Conversational marketing encompasses all methods used to engage with the customers in a dialogue or conversation. This can include live chat, SMS messaging, and live video call on social media.
When live chat first came out, it revolutionized service delivery. It was now easy for customers to get an agent and receive support and the customers felt heard. Because of this, they reported higher levels of satisfaction.
This is the power of a conversation. The great thing is that it is also being utilized in other areas of marketing.
But what is it?
What is conversational marketing?
Conversational marketing encompasses all methods used to engage with the customers in a dialogue or conversation. This can include live chat, SMS messaging, and live video call on social media.
Why your business should use conversational marketing
There are some key advantages to conversational marketing that goes over and above the more traditional marketing methods such as online contact forms and email marketing.
You are better able to understand your customers’ needs
Having a conversation with a potential customer is the best way to build a good rapport and relationship. Via conversation you are also able to better assess your customers’ pain points and which solutions they are looking for.
With the information gathered through conversation, you can improve the product, tailor marketing campaigns, and create content that best appeals to the needs of your customers.
The potential for more sales
Traditional methods of lead generation have one flaw—lag time. Often there is time between a customer filling out a form and a marketing agent reaching out to them, or before sending an email and getting a response.
During this time the customers could lose interest and switch over to a competitor.
With conversational marketing tools such as live chat, you can respond to a customer as soon as they reach out. In fact, many customers will opt for such tools due to their quick response to any other tools.
Helping customers
No, we don’t mean offering support here. What we mean is that when it comes to online shopping, customers do not have access to a salesperson to help them during the shopping experience.
The downside to this is that in case the customer has a bad experience, they are likely not to return to your online store.
With conversational marketing tools such as live chat, a customer and ask questions and ask for support and receive both within an instant. If a customer is shopping during odd hours chatbots allow them to still receive assistance as it mimics the human experience.
Tips to utilize conversational marketing
Install live chat
Live chat is the quickest way to utilize conversational marketing in your business. Often businesses will include chat boxes that offer fast assistance to customers while also providing them with the option of talking to a live agent. One of our favourite tools for this is Zoho's SalesIQ - not only does it let you chat with visitors on your website in real time, it also tracks every visitor to your site. You can watch as they move from page to page, documenting the information. Should your visitor chat with you, their contact details are also captured for following up with them after. We're sure many of you have used the chat feature on our website. It works well....
Offer personalized messages
If you opt for chatbots, it is important to keep in mind that customers prefer speaking to a live person. You can use this to tailor your chatbot messages to sound just the way you do when answering questions.
Ensure that the chatbot feels natural by altering the time and the responses to sound as if a live person is responding.
Combine conversation marketing with digital marketing
While conversational marketing is a great way to offer a more personalized experience for your customers it is important to say that you do not neglect other digital marketing options for relationship building.
Whether it's social media marketing or email marketing. They should complement your conversational marketing plans.
Final Thoughts
Conversational marketing opens new doors to lead generation and customer retention. It also offers opportunities for better understanding the customer. The information you gather through conversational marketing can help improve the bottom line.
Let our experienced team help set up a chat feature on your website. Love it as your leads and sales increase. Contact us today or book a demo.
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