We took some time out to have a chat with an old friend of ours, Dan Harding, this week. He tells us about his new company, Envolve, and the great work they are doing within the AI chat space. Take a peak below:
Dan, how about an introduction?
Hi, I’m Dan Harding, Head of Business Development at Envolve. I have a broad knowledge of the ecommerce / affiliate marketing industry, having spent 5 years at Vouchercloud. During my time at Vouchercloud, the team went from 40 to 200 and after the business sold, I was keen to get stuck into a new startup. Envolve and our CEO, Emma Smith’s vision caught my attention, as AI is something I have been curious about for a long time and wanted to explore more.
Can you introduce Envolve and your core business values?
Envolve is a Performance Marketing Platform using AI chat technology to increase sales through customer conversations.
Our chat system, Convert, is a new onsite optimisation tool. Using our chat widget on an advertiser or brands website, we deliver instant personalised product recommendations to customer questions. Our artificial intelligence automatically identifies what is a customer service query and what is a sales opportunity, allowing you to tailor each response to increase relevancy and in turn, present contextual product recommendations at the right time.
Our business values are built around relationships with our clients. We are customer driven and transparent with our findings and are looking to work with forward thinking advertisers.
What would you say are the biggest benefits for an advertiser working with Envolve?
Our AI powered chat widget answers inbound customer service queries instantly 24/7, while at the same time surfacing contextual product recommendations. Transforming a channel traditionally associated with Customer Service into an effective site conversion tool.
Not only are we helping advertisers improve conversion rates and boost AOV, we are also providing them with valuable insights that can help shape comms and business strategy across the board. This technology is really resonating with advertisers as it bridges 3 departments – Sales, Marketing and Customer Service.
Current stats –
● CTR of 30%
● Conversion rate of 14%
● Handover – this depends on the client, but averages 5%
In a time where personalisation is key, we give advertisers the unique ability to place relevant products in front of a customer at the right time – when they’re actually asking for it or showing a buying signal.
What makes Envolve an exciting company?
We’re a growing team, working with an exciting and exclusive technology that is constantly evolving and improving. The most exciting thing for me is the fact that we’re only scratching the surface and we’re already seeing great results!
Any exciting plans coming up in the next 12 months?
Since our official launch at PI Live in October we have started working with all affiliate networks and January is set to be a busy time for us, while advertisers look for new ways to improve and fine tune their internal strategies. It’s safe to say our product roadmap is jam packed, but the next 12 months will see us working with more advertisers in all verticals. We’re also super excited to be attending Affiliate Summit at the end of the month in Vegas, as we start to work with more US advertisers.
Where do you think is the Affiliate space heading to in the next year and what are the main market disruptions?
Personalisation remains a key focus and AI is definitely something that is taking the industry by storm, with the rise of a number of AI powered tech, all offering something different. We fit in perfectly here and our widget is now tried and tested to give really promising results.
What is the most exciting time of year for you as a business?
This January is a pretty exciting time for us as a business, we’ve been busy making our way around the networks since PI Live in October and our build schedule is nearly full for this month. At the end of the month we’ll be attending ASW in Vegas, as we start to launch with US advertisers. Of course, like most in the industry we look forward to Q4 and the learnings we can take from the increased traffic to improve the A.I’s performance.
Is there anything else you’d like our advertisers to know?
Our A.I widget can be built and deployed in as little as 2 weeks, depending on our build pipeline.
We require little from the advertiser themselves to train the foundation knowledge base, all we really need is a yes, a link or export of your FAQ’s and your product feed / Google Shopping feed. We then deliver a script for you to deploy via the network master tag or Google Tag Manager.
There is no contract, so don’t miss this opportunity to convert more sales 24/7 and gain valuable insights on your customers to help. Don’t forget the insights that you can gain from knowing directly what your customers are asking. The rich data can be used in other marketing channels, campaign planning and even CRO.
What is one fun fact about Envolve?
Our CEO once went on tour with Cliff Richard and our Marketing Director went to school with Superman.
If you’re interested in exploring this opportunity with Envolve further, get in contact with your account manager today.
Thanks Dan!
