if you are ready to start using it already, skip ahead to our help doc, which will show you how you can use this feature:

http://help.hellotars.com/articles/2990584-automatically-transfer-conversation-data-to-google-sheets-using-zapier

Cheers,

Ish

Founder@Tars
+14086179159

.emailview

[Chatbot Roundup] Travel Chatbot Templates?????

By Ish from Tars • Issue #130 • View online

I love to travel but every time I jump online to find a new destination, I end up on terrible landing pages with poor user experience???? and I�ve had enough of it!????

As a selfless human being who is putting my body on the line to help mortgage companies sell more mortgages???? I deserve better????

So without further ado, I present 5 chatbots that will change the way the travel industry works????

A Bot That Plans Your Trip So That You Don�t Have To????

You know that annoying feeling when you want to go on vacation but you are too lazy to plan out any real activities????????

Well it turns out you aren�t the only one who feels that way!????

This chatbot was created for the spoiled brats out there like me who want a personal assisstant to plan their iteneraries for them????

A Bot That Helps You Navigate Confusing Airports????

Airports are like mazes????

You can find absolutely everything under the sun???? in an airport except for the one thing that you absolutely need???????

This bot serves as your very own airport personal assistant???? ensuring that you can find the restroom???? regardless of what terminal, gate or shop you find yourself in????

A Bot That Helps You See Some Awesome Sights?

The last time I went booked a �magical sightseeing experience,� I had to call a random number scrawled on a piece of scrap paper????, speak to the grouchiest man on earth????, squeeze my way through a bunch of dilapitated alleyways???? only to find that my transportation was a beat-up little hatchback that had no real suspension????

The actual sight itself (a kinda old building?????) was actually beautiful but the experience that preceded it dimished it�s awesomeness????

This chatbot is here to fix these sorts of situations It�s a great example of what sightseeing booking should look like in 2019

A Bot For the Spontaneous Traveller???????

Have you ever decided to drop all of your work and go for a spontaneous trip to Hawaii with your best friend from college??????

I have, and it did not go well????

After the initial excitement my friend and I were brought back down to earth with a resounding thud as we gazed upon the astronomical hotel, flight, and sightseeing prices????

This chatbot solves this problem by giving you listings for the best last minute deals in an engaging way????

A Bot That Let�s You Vent????

This has been a recurring theme in these roundups, and with good reason????

Whether it�s healthcare, mortgage or even travel, at some point in your life you will have a bad customer experience???? and in those situations you need a place to vent????

This chatbot like the ones we�ve sent in previous editions allows you to do just that!????

It listens while you air out your complaints

FINALLY! I have an offer for you :)

Send me your website/landing page URLs if you want us to turn it into a�chatbot template and Tars team will do it for FREE!????�You can then start using this chatbot right away.

Best,

Ish

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By Ish from Tars

Thoughts and Opinions about Conversational Interfaces

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Hey Gabriel,

Loot your nearest grocery store, stock up on some ammo and form a rag-tag band of survivors because the end times are here.

Your free trial of Tars Chatbot builder ends tomorrow.

After that, you'll not be able to test/use your current bots or make new bots.

The only way to reverse this travesty is by upgrading your account :)

Upgrade to Pro Plan now!

Have questions? You can book a quick call with me over HERE to discuss further or reply to this mail and I'll be happy to help.

Best,
Ish

Founder @ Tars

www.hellotars.com
+1 (408) 617-9159

.emailview

Hey Gabriel,

Bot making is more than just a way to boost your conversion rate. It is an art, much like painting or bocce ball.

And much like those art forms, we know that you cannot become an expert overnight! This is why we created a cheat sheet!

Our landing page teardown video series gives you a quick primer on how our conversational experts think about landing pages and in the process helps you skip from the pre-school finger painting of conversational design to creating Pablo Picasso-esque chatbots in a matter of minutes.

Check out the first video in our series below:
https://hellotars.com/blog/conversational-landing-page-teardown-lasik-ppc

Best,
Ish

Founder @ Tars

www.hellotars.com
+1 (408) 617-9159

.emailview

Hi Gabriel,

Chatbots are red hot in the digital marketing space.

How do I know this?

Because every time I open up my Google News feed I see a different corporation implementing a chatbot into their marketing stacks! Bank of America, Dominos, Wells Fargo, Verizon. The list is truly endless!

But why all the fuss? What�s the big deal around chatbots and should you care?

The answers to these questions are best answered through an example! Check out this blogpost + video we created explaining how one of our customers used chatbots to supercharge their lead generation process and increase conversion rate by 80%: https://hellotars.com/blog/legal-lead-generation-conversion-rate/

Also, if you do watch it and want to make a chatbot of your own, jump onto the Tars builder over HERE(you signed up a few weeks back) and build a high-converting chatbot within a matter of minutes, or better yet schedule a free call with me over HERE and I�ll help you get set up.

Best
Ish

Founder @ Tars
www.hellotars.com
+1 (408) 617-9159

Hi Gabriel,

It�s been a few days since you started using the Tars builder and I had a quick question for you. What�s your favorite CRM software?

I don�t know if you know this yet, but using the Tars API integration feature, you can set your bot up so that any captured leads flow directly into your favorite CRM. Check it out below:

http://bit.ly/2IMUErB

If this sounds like something you�d be interested in setting up, respond to this email and I�ll have one of our customer success managers help you out.

Cheers,
Ish

Founder @ Tars
www.hellotars.com
+1 (408) 617-9159

.emailview

Hey Gabriel,

At Tars, there are two things we love more than anything else in the world: increasing conversion rates and free stuff. To bring these two passions together, for a limited time we are, for a limited time, offering you FREE access to one of our most popular services BCaaS.

BCaaS stands for Bot Copy as a Service and what it means is that one of our conversational design experts will personally build a bespoke Conversational Landing Page or chatbot for you.

All you need to do if you want to take us up on this offer is to RESPOND TO THIS EMAIL with your current landing page or website and we�ll pair you up with one of our experts

Best,
Ish

Founder @ Tars

www.hellotars.com
+1 (408) 617-9159

.emailview

[Chatbot Roundup] Healthcare Chatbots ????+????

By Ish from Tars • Issue #128 • View online

Look it�s no secret that doctors� offices are littered with terrible user experience????

Whether it�s the clunky websites????, long wait times?, or even your doctor�s indecipherable handwriting? , the healthcare industry can be downright frustrating!????

Fortunately for us mere patients, some healthcare providers??????? have started using chatbots to bring their patient service into the 21st Century?

Here are our five favorite examples????

A Bot That Helps You Fix Your Teeth

Orthodontists might know their way around your mouth???? but a lot of them can be incompetent when it comes to web design????

Their landing pages suck and it drives people nuts????

This chatbot???? is a great example of how orthodontists can make there online lead generation experiences feel like they belong in 2019????

A Bot That Helps You See Better

As far as medical procedures go, LASIK eye surgery is pretty damn cool????

It�s risk free????, super common????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? and oh yeah, IT INVOLVES SHOOTING LASERS INTO PEOPLE�S EYES!!!????

Unfortunately most of this coolness is undercut by the sheer garbage that LASIK providers try to pass off as a landing page?????

This conversational landing page makes the LASIK marketing experience better for patients???? while improving conversion rate????

A Bot That Helps You Book A Home Healthcare Provider

Finding the right a home nurse for your loved ones is stressful to say the least????

The last thing that you want to deal with in such a situation is a bad online experience????

This chatbot makes the process of requesting home healthcare services friction-less???? so that you can get the services that you need without the added stress????

A Bot That Helps You Cut Through The Hassle

We�ve all been there.

You need to visit the doctor??????? so you call their office looking for an appointment????only to find yourself stuck in a hypnotic phone dance???? with the receptionist figuring out when in the next three months your schedule matches your doctor�s schedule????

The entire experience is soul crushing to say the least????

This chatbot fixes that very situation????

In just a few seconds you can schedule an appointment???? with your doctor without any hassle ????

A Bot That Lets You Vent About Your Chatbot Experience

For every kickass healthcare provider using chatbots to improve their patient experience????, there are at least 10 more who still make you go through hell to get the services that you deserve.????

When you interact with doctors like that, it�s only natural to vent your frustrations online????

This chatbot obliges your needs????

It listens while you describe in excruciating detail your doctor�s office horror stories????

One more thing...

I have an offer for you :)

Send me your website/landing page URLs???? if you want us to turn it into a�chatbot template and Tars team will do it for FREE!????�You can then start using this chatbot right away.

Best,

Ish

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[Chatbot Roundup] Education Chatbots????????

By Ish from Tars • Issue #134 • View online

Whether it�s a pre-school, high school, college or online program, education providers are pretty bad at lead gen????

Some pioneers in the space are using chatbots to fix this problem????

Here are four of our favourite examples????

Appointment-booking Chatbot????

In college, I used to be a tour guide for prospective students and parents. ???????

The job consisted of two highly specialized tasks:

Walking backwards without falling????
Scheduling tour appointments on the phone????

Chatbots don�t have legs so they can�t really help out with the first of these tasks, but they are pretty great at the second????

This chatbot is demonstrates how educational institutions can automate the appointment scheduling process to save time and book more tours.?

Application Form Chatbot????

I went to a new barber last week because I was feeling adventurous and I regretted it????

It turns out that this new �barber� didn�t have any formal training because, in his words, �the barber school�s application form was butt-ugly� ????

Who knew that barbers were CRO enthusiasts?

This chatbot is a perfect example of how educational programs can make their course enrollment forms more engaging?

Lead Qualification?

Before I started TARS, I tried my hand at being a teacher!????

I organized a marketing workshop at the local B-school and, as you might expect, it was an EPIC failure!????

I didn�t really qualify our leads, so the class ended up getting filled with a bunch of lazy undergrads who came for the free pizza???? and left before I collected their money????

This chatbot is a great example of the sort of lead qualification that education providers sorely need to increase the quality of their enrollment????

Course Information Chatbot????

I have an easy approach to choosing college courses????

Conduct extensive research (user surveys, regression analysis, neural nets�the whole shebang) to figure out which courses require the least effort and sign up regardless of the subject matter????

Evidently the strategy worked, because I now get paid to write this joke of a newsletter every week????, but I can�t help but think that I could have been more efficient????

This chatbot shows how universities can present their course information in a more engaging way so that students like me could coast more easily????

BEFORE YOU LEAVE! I have an offer for you ????

Send me your website/landing page URLs if you want us to turn it into a�chatbot template and Tars team will do it for FREE!????�You can then start using this chatbot right away.

Best,

Ish

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Hi Gabriel,

What�s your conversion rate?

If your answer is greater than 10%, then close out of this email right now, it really won�t help you

If it�s below 10%, then you have a BIG problem. Low conversion rates are a death sentence for any marketing campaign. They indicate that you are spending way more time and money on marketing than you need to, and that is not sustainable!

Need help fixing this problem? I highly suggest you Google search �how to increase my conversion rate,� and read through one of the thousands of super long, highly detailed blog posts that show up. Don�t have the time to read? I have two options for you:

Sign in to the Tars builder over HERE (you already have an account) and build a chatbot that can solve this problem for you
Schedule a free call with me over HERE and I�ll help you build a chatbot that can solve this problem for you

Cheers,
Ish

Founder @ Tars
www.hellotars.com
+1 (408) 617-9159

[Guide] Chatbots for Small Business????

By Ish from Tars • Issue #133 • View online

About a year ago, I was on a work trip in America when I stumbled upon the greatest invention in the history of mankind????

Nitro Cold Brew Coffee?

The number of nitro cold brew gifs on GIPHY is too damn low

I�ve always been a coffee fan, but nitro cold brew is different????

It�s cold?, it�s foamy?, it�s caffeine-y???? and most importantly its delightfully bitter taste seeps through my taste buds into the deepest depths of my soul causing me to sob with joy every time I take a sip????

Suffice it to say that I was super disappointed when I returned to India and found that Nitro Cold Brew was in short supply????

Vinit (my co-founder and a fellow cold brew addict) and I decided to fix the situation by starting a cold brew shop on the roof of our co-working space.????

Blue Bottle Coffee is the nectar of the gods

After settling on a name for our company (Interstellar Caffeine Company?) and incorporating in Delaware (for tax reasons????), we did what any good business owner would do�

We looked up what a small businesses like ours could do with chatbot technology????

To our surprise, there wasn�t a single handy blogpost that explained any of this stuff!????

I'm running out of these shocked reaction gifs

Before we could continue on our coffee adventures, we knew that we had to fix the shortfall of Chatbot-related content for small businesses????, so we rang up our good friend Chandal over at Web.com and came up with�

????

A Comprehensive Guide on chatbots for Small Businesses????????????

If you run a small business and you�re still wondering if chatbots are right for you???? (looking at you new readers????), this is your go-to resource????

Check it out????

Chatbots for Small Business: A Guide to Improving Customer Experience | Web.com

Chatbots are a buzzword in the world of business. But what do they actually do and should you get one? This is the ultimate guide for small businesses who want to explore chatbots as a customer service tool.

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Hi Gabriel,

Digital marketing is broken..

Marketers like yourself spend hundreds of hours writing content, analyzing keywords, setting up ad campaigns only to find that over 90% of all visitors to your site drop without converting!

It�s time to change that�

Chatbots are a proven solution. They increase conversion rates by up to 200% (click HERE for proof) so that you waste less time and money to generate more leads.

Sound interesting?

Jump onto the Tars builder over HERE (you signed up a few weeks back) and build a high-converting chatbot within a matter of minutes, or better yet schedule a free call with me over HERE and I�ll help you get set up (for free ofc).

Cheers,
Ish

Founder @ Tars
www.hellotars.com
+1 (408) 617-9159

[Podcast] The Story Behind TARS????

By Ish from Tars • Issue #132 • View online

I�m going to assume that if you guys are reading this newsletter, you are interested in the immature shennaigans we pass of as �running a real business"???????

Well, today�s piece of content is an insight into how it all began????

So grab some popcorn, and strap in, becuase it is going to be EPIC????

I had the privilege of sitting down with Andrew Warner from Mixergy on his podcast Startup Stories to talk about� well� our startup story!

If you are interested in learning about how, why, and when TARS was started, and more importantly, how we have evolved over the last 4 years then you should totally listen to this podcast????

Solving the problem of form abandonment (with a more modern experience) - Mixergy

Joining me today is an entrepreneur I�m especially excited to talk about for a few different reasons. Number one, he�s a Mixergy listener. He�s somebody who�s listened just like you and has had these stories embedded in his head.

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Cheers,

Ish

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[Video] Chatbots for Better Customer Service????????

By Ish from Tars • Issue #131 • View online

So I know that we�ve been sending out a weekly chatbot roundup for the last month, but this week we are taking a break becaaauuuuuse????????????????�

We finally made another VIDEO!!!????

We�ve been thinking a lot about how chatbots add value to businesses and after spending hours gazing pensively???? at the highway construction in front of our co-working space we realized that the answer is the same as it�s always been????�

Better Customer Service????

This might be a controversial opinion but, a lot of online shopping is downright boring????

Sure, we all enjoy buying random shit that we don�t need on Amazon????, but when you think about the processes that we have to go through to buy �serious� products online, the quality of customer service drops significantly????

Take the mortgage application process as an example????

You Google something like �affordable mortgages,� click onto a landing page, and then you are stuck filling out heaps of soul-crushing forms???? before you finally get approved for the loan.

Put simply, the customer experience is terrible????

A lot of businesses view this poor customer service experience (especially when it�s online) as a cosmetic issue????, but we�ve done the research and guess what? ????

The situation is more dire than it seems????

Poor customer service decimates conversion rates???? and kills the word-of-mouth referral networks that a lot of small and medium sized businesses depend on for getting customers.????

This is where chatbots come into the picture????

Chatbots take slow, cumbersome experiences like the mortgage application process and make them a lot more customer-friendly by making them look and feel more engaging?

If you�re interested in learning more about how they do this check out our full guide+video below????

How Chatbots Can Improve The Mortgage Customer Service Experience

We looked it up and it turns out the phrase��time flies when you�re having fun��is backed up by some real science. If you�re a loan officer this is�a huge problem.

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[Guide] Chatbots for Mobile Optimization????????

By Ish from Tars • Issue #135 • View online

Have you surfed the web on your phone recently?????

SPOILER ALERT: It sucks.????

Regardless of how large, high-res, and edgless my phone gets, I still find myself zooming, panning and throwing my phone at the wall in frustration every time I try to do anything in Google Chrome.????

If you�re a digital marketer, you should be paying attention to this issue!????

As the average age of your customers falls????, more people are buying things on their phones, and they are going to drop from your page when they realize how unusable it is on mobile.????

In other words, bad mobile webpages are killing your marketing campaigns????

This is where chatbots come into the picture????

Unlike regular web interfaces, chat interfaces come mobile optimized right out of the box???? meaning that your lead generation experience can convert at high rates even on a mobile screen ????

If you�re interested in learning more about how chatbots achieve this, check out our full guide below????

How Chatbots Can Help You Mobile Optimize Your Mortgage Landing Page

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Hi Gabriel,

I don�t know if you know this, but the most useful and least talked about use case for chatbots is in digital advertising!

No kidding! Marketers who use conversational landing pages in their ad campaigns double their conversion rate and cut their ad spend in half.

We actually wrote a whole 2000 word blog post about it which you can check out over HERE.

If you are interested in taking your ad campaigns to the next level, jump onto the Tars builder over HERE(you signed up a few weeks back) and build a high-converting chatbot within a matter of minutes, or better yet schedule a free call with me over HERE and I�ll help you get set up (for free ofc).

Cheers,
Ish

Founder @ Tars
www.hellotars.com
+1 (408) 617-9159

[Chatbot Templates Roundup] Insurance Chatbots ????????????????????

By Ish from Tars • Issue #136 • View online

I got renters insurance on this service called Lemonade the other day and the application process was surprisingly delightful????

Instead of using a regular application form, Lemonade enlists the help of a super-intelligent chatbot named Maya????????? to onboard users (check out this video to see her in action)

This experience got me thinking????

Could smaller insurance agents achieve the same awesome results using TARS Chatbots?????

I went through the insurance section of the TARS chatbot template gallery and (unsurprisingly) found a wealth of insurance lead gen chatbots that are bringing the Lemonade experience to the average insurance agency.????

Here are four of my favourite examples????

The Minimalist Lead Gen Chatbot

Between the dull application form and the tedious research that goes into finding a low rate, the process of applying for car insurance is mind-numbingly BORING????

This chatbot template shows how auto insurance providers can make a to-the-point lead generation process that cuts out all the fluff and shepherds car owners through the process as quickly as possible.

The end result is a more pleasant experience???? for car owners and a higher conversion rate for the insurance broker.????

The Qualification Chatbot

The minimalist insurance lead gen approach is great if you want to capture a lot of leads for cheap.

But what if you�re more interested in capturing a handful of super high-quality leads that you can close fast?????

This chatbot template shows how insurance providers can qualify high quality leads in an engaging way. The end result is faster closures???? and more business????

The Informative Chatbot

This might come as a surprise to you but the average person is not an insurance expert????

For insurance marketers this is a problem because a lot of prospects drop from insurance landing pages without converting because they have basic, easily-answerable queries.?????

This chatbot template is a great example of how some insurance providers are incorporating FAQs? into their chatbot flows to reduce bounce rate.?

Claim Filing Chatbot

We talk a lot about how chatbots are great at the top of the funnel where you are generating leads, but could they also be useful further down where the leads have already been captured?????

The answer is a resounding YES.????

This chatbot template shows how insurance providers can make the claims filing process more frictionless using chatbots.????

BEFORE YOU LEAVE! I have an offer for you ????

Send me your website/landing page URLs if you want us to turn it into a�chatbot template and Tars team will do it for FREE!????�You can then start using this chatbot right away.

Best,

Ish

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Hi Gabriel,

Do you like filling out forms?

I have a feeling that your answer is an unequivocal NO!

Well, guess what! Neither do your digital marketing prospects. In fact, I am willing to bet that you are losing countless high-quality leads every single month because people see a form on your landing page and drop!

Till recently, there wasn�t a solution to this problem. Forms were the only way to capture leads. But now there is an alternative.

Chatbots transform the cumbersome form filling process into a super-engaging lead capture machine. Check out our blog post explaining why over here: https://hellotars.com/blog/lead-generation-form-sucks/

If you want to fix your forms and convert more leads every month, jump onto the Tars builder over HERE(you signed up a few weeks back) and build a high-converting chatbot within a matter of minutes, or better yet schedule a free call with me over HERE and I�ll help you get set up (for free ofc).

Cheers,
Ish

Founder @ Tars
www.hellotars.com
+1 (408) 617-9159

[Guide] Chatbots for Content Marketing????????

By Ish from Tars • Issue #137 • View online

Day in and day out, our content team writes blogposts, finds delightfully apt GIFs and sacrifices an endless stream of chickens???? to the Greek God Hermes????, in the hopes that you guys will be super impressed???? and sign up for our product?

Of course, we aren�t naive????

We know that expecting you guys to subscribe for our product? and pay us some real cash money???? after reading one blogpost is wishful thinking to say the least????

So to actually generate business out of our content, we had to think outside of the box!????

Rather than asking you guys to sign up for our product (like every other company) we presented you guys with our very own lead gen chatbot???? so that you could schedule demos with us and guess what?

It has been super successful????

Unsurprisingly, prospects are more likely to have a conversation with a chatbot than commit to subcribing for a product they might never use again.????

The end result has been that we are actually able to book some real demo calls through our blogposts!???????

This week, we figured it was time to finally share our conversational content marketing secrets with you guys, so we contacted our good friend Chintan Zalani????????? at Elite Content Marketer?, and got him to write an epic guide???? on the ways you can super charge your content marketing game using a conversational approach????

Check it out, and let us know what you think????

How To Practice Conversational Content Marketing: 3 Simple Ways

In this article, you�ll see the importance of having a conversation with your audience. Let�s get started by looking at a couple of ways in which most brands approach content marketing and the gaps in them.

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[Chatbot Templates Roundup] Automotive Chatbots????????

By Ish from Tars • Issue #138 • View online

I�ve been rewatching Top Gear over the last couple of weeks???? and it�s got me yearning for a new car????

The only issue, other than the fact that I have never sat behind the steering wheel before????, is that the process of getting a new car is god awful????

To fix this situation, I went through the Automotive Chatbots???? in our Templates Gallery and collected a roundup of chatbots that are changing the way people buy cars????

The Flamboyant Car Salesman Chatbot????

Every week I visit a car dealership so that I can have a quintessential, almost meme-like car salesman pitch a beat-up Honda Civic like it�s going to solve all my problems????

Other than the fact that these conversations are the gold standard of high-converting sales pitches????, the salesman�s reassuring tone makes me feel a sense of security that I am unfortunately lacking in every other part of my life????

This chatbot brings that same kick-ass sales experience? to the internet???? by transforming boring car information pages into delightfully fun sales pitches????

The No-nonsense Car Salesman Chatbot????

For those with a healthy sense of self-worth????, a to-the-point marketing experience works better than the flamboyant sales approach????

This no-nonsense car salesman chatbot was built???? to convert such prospects.

Through an engaging conversation, it helps you identify which model of car you should buy????, book a test drive????, and find the nearest car dealership?

The Car Recommendation Chatbot????

If you aren�t particularly interested in cars then shopping for one can be a pain????

Hours of research?, physically going into the car dealership???????, and an endless stream of unsolicited advice from your dad????� the process is a hassle, to say the least????

This chatbot collects preferences from uninterested prospects so that car dealers can make targeted recommendations????

The Buy-or-Lease Chatbot????

After extensive research you�ve decided on the car you want to buy????

Now you need to decide how you are actually going to pay for the car!????

Leasing and Buying are both viable options, but you know that if you choose wrong not only will you lose hundreds of dollars but the world will be plunged into an eternal ice age???? in which the White Walkers? pillage town after town for human flesh to fill the ranks of their zombie army???????

Of all the storylines that got ruined in S8, the white walker one was most egregious

This chatbot helps avoid this unfortunate situation by calculating which option is better for you????

The Miracle Chatbot????

Let�s be real, the worst part of buying a car is the compulsory visit that you need to make to Satan�s lair (the DMV)???? to get it registered????

Montana transformed their DMV website into an interactive chatbot experience making the DMV experience astoundingly bearable????

They�ve seen a 15% drop in customer care calls???? and a dramatic reduction in frustrated citizens walking through the door????

BEFORE YOU LEAVE! I have an offer for you ????

Send me your website/landing page URLs if you want us to turn it into a�chatbot template and Tars team will do it for FREE!????�You can then start using this chatbot right away.

Best,

Ish

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[Podcast] Last Beverage Before You Die??????????????

By Ish from Tars • Issue #140 • View online

If the world was about to end and you could drink any beverage before it did what would beverage would you choose??

Its surprisingly hard question to answer isn�t it?!????

Last week, I sat down with Brett Trainor on his podcast ????? Hardwired for Growth to discuss how Vinit and I built TARS????, and right before the interview ended Brett popped me the �last beverage on earth� question????

It took me a a few minutes? to come up with an answer that I was happy with but after an hour of intense discussion about creating sustainable SaaS businesses???? the question was a welcome bit of light-heartedness that made my day????

Brett was an absolutely phenomenal interviewer ???? whose questions made me reflect on the TARS story in a truly profound way????

If you want to learn more about growing your own business or are just curious about what my last beverage on earth would be, check out the podcast below????

?Hardwired For Growth: 14. How One Company�s Chatbot Platform Increases Lead Conversion Rates by 50%

?On this episode, we welcome Ish Jindal to the program. Ish is the Founder of Tars, which helps businesses boost their PPC conversion rates through Conversational Landing Pages.

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If you actually do end up listening to the podcast let me know how I did by hitting the like???? or dislike???? button at the end of this email????

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[Video] Chatbot Building Best Practices????

By Ish from Tars • Issue #142 • View online

I�ve noticed that the first time someone trys to build a chatbot it never goes to plan????

The messages are awkward????, the experience feels oddly robotic????, and worst of all, the conversion rate is terrible????

Today we�re releasing a brand new series of content???? that will teach you how to fix those issues????

Check it out????

Why "first-time" chatbots suck????

Building a chatbot isn�t like building a regular landing page????

Instead of thinking about headings????, layout????, and form fields????you need to consider things like tone????, message length????, and message order????

Of course, if you�re like most marketers you have never had to think about stuff like that before???? and that�s why your first few chatbots are going to suck ????

How we're fixing the situation?????

In an ideal world, we�d have you guys build a bunch of chatbots and experiment with them until things started to click????

But let�s face it�

You guys don�t have time for that!????

So to make things a little easier for you guys, we are creating a series of best practices videos?? that can help you improve the user experience of your chatbots fast????

The first edition of this series is about message delays?

How To Create A Seamless Chatbot UX Using Message Delays

Building a chatbot requires a skill set that is unprecedented in the world of CRO. Rather than focusing on mobile optimization, form fields, CTAs, and folds, you need to consider hooks, etiquette and message delays�

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If you liked this newsletter or the best practice post hit the ???? below and respond to this email with your feedback????. We�ll be sure NOT to pass it along to our content team????

Cheers,

Ish

PS: Before you leave�

If you have been liking Tars experience, we�d love to have your feedback?:�https://www.g2.com/products/tars/reviews
Join us as an affiliate here and make money by selling chatbots to your clients????:�https://hellotars.com/affiliate

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[Chatbot Roundup Template] Legal Chatbots ??

By Ish from Tars • Issue #141 • View online

Of all the companies we�ve worked with at TARS, one group stands out has having the worst landing pages of them all????

Law Firms??

The sorts of webpages that law firms try to pass off as lead generation experiences are positively atrocious????

Too many CTAs????, too much text????, mobile un-optimized????� name any CRO issue that you can think off, and the average law firm probably has that issue on its landing page????

That�s why in this week�s roundup, we are taking a look at four legal chatbots???? that are changing the way law firms serve their clients????

Personal Injury Chatbot ????

Personal injury law is what got us interested in legal marketing in the first place???? Law firms in this space literally pay hundreds (even thousands) of dollars???? for every single visitor that Google sends their way????

This chatbot shows how personal injury law firms can make the most of their marketing spend and get their valuable services to as many clients as possible????

Social Security Benefits Chatbot????

Social security law firms have to deal with perhaps the hardest CRO problem known to modern marketers????

Baby boomers????

Getting older prospects to complete online lead gen is hard to say the least????

They aren�t as comfortable on the internet as younger prospects and they prefer to get on actual phone calls for lead generation????

This chatbot is a great example of how Social Security law firms can replicate the phone lead gen experience digitally and generate more leads online.

Business Services Chatbot?????????

If you read our newsletter from last week, you�ll know that starting a business can be hard!????

Before you even start thinking about selling your product you need to get through a mountain of paperwork to make your business official????????????

This chatbot shows how business services law firms can drive more business by making the process of starting up more frictionless????

Immigration Lawyer????

Have you ever dealt with the immigration system before?

Long wait times?, complex regulations????, and clunky forms????�

The process is hellish!????

This chatbot helps lawyers make the immigration system seem a little bit more bearable????by providing a better intake experience????

FINALLY! I have an offer for you :)

Send me your website/landing page URLs if you want us to turn it into a�chatbot template and Tars team will do it for FREE!????�You can then start using this chatbot right away.

Best,

Ish

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[Chatbot Roundup] Chatbots for Local Businesses????

By Ish from Tars • Issue #143 • View online

A lot of people think that the benefits of conversational marketing???? are reserved for big companies with deep pockets???? and large dev teams ?????????????????????????????????????????????

But that�s just not true!????

This week, we�ve picked out 4 awesome chatbots???? from the world of local business that demonstrate how even small companies can use chatbots to drive more business???? and delight more customers.

Device Repair Chatbot????

We�ve all had that uh-oh moment???? where we�ve completely destroyed our phone screen by smashing it on the pavement (in the most ungraceful way possible, that too????)

Well, the heroes who help us undo those horrible mistakes are now using chatbots to generate leads and they are doing a kickass job at it????

This device repair store chatbot shows how small businesses can capture and qualify leads in a way that is truly engaging?

Fitness Center Chatbot???????

Every year without fail I commit to getting my shit together and finally going to the gym and every year I epically fail at doing so????

This year, that might actually change!????

Some pioneering gyms are upping their customer service game using chatbots and I for one am a fan????

This chatbot, for example, shows how new customers can be hooked in the onboarding process in a way that keeps them engaged well after they�ve converted?

Roofing Services Chatbot????

I just got my roof redone and call me an ignorant but I had no idea that roofing is an entire industry in its own right????

It turns out that there are a whole bunch of people who are experts in making your roof look good while it protects all your stuff from the elements????

The things you learn as a first-time homebuyer

Best of all, those experts are now using chatbots to up their leadgen game????

This roofing company chatbot shows how local businesses can get more customers like me with a more engaging lead generation experience????

Muralist Chatbot????

Ever since I watched the movie Frida I have had a bit of an infatuation with murals????

They�re creative????, they make my instagram feed look fantastic????, and they are literally on the street so I can admire them while I walk to work????

Well, it turns out that the geniuses behind these epic works of art are entrepreneurs too????and, much to my surprise, some of them are using chatbots to capture leads for their business!????

This muralist chatbot is a great example of how one-(wo)man businesses like muralists can automate the lead capture process so that they can spend less time fiddling with landing pages???? and more time perfecting their art?????????

FINALLY! I have an offer for you :)

Send me your website/landing page URLs and someone from the TARS team will transform it into a chatbot template for FREE!????�

You can literally start using the chatbot right away.

Best,

Ish

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5 Chatbot Templates That Help You Start a Dog Shampoo Business????

By Ish from Tars • Issue #139 • View online

Ok picture this????

You and your friends just created a revolutionary new dog shampoo that literally banishes fleas???? to an alternate dimension, and you want to start selling it FAST????

How do you go about doing it?

We collected five handy chatbots???? that could help you along the way????

Setting-up A Business In 5 Chatbots or Less????

Step 1: Incorporating Your Business????

The first few steps of starting a business are actually kinda boring????

Before you can revolutionize the dog grooming industry, you have to deal with some good old fashioned bureaucracy???????????? and make your business official?????????

Thankfully for you, this chatbot has you covered????

Send it a few messages, pay a small fee and it�ll incorporate Flea Anhiliators LLC in no time!?

Step 2: Setting Up A Bank Account????

Unfortunately for you, the boring stuff doesn�t end there????

To mint that sweet, sweet dog shampoo dough????, your company needs a bank account to make and accept payments????

Rather than physically going into a bank branch???? (because it�s 2019 and we don�t do things IRL anymore????), you can chat with an automated bank teller like this one to get a bank account setup?

Step 3: Finding A Workspace????

Now that you have an official business that can accept payments it�s finally time to make your product!?????????

To do that, you need a workspace????

A lot of early stage companies opt for a co-working option because it gets rid of the hassle of setting up wifi????, a coffee machine?, furniture ?????etc.

This chatbot helps you find a managed co-working space that matches your unique requirements of an on-tap craft brews???? and an industrial shampoo production facility????

Step 4: Getting Your First Customer????

Alright now it�s time for the fun stuff????

The first batch of shampoo has been produced???? and you�ve almost completely drained your savings account???? to pay for the rent and raw materials????

Now you need to get your first customer????

After setting up highly-optimized Google, Facebook and even Linkedin ad campaigns (targeted at new dog groomers in the greater LA-OC area), you gotta convince someone to give you their contact details???? so that you can schedule a shampoo demo for them????

This chatbot is a great example of how you can create an engaging lead gen experience that will bring that first shampoo demo through the door????

Step 5: Capturing Their Feedback????

So you got your first customer and they�ve been using your kickass shampoo to aid you in your war against fleas??

But you can�t rest on your laurels just yet????

Since you�ve started your business at least 5 other companies have started selling similar shampoo and the market is heating up????

You want to stay ahead of the competition so you need to figure out what your customers want and use that feedback to innovate????

This chatbot is a great example of how you can collect the necessary survey data to improve your service and consolidate your position as the King/Queen of Interdimensional Flea Transportation????

And that�s pretty much it�

The feedback rolls in????????????

You launch shampoo v2????????

It banishes fleas into an alternate dimension, just like v1 did, but this time it comes in three new scents: pine????, bacon grease???? and rhubarb pie????

In the span of just five chatbots you�ve setup a successful dog shampoo business!????

If you think we should have added any other chatbots to this list, let us know by replying to this email????

If you want us to turn your chatbot into a template, send the details by carrier pigeon????to our chatbot template office in Irkutsk, Russia.

jk jk, reply to this email with a link to your landing page (our Irkutsk facility is being fumigated).

Cheers,

Ish

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[Guide] Data-driven Marketing????????????

By Ish from Tars • Issue #144 • View online

Every Thursday, at around 3 PM, I make it a point to choose one of the chatbots???? that we�ve built for a client and check how it�s performing using the analytics section of the TARS builder????

Most of the time, I don�t find anything interesting in the data???????

The bot performs exactly as expected, high conversion rate and all????

But in the odd case, I find a weird trend that piques my curiosity!????

For example, last week I found a mortgage lead gen flow???? where thousands of people were starting the conversation but almost nobody was finishing it????

After checking the individual conversation reports I found the problem????

For some reason unbeknownst to us, about halfway through the lead generation flow, the bot was asking users for their opinion on the most fraught political debate in the history of man????

Spaces vs Tabs????

It actually asked for SSN, but that's way too boring to include in this NL

Once we fixed the issue, we decided that we needed a more long-term solution for these errors? so we reached out to James over at Tamo.co???? and created a comprehensive guide on how you can use data to improve your conversion rate????

Check it out below????

How To Use Customer Data To Improve Site Conversions

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[Best Practice] Images, GIFs, Videos in Chatbots????

By Ish from Tars • Issue #145 • View online

About 8 months ago, we found a really concerning trend in our blog analytics????

We were hitting our monthly sessions targets, but our engagement metrics were far from perfect????

We were seeing fewer repeat visitors to the blog????
The visitors that were still coming, read fewer articles????
And worst of all our bounce rate was going up????

As a company dependent on content marketing to drive business these numbers scared the shit out of us???? so we went into full damage-control mode to fix the problem????

To figure out where we were going wrong , we deployed what we like to call the �fanboy method� of content research????

In simple English, we compared our blog, to the ones run by more successful companies in our vertical???? to see what they were doing differently????

It didn�t take us long to find an answer????

The most glaring difference was in the way we presented our content????

Our blogposts at the time were super-dense slabs of text???? that were technically correct? but mind-numbingly boring????

The other blogs we saw in our research didn�t fall into this trap????

They presented equally informative text but they made it feel a lot more engaging by incorporating GIFs????, videos????, and emoji???? into their posts????

Unsurprisingly, when we started to add these same elements to our own blogposts our engagement numbers improved dramatically???? and our posts started to drive some actual business!????

So what does this have to do with chatbots?????

We�ve been looking at the bots that people create on our platform and it�s clear to us that a lot of marketers are falling into the same trap that we did in our blogposts????

They are so focused on making their bots correct? and informative????that they completely forget about making them fun???? and engaging?

Inevitably these makers throw up their hands in frustration when they see abysmal conversion???? rates on the other end of their marketing campgins ????

In today�s best practice we take a look at how marketers can make their chatbots more engaging using rich media to supplement the regular text bubbles????

Check it out below????

How To Improve Your Chatbot Completion Rate Using Rich Media

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[Podcast] The Future of Bot Creation????

By Ish from Tars • Issue #147 • View online

I know that we�ve been sending a lot of podcasts in these newsletters recently, but I promise that this one is different????

Why yes Thor! ????

Yes, it is different!????????

Instead of talking about how Vinit and I founded TARS (#vain #selfcentered), I sat down with Billy Bateman???? over at ChatFunnels to discuss:

the current state of chatbot marketing????
where chatbot technology is heading????
how we are building a more frictionless way to create chatbots at TARS????
the importance of industry knowledge in the chatbot creation process????

If you�re a marketing nerd like me or you�re looking for an excuse to slack off from work for a bit, check it out below????

Digital Conversations with Billy Bateman, featuring Ish Jindal

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How to make your landing page more intuitive using a chatbot????

By Ish from Tars • Issue #146 • View online

I�m feeling particularly introspective today, so I�m going to phrase today�s newsletter as a series of questions�

What�s the first thing that you do when you land on a company�s landing page?????

(Here�s a sample landing page in case you want to test it out????????? really quick to be sure of your answer�)

I�m going to hazard a guess???? and say that you�re probably giving the page a quick once-over???? (5 seconds at max) before deciding whether the rest of the page is worth your time?

Now think to yourself, how much do you actually know about that page after you�ve glanced over it?????

In most cases the answer is, not very much right????????

And how many times do you actually pay a company real money when you know almost nothing about them?????

We actually know the answer to that (based on conversion rate metrics): Almost NEVER!!????

Well, what if I told you that your digital marketing prospects are in the exact same position?????

Most of the people who land on your pages are deciding the fate of your marketing campaign after a ultra-quick speed read???? and let�s be real you aren�t that persuasive of a write so the vast majority of them are dropping????

The solution is to make your landing pages more intuitive so that it�s easier for prospects to consume all the information on them without any effort, and guess what???????�

Chatbots are a great way to do just that!????

In the guide below, we explain how marketers can make their landing pages more intuitive???? using chatbots and in the process reduce the number of people dropping because of their own lack of attention????

How Chatbots Can Make Your Mortgage Landing Pages More Intuitive

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[Podcast] Chatbot Creator Interviews????????

By Ish from Tars • Issue #148 • View online

TLDR; A bunch of you hit the like button on our newsletter last week about podcasts (way more than normal), so we decided to create our own one. Check it out here.

So after my email last week, where I apologized for sending to many podcasts and then made you guys listen to yet another podcast????, something amazing happened!

You guys liked the shit out of it!????

Dozens of you clicked that wonderful little ???? button at the bottom of this email and it brought tears of joy to my eyes???? because now I know that there are at least some weirdos out there who actually like the same nerdy, chatboty things that I do????

Anyways, I wanted to tell you guys that we hear you and we are going to give you more of that sort podcasty content on a regular basis!????

In fact, we are starting a brand new interview series????, where each week, we interview a bot creator from around the world of TARS???? and talk to them about how they are using chatbots???? to deliver real value to their clients and users????

We�re tentatively calling the podcast, TARS Conversations, but we�re open to better names???? (if you guys have any, send em to us as a reply to this email????)

In our first episode, we talk to Levi Worts???? from the Montana???? Department of Justice about how he achieved the impossible:

Fixing the DMV customer service experience????

If you�ve ever had a bad experience at the DMV, check out what he had to say ????

How the State of Montana Fixed Its DMV Customer Service Using a Chatbot

Levi Worts achieved the impossible. He fixed the DMV

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[Chatbot Templates Roundup] Lending Chatbots ????

By Ish from Tars • Issue #149 • View online

During our HR-mandated mid-morning coffee break? on Monday, Vinit (from the TARS tech team) and I went to Starbucks? to get some Pumpkin Spiced Chai Tea Lattes????

When we reached, I had the unfortunate realization that I had forgotten my wallet????

I asked Vinit to cover me, promising to pay him back as soon as we got back to the office???? and his response was� well� TBH I don�t quite know how to characterize his response ????

He opened up an application form bot on his phone???? and made me formally request a loan from his newly formed NBFC, Vinit & Vinit Capital Group (VVCG)????

I was so flabbergasted at this response, that I kinda just went with the flow!???????

Before I knew it, I had signed up for a 5-year loan at 3% interest to cover my coffee ????

A surprisingly decent rate as far as the ruthless coffee loans industry goes

Honestly, the part that stuck with me from the whole experience wasn�t the fact that I will now be making a monthly payment of 7 cents to Vinit for the next year.

It was how buttery smooth the entire application process was.

Within two minutes, I went from sheer horror???? that I forgot my wallet to Vinit handing me his phone???? to me sipping the latte?

This got me thinking about how chatbots???? can be used to streamline loan applications. As soon as we got back to the office, I trawled through the chatbot template gallery to see what I could find.

Here are the results????

4 Chatbots That Are Improving The Loan Application Process

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FINALLY! I have an offer for you :)

Send me your website/landing page URLs�and someone from the TARS team will transform it into a chatbot template for FREE!????�

You can literally start using the chatbot right away.

Best,

Ish

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4 Pieces of Chatbot Content To Brighten Your Day????

By Ish from Tars • Issue #150 • View online

It�s nearly halloween????, Neptune is in retrograde?, Zombieland 2 is coming out soon???????, and October baseball is in full swing?, so suffice it to say that I am in a good mood today????

And because I�m in such a good mood, I am sending you guys not one, not two, but four whole pieces of content today????

Check �em out below????

Podcast: An excuse to Slack off????

I sat down with longtime friend of the company Sandeep Mallya ???????over at 99Signals to discuss the ins and outs of conversion rate optimization chatbots???? So if you are looking for a way to brush up on your chatbot marketing knowledge???? or just need a reasonable enough excuse to slack off from work???? give the interview a listen

Apple Podcasts????

Google Podcasts????

Spotify????

A Homepage Video: We need your feedback????

So a couple of weeks back we were doing an audit of our home page???? had the unfortunate realization???? that Arnav, from our marketing team, looked like he had smoked an entire pound of Blue Dream???????????? before shooting the main promotional video on our site????

Being the upstanding professionals that we are, we got him to smoke a slightly less potent strain of the good stuff???? and sent him back to the supply closet he calls a �recording studio� to reshoot the whole thing????

We�d be so stoked if you could give us some feedback on it????

Click the thumbnail for the video

If it makes you more likely to click, he talks about car insurance, objectively speaking, the most exhilarating type of insurance

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Chatbot Roundup

I wasn�t actually planning on sending one of these today, but then I found a handful of kick-ass appointment-booking templates???? in the gallery and thought that it would be criminal not to send them to you guys! ????

So after 2 hours of semi-concerted writing, here�s a chatbot roundup that�ll show you how you can book more appointments???? using bots????

4 Appointment-booking Chatbots That Will Help You Book More Meetings

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A GIF

I had initially started this newsletter with just three pieces of content, but it just felt wrong so I�m sending you this GIF of a cat???? on a roomba to even things out

Let�s be real, this cat has been the most insightful thing we�ve shared with you in the entirety of 2019????

Cheers,

Ish

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[Podcast] John Cena of Chatbots???????

By Ish from Tars • Issue #151 • View online

I�ve been on a bunch of podcasts???? now (practically an expert), and I�ve found that every single host has a set of unique quirks? that makes their interview feel completely different from each other.

For example, this week, I was on a podcast where the host literally introduced me like I was�John Cena!???????

I was a little startled at first, but I guess I should have seen it coming considering the podcast�s name was the Startup Hypeman podcast???????

Of course, after the intro, Raj Nation???? (the host) got down to business and spoke about????????????

Advanced Customer Segmentation Tactics ????

If you�ve been subscribed to this newsletter for some time now, you�ll know that even though we haven�t always been this focused on leadgen chatbots????

In fact, until a year ago, we dabbled in everything from customer support bots???? to feedback bots? to even the occasional quiz? bot to keep things light????

It was fun???? but our focus was so broad, that as a team we couldn�t gain a deep enough knowledge in any vertical to give you guys the value that we could????

We went to the drawing board, looked at what was working and what wasn�t and used that to narrow our focus????

Lead gen chatbots were consistently delivering the highest value???? on our platform (and it certainly helped that a lot of marketers have money????) so we reoriented our business to marketing bots, and here we are a year later, with considerably higher growth and a lot more revenue???????

Anyways, if you guys want to learn a little bit more about this story, check out the podcast interview I gave on our Advanced Customer Segmentation Tactics below????

Advanced Customer Segmentation Strategies with Tars Founder Ish Jindal � Startup Hypeman

Ish Jindal joins the podcast and he�s got somethin� to say..

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[TARS Conversations] How Preston Sells Chatbots as a Service to Clients????????

By Ish from Tars • Issue #153 • View online

As much as I love being an entrepreneur, it can be really draining sometimes????

Between marketing?, customer success, sales, and maintaining my sanity????, it feels like I�m being pulled in a 100 different directions every single day!????

I�ve discovered (all too late), that an effective solution to this problem is delegation????

Wherever possible, handing off a task to someone who has less on their plate???? goes a long way in staying on top of the madness????, and honestly, in the long run, it helps grow the business faster????

In fact, the principle of delegation is so effective that a bunch of heroic people??????? around the world have even built their own businesses around taking this delegated work off the hands of overworked entrepreneurs to make their lives easier????

This week we were lucky enough to speak with one of those noble individuals????

Preston Martelly????, is the founder and CEO of Javalogix, a full-service, Montreal-based agency that handles digital marketing for small business owners who neither have the time nor the know-how to run their own leadgen campaigns????

In our conversation Preston told us about:

? How he chooses his ideal customers????

? How he helps solve the time crunch problem that so many entrepreneurs face?

? And of course, how he�s using TARS chatbots to deliver real value????

If you�re interested in learning more about Preston�s amazing story, listen to the full interview below????

How Javalogix Uses Chatbots To Help Small Businesses Maximize Their Marketing ROI - Tars Blog

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We're doing our first webinar! ????

By Ish from Tars • Issue #152 • View online

Well, the FOMO finally reached critical mass and we�re pulling the trigger!????

This Thursday 11/7, 1pm EST we are hosting our first webinar!????

Here�s everything you need to know about it????

What it's about?

The topic is �How to build your first lead gen chatbot.�????

I know that it�s pretty basic, but this first webinar is a trial run for us so we decided to go with something easy????

Why you should join?

We�ll be doing a live chatbot build???? in the session so if you follow along, you�ll have a brand new lead gen chatbot by the end of it!????

If you�ve been intrigued by the idea of chatbots but haven�t had the time to dive in, this webinar is for you????

When is it?

Thursday (11/7) @ 1PM EST?

And it�ll be ~45 mins long, so really not thaaaat long????

In fact, I�d even argue that 45 mins for creating an entire chatbot is pretty damn quick????

How can you sign up?

Here�s the link????

TARS Webinars: How to build a lead generation chatbot

The world runs on conversations�Why not your lead generation campaign?

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[Chatbot Best Practices] Why You Need To Acknowledge User Input????

By Ish from Tars • Issue #154 • View online

The theme for today�s newsletter is something that you don�t often hear about in marketing discussions

Politeness

I�ve been reading a bunch of hard core sociological theory???? recently and it turns out that politeness is a basic requirement to maintain harmony in your relationships????

For example, if someone spends hours preparing a beetroot????, fontina????, turkey???? and black garlic???? sandwich (from first principles?????????) and they leave it in the breakroom fridge, it�s probably a good bet NOT to eat that sandwich because that someone will probably get pretty angry???? and the vibe of the office would become kinda tense????

I know you at my sandwich Vinit, you gluttonous imbecile????

Well it turns out, that the same principle applies to chatbots as well!????

If you don�t pay attention to how polite your chatbot is with customers, your leadgen experience is going to suffer!????

Prospects are going to think that your bot is a soul-less piece of software that doesn�t give a shit???? about providing a good customer service experience and that is going to make them drop!????

One tactic that we�ve found helps avoid such a situation is User Input Acknowledgement????

The basic idea is that everytime a customer sends your bot a message, the response should begin with some form of acknowledgment that the message was recieved.

If you�re interested in learning more, check out our full guide below????

How To Make Your Chatbot More Human By Acknowledging User Input

Even a message as simple as �Got it� is better than nothing

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How chatbots can help you boost your lead quality????

By Ish from Tars • Issue #155 • View online

Ok here�s the plan for this newsletter????

1) I�m gonna make a bombastic claim that contradicts everything I�ve ever said in all of the newsletters before this one????

2) I�m going to go full-on marketing nerd???? and explain why that bombastic claim makes sense?????

3) You should have seen this one coming but, I�m going to shamelessly tell you why you need a chatbot????

Bombastic Claim????

This might come as a shock to you, but in the marketing game conversion rate isn�t everything????

I know that it�s kinda weird for me of all people to make such a claim????, because every single week I rant on these newsletters about how the conversion rates aren�t high enough????, but I�m being dead serious????�

Conversion rates really are not the be all and end all of marketing????

Marketing nerd time????

Let me put it to you this way�

You have two landing pages for the exact same product and with equal traffic called X???? and Y????

X captures 100 leads???? per month and Y captures 500 leads per month????????

In theory, Y should be 5x better than X right?????

Well, not exactly????�

While Landing Page Y does have a 5x greater conversion rate???? than Landing Page X, you know nothing about the quality of those extra leads,???? and let me tell you from personal experience, that NOT knowing the quality of your leads is pure hell????????????

You need information to convert a lead into a paying customer and poorly qualified leads by definition are light on details????

As such, to convert low quality leads into paying customers you need to invest effort???? and patience???? in stalking the lead�s social profiles, researching their websites and jumping on long-winded email chains???? with them to confirm their information before you can even convert them.

In other words, poorly qualified leads are a time-suck?

The Accept-Chatbots-Into-Your-Heart Argument

Well, that�s where today�s blogpost comes into the picture????

We wrote a guide explaining how chatbots can help you get higher quality leads that convert waaaaaay faster?

Check it out below????

How Chatbots Can Help Close Mortgage Leads Faster

Hint the answer is lead quality

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A Chatbot about... ????????????

By Ish from Tars • Issue #156 • View online

REAL QUICK BEFORE WE START: In case you guys missed our email???? from earlier this week, we�re hosting a webinar???? about quiz chatbots???? this Thursday (12/12). You can find out more about it over ????HERE????

Now for the regularly scheduled programming????

Ok so its been sometime since we sent you a newsletter so we thought we�d make this one a bit more fun than usual????

Instead of subjecting you to a blogpost about how chatbots???? are the future of marketing, we�re going to subject you to a chatbot about

????

I just realized that if I tell you the topic right now, then you�d have less incentive to click onto the bot???? so instead, I�ll give you three hints about what the topic is before you jump on????

Elon Musk????
Bladerunner????
Trapezoid????

And with that, I present to you our mystery bot for the day????

(Click the gif to open up the bot, in case you hadn�t realized yet)

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[Webinar Recording] Quiz Chatbots????????????

By Ish from Tars • Issue #157 • View online

Ok so here�s a funny story that you guys will probably enjoy????

We hosted our second webinar this week on how quiz chatbots???? and everything was going super smoothly until catastrophe struck at the 34 min mark????

As Arnav (the host of the webinar) was just starting his earnest explanation of the option value feature in the TARS builder, a frickin fruit fly flew into is mouth and down his throat????

Now if you watch the recording of the webinar (which you can find over ????HERE???? BTW), you can see the exact moment this happens (at 34:13), and it. is. GLOOOORIOOOUUUS!????

If you slow down the video, you can see the dread appear on his face like pimple on a 14 year old and as if that wasn�t enough, the next 20 seconds are a quick, but nonetheless satisfying foray into the wonderful world of Schadenfreude????

I mean the raw human suffering that washes over is face are pure gold????

This has honestly been the highlight of my week� hands down the best damn video I�ve had the pleasure of watching since last Thursday when I stumbled upon this old VICE documentary about an anarchist skate park????

Anyways, if you want some solid fruit-fly based comedy, I highly recommend that you watch the recording below????

You might also learn something about how to boost the user engagement metrics on your marketing campaigns????, but let�s be real, that�s secondary to the fruit fly incident????

How To Conduct User Engagement Quizzes Through A Chatbot

Fruit flies� fruit flies everywhere

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[Podcast] Using Chatbots To Optimize Small Business Websites

By Ish from Tars • Issue #158 • View online

Real quick, before we begin: We�re hosting another webinar, this Thursday (19/12) at 10AM EST on� Where you should NOT use chatbots????

I know that this premise seems antithetical to everything we say in these newsletters but the content team assures me that the webinar will be worth your time???????

Find out more and sign up over ????????HERE????????

Now for the fun stuff????

When I can�t think of what to write in these newsletters, I dump the most important word from the email subject into the GIPHY search bar???? and see if there are any interesting/funny/bizarre results that I can use as inspiration????

Today, the word I selected was �optimize� and as always GIPHY delivered!????

Hidden away in between all the standard SNL, Simon Cowell, and weird psychadelic GIFs was this weird GIF about fuel economy????

Being the procrastinator that I am, I decided that instead of getting back to newsletter writing, I had to investigate who in their right mind was posting GIFs about fuel economy on GIPHY?????????, because when you think of GIFs you don�t generally think �Ah yes, the ideal medium for me to discuss energy efficiency????�

So I clicked on the GIF, and the creator of the was none other than????????

ARCO, the multi-billion dollar oil company that sells some of the cheapest gas in LA

At first I was super confused because????:

Why does an oil company feel like they need a GIPHY account ????
Do they really think that anyone (except me apparently) is going to use a GIF about fuel efficiency????

But then I thought about it some more and I realized that it was the perfect (albeit long-winded) intro to today�s piece of content????

In the age of digital marketing, every single business is looking for ways to grab a share of customer attention????

At TARS, for example, we run social media ads????, send newsletters????, run webinars???? and in some cases even create weird GIFs???? just so that you guys will give us even a fraction of your time?

Now for big companies (like ARCO), doing this is relatively easy????

They make billions of dollars so they can literally hire a team of people just to handle their GIPHY account????????????

But what about small businesses?????

How do they survive in a marketing landscape where attention is scarce and the competition (in some cases) has nearly endless amounts of money?????

We spoke to Mike McGreevy at ZoomOut Group???? about how he helps small businesses in Pittsburgh, PA grab a share of the attention pie with their modest resources????

Check it out below????

How ZoomOut Group Helps Small Businesses Up Their Marketing Game Using Chatbots

It�s all about brand voice

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Chatbot Webinar???? + Year in Review? + Predictions????

By Ish from Tars • Issue #160 • View online

Alright, it�s New Year�s day and I�m nursing a pretty decent hangover from the TARS end of year party last night so I�m gonna make this snappy!????

We have three things on the docket for today:

A webinar????
2019 recap?
2020 predictions????

Here�s the complete rundown of each one????

Webinar

idk if you saw our email from a couple of days ago, but our New Years resolutions at TARS are????

host more webinars????
create more interesting bots????

To start off on both of these resolutions, we are hosting a webinar about appointment-booking chatbots on Jan 8th (Wed) at 1PM EST.

If you want to book more meetings/sales calls/demos???? with your customers, find out more over ????HERE????

2019 Recap

2019 was a pretty awesome year for TARS

We increased revenue 2.5x????
Tripled the size of our team???????????????????
Upped our ACV by 5x????
Improved our capital-efficiency ($4 new ARR for every $1 burned) #valuesaas
Got a new office???? (more on that in an upcoming newsletter)

Here�s to 2020 being even better????

2020 Predictions

Speaking of 2020, we thought it might be fun to make some predictions about what�s going to happen in 2020 in the world of digital marketing, so we disinvited the entire content team from the office party, locked them in the supply closet and forced them to write this listicle????

7 Digital Marketing Trends To Look Out For In 2020

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Let us know what you think about our predictions, and of course�

Happy New Year from everyone here at TARS!????????

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[Webinar Recording] Kill All The Chatbots????

By Ish from Tars • Issue #159 • View online

In case you guys missed the memo, we hosted our third webinar this week, and you know what?????

I think we�re getting pretty good at this!????

First of all, Arnav, the webinar host, didn�t swallow a fruit fly this time around????????

Second, we finally got the session duration down to under an hour??

Third�well� there really isn�t a third plus point but I�m going to count this as a complete win!????

The best part about webinars is that we feel way more comfortable???? putting out content like this because it comes more naturally to us????

This back-and-forth from our Slack group captures why pretty well????

Anyways, the webinar was about where you should???? and, perhaps more importantly, where you should NOT???? use chatbots to see the best possible results from them????

It�s our last webinar of the decade???? so check it out below????

How To Get The Most Out Of Conversational Tech In Digital Marketing

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[Webinar] Zapier + Chatbot = ????

By Ish from Tars • Issue #163 • View online

If you guys aren�t aboard the Zapier hype train, you are truly missing out!

Here�s why????

First of all, it's just straight up useful????

For the uninitiated, Zapier is this kick-ass software that automates tasks/data transfers across apps?

At TARS for e.g. every time we capture a new lead through one of our bots????, we use Zapier to automatically send that lead to our CRM???? which is honestly, pretty frickin useful???????

Second, it's magical????

Few products delight me as much as Zapier does????

I have literally automated hundreds of tasks using Zapier, but to this day, but every time I create a new zap (each automation is called a zap in Zapier) I feel a childlike thrill everytime I push that first piece of data between my apps????

It�s truly magical???????

Third, it integrates with TARS????

Yep� you heard that right� you can automatically send your chatbot-captured leads to any of the hundreds of apps available on Zapier automagically????

We were so excited by the possibilities of this integration that we actually hosted an entire webinar showing you how you can make use of it earlier this week!????

Check it out below????

How to integrate your TARS chatbot with the hundreds of apps using Zapier

Get industry insights and best practices on conversational marketing, chatbots, lead generation, and conversion rate optimization.

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[Webinar Recording] Meeting Chatbots????????

By Ish from Tars • Issue #162 • View online

Picture this????

You�re hosting a webinar????

There are dozens of people on the session watching you???????????? and about 45 mins in you realize that the 5 cups of coffee? you drank before the webinar have made their way to your bladder which is literally about to burst ????

What do you do?????

Option 1: Grit and bear????

The method of champions and masochists but it does work.

We hosted a webinar about appointment-booking chatbots earlier this week and this is the method that our host, Arnav, used to get through the session????

He almost broke his recording equipment when he ran to the bathroom after the session ended (tripping on chords is a real bummer), but we got a pretty solid webinar out of it so it all worked out in the end????

If you�re interested in learning more about how you can book more sales calls/demos/appointments using a chatbot????, or you want to watch a masterclass on holding your piss in, check out the full recording below????

How to make an appointment booking chatbot using TARS

Get industry insights and best practices on conversational marketing, chatbots, lead generation, and conversion rate optimization.

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Oh also

As an added bonus we�re running an offer on this webinar where you can pay $499/year for a single appointment booking chatbot which is considerably cheaper than our regular plans???? so do give that link a look in????

Option 2: Piss your pants????

A solid option, because the camera only really captures the top of your body so none of your viewers will notice????

BUUUUUT????

If your recording studio has carpeted floors (which ours does), this could possibly means spending the next 2 hours painstakingly washing your on pee out of the fibers so not ideal!????

Option 3: Politely Excuse Yourself????

I�ve never seen this happen before but theoretically, you could just tell the people on the webinar that you need to go pee and then excuse yourself????

The only issue is that it�s probably going to be super awkward/embarrassing when you return because well� you just excused yourself from a live session to go pee????

Also if your office is small, there�s a risk that your attendees will hear you flush which just compounds the embarrassment????

Option 4: Fake Technical Difficulties????

A super easy option especially if your recording equipment, like ours has kill switches on it????

�

Actually, why the hell didn�t we use this option?????

This would have been way easier and less painful????

What do you think?

Which option is best? Let us know by replying to this email????

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[Webinar] FAQ chatbots for higher conversions????????

By Ish from Tars • Issue #164 • View online

Picture this????

A prospect lands on your page, and they really like your product!????

They are about to fill out your lead capture form, but then something catastrophic happens????

They start to doubt themselves????

What is the pricing plan for your law firm? ????

What are the timings for your auto repair shop?????

What documents are they going to need to complete the mortgage application process? ????

Regardless of which industry you work in, there is at least one basic, easily-answerable, nagging doubt that a lot of your prospects have before they convert and that�s a huge problem???? because invariably, a lot of those �doubtful� prospects will drop from your page and vanish into thin air????

That would suck right?

Now, what if I told you there was a way to prevent this unfortunate situation from arising????

FAQ Chatbots???? are an effective way to resolve the repetitive queries that cause your digital marketing prospects to drop from your page before converting into a lead?

Next Wednesday (5th Feb) at 1PM EST, we�re hosting a webinar???? in which we�ll show you exactly how you can build one of these FAQ chatbots for your business so that you can reduce bounce???? rate, increase lead conversion???? and drive more sales????

You can secure your spot for the session using the link below????

How to improve your lead conversion rate using an FAQ chatbot�

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[Chatbot Best Practice] Keeping messages concise????????????

By Ish from Tars • Issue #161 • View online

Before we start with the regular content: Quick reminder that we�re hosting a webinar today (1/8) at 1PM EST on appointment booking chatbots????. There�s still time to secure your spot over ????HERE????

Now back the regularly scheduled content????

I�d like to think I�m a pretty easy-going guy????

I don�t really have any pet peeves???? and I�m really good at respecting my colleagues� bizzarre breakroom fridge requirements (Vinit, from the TARS tech team insists that we reserve the top shelf of the fridge for his hobby arctic fungi culture????)

BUT�

There is one increasingly common occurrence that boils my blood ????

Inappropriately Long Chatbot Messages????

Every so often, I�ll get an email from a marketer asking me to look into why their bot isn�t converting, and when I open up the bot I�m greeted with this????

I don�t get it!???????

What do they expect to happen when they send a literal wall of text to their prospects?!????????????

Of course they aren�t going to convert! ????

It�s 2020! If it isn�t shorter than a tweet then most people don�t want to read it????

That�s why we add so many gifs in these newsletters!!!????

Anywaaaaaaaaaays all of my ranting aside, to combat this issue we created a guide explaining how you can/should keep your chatbot messages concise to guarantee more conversions!????

Thankfully for you, the guide is in video format, so you don�t have to read anything????

How To Boost User Engagement In Your Chatbot Using Message Length

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[Webinar Recording] Chatbots for Mobile Optimization????

By Ish from Tars • Issue #166 • View online

I am having a terrible, no good, very bad day and I need to vent about it????

My vespa had a flat tire this morning so I had to Uber to work????

Uber surge priced the living daylights out of me because it was peak hour????

When I finally did make it to the office I found that Vinit had glued all of my stuff to the ceiling????

And guess what?!?!

We haven�t even gotten to the worst part yet!

The worst part was that when I looked up repair services to get my stuff unstuck from the ceiling, I had to deal with the most sadistic/cruel/evil creation in mankind�s history????

Bad Mobile Landing Pages????

These landing pages guys�

Bad is actually an understatement for what they were????

You know that thing that happens when you move from a desktop landing page to a mobile landing page and all of the blank space and images just disappear so the only thing left on the screen is text???? and maybe a form?

Yeah�

These landing pages were basically YA novels explaining why I needed to hire that specific ceiling repair shop to get my furniture unstuck from the ceiling????

I mean come on� the only people who are looking up �how to get my desk unstuck from the ceiling"???? and then clicking on your oddly specific ad for your "ceiling desk removal services� are probably having a bad day so you could at least have the courtsey of showing them an image or two!!!????

If you think that you have a mobile landing page that is in anyway similar to the ones I encountered (i.e. in need of a complete reboot), you should check out the webinar we hosted on this exact topic earlier this week????

In it we discuss how conversational landing pages can be used to drive higher user engagement and more conversions on mobile????

Why Conversational Landing Pages Are The Future Of Mobile Marketing

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[Podcast] Revolutionizing a Market Using Chatbots

By Ish from Tars • Issue #165 • View online

QUICK REMINDER: If you missed our email from earlier this week, we are hosting a webinar next Wednesday (2/19) at 1PM ET in which we�ll explain why conversational landing pages are the best way to mobile optimize your mobile lead gen experience????

If you haven�t refreshed your mobile buyer journey in some time, I highly recommend that you secure your spot over here???? https://hellotars.com/resources/webinars/mobile-marketing/

Now back to the regularly scheduled programming for today????

Few people know this about me, but before my current incarnation (as a startup founder), I used to work in management consulting and I HATED IT!????

Don�t get me wrong�

The skills I learned and the people I met while I was a consultant still have an impact on me today, but it really didn�t take me long to realize that the daily grind of a 9-to-5 was not it for me???????

When I eventually did take the plunge, and jump into the world of business I felt like I had finally found my �thing� in life????

Entrepreneurship is hard AF, and the transition was by no means easy, but I woke up everyday feeling a sense of purpose!????

This week, we had the pleasure of speaking with Dessie Moonsamy, a TARS bot making wizard, who has a similar story????

Over the last two years Dessie has transitioned from working in one of South Africa�s largest telecom providers???? to running his own digital marketing agency????

In this new capacity he works with every one from the small mom and pop restaurant on the corner???? to some of South Africa�s largest enterprises???? find their voice through a full suite of marketing services (including chatbots????)

If you�re interested in making a similar switch or are just interested in the tactics that Dessie uses to deliver value at scale, check out his full story below????

How DTLM Consulting Is Revolutionizing The South African Digital Marketing Industry Using Chatbots

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Happy Diwali!????

By Ish from Tars • Issue #187 • View online

Hey there!

It's been some time since we've sent you one of these, and I figured I owe you an explanation.

Content creation is an iterative process and every quarter we readjust our focus based on what worked and what didn't the previous quarter.

Usually this process of refocusing take a couple of weeks to finish up and things like newsletters kinda fall through the cracks in that time?????

We are going to restart in earnest starting with this issue though, so keep an eye out on your inbox.

But enough with the shop talk!

It is Diwali this weekend and since a lot of our readers (and most of our team) is celebrating we wanted to wish you a Happy Diwali!??

We hope you have a great (and more importantly safe) weekend.

Best,

Ish

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[Podcast] Chatbot Automation for Law Firms (Or any small business for that matter)

By Ish from Tars • Issue #178 • View online

Before we begin, a reminder that we're hosting a webinar next Thursday (23/7) at 12PM IST about WhatsApp Chatbots for Customer Service Automation. Secure your spot here??https://hellotars.com/resources/webinars/whatsapp-customer-service-chatbot/

Now back to the regularly scheduled program for the day??

A few months back Vinit and his cronies in the TARS product development team were in the process of building a payment integration feature into our chatbots (coming soon BTW) and in the process accidentally took down the global banking system for exactly 5 milliseconds.

Suffice it to say, the government was not pleased and arrested Vinit!

Not wanting to lose my CTO and co-founder for up to 40 years, I did what any self-respecting startup founder would in my situation:

I googled "good lawyers" , clicked the first link that popped up (an ad), and booked a free consultation with the number #1 accident attorney in the area to get the Vinit out of jail.

Unfortunately for us, the ad that I clicked on was doing so well that after the initial phone call, the wait time for getting an in-person (or I guess in-zoom) meeting with our new lawyer was months long!

Not wanting to get in any more trouble, we resorted to Plan B!

The marketing team and I fired up the trusty TARS portal gun, hopped a couple of dimensions over to a strange world called "Baltimore" (where they've apparently fixed the inefficiencies of small law firms), forced one of their lawyers (his name is Jared, and he's actually really cool) onto a trans-dimensional zoom call with our lawyer, and then, at portal gun point got him to spill the beans on how his world had achieved peak law firm efficiency!

Now, I know what you're thinking.

That was a convoluted plan to get lawyer

But guess what?!

It worked!

The coerced zoom call was so was so productive that using Jared's teachings our lawyer was able to improve their ad efficiency, reduce wait times for consultations, and most importantly keep Vinit out of trouble with the government!

In fact, we were so pleased with the results that we brought Jared back on for an interview on our podcast where he shared his efficiency tactics in a consumable 30-min package for you guys to listen to!

If you run a law firm (or any small business for that matter), I highly suggest that you give the interview a listen! You might learn a thing or two about making your marketing and customer service campaigns more efficient ??

How Chatbot Automation Helps Law Firms Get More Clients

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[Webinars] Customer Support Chatbots and Personalized Leadgen Flows

By Ish from Tars • Issue #172 • View online

Unless you're living in an alternate dimension where the COVID-19 pandemic isn't happening, I assume you are working from home right now??.

The entire TARS team has been on WFH for the last three-ish weeks and we have found an ingenious strategy to keep our famed office culture alive

Zoom Coffee Breaks???

The idea is quite simple.

Everyone jumps onto a zoom call and then we throw up an episode or two of Rick and Morty and then just chill for a little bit??

It's certainly not the same as being in the same office, but it helps us feel connected!??

And for the folks on the team who aren't into Rick and Morty, we just throw on our webinar recordings?? from the previous week and they seem to be pretty satisfied??!

Speaking of webinars, we've got two coming up next week that you should totally check out??

How To Create Personalized Lead Gen Flows Using A Chatbot??

A lot of digital marketers don't realize this but you can use visitor data to do a lot more than retargeting and after-the-fact CRO??

Using the conditional jump feature in TARS chatbots dozens of our customers have created personalized lead gen flows that dynamically change their messaging based on the who the user's data?.

If this sounds interesting to you, join us next Tuesday (4/7) at 11AM EDT and we'll show you exactly how you can implement this powerful feature into your marketing stack??

You can claim your spot over here??

https://hellotars.com/resources/webinars/chatbot-lead-generation-flows/

How To Automate Your Customer Support Operation Using A Chatbot

Most businesses rely on human-customer support systems to troubleshoot queries and unfortunately implementing these systems is expensive??

Between HR, office space and payroll, you are probably dropping a lot of money on customer support, and if you're outsourcing your customer support the situation is worse because your contractor is charging you fat margin on top of all of those costs??

And none of that is even mentioning the potential downtime you can have if a global pandemic strikes and yoru call center/office/customer support center goes down!??

Join us next Thursday (4/9) at 11AM EDT to learn how chatbots can help you cirvumvent these problems by automating the customer support process??

You can claim your spot over here?? https://hellotars.com/resources/webinars/customer-support-chatbot/

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[Webinars] Chatbots and Druids???????

By Ish from Tars • Issue #173 • View online

We have A LOT of stuff to cover in today's newsletter so let's cut the small talk and jump right in?????

#1: Chatbot Building Best Practices Webinar

We're hosting a webinar this Thursday (4/16) at 11AM ET where we'll show you 5 dead-simple tactics that you can use to improve your chatbot UX??

You can find out more about the webinar and secure your spot over here??

https://hellotars.com/resources/webinars/chatbot-best-practice/

5 best practices for a more engaging chatbot UX

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#2: Customer Support Automation Webinar

We hosted a webinar last week about customer support automation in which Levi and Arnav talked about how you can save money, time and stress by incorporating chatbot agents into your customer support workflow??

If you missed it, don't worry because you can check out the full recording over here??

https://hellotars-1.wistia.com/medias/97urh584qb

How to Automate Your Customer Support Operation Using A Chatbot

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#3: The Story of the Lost Zoom Recording

If you pay close attention to these emails, you'll also know that we hosted a second webinar last week about hyper-personalized chatbot leadgen flows that improve conversion rates and lead quality (sounds pretty awesome right!)

So where's the recording for that webinar you ask?

Well.

We lost it!

The official story we gave the webinar police was that zoom had a glitch and didn't record the session so, but the actual story is a little bit more. weird??

Check it out below??

So the story actually begins month and a half ago, in the pre-coronavirus lockdown days??

Abhilash, from the marketing team made the fatal error of eating Vinit's blueberry Chobani from the break room fridge, and. well.

Let's just say that Vinit was not pleased ??

After giving a surprisingly erudite lecture about Locke's Two Treatises of Government to the entire office, Vinit did what he always does when he's wants to exact revenge on someone.

Cast an obscure 9th century druid curse on the offending party?????

We didn't make much of this threat at first because usually Vinit's curses don't work.

But then last Tuesday the strangest thing happened!

After finishing up our webinar about personalized lead gen flows, we opened up the recording to make some final edits only to find that the audio had been replaced with goat sounds.

Yes. you read that right

Vinit used a time-delayed druid spell to replace the human language in our webinar with incomprehensible bleats.

Now as I mentioned earlier the official record will read that "Zoom had a glitch so we lost the recording," but I think the real takeaway that we should all remember from this story is that if you accidentally eat a programmer's yogurt, they will exact a mildly-annoying, farm animal-based druid spell on your webinar software.

Do with that what you will, but I know that I'm never touching an unmarked Chobani ever again.

Cheers,

Ish

P.S. We'll re-record and share the lost webinar with you sometime this week or next

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Podcast Bonanza??

By Ish from Tars • Issue #181 • View online

You know why podcasts are awesome.

They give you a break from your screen but at the same time they let you stay connected to the hive mind of knowledge that is the internet.

I listen to podcasts when I walk and I definitely feel good not staring at my screen for 30ish minutes that I'm walking but I still get to blast my brain with information living on an AWS server.

With that here are three podcasts to get you through your week??

The right way to think about running a business

In this week's TARS conversations we spoke with Prasanna Krishnamoorthy, Partner at the Upekkha Catalyst Accelerator about what it takes to run a successful B2B SaaS startup like TARS.

Now I know that might sounds kinda jargony, but to be quite honest with you Prasanna's teachings are applicable across the world of business, regardless of what industry you're in.

If you want to learn about how you can serve your customers better in trying times like the ones we're in right now, give the interview a listen??

How To Build A Profitable B2B SaaS Business Without Giving Away All Your Equity - Tars Blog

What does it take to run a successful SaaS startup? Lots of funding? A high valuation?? That's what most people think, but it doesn't necessarily have to be the case. Since 2017, TARS has been part of the Upekkha Catalyst Accelerator, a startup accelerator at the forefront of the ValueSaaS movement, which aims to build .

hellotars.com • Share

Getting your pricing right

I spoke with Justin Gordon from the Just Go Grind podcast about the TARS story (pretty standard stuff), and we ended up having a super insightful conversation about pricing your product/services right.

I've found that, at least in software, a lot of businesses don't really pay much thought to their pricing and that hurts their bottom line, because in most cases they severely undervalue themselves (something we found out the hard way).

If you want to learn about how you can price your products/services better (regardless of industry) check out the interview below??

#132: Ish Jindal, Co-Founder and CEO of Tars, on Bootstrapping from $0 to $1M in ARR with a SaaS Company for Marketers

Ish Jindal is the Co-Founder and CEO of Tars, a company that improves your PPC conversion rate by 50-200% through conversational landing pages.

www.justgogrind.com • Share

Designing Better Chatbots

Finally, Arnav from our team sat down with Hans van den Berg over at the Bot Implementation Institute to talk about chatbot building best practices.

While the tactics shared in this podcast could benefit all chatbot creators, I think that they are especially useful for people who are just getting into the chatbot creation game.

This is a great primer on how you can get into the right headspace to build better chatbots??

BMP-23 Interview with Arnav Patel of TARS Chatbots - Bot Implementation Institute

In this episode we Interview Arnav Patel of Tars Chatbots. He is a chatbot expert and the Marketing Lead at Tars. He shares some great insights on chatbot implementations in general and shares why the Tars chatbot platform is a great choice.

botimplementation.com • Share

Cheers,

Ish

P.S. If you haven't done so already, join our Facebook Group where our botmaking community discusses all things chatbot??

https://www.facebook.com/groups/tarscommunity/

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Webinars, webinars everywhere

By Ish from Tars • Issue #169 • View online

TLDR; A spontaneous webinar tomorrow and three webinar recordings from last week. Scroll to the bottom for the links.

You guys would have probably noticed that we've been doing a lot of webinars recently, and we owe you an explanation for that!??

There are really three reasons for this change:

1) We looked at the data (from the survey we sent out a couple of weeks back), and it's clear that of all our content, you guys like webinars best??.

2) We looked into the deepest, darkest depths of our own souls and found, couched in between the irrational fear of pool noodles and unhealthy trust issues, that webinars were our favorite type of content as well??.

3) We've been working from home the last couple of weeks, and webinars help us feel less lonely, because we can turn it on and pretend like we're back in the office??.

So with that out of the way, here's some more webinar-related news??

TARS After Hours??

We're hosting something of an impromptu live session tomorrow (3/27) at 1PM EDT called TARS After Hours where, Vinit and Arnav are going to jump on a stream and talk about what's on their minds??.

This isn't a chatbot or marketing-related webinar (though we might do a spontaneous live build). Rather, it's a way to give you guys exclusive access to the TARS backstage??.

If you're interested in joining, signup using our CLP over here?? https://chatbot.hellotars.com/conv/EklNTt/

Webinars From Last Week

We kinda just went for it and did three webinars last week! Here are the recordings in case you guys wanted to attend but missed them:

A sneak peek of the features coming TARS this spring I TARS Webinars

Vinit from tech?? and Arnav from marketing?? are going to discuss all of the features that we are releasing on the TARS builder this Spring (including a sneak peak at a feature that we're dropping next week) and as if that weren't enough we'll even let you guys give feature requests at the end of the session!??

hellotars.com • Share

How to integrate GIPHY in your TARS chatbot I TARS Webinars

We love gifs, we love chatbots?? and we love webinars??, so it only seemed natural for us to combine them into the monstrosity that is the webinar topic.

hellotars.com • Share

Conversational Landing Pages vs Chatbot Widgets | TARS Webinars

Conversational Landing Pages, Website Widgets, FB Messenger.There are a whole bunch of places you can deploy your chatbots?? But which option should you choose to get the best results in your marketing campaigns???

hellotars.com • Share

Oh also, if you've made it this far, please consider sending us some feedback about the webinars, these newsletters or even my hairstyle if you please??

Everything you send goes to my personal inbox, so I read everything!

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Chatbots to fight Coronavirus Pandemic!

By Ish from Tars • Issue #171 • View online

Like you, we've been trying to make sense of the ongoing?Coronavirus crisis?and in the process,?we've read a bunch of informative content on the topic!

We created a bunch of chatbots as a way for us to share those learnings with you!

Check them out below??

Screening Chatbot

We worked with a hospital to create a COVID-19 screening chatbot. This bot asks you a set of simple questions about how you're feeling, scores your responses, and then uses those scores to make a recommendation about whether you should get tested or not.

Check it out here: https://covid19.hellotars.com/conv/E1oEuP/

FAQ Chatbot

The name is pretty self-explanatory, this bot answers frequently asked questions about the COVID-19 crisis. We noticed in our research that a lot of the guides online address the same issues over and over again, and this chatbot compiles those recurring topics into a single engaging conversational flow.

Check it out here: https://coronavirus.hellotars.com/conv/NJJrH-/

Case Tracker Chatbot

Using Microsoft Bing's COVID-19 API, Vinit from the tech team created a chatbot that shares real-time information about how many coronavirus cases, recoveries and deaths there are in your part of the world.

Check it out here: https://covidcases.hellotars.com/conv/VJXnAu/

Before you leave.

If you work in the health services space (or any other industry on the frontline of this crisis), we are willing to offer you free access to our chatbot builder and chatbot creation team to develop informational chatbots (like the ones above) to help you in your fight against COVID-19.

Respond to this email if you want to take us up on this offer or have another collaboration idea that you want to pitch us??

Cheers,

Ish

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Coronavirus and TARS

By Ish from Tars • Issue #170 • View online

We had a team huddle earlier today to discuss our business in the time of Coronavirus and the conclusion we arrived at was that our efforts would be best spent researching how we can be of most value to you until this situation blows over.

We aren't doctors so we can't fight the virus head-on, but we are familiar with the world of business and we can help your company navigate these uncertain times!

To that end, we have a? couple of questions that we were hoping you could answer for us.??

What disruptions to your business have you seen in the last couple of weeks, if any?
Has your customer support operation been affected in any way?
Is there anything that we can be doing to help you better? (specific product updates that might make your life easier for example)

If you have a couple of minutes to spare, respond to this email with your answers.??

And just so you know, your reply will go directly to my inbox (ish@hellotars.com) so don't think of this as a mass email??.

Think of it as a direct line to me??!

Cheers,

Ish

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Thoughts and Opinions about Conversational Interfaces

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[Webinar] AI Chatbots ????

By Ish from Tars • Issue #174 • View online

TLDR; Webinar this Thursday (4/23) at 11AM ET about how you can add Natural Language Processing ("AI" if you will) to your TARS chatbots. Signup link here??https://hellotars.com/resources/webinars/ai-nlp-chatbot/

Last week we achieved the impossible at TARS??

On a grainy-af zoom call (in which only 60% of the participants were wearing pants), we brought into this world the first ever.

Super-intelligent AI??

Seriously guys, this thing was a sight to behold??

In a matter of milliseconds it proved the Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture, composed three dozen completely original concertos, and perhaps most impressive of all, it taught my dog to not pee on the god damn couch??

This is most certainly not how real AI works

Unfortunately, we can't show you the AI today because Vinit deleted the code from our shared drive to make space for the HD copy Downton Abbey Season 5?????

To make it up to you guys we bring you this??

??

NLP Chatbots Webinar

This Thursday (4/23) at 11AM ET, we're going to be hosting a webinar in which we explain how you can integrate your TARS chatbot with Google's Dialogflow Natural Language Processing (NLP) engine to create chatbots that can "understand" what your prospects are saying??

Now to be clear, we aren't going to show you how to make Jarvis from Iron Man??

Unless we can retrieve the code that Vinit deleted, that is an impossibility??

BUUUUT, we are going to show you how basic NLP can be used to improve the UX of your chat-based leadgen flows and convert higher-quality leads??

If you're interested in taking your leadgen game to the next level, secure your spot over here??https://hellotars.com/resources/webinars/ai-nlp-chatbot/

How to create an NLP chatbot using Dialogflow?? and TARS??

Get industry insights and best practices on conversational marketing, chatbots, lead generation, and conversion rate optimization on Tars webinars.

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Live chat is finally here (?by Zendesk)

By Ish from Tars • Issue #183 • View online

I'm not kidding.

We've finally made the jump and given you the ability to integrate live chat into your Tars Chatbots using our brand new Tars-Zendesk Live Chat Integration.

Since this product update is kind of a big deal, I'm going to do this newsletter a bit differently.

If you want to check out the integration immediately, go to our producthunt listing below, give us an upvote, and start using it right away!

If you have the patience/inclination to learn more about why we built this integration, keep scrolling, I'll give you the full rundown

Tars Chatbot ?? Zendesk Chat - Summon Zendesk Live Chat Agent inside your Tars Chatbot | Product Hunt

An integration that lets Tars chatbots seamlessly hand conversations off to a human agent in Zendesk. Using this integration: ??Tars users can add live chat to their chatbots ??Zendesk users can automate up to 70% of their customer conversations

www.producthunt.com • Share

I thought bots were the best. Why live chat?!?!

Great question!

In these newsletters we constantly harp on about how chatbots are the future of customer engagement and how everyone should use chatbots, and guess what we still believe all of that!

Chatbots are in fact the future of customer engagement, and they will make your business more efficient if you use them.

But, that doesn't mean that they are perfect.

There are still some situations in which human agents work better and by integrating with Zendesk Live Chat, we give you the option of pulling a human agent into the conversation when those situations arise.

When does live chat work better than bots?

To answer this question, let's take a look at an example.

Lets say a 1000 people click onto your landing page through an ad.

900 of them drop because. well. that's just what ad-click prospects do!

Of the remaining 100, 40 know that they want to buy your product/service and after skimming through the info on your page want to share their contact details with you.

For these 40 prospects you should use a chatbot to capture their lead information!

The chatbot is going to be 10x more engaging than a boring lead capture form and lets be real pulling in a human agent to collect someone's email id and phone number is overkill. It would be a complete waste of time, effort and money to allocate valuable agent time to a mundane task like this.

Let the bot do the grunt work!

Now we're left with the 60 remaining prospects who stayed on the page but aren't fully sure about your pulling the lead gen trigger yet.

These prospects are almost sure that they want to buy your product/service, but they have a few nagging questions that they need to get off their chest before they follow-through with it.

So how do you resolve their uncertainty and convert them into leads?

This is where things get a bit tricky.

In our experience, about 70% of these prospects (42 of them) will have basic queries like "what are your hours of operation?," and "what is your pricing structure like?."

Like with the leadgen flow, these basic queries don't need a human being to resolve. A chatbot can easily answer these questions.

The remaining 30% (18 prospects), though, will have complex questions that are completely unique to their individual circumstances (think about questions like "I want to whitelabel your product and resell it. Can we discuss a partnership agreement?").

A chatbot is not going to be able to handle these questions because let's be real, AI is not quite at that level yet, and you are almost definitely going to need to hand the conversation off to an actual human being.

This is where live chat comes into the picture.

By having the ability to hand conversations off to a human being for complex queries, a chatbot can ensure that no prospect is left on the table for your competitors to snap up.

And that is why we built the Tars-Zendesk Live Chat Integration.

Ok I'm convinced. How do I get started?

Well for starters, go give our producthunt listing an upvote??

It helps us get in front of more people and get new customers.

Tars Chatbot ?? Zendesk Chat - Summon Zendesk Live Chat Agent inside your Tars Chatbot | Product Hunt

An integration that lets Tars chatbots seamlessly hand conversations off to a human agent in Zendesk. Using this integration: ??Tars users can add live chat to their chatbots ??Zendesk users can automate up to 70% of their customer conversations

www.producthunt.com • Share

Once you've done that, check out this kickass helpdoc that our tech team created. It's got everything you need to know to get started

How To Integrate Zendesk Live Chat Into Your Chatbot | Tars Help Center

This document outlines how to integrate the Zendesk Live Chat in your chatbot.

help.hellotars.com • Share

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Website Optimization Playbook????

By Ish from Tars • Issue #176 • View online

ICYMI: We're hosting a webinar next Thursday (9/7) to explain how you can build a leadgen chatbot for WhatsApp. If you want to drive business on the most popular messaging app in the world, secure your spot today!

Ok so for the main part of this newsletter I wanted to talk about a topic that is close to my heart.

Website Optimization

When I say close to my heart, I literally mean close to my heart.

We're currently in the process of reworking the TARS website and the stress associated with this process is giving me severe heart problems.

Seriously, our daily marketing catchups now are about 95% me hyperventilating into a brown paper bag about the website while Abhilash tries to calm me down over zoom with a cat toy.

One of the positives that has come out from the stress though, is that I have picked up some valuable tactics about the website optimization process that I think you fellow marketing nerds would love!

In fact, when I began the process, I stumbled upon a gem of a playbook that we published in collaboration with the folks over at Tamoco discussing the topic.

The playbook is chock-full of valuable tactics that you can use to improve your website's performance including one about Chatbot-driven Website Intelligence.

Check it out??

Website Optimization Playbook: How To Use Customer Data To Improve Site Conversions

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Cheers,

Ish

P.S. If you haven't done so already, join our Facebook Group where our botmaking community discuss all things chatbot??

https://www.facebook.com/groups/tarscommunity/

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Thoughts and Opinions about Conversational Interfaces

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Suprise Chatbot Webinars??????

By Ish from Tars • Issue #168 • View online

TLDR; We're hosting 3 webinars next week. Scroll down for the details

Arnav from our content marketing team had a bit of an early-life crisis this week and decided to be more spontaneous in life so he bought a motorcycle?? and promptly crashed it the dealership parking lot because he doesn't have a sense of balance??

To give him a considerably safer outlet for his new found desire for "spontaneity" we decided to let him hold not one. not two.. but THREE WHOLE CHATBOT WEBINARS next week

Here are the deets??

Webinar 1: What's The Best Way To Deploy A Chatbot?

Conversational Landing Pages, Website Widgets, FB Messenger.

There are a whole bunch of places you can deploy your chatbots. But which option should you choose to get the best results in your marketing campaigns?

Join us for a webinar next Monday (16th March) at 1PM ET to find out the answer to this question!

Here's the signup link??https://hellotars.com/resources/webinars/conversational-landing-pages-vs-chatbot-widgets/

Webinar 2: How to integrate GIPHY in your TARS chatbot

We love gifs, we love chatbots and we love webinars, so it only seemed natural for us to combine them into the monstrosity that is this second webinar topic.

Next Wednesday (18th March) at 1PM ET we're going to show you how you can hookup your TARS chatbot with the GIPHY API so that you can dynamically pull engaging gifs into your lead gen flows?

Here's the signup link??https://hellotars.com/resources/webinars/tars-giphy-integration/

Webinar 3: A Sneak Peak Of The Features Coming TARS This Spring

This last one is a thank you gift to our most loyal users.

Next Friday (20th March) at 1PM ET, Vinit and Arnav are going to discuss all of the features that we are releasing on the TARS builder this Spring (including a sneak peak at a feature that we're dropping next week) and as if that weren't enough we'll even let you guys give feature requests at the end of the session!

If you're interested in getting direct access to the guys who make your chatbots possible, signup for the webinar over here?? https://hellotars.com/resources/webinars/upcoming-features/

Before I signoff

We love making webinars and it seems like you guys like them too, so if you have ideas about things we could cover, let us know by responding to this email??

Cheers,

Ish

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Thoughts and Opinions about Conversational Interfaces

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[Guide] How NOT to build a chatbot

By Ish from Tars • Issue #184 • View online

Before we begin with the main piece of content for the day, we are hosting a webinar Next Wednesday (9/16) at 12PM EST about how you can make your chatbots look more visually appealing. If you want to up your branding game, secure your spot today: https://hellotars.com/resources/webinars/chatbot-design-playbook/

Now back to the fun stuff??

Remember 2011?

I think we can all agree that 2011 was a pretty awesome year.

What a year! Rolling in the Deep by Adele was on top of the music charts, the last Harry Potter movie came out, James Franco bungled hosting the Oscars, and, of course, the world wasn't stuck in the middle of a pandemic??

For me, 2011 will always be special because it was the year Siri came out.

As a chatbot enthusiast, Siri stirs up mixed emotions.

It was the first widely available conversational agent that people could use and in a lot of ways was a pioneer in the conversational tech game. It's quite possible that TARS wouldn't be a thing if Siri hadn't come out.

But equally, it is a cautionary tale for anyone who decides to build a chatbot.

Siri. A Cautionary Tale.

It didn't take long after Siri came out for people to start noticing that it didn't quite live up to the promise of being 'a personal assistant in your pocket.' It didn't understand what users were saying and would often throw up ridiculous responses to seemingly easy requests.

And that reputation stuck with it!

Even today, 9 years after its release, TV shows and Movies still make jokes about voice assistants messing up

What does this have to do with chatbots?

Siri taught us when it comes to conversational tech, users expect nothing short of a buttery smooth experience.

There can be no clunkiness, no friction and certainly no errors (regardless of how minor) in the experience otherwise your users will get alienated and avoid the technology in the future.

This is something that every chatbot creator should keep in the back of their minds.

How do I NOT make bad chatbots?

Well, that's where today's content comes into the picture.

We wrote a guide telling you the 5 mistakes that you should absolutely avoid while building a chatbot.

Check it out below??

5 Don'ts When Writing a Script for a Chatbot - Tars Blog

Today, you can hardly find a business that doesn't have a chatbot. And there are quite a few good reasons for that. Did you know that 67% of consumers worldwide interacted with customer support through the chatbot over the past year?? Yes, and the growing demand for chatbots doesn't seem to lose height any time [.]

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Cheers,

Ish

P.S. If you haven't done so already, join our Facebook Group where our botmaking community discusses all things chatbot??

https://www.facebook.com/groups/tarscommunity/

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By Ish from Tars

Thoughts and Opinions about Conversational Interfaces

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[Webinar] Learn how to add live chat to your chatbot

By Ish from Tars • Issue #185 • View online

ICYMI we hosted a webinar about making your chatbots look more visually appealing earlier this week. If your chatbot needs to be spruced up, check out the recording over here: https://hellotars.com/resources/webinars/chatbot-design-playbook/

Now back to the regularly scheduled program??

The Dawn of Live Chat

Since this is a topic we've discussed in the not so distant past, I'm going to keep this newsletter brief.

A couple of weeks back, we launched the Zendesk Live Chat Integration on the Tars platform.

To refresh your memory real quick, the basic idea is that your chatbots can now seamlessly hand-off conversations to a live agent in Zendesk if the user has a complex query that only a human being can answer.

If you want to understand what value this integration can add to your existing marketing and customer service workflows, check out our newsletter from a couple of weeks back. It explains everything.

If you want to learn how to use the integration, though, we are hosting a webinar on Tuesday (9/29) at 12PM EST to explain how the feature can be used.

How To Add Live Chat To Your Tars Chatbots - Tars Webinar

In this webinar, we'll tell you all things about Tars' integration with Zendesk that allows you to switch between automated and live chat.

hellotars.com • Share

That's pretty much it for today!

Cheers,

Ish

P.S. If you haven't done so already, join our Facebook Group where our botmaking community discusses all things chatbot??

https://www.facebook.com/groups/tarscommunity/

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[Podcast] Why errors in your chatbot are a good thing

By Ish from Tars • Issue #180 • View online

ICYMI We're hosting a webinar on Thursday (8/6) at 12PM IST about how you can integrate your WhatsApp chatbot with your Facebook ads. It's pretty cool stuff so if you're interested secure your spot?? https://hellotars.com/resources/webinars/whatsapp-chatbot-in-facebook-ad/

Now back to the regularly scheduled program for the day.

Conventional wisdom states that errors are a bad thing.

But what if I told you they didn't have to be!

The quantum motor in my coffee maker broke the other day and to get the replacement part, Vinit and I had to pop over to dimension 1567A to get a replacement.

Unfortunately the portal gun was on the fritz so we accidentally got sent to dimension 1567B instead.

While Vinit was resetting the portal gun, I had a chance to explore this new dimension and it turned out that this was opposite world.

Good was evil, salt was pepper and errors were a good thing.

Even by our crazy dimension's standards this place was chaotic. People were driving their cars in reverse, using spaces instead of tabs, and, the worst one, claiming that Shake Shack was better than In-N-Out.

But, curiously enough, there was one exception to this trend!

For some reason, this dimension's chatbots were ah-mazing!

These things were works of art.

They captured leads, troubleshot customer support queries, collected feedback and administered quizzes with the confidence of a 4 year old in a Batman t-shirt.

It turns out that when you don't treat your chatbot's errors as a bad thing, you can improve the way it performs to the point where it blows your customers' minds.

Think about it this way. Errors are basically your customers' way of telling you what services you should offer through your bot.

Everytime your chatbot fails to give them what they want, that's your bot telling you what you should include for the next customer.

This finding was so profound that we got a person from dimension 1567B to share their secrets of chatbot creation with us.

Check it out below??

Why Errors Are A Chatbot's Superpower

The most common complaint we hear when we ask people about their experience with chatbots is "they suck because they always make mistakes."? This is undoubtedly true. We've all interacted with at least one chatbot that has said "sorry I can't answer that question yet." But what if I told you that these sorts of .

hellotars.com • Share

In all seriousness though, Shane Mac is a leader in the conversational tech space and he gave us the complete run down of how chatbot makers can use errors as intelligence as well as a whole bunch more actionable conversational design insights. It's a knowledge-filled 35-ish minutes that you really should not miss.

Cheers,

Ish

P.S. If you haven't done so already, join our Facebook Group where our botmaking community discusses all things chatbot??

https://www.facebook.com/groups/tarscommunity/