Instead of waiting in a seemingly endless wait for customer service, many customers today choose to use online customer service chats. Live chats and other conversation touch points are also being used in marketing efforts. This conversational marketing option often makes customers feel heard, with 85% of customers reporting high satisfaction ratings with live chats. But what exactly is conversational marketing?
Read on to learn more about how you can use this emerging trend to benefit your business and more, including:
What is conversational marketing? Key Benefits of Conversational Marketing Conversational Marketing Strategies Start Improving Your Bottom Line
What is conversational marketing?
Conversational marketing refers to any method your business uses to engage customers in dialogue. Along with live chats, which are often used in lead prospecting and customer service interactions, conversational marketing can include SMS marketing messages and live chats and customer service via social media.
5 key benefits of conversational marketing
Traditional lead generation methods, including email marketing and online contact forms, make it easy to find leads. But conversational marketing takes several steps further, giving your business some key benefits.
1. Helps you better assess the needs of your customers.
Unlike other sales funnels, conversational marketing allows you to start building a relationship with potential customers. Because you can enter into a dialogue with potential customers, you can better assess their needs and devise strategies to meet them.
Through these conversations, you develop an understanding of your potential customers. You can use these interactions to improve your products, tailor your marketing, and develop content that resonates with your audience.
2. Provide a quality customer service experience
What is conversational marketing if you can’t help ensure that your customers get the customer service they want? In a recent survey, 68% of respondents said they were satisfied with chatbots that answered their simple questions.
With a live chat tool, you can provide a higher quality service to your existing customers, allowing them to answer questions that are not easily answered on your website.
3. You are likely to get more sales
Lead generation tools, such as online forms, often include a time lag between when your prospect contacts you and when your sales team contacts you. Even if you respond quickly to emails, there is a chance that a potential customer may lose interest before you reach out to them.
Conversational marketing tools, including SMS messages and chatbots, allow you to respond to potential leads as soon as they contact you. Many customers prefer these tools to other automated tools such as virtual phone representatives, as indicated by 40% of Internet users.
4. Helps you help your customers
One downside of e-commerce is that your customers don’t have access to a vendor while shopping. Most customers (88%) will not return to an online store after a bad experience.
Conversational marketing tools like live chat enhance the overall experience, allowing customers to ask questions and get answers in real time. You can use chatbots that use AI, or artificial intelligence, to mimic the human shopping experience, giving your customers a better shopping experience and reducing their likelihood of abandoned carts.
5. You are available all the time
In the digital age, customers are used to 24/7 customer service. If they are using your product in the middle of the night, they want someone to help them if it stops working properly. Live chats and other conversational marketing tools use artificial intelligence to handle common customer problems when customers need help.
Consistent access is also important when your business has clients around the world. Your international customers may be in a time zone that is several hours earlier than yours. Conversational marketing tools help these customers reach your business when it suits them.
Conversational Marketing Strategies
Simply having a good answer: to the question “What is conversational marketing?” – it would not be enough to help you implement it in your business. You need to know how to implement strategies like the following to implement conversational marketing in your services.
Add a live chat to your website
The most common form of conversational marketing is live chat. Most live chat platforms have chatbots that serve as the first line of sales. Some companies offer a button on their websites that customers can click to start a live chat. Others have a chatbot programmed to appear every time a potential customer is on the site.
Whichever option you choose, make sure the chatbot is visible so that people can find it if they have questions.
Schomp Honda, a car dealership in Denver, Colorado, has set up a chatbot to prompt potential customers to ask questions. If your product requires a demo or if customers have a lot of common questions, consider an automated live chat.
Customize your messaging
With conversational marketing, you can be available all the time. You can schedule your chatbots and other conversational marketing tools to respond to inquiries no matter what time of day it is. But people prefer personalized messages over generic responses. Companies like Tidio, BotsCrew, and Peerbits offer chatbots that can be made to sound personal.
Make sure your chat tool feels personal. Tailor your tone and responses to match the way it sounds on your other marketing platforms. These chats should sound like a conversation with a real person and add value to your customers.
Hair coloring company Madison Reed offers SMS messaging chat tools that clients can use to give their stylists color feedback. Similarly, your chatbot should offer a conversational tone that builds trust with customers. Madison Reed also has a live chat feature called “Ask a Colorist” on its website.
Monitor your chats
Although your chatbots can be automated, conversational marketing is about fostering a relationship with customers. While you can automate your live chat tools, there is still a human element to conversational marketing. For clients whose questions are deeper, you must offer human support.
Monitor your chat tools regularly in case someone has a question that your bots can’t answer. You are using these tools to establish a relationship with potential and existing customers. Make sure they understand that you are accessible to help them meet their needs.
Don’t replace your other digital marketing tools
Using conversational marketing strategies to generate leads and improve customer service can be time consuming, but don’t focus on it and then neglect your other relationship building tools. Email marketing, social media marketing, and other digital tools should complement conversational marketing platforms, offering a more comprehensive messaging strategy.
Start improving your bottom line
Once you’ve decided to use conversational marketing to boost your business, the first thing to do is come up with a strategy. Find out what you want to achieve, whether it’s better customer service or a better understanding of your customers. Choose a provider to help you add a live chat or SMS chat tool to your website and have their customer service team walk you through the process. Develop messages that sound personal and match your overall tone.
Getting familiar with conversational marketing is just one way to increase the likelihood of getting higher quality leads and retaining customers. Take charge of your business growth by learning more about online marketing. For more information on conversation and other forms of online marketing, check out The Download.
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