Conversational marketing can be extremely helpful to a company’s marketing strategy, especially if that company wants to engage more with their customers. Instead of simply speaking AT their customers, a company can have a two way conversation WITH their customers. This customer feedback or input is what distinguishes conversational marketing from other types of marketing. Conversational marketing is becoming increasingly popular due to the social media presence in our society as well. People are sharing their opinions online for free, so, as a company, why not use those opinions to get feedback on a product or system to better it?
Below are a few examples of conversational marketing and how it can be incorporated into helping a company’s brand:
1) Customer Support/Chat
Customer support or customer chat is a marketing feature that many companies employ today as part of their customer service. When a customer has a question about a product they purchased, many times they can go to the company’s website, or social media page and start a “chat” with a representative at said company. This chat feature can be used to troubleshoot a problem or even get a general question answered. This is a quick effective way for a business to provide feedback to a customer in a more timely manner than emailing or customer service phone lines. Customer support chats still give the feeling of having an in person conversation with someone without talking to them face to face. A customer can get immediate help with their issue, not having to wait on hold over the phone.
2) Email Surveys
Email marketing is not always conversational marketing, but it certainly can be. One way to make an email into conversational marketing is to send out a customer survey to a marketing email list. A company can receive feedback on many different things if they send out a survey. It could be about a specific product or product line, or even customer thoughts about the company’s image. If a company is worried about survey participation, a great way to increase customer participation is to offer a prize for filling out the survey. Not only will this increase the odds that customers will fill out the survey but it creates a sense of urgency. A company can get more feedback, quickly.
3) Social Media Posts
Social media is perhaps the biggest platform for conversational marketing. Many companies have social media managers or other employees that enhance and optimize their social media presence. Social media managers and digital marketing teams who post on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest can then engage in conversational marketing with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest users that interact with said company’s post. Users can comment on the post if they have a question or just a general statement about what they’re seeing. The more users that comment on the post, the more people will see that post; this is great for increasing the reach of the post. A social media manager or digital marketing team can also reply to a comment if there is a question that needs answering or if they would like to clarify or emphasize a product, feature, special, or whatever the post may be advertising.
4) Customer Reviews
Customer reviews, although not as hip as social media posting, are still an effective form of conversational marketing. Many companies today send out customer reviews after their products have shipped asking you how the product is working and whether or not you’re satisfied. Not only does this customer review allow a company to get feedback about their product, it also sends another brand message to that customer shortly after they’ve purchased. And as brand marketing explains, the more times a customer sees a company’s brand, the more likely they are to buy that brand again.
