You’re probably thinking to yourself, “Not another buzzword to sell me on the same old thing.”
Conversations are happening all around you. In the past, marketers would come up with a tagline, an acronym or an over-glorified technique and splash it everywhere in the name of integrated marketing. Today, effective marketing demands the right conversations with the right audience.
Conversational marketing is about shortening the sales cycle. It’s about targeted messaging and intelligent technology with real-time leads. Put simply; it’s about engaging and connecting with your audience in a one-on-one, personalized approach.
Brand awareness and reach are still essential metrics, but there’s more to marketing in the millennial age. With the digital revolution, millennials who embrace connectivity and convenience can talk directly to companies anywhere on the globe. However, the internet is a mass-marketing medium that makes it difficult to have a personalized two-way interaction.
Conversational marketing cultivates organic conversations. Customers can reach you how, when and where they want.
Conversational marketing is made up of three main components:
- Starting the conversation: Customers want to feel valued. One of the best ways to show your customers that you value them is by having conversations with them. Real conversations provide insight into your brand and real-time feedback.
- Package your message in the right words: Understand your customer’s language. Your customers need to be able to talk to their friends about your products in a language that they can understand. Drop the ACRONYMS!
- Automate: The key to effective marketing in the digital age is by being available to your customers. With the use of bots, you can achieve 24/7 availability. Once you have packaged your brand messaging in a style that is relatable with your audience, simply automate it. A bit conflicting with points 1 and 2, but let me explain.
Benefits of Conversational Marketing
If you’ve ever been put on hold after making a purchase and calling customer support, you know how frustrating it can be.
Think how much more frustrating it is to go online and talk to a bot that keeps giving you the same stiff responses, or worse, doesn’t understand what you are trying to say.
Conversational marketing is the hybrid that allows you to talk to your customers with the assistance of bots for efficiency and accuracy, but with personality and the human touch!
Some of its key benefits are:
1. Conversational marketing will enable you to gain genuine, valuable insights about your target customers.
With conversational marketing, your customers can communicate to you, in their own words, what they need and want. Listening to this feedback allows you to:
- Overcome barriers to purchase
- Improve products
- Create tailored customer interactions
TechCrunch estimates that customers spend approximately 5 hours on their phones every day. Chat interfaces can be utilized to record data on a large scale. Leveraging this information, you can deliver relevant content to your customers based on their individual preferences. You can also use this data to define trends.
2. Conversational marketing builds relationships.
Social media has made it easy for your customers to conveniently reach support. This continuous communication between you and your customers fosters organic conversations. Customers feel as though they are talking to a friend. These relationships provide businesses with the opportunity to encourage customers to share the brand and product with friends and family, cross-sell, and subtly solicit input, and even make suggestive sales.
Conversational marketing also allows you to show off the brand’s personality. Give your conversations more personality by using emojis, videos, and creative copywriting. This makes you memorable and reinforces your brand.
3. Conversational marketing captivates your customers as they seek answers.
There are over 2.7 billion smartphone users in the world. Consumers use their phones to access the internet and interact with brands across the globe. When consumers have questions about a product, their immediate reaction is to use their phone to look it up. Conversational marketing channels are mobile-friendly. Consumers want to speak to someone who can save them time by answering their questions quickly.
Chatbots and messaging apps allow customers to ask specific questions about challenges that are unique to them. It also gives you the chance to provide quick and personalized responses.
4. Conversational marketing changes the way your customers buy.
Messaging is fast and seamless. It also takes off the edge and makes customers more relaxed and comfortable. Customers are always on the move, and many do not have the time to write long emails detailing their issues. Conversational marketing gives them a quick and easily accessible avenue to reach you.
If you are a B2B brand, you know how cold and impersonal business can be. Through conversational marketing, your personnel can have personal conversations with prospective clients. With real-time conversations, you can improve conversion rates.
How Does It Work?
In addition to capturing more leads and having scalable conversations, it also filters out the serious buyers by noting repeat visitors. Quick response times, typically 5 minutes or less, improve your chances of qualifying a lead. This happens in real-time with chatbots qualifying the leads for you when you go offline. It narrows down the audience and gives you access to the people who fit your customer profile. Everything is automated, bots free up your team and allow them to focus on selling.
Start The Conversation Now
Automation that is stiff, robotic, and lifeless is useless. Conversational marketing allows you to have conversations about things your customers care about. The key to successfully automate your conversations is to inject personality. This will ensure your customers are engaged and get all the information they need.
Conversational marketing is proving to be a valuable asset to many businesses. With over 80% of people opening chatbots on most pages, it is a vital part of marketing. Humans love conversations because all relationships— both business or non-business, sprout from meaningful conversations. Technology has only made this easier. More businesses are now reaping the benefits of brief, friendly, and convenient exchanges with their customers.
Conversational marketing offers personalization, speed, and immediate feedback no matter which platform you are on. Its purpose is to answer people’s questions and find new strategies to solve their problems. Its inherent focus is engagement. If you are unsure where to start, talk to us for some advice.
