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So, you’re maybe you’re thinking of incorporating conversational marketing, maybe you’re still on the fence. Luckily, I’ve done some of the leg work so you don’t have to (you’re welcome). Follow along to learn all the benefits of conversational marketing.
First of all, what is conversational marketing? It is using targeted messaging, often done through smartly developed chatbots that respond immediately to customers. By comparison, yesteryear’s marketing often involved email campaigns that tried to drive traffic to your site. However, according to Drift.com , the numbers show this isn’t a winning strategy anymore. On the contrary, email open rates have fallen to 20 percent or below and conversion rates are hanging at around 2.35 percent. And given that people are getting better and better at using their spam filters, this makes sense.
Worse still, some companies still use the old fashioned system of having customers fill out forms that then go to a customer service desk and then maybe the customer gets a response anywhere between one and three business days. Who has time for that in this on-demand world?
Comparatively, conversational marketing develops a chatbot to answer frequent customer questions and directs the customer through your website from start to finish. You can even include an email capture if you are still attached to email campaigns.
The advantage of using conversational marketing is that it demonstrates that you value the customer’s time while maximizing your own. Customers will appreciate this, and this, in turn, will result in more authentic relationships, relationships that will keep the client coming back for more.
So, now that we understand what conversational marketing is and why it is beneficial, maybe we should look at some tips for how to do it.
The most important thing is that it be conversational. Have a real person work on the chatbot’s responses and constantly refine the responses so that customers feel like they are connecting with something more than a mindless machine.
And another thing, if you want to get the most out of your conversational marketing strategy you need to understand how your customers are using it. What questions are they asking? What products are they being directed to? This can help you save time by knowing what products to recommend to your customers. In other words, with well done conversational marketing, you can know what your customers need before they do and can recommend it before they are ready to ask. How great is that?
And the last bit of advice, bots save time and build relationships, but they can’t replace humans. The last step of your conversational marketing strategy should be to have the bots schedule a time for one of your sales reps to talk to the customer so that they can put any lingering doubts to rest and then bring home the sale in a way that only a human can.
And so, with that, you are ready to go off and start winning customers over with your conversational marketing strategy. Good luck!
