Optimizing B2B Conversion Rates — All My Tips and Strategies

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One of my favorite things to do is watch college football. And if you think I’m going to compare optimizing B2B conversion rates to football, you’re absolutely right.

Just like each player of the team needs to work together to score a touchdown, the parts of your B2B conversion strategy need to work in harmony to catch website visitors and turn them into paying customers.

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If there’s a weak link in your strategy (like a player on the team not performing at their best), you’ll need to tweak it or pull it from the roster.

For this post, I sat down with Daniel Lynch, President and Owner of Empathy First Media, to discuss optimizing B2B conversion rates. Settle in as we go over the differences between B2B CRO and B2C CRO, and I’ll share some of his tips to help you plan a winning conversion strategy.

Table of Contents

What is B2B conversion rate optimization?

Before I go too far into it, let’s take a moment to define B2B conversion rate optimization.

B2B conversion rate optimization (CRO) is a strategy to improve the number of desired actions on your website and landing pages. Ideally, your desired action, whether it’s a new sign-up in your forms, a new subscriber to your channel, or a click on a demo link, leads to a new conversion.

I like the way Lynch puts it. “In my opinion, where conversion rate optimization is going for B2B is not just the form fill,” he explained.

“Instead, it’s the first impression of what your brand offers. Like customizing it to that person and then having very detailed automated responses with sequences and chatbots. Then, using conversational artificial intelligence data enrichment to foster those conversations.”

Lynch said conversion rate optimization should really be dubbed “conversation rate optimization.” He said, “A conversation rate optimization is more than just a conversion. The conversion can be a vanity metric. But, conversations are what the goals should always be with marketing.”

CRO boils down to understanding the customer journey, identifying ways to improve it, and making it more appealing to potential customers to start a conversation. As your customers journey through your sales funnel, they come in contact with elements designed to grab their attention and spur them to action.

Those touch points include:

  • Sales and landing pages
  • Sign-up forms
  • Pop-ups
  • Call-to-actions (CTAs)
  • Compelling content and copy
  • Free trials and freemium tools

Making an effort to optimize each of these things can help convert a lead to a loyal customer. You’ll want to track and analyze each part of your conversion strategy to fully understand where you need to make changes to encourage more clicks or sign-ups.

Thankfully, there are tons of conversion rate optimization tools that can help you analyze your sales funnel and optimize your strategies. These tools can help you make appropriate, meaningful changes, as changing the wrong strategy or tweaking the wrong layer of your funnel could negatively impact your CRO.

You also don’t want to make a ton of changes at once. Instead, consider using a conversion rate optimization planner to help make small, meaningful, and measurable changes.

B2B CRO vs. B2C CRO

Let’s face it: Conversion rates vary across markets.

Even though over 60% of B2B and B2C leaders are leveraging AI tools for marketing, the marketing and conversion strategies that work well for each market are very different.

This means you can’t really use the same B2C tactics to optimize your B2B conversion rates. Logically, it’s still marketing, and it seems like the strategies you’d use for B2C sales should apply, but the B2B market is a whole different ball game.

Here’s why.

Target Audience

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As marketers, you and I both know how important it is to understand our target audience. You’ve likely spent time creating an audience persona to gain a deeper understanding of what makes your audience tick.

But, when it comes to B2C marketing, the audience persona is likely just one individual. Instead of appealing to a broad group of people, B2C marketers can get oddly specific in their personalized marketing strategies.

This is often easier because you really only need to influence one person to convert a sale — the individual buyer.

In B2B sales, though, the target audience is a wide range of people, from the CEO to the director of marketing to the content marketing manager.

For instance, let’s pretend your company sells engagement software designed to make connecting with customers easier. To really drive home the benefits of your software, you need to think about how it improves the workflows of each department within an organization.

This means you need to segment your audience into subcategories.

Going back to the engagement software example, your sales team will use that software differently than your marketing and customer support departments.

So, to really nail down how to connect with these groups, you’ll need to think about how your software can best serve them and tailor your approach to speak to those solutions.

Segmenting your audience isn’t just a good idea for companies — it’s a great strategy to bring in more revenue. 70% of companies use segmentation to better market to their customers. And, of those who use this strategy, 80% of those businesses see an increase in their profits.

So, if you want a better ROI and optimized conversion rates, consider segmenting your target audience.

Decision-Makers and Research

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As I mentioned, in B2C sales, a purchase is usually an individual decision. However, in B2B sales, the decision to make a purchase is a group activity.

With more stakeholders involved, there are more decision-makers. If those decision-makers are anything like me and have to research a product from all angles before purchasing, it means there will be double or triple the research notes before the group as a whole decides to purchase a product or service.

With more people helping to make a decision, individual research will likely uncover more purchase options for group consideration.

According to B2B SaaS Reviews, 27% of B2B buyers consider six or more options before making a purchase, compared to just 17% of B2C buyers.

This means that to convert visitors on your website who are somewhat interested in your product, you really need to position your product or service as the solution to their B2B needs — or you risk losing a lead to your competition.

Sales Cycle

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Remember the days when you watched infomercials in the middle of the night and were persuaded to purchase new exercise equipment that would solve all your insomnia problems?

For me, it took just thirty minutes into one infomercial to decide to buy a new piece of gym equipment.

The point of that story? The B2C sales cycle is relatively short. It often goes like this: You see something that catches your eye, you think about how it’ll solve all your most pressing problems, and then you plunk your card down and go home with something new.

Seems like a relatively effective sales cycle, right? It is — for B2C.

That’s not how it works in the B2B world, though.

B2B sales often take more than 30 minutes to reach the end goal. In fact, the average B2B sales cycle is just over two months long.

During this time, your sales team will need to make every effort to convert leads, strike up a conversation, and close a sale. That might mean that you invite decision-makers to lunch, call them to follow up and re-pitch (and re-pitch!) your services, or schedule a live product demonstration.

These are all tactics you wouldn’t use to close the B2C sales cycle.

Messaging and Marketing

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How you market your products or services also varies slightly depending on your market. Content marketing, influencer partnerships, and social media marketing are all effective conversion methods, but some work better than others for B2B sales.

For example, influencer partnerships are a fantastic idea for promoting your brand, but they work best for B2C brands, as they can be more persuasive to the individual.

Content marketing is a great option for getting the word out about your products or services, and 91% of B2B marketers include it in their overall strategy.

For B2B marketing, writing how-to tutorials, offering case studies, or sharing videos of product walk-throughs is a great way to produce highly engaging content that converts leads to sales.

Content marketing works for B2C brands, and 86% of B2C marketers include it in their strategy. But, the more effective content they share, like short-form, trendy videos, is different.

Customer Journey

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Finally, the biggest reason B2B CRO varies compared to B2C is that the customer journey is different.

B2C brands know that they’re often selling a one-time purchase product. This doesn’t mean they won’t have repeat customers — they will. However, it does mean their focus is on getting customers to their site as quickly as possible to make a low-value purchase.

B2B purchases, though, are high-value purchases. This means your customers aren’t just purchasing a product; they’re purchasing an experience.

They need to know upfront the value they’re getting from your product or service before agreeing to a contract. It’s why your B2B customer journey should be filled with as much valuable content as possible.

Instead, you should focus on providing various resources, including explainer videos, case studies, and tutorials, to help influence their purchasing decision before encouraging them to contact your sales reps.

Oddly enough, involving your sales reps too soon can be detrimental. Garner found that 44% of millennials don’t want to interact with a sales rep before making a B2B purchase.

Lynch said this is because we (as consumers) are selfish with our time. That’s why text-based marketing, like chatbots, works so well in B2B marketing and sales.

Now that we know the differences between B2B and B2C conversions, let’s look at some of Lynch’s favorite B2B conversion rate optimization strategies.

B2B Conversion Rate Optimization Strategies

B2B Conversion Rate Optimization Strategies

1. Monitor your website.

Heat Mapping and Recording Sessions

Your website is a gold mine of information, and you can uncover valuable information about your website visitors with the right AI tools.

And I’m not just talking about metrics relating to form fills or bounce rates. Lynch told me the key to optimizing B2B conversion rates is implementing AI tools for heat map tracking and session recording.

These conversion rate tools provide users with a visual representation of the most visited places on their websites. This gives you a better understanding of the kinds of things, like your calls-to-action or graphics, that catch your visitors’ eyes.

Lynch told me he likes using heat maps because they create a timeline where you determine the sequence of button clicks by users. He said, “It's super important that you identify with their cursor. What did they highlight? What did they focus on their screen?”

Once you understand their interests, you can filter out your product or service features your leads don’t care about and only focus on the things they do. Not only does this cut down on wasted time, but by targeting their interests you’re on your way to opening a meaningful conversation (and conversion!) with your leads.

User Experience

This strategy might sound repetitive, but the user experience does affect your overall conversion rate. In our conversation, Lynch made it a point to tell me that a well-designed landing page doesn’t necessarily mean it’s chock full of interactive elements. Instead, less is more.

He said, “What a lot of people don‘t realize is that the best landing pages are the ones that don’t look the best. You want them low, quick, to serve the purpose, and have some visual aesthetic to them. But less is more.

“Minimalistic is what drives conversions. You just want to get them to sign up, so you can talk to them and move on. And the more you add to that page, the longer it takes to load. And the longer it takes to load, the lower your conversion rate will be.”

If you’re not sure which landing page converts the most users, consider A/B testing. A/B testing can help you easily identify which elements of your landing pages lend to the best user experience.

2. Optimize lead forms.

Although your lead forms are only a small part of your conversion rate optimization strategy, they still hold some weight. And a bad form will send your visitors running in the wrong direction.

According to Lynch, “There‘s plenty of data that every additional form field you add lowers your conversion rate because it’s one more field that people have to take time to complete.”

And he’s right. 27% of people will abandon a form because it’s too long. Thankfully, there are AI conversion rate tools available to help optimize your forms. He wholeheartedly recommends using them, too.

AI-optimized forms work by collecting user data as a visitor roams around on your website. Think data — like company name, industry, and position within the company. Then, when they land on a form, your AI tool can change the form to collect only the necessary data.

This can drastically reduce the number of form fields a user needs to complete, which in turn can help increase your conversion rates.

3. Use social proof.

Remember how I mentioned 44% of millennials don’t want to talk to a sales rep when making a B2B purchase? It’s important to keep this stat at the forefront of your mind when tweaking your conversion rate strategies.

One way to show off your brand without involving a salesperson is to use social proof. Lynch said, “Testimonials, reviews and trust badges help leverage your authority and position you as an expert in that industry.”

Considering 84% of B2B buyers use review sites, it’s worth it to take some time collecting customer reviews. You’ll also want to scour the internet for any mention of your product or service on review sites like G2, TechCrunch, and TechRadar.

It’s also not a bad idea to ask your loyal fans to record a short video for your website and social media platforms. If other B2B customers sing the praises of your product or services, it’s easier to convince another business to work with you.

No sales reps needed.

4. Incorporate conversational AI.

When I asked Lynch for his thoughts about millennials not wanting to speak to a salesperson, he wasn’t surprised. Instead, he told me that’s why incorporating conversational AI tools, like chatbots, into your website is so important.

He said, “A lot more people are going to be less hesitant to anonymously engage with chatbots.”

AI-powered chatbots can be trained on your visitors’ behavior and your company data, including your company’s knowledge-base library and your tutorials.

So, when a visitor lands on your website, your chatbot is equipped with the best, most up-to-date information to help guide visitors to fill out your forms or book a demo call.

Plus, chatbots provide immediate support. Lynch mentioned that potential customers, as a whole, are selfish with their time and don’t necessarily want to wait on a response from a sales rep.

He said, “They want to have real-time conversations. The beautiful thing about chatbots is you give them that instant dopamine, versus having to wait for someone to call them and schedule it. A scheduled call doesn't respect your time as much as an instant one does.”

While AI chatbots can’t do everything to close the loop on your B2B sales cycle, they do lend a helping hand to help speed up the lead generation process before potential leads lose interest in your brand — talk about optimizing your conversion rates.

5. Dynamic content optimization.

There’s no doubt you’re creating content based on your ideal customer profile (ICP). But, because there are so many decision-makers in a B2B purchase, it can be challenging to nail down the right call-to-actions or the most effective copy.

Enter: dynamic content optimization. Using AI and its data to optimize your copy and content takes the guesswork out of your advertising. AI can detect who in the decision-making team is looking at your landing pages. Then, it can optimize your call-to-actions to better encourage sign-ups or clicks.

For example, if a CEO is on your webpage, your CTA might be “book a call.” Compared to a content manager who might need approval before scheduling a demo, the CTA might say, “Request more information.”

Lynch likes to think of this approach as “marketing with the scientific method.” He told me, “That‘s why the data is so important. If you cannot improve your copywriting optimization, unless you’re willing to assume you're wrong. Look at the data to adjust your approach, adjust your copy, and go from there.”

6. Account-based marketing.

Going back to the football reference that I started out with, to optimize your conversion rates, you need to think of the B2B decision-makers as individuals on a team.

Each individual has their own role, whether that’s the CEO, a department manager, or a department director. Each of these roles functions differently within a company. How they interact with and use your product or service will be different, too.

It’s best to think of how each decision-maker will use your product or service and market it based on that.

But you shouldn’t just think about how they’ll individually use your product, you also need to map out who has the most buying power and pull within the team.

Lynch explained it to me like this. The CEO holds quite a bit of power in the buying decision, but they also don’t want to spend time wrestling with the decision — they’re busy. They have things to do, and they trust their team to make the best decision.

On the other hand, there will be someone in the decision team who thinks it’s better to go with your competitors. These are the people you should focus your marketing efforts on.

And, it’s where account-based marketing comes in.

Danial said, “Account-based marketing is identifying buying roles in the process that match your ICP and audience personas. You can associate the different buying roles and identify them as the gatekeeper, the champion, the blocker. The champion is the one who wants to choose you … [and] is advocating for you to the team.”

According to Danial, the blocker is someone who wants to go with someone else.

“And if they‘re a blocker and you’ve identified that, you can even put them into a list to be retargeted with certain emails, LinkedIn messages, Facebook ads, or LinkedIn ads to try to change their mind by giving them more trust with your brand,” Danial says.

This is also why it’s really important to create compelling content, like case studies and ebooks. You can send those materials to help persuade team members to start a conversation with your brand.

Optimizing B2B conversion rates starts with a conversation.

Your B2B conversion rate strategy doesn’t have to fall flat. Instead, consider using AI to help optimize your conversions and generate better leads.

After all, like Lynch told me, conversions boil down to conversations. And, using the data your AI tools collect, you’re better equipped to have more meaningful conversations with interested prospects, without needing to go over the preliminaries and risk wasting valuable time.

9 Best AI Marketing Bots I Use at Work in 2024

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As a solopreneur, marketing my own business gets pushed to the back burner more times than I care to admit. There are just too many other tasks that require immediate attention. It’s why I’m a big fan of AI marketing bots.

Automating certain marketing tasks means I have more time for other tasks, like creating connections with other business owners who need my services.

Download Now: 100 ChatGPT Prompts for Marketers [Free Guide]

Recently, I chatted with other marketers to find out which AI marketing tools they use at work. And because I love sharing what I’ve learned, I’ve made a list of the nine most popular AI marketing bots.

Before we get into it, let’s define what an AI marketing bot is and dig into why they’re becoming more mainstream.

Table of Contents

What is an AI marketing bot?

An AI marketing bot is software that uses artificial intelligence, like machine learning and natural language processing, to generate responses based on user prompts. These AI bots use specific datasets, like your company’s or industry data, to generate the best, most accurate responses.

AI bots designed for marketers can help automate certain tasks, such as content ideation and outlining, image generation, and video editing, or help you better personalize the user experience.

Why are AI marketing bots so popular in 2024?

AI is everywhere — and it’s changing the way many marketers think about their jobs. To understand why AI marketing bots are so popular, I went straight to the source: marketing experts.

I asked Tom Jauncey, CEO of Nautilus Marketing, why he thinks AI marketing bots are so popular in 2024. He argues that the core reason these tools have gained such momentum is their efficiency and effectiveness.

“These tools help analyze not only enormous amounts of data but also help to simplify many routine tasks. It includes the creation of personalized content and holding conversations with customers 24/7,” he said. “Above all, it is extremely budget-friendly, especially when compared with human marketers.”

The key benefit is to help a business streamline its efforts toward marketing — which can increase ROI by many folds.

Jauncey’s belief that AI marketing bots increase efficiency aligns with other marketers' beliefs about these tools, too.

86% of marketing professionals say AI helps them save over an hour each day in their normal workflow. And when it comes to personalization, 88% of marketers say AI helps create a better customer experience.

Saood Belal Syed, a digital marketer, thinks AI can help automate certain marketing-related tasks. Syed told me, “It definitely has a long way to go before it can replace humans (if it ever does), but using AI can help speed up the ideation process and get those creative juices flowing!”

How many tools does the average marketer use?

50% of marketers have already adopted AI into their workflows. ChatGPT may be the most popular AI application, but it's broad for marketing tasks. Ever heard the phrase, “Jack of all trades, but master of none?” That’s ChatGPT for marketing.

Instead, AI marketing bots are a bit narrower in scope. AI marketing bots are designed for specific tasks in mind, like video editing or lead generation. If you’re in the marketing space, you might need more than one AI tool to enhance and streamline your workflow.

David Ciccarelli, CEO at Lake, said he uses six AI marketing tools. These include tools that focus on content optimization, image enhancement, grammar improvement, analysis, and more.

Other marketing professionals told me they use an average of two to four tools daily. With this in mind, let’s look at some of the best AI marketing bots on the market.

9 Best AI Marketing Bots You Need to Try

As I mentioned, there are tons of AI tools available to help streamline nearly every aspect of the marketing department. Let’s look at some of the best AI marketing bots according to which tasks they can help you with.

Presentations and Images

1. Beautiful AI

AI marketing tools; screenshot of Beautiful AI’s homepage

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Beautiful AI is one of the best AI marketing bots I’ve tried. As a former teacher, I can finally admit that I was a lazy presentation maker.

I won’t lie: I usually made my slides just a few minutes before class started — and it was never a pretty presentation.

Beautiful AI changes that. With just a prompt, users can create data-informed presentations in seconds. To try it out, I asked Beautiful AI to create a slide comparing the best features of AI content-writing tools. This is what it created:

screenshot of Beautiful AI

Obviously, before I use this in a presentation, I would be sure to fact-check each of these numbers. But overall, I like the chart's simplicity — not to mention the speed at which it was created.

What the Experts Say

Renee Miller, founder of The Miller Group, uses Beautiful AI regularly. Millers told me, “Beautiful AI is a nice tool for creating presentations, and it's pretty intuitive, so my whole team can use it — even the Luddites! It does have some limitations, as do most AI marketing tools at this time, especially ChatGPT.”

2. Canva’s Magic Studio

Screenshot of Canva’s Magic Studio

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Canva is a popular design tool for a reason. It allows marketers and designers alike to create eye-catching presentations.

With the addition of AI, Canva’s Magic Studio is the perfect tool to create a presentation in just seconds. Use it as a draft to add your own personal branding touches, or make a few tweaks and call it done.

screenshot of Canva’s Magic Studio interface

I used Magic Design to create a pitch deck for an interior design business. It was simple: I just entered the prompt, waited for it to generate a design, then clicked “apply to all slides,” and I was done. I would likely update some of the copy if I wanted to use this for my business. Overall, though, it’s not a bad presentation.

What the Experts Say

Jauncey told me, “Canva is wonderful for producing professional-looking graphics quickly without needing to actually study design. Canva is able to help us create professional graphics fast.”

Video

3. Munch

screenshot of Munch’s homepage

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If you’re into creating podcasts or recording interviews, Munch is an AI tool you need to consider adding to your arsenal. Munch helps marketers turn long-form videos into short-form content by using AI to analyze the most engaging parts of the video to create engaging clips.

screenshot of Munch’s editing interface

I tried out Munch and found it easy to use. The interface is simple and user-friendly. I also appreciate that it organizes clips into categories based on keyword volume. This can be useful to target SEO and algorithms.

What the Experts Say

Kelsey Stewart, owner of Eleven89 Marketing and Design, uses Munch regularly.

She told me, “Munch because it helps me with two purposes: Creates short-form videos from one long-form video and it creates subtitles for those videos automatically.”

4. Submagic

Screenshot of Submagic’s homepage

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Submagic is an all-in-one AI video editor that makes creating viral shorts a breeze. Submagic offers various editing tools that any marketer or video editor can use to enhance their video content.

Plus, it offers features like a clip generator for marketers to create short-form content from their long-form videos.

What the Experts Say

screenshot of Submagic’s editing interface

I personally use Submagic on a nearly weekly basis. I’ve shied away from creating video content because video editing is just not my skill set. They mean it when Submagic says you can fully edit a video with AI in two minutes or less.

Submagic saves me so much time, and my videos look professionally edited, complete with captions. Spoiler: they’re not.

Content Generators

5. Koala

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Need to draft a fully optimized blog post, but you’re running short on time? Try Koala.

KoalaWriter, backed by ChatGPT-4o, combines the power of SERP analysis with real-time data to help you create content with the potential to rank in the searches. Plus, Koala AI can also help you create lead magnets to embed into your website and generate images for your blog post.

Screenshot of Koala’s user interface

I tested out Koala AI by asking it to write a blog post on “Are orange cats the best cat?” I like that Koala asks for the target keyword and allows the post to be written with or without real-time data. Koala also offers a “polish” feature, which can help clean up a blog post and improve readability.

What the Experts Say

Lucas Carval, growth specialist at Mention, says he uses Koala AI to help speed up his workflow.

Carval told me, “With custom instructions and data from the web, I can make a base for the topic I‘m covering, which I’ll then enhance with my own perspective, original data, and case studies.

[Then I use] SurferSEO to adjust the number of words, headings, images, and NLP keywords based on the articles ranking in the top 5 for the keyword I'm targeting.”

6. Jasper

screenshot of Jasper’s homepage

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Have you noticed that some AI marketing bots can’t seem to nail your brand’s tone and voice?

Jasper, an AI marketing tool, solves that problem by learning your brand’s voice and analyzing your existing content, like product descriptions and style guides.

Once Jasper learns who you are, you can create entire marketing campaigns in seconds, including social copy and blog posts.

Plus, Jasper can generate images for your marketing strategy.

Launching ad campaigns has never been easier with Jasper. I like that it offers options for various ad headlines and asks users for examples of their preferred copy before generating results. This can save marketers so much time!

What the Experts Say

Mike Vannelli, creative director of Envy Creative, told me, “Jasper excels at generating engaging copy that resonates with our audience.

It's like having a creative partner who’s always ready with fresh ideas … Jasper shines in helping us maintain a consistent brand voice across multiple platforms while saving us hours on content creation.”

Sales and Leads

7. HubSpot

screenshot of HubSpot AI’s homepage

Every business needs a CRM that guides customers through the customer journey and allows the sales and marketing teams to come together to create magic.

That’s HubSpot. HubSpot AI enhances your workflow, from drafting content to optimizing your web pages to nailing your brand voice.

screenshot of HubSpot’s interface

Email marketing is an integral part of sales, which is why your marketing and sales team make a dynamic duo. Creating email campaigns is straightforward with HubSpot AI.

I like that it gives me the option to create my own headlines or use AI to generate them — which is especially helpful for the times when my brain just cannot write another sentence.

What the Experts Say

Yevhenii Tymoshenko, Skylum‘s chief marketing officer, told me, “At Skylum, HubSpot has helped our marketing and sales tremendously. With it, we can track customer interactions, automate emails, and manage leads — all in one place.

The analytics show us what’s working, and we can improve our strategies. Overall, HubSpot helps us stay in touch with our customers and grow our business.”

8. LeadReply

screenshot of LeadHubs’s homepage

Have you ever wished you had a clone of yourself to take care of Yelp leads?

Consider LeadReply your clone. LeadReply is an AI autoresponder that monitors your Yelp activity, instantly responds to customer queries, and personalizes your messages.

This AI marketing bot is especially helpful for industries where response time could make or break a lead.

As a solopreneur, I understand the importance of a tool that can automate specific tasks— especially if you’re the only one running your business.

I appreciate that LeadReply can take over catching qualified leads, which can help streamline your workflow.

What the Experts Say

Aaron Watters, CEO of LeadHub, told me, “In an industry where speed to lead can make or break a deal, this tool helps our clients respond to inquiries faster than their competitors — every single time.

Plus, it’s not just about speed; it’s the fact that we can personalize responses and follow up automatically, making it incredibly efficient and effective at converting leads into customers.”

Chatbots

9. Tidio

screenshot of Tidio’s homepage

Chatbots are a great way to reach potential leads who are browsing your website.

An intuitive chatbot powered by AI can help answer customer questions, collect contact information, and suggest products, services, and resources your customers need.

I appreciate tools that can help free up some of my time. Tidio can answer up to 70% of customer inquiries without human interaction, meaning your team has more time to nurture and convert qualified leads into loyal customers.

What the Experts Say

Gary Warner, marketing manager at Joloda Hydraroll, told me, “We use Tidio as it was simple to install, the pricing plan was reasonable, reviews very high, and we were reassured that many big brands have already tried and tested their AI offering. It works on a mobile site, and we have it placed on every page.”

Warner also says the chatbot can deliver support in multiple languages, a big benefit for a global business.

Scale your business with AI marketing bots.

I think it’s safe to say that AI is here to stay. There are tons of AI tools available on the market, each promising to deliver different results.

Adding AI marketing bots to your toolkit has the potential to improve your workflow, whether by creating better marketing campaigns that convert leads or saving time by automating tasks.

And who doesn’t want better campaigns and more time to do meaningful tasks?

Before adding a new tool to your arsenal, research and explore all your options. You might find you need just one tool or multiple to streamline your business.

The Best AI Tools for Ecommerce & How They’ll Boost Your Business

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As a one-woman solopreneur running her own business, I’m constantly looking for new AI tools to help save time, increase productivity, and bring about a better ROI. The ecommerce sector is no different.

Download Now: Ecommerce Planning Templates + Kit

That’s why I’ve spent some time reviewing the best AI tools for ecommerce so you can get a leg up on your competition.

If I know anything about trying out new tools, it can quickly become costly. So, instead of spending precious dollars from your budget, bookmark our list of AI tools to use whenever you need to add something new to the stack.

Before we discuss which tools are the best, let's review why AI tools are helpful for ecommerce.

Table of Contents

Why use AI tools for ecommerce?

I like to think of AI tools as “software on steroids.”

Ecommerce software helps streamline your business, but you can do so much more in less time when AI is added to the mix.

These kinds of tools are high-performing, meaning you can achieve results, gather new insights, or finish a task much more efficiently than if you were to do it by hand.

There are plenty of reasons to consider adding AI tools for ecommerce to your sales platforms. Let’s look at a few more benefits of adding AI to your tech stack.

1. Customize and Personalize

In my opinion, customization and personalization are the way to go if you want to make a sale or keep a customer.

As technology advances and AI becomes more commonplace, your customers expect a better, more personalized experience. In fact, 73% of customers already expect it.

AI tools can help you create more personalized shopping experiences.

By analyzing your customer's data, such as interactions and behavior, AI can help you tailor product recommendations and content and create more targeted marketing campaigns.

The more personalized the recommendations or marketing campaigns are, the more likely you’ll gain a conversion or a sale.

2. Better Customer Service Interactions

It’s no secret that chatbots are a staple for any ecommerce business. Chatbots can help answer questions or suggest products and services to your customers.

While chatbots are great, regular, run-of-the-mill chatbots come with limitations — specifically, canned responses.

AI-powered chatbots, though, are intuitive.

Because they’re trained on your customers’ data and constantly monitor new data as it comes in, they can anticipate customer needs and questions and continually improve responses with each interaction.

Another benefit I’ve found is that they can also help collect and sort important data, like contact information and interests, so you and your team can easily create customized mailing lists.

(Remember the importance of personalization? This can help!)

3. Create a Solid Marketing Strategy

Your marketing strategy is only as good as its ROI. And if you’re not using your customer data and insights to create a solid marketing strategy, what are you doing?

Of marketing leaders who have already implemented AI into their marketing campaigns, 63% say their ROI has increased since investing in AI-enabled software.

So, what makes AI tools better than your current non-AI marketing tech and better for your ROI?

Analysis and predictions.

AI tools can help you uncover insights you might miss in your customer data.

Using those valuable insights, AI can help you predict and forecast customer behavior and marketing trends, helping you and your team create a better marketing strategy with a higher likelihood of success.

4. Anticipate and Prepare for Inventory and Supply Chain Needs

Depending on your ecommerce business, you can likely pinpoint when certain services or products are going to be a hit among your customers. For example, holiday-focused products will likely become more popular during the “Ber” months (you know, September, October, November, and December) than compared to the Spring and Summer when the interest is just not there.

But what if something happens, like a news event or an influencer push, that causes your product or service to become popular overnight, and you’re caught with limited inventory? It would be nice to be able to predict demand, right?

AI tools can help you make better predictions and forecasts using historical and real-time data. The insights your AI software provides can help you make better decisions on increasing or decreasing your stock and inventory, depending on customer behavior. AI can also help you anticipate supply chain operations so you can make a plan to improve logistics and demand.

5. Save Time and Increase Productivity

One of AI tools' biggest benefits is the time they can save your team.

Of marketers who use AI tools, 86% say they save over one hour a day by streamlining their creative tasks.

Customer service teams who use AI chatbots say they help them save an average of two hours and twenty minutes a day.

I also suggest checking out how generative AI can help your content creation efforts.

The time saved using AI software can be better used elsewhere, like interacting with customers and creating a personal relationship with your brand.

While AI tools can save your team time and help you create better, more personalized interactions with your customers, I feel I must tell you there are a few limitations you should be aware of, like:

  • The continual need for updated, fresh data.
  • The initial investment (which can be pricey at first but proves its value over time).
  • Privacy, data, and security concerns, such as compliance with data protection regulations.

Although these limitations might be a con, the pros of AI tools for ecommerce far outweigh them, in my opinion. Let’s take a look at some of the best AI tools for ecommerce on the market today.

1. Content Hub

ai tools for ecommerce, content hub

Content marketing is a key element of your ecommerce strategy. A continually updated blog can help drive sales, educate your audience about your products and services, and help you rank in the SERPs.

Content creation can take significant time and effort, so I suggest adding Content Hub to your ecommerce stack.

Content Hub is your all-in-one AI content marketing software. With Content Hub, you can quickly and efficiently generate content ideas, launch A/B testing, easily include lead capture tools in your content, and gain insights into user behavior.

Features

  • Generate content.
  • Lead capture tools.
  • Scalable CMS.
  • Video and podcast hosting.
  • SEO recommendations.
  • Advanced analytics and reporting.

Pros

  • Easily integrates into your CRM.
  • Offers automated social media features.
  • Expert support is available.

Cons

  • Limited plugins available.

What I like: If you’re already using the HubSpot CRM, using Content Hub for marketing- and content-related purposes makes sense. I like that all aspects of your ecommerce business, from sales to content creation to customer outreach, are housed in one customer-focused CRM. Say goodbye to multiple platforms!

Pricing: You can try Content Hub for free. If you like Content Hub and want to access more features, Starter plans start at $20 a month per seat.

2. Octane AI

ai tools for ecommerce, Octane AI

What if there was an AI tool that could help you identify holes in your customer journey, better understand your customers' mindsets, and suggest new products and services to them?

The good news is that there is such a product, Octane AI.

Octane AI is an ecommerce tool that helps you get to know and better understand your customers. From collecting their contact details to getting a feel of their preferences, desires, and concerns, Octane AI can help you plan a better, more personalized customer experience.

Plus, I found out that if you operate a Shopify store, you can incorporate this tool into your site to quiz customers on their preferences, and the results will give them product recommendations based on what they like.

Features

  • Advanced quiz builder.
  • Automatically send abandoned cart messages.
  • Custom CSS.
  • Engagement analytics.

Pros

  • Easy to use.
  • Helps to increase the time customers spend on your website.
  • Doesn’t require tons of technical knowledge.

Cons

  • Limited customization choices.
  • Limited functionality of the quiz builder.

What I like: Octane AI can help improve your personalization efforts for marketing campaigns. I like that each quiz can help segment customers into various groups, so I know which groups care about which products. Using that information, I can easily send targeted messages to various segments.

Pricing: Octane AI starts at $50 a month for 200 engagements. Octane Plus, which offers more features and engagements, starts at $250 a month.

3. SearchIQ

ai tools for ecommerce, SearchIQ

SearchIQ is AI software that helps deliver better customer search results.

With this tool, you can elevate the customer experience and increase user engagement while gaining valuable insight into the kinds of products and services your users are searching for on your website.

I think this tool is best used by ecommerce businesses with many product offerings and website pages.

If you offer hundreds of thousands or even millions of products, you can still use this tool — impressive, I know. It can easily handle and sort through all of your products and services.

Features

  • Customizable user interface.
  • WordPress integration.
  • Autocomplete search on your website.
  • Partner support.
  • Results optimization to suggest relevant products or content.

Pros

  • Easy integration to your website.
  • Great customer support.

Cons

  • Can be slow at times.

What I like: Sometimes, I am the most impatient person on the planet. When searching for a product, I don’t want to spend an unreasonable amount of time searching for it. I like that SearchIQ offers lightning-fast suggestions, which helps those impatient customers like me stay on my website longer.

Pricing: You can try SearchIQ for free. Plans with access to more search features and reports start at $19 a month.

4. RetentionX

ai tools for ecommerce, RetentionX

Customer retention is a critical factor in any ecommerce business’s success.

RetentionX is an AI tool for ecommerce businesses that can prevent churn, increase retention rates, optimize customer acquisition channels, and automate certain workflows.

RetentionX helps you easily collect and analyze valuable customer data. This data can be used to create an action plan that best supports your customers and ultimately transforms them into loyal and dedicated fans of your brand.

Features

  • Customer segmentation.
  • Churn management.
  • Data analysis.

Pros

  • Provides accurate customer data.

Cons

  • Can be costly.

What I like: RetentionX is a great tool for segmenting customers based on user activity. I appreciate this tool's detailed overview, which helps me better understand which percentage of my customers interact with my brand and which needs extra care. This information can be helpful for planning my marketing strategy.

Pricing: If you have less than 250 active customers, you can try RetentionX for free. After that, you’ll pay $0.01 per customer.

5. Marketing Hub

ai tools for ecommerce, marketing hub

Several parts of a marketing strategy can be automated, and often, those parts offer the best insights and data.

Marketing Hub, a HubSpot ecommerce software, is AI-powered marketing software that allows you to automate your strategy and generate high-quality leads efficiently.

Integrating Marketing Hub into your CRM means all of your data and tools are in one place. Use this tool to help drive revenue, save yourself time, and measure and optimize your customer journey and marketing campaigns.

Features

  • Smarter marketing analytics.
  • Campaign management within the HubSpot CRM.
  • Automate nurture campaigns, personalize emails, and cross-functional operations.

Pros

  • Helps increase sales conversions.
  • Easily track emails and create lead capture forms.
  • Excellent customer support.

Cons

  • Price may be a sticking point.

What I like: I like the ease and convenience of having my sales and marketing tools all in one place. Marketing Hub easily combines with the sales platform to help me better understand my customers and save me time with the automation features. This is a big pro for any sized business, whether big or small.

Pricing: You can try Marketing Hub for free. Try the Premium Starter version for $20 a month per seat for more features.

6. ClickUp

ai tools for ecommerce, clickup

Running an ecommerce business involves many moving parts, and it requires teamwork and collaboration from every member of your team to ensure its success. ClickUp is a one-stop shop for all things collaboration, from project management to product development to marketing and sales.

I appreciate that its AI integration allows users to summarize meeting notes and threads easily, so your team can stay on top of the nitty-gritty details of projects and product launches.

Features

  • Customer export.
  • Advanced automation.
  • Workload management.
  • Time tracking.

Pros

  • Customizable workflows.
  • Comprehensive and detailed reporting.

Cons

  • Steep learning curve.
  • Limited integrations.

What I like: As they say, “Teamwork makes the dream work.” I appreciate that ClickUp’s focus is on providing a collaborative workspace for team members to collaborate to provide the best customer experience. The AI summarization is also nice, because it helps to create an easily skimmable summary of threads and meeting notes — which can help save time and effort!

Pricing: You can try ClickUp for free. For small teams, it's $7 a month, and for larger teams, it’s $12 a month.

7. Surfer AI

ai tools for ecommerce, surfer ai

Good copywriting is a must for any ecommerce business.

You’ll need product descriptions, landing pages, and blog content if content marketing is part of your marketing strategy. It can take some time to write all those pages. Surfer AI is here to change that.

Surfer AI helps business owners create optimized and researched content in minutes. It can also be used for competitor analysis, keyword research, and content auditing.

Features

  • Plagiarism tool.
  • AI content detection and humanization.
  • Content optimization.
  • SERP analysis.

Pros

  • Easy to use and intuitive.
  • Quickly produces well-rounded research.
  • Excellent customer service.

Cons

  • Limited number of queries.
  • Can be pricey.

What I like: AI-written content is easy to detect. As great as ChatGPT and other content writing services are, the overuse of words like “delve,” “boost,” and “transform” is almost a dead giveaway that the content was created using an AI tool. I appreciate that Surfer AI includes an AI detection and humanization feature. This can help your content feel less robotic and more personal.

Pricing: Surfer AI is $89 a month for small business owners and freelancers. A subscription is $219 a month for those looking to scale their content with AI.

8. Prisync

ai tools for ecommerce, prisync

Pricing is another important aspect of your ecommerce business.

You don’t want to overcharge your customers, nor do you want to underprice your products and services. What if there was a way to monitor competitors' prices so you can confidently keep your prices competitive?

Enter Prisync.

Prisync is a competitor price tracking and monitoring software. Gone are the days of spending hours tracking down competitor pricing by hand.

Instead, with Prisync you can see all of your competitors’ pricing and their stock availability all in one interface.

Features

  • Undetectable bots so your competitors won’t know you’re comparing data.
  • Distributed technology that adapts to changing market conditions.
  • Batch data importing.
  • Bulk data management.

Pros

  • Easy to use.
  • Great customer service and support.
  • Accurate daily dynamic pricing reports.

Cons

  • Limited features.
  • Initial setup is time-intensive.
  • Troubleshooting with customer support can be slow.

What I like: Comparing competitor pricing can be tedious. And depending on your market and product offering, prices can change in an instant. I appreciate that Prisync keeps a tab on changing prices in real time. This way, it’s easy for you to lower or raise prices depending on the current supply and demand.

Pricing: You can monitor up to 100 products for $99 a month. If you wish to monitor more than 100 products, sign up for the Premium plan, which starts at $199 a month.

9. HubSpot’s AI Chatbot Builder

ai tools for ecommerce, chatbot builder

An AI chatbot can act as a virtual assistant to help your customers and website visitors.

With HubSpot’s AI Chatbot Builder, you can quickly and easily build an intuitive chatbot to monitor and review leads, book meetings with prospective customers, and provide helpful customer support.

Plus, if your chatbot is unable to answer a customer’s question, it can easily connect your customer with a live team member to further provide assistance.

Features

  • Automate customer support and conversations with AI.
  • Quickly generate qualified leads.
  • Customize the conversation to match your brand voice.

Pros

  • Easy to use.
  • Unlimited custom fields.
  • Built-in live chat options.
  • Connect to your website or social media.

Cons

  • Some might find the features too basic.

What I like: I am a big fan of AI, but sometimes its capabilities can be limited. I appreciate that HubSpot’s AI Chatbot Builder allows for the option to provide live chat support. This can help create better, more personal connections with your customers while still keeping your agents free from other tasks that can be automated.

Pricing: You can try the chatbot builder for free!

Grow Your Business With the Best AI Tools for Ecommerce

I know from my own small business that growing your ecommerce business is an exciting opportunity, but it often comes with a lot of work to make it a success.

AI tools for ecommerce can help automate certain tasks to free your team from more important items on their to-do list, like personally interacting with customers and solving their complex issues.

Ecommerce AI tools aren’t just for customer support, though. You can use them to optimize your landing pages, create SEO-ready content, or monitor competitor pricing. If you’re ready to grow your business, check out HubSpot AI-enabled ecommerce tools today.