In an avantgarde digitalised world we are continuously being bombarded with adverts in the form of cold emails, mostly ending up in spam too, or publicity that annoys us as it interrupts our social media breaks with pop-ups of boring or unrelatable videos.
Think about how much more impact will companies have over consumers if they leave a human element in their approaches. This is exactly what conversational marketing is about, but read on to discover more.
What is Conversational Marketing & Does My Business Need It?
If we are to describe conversational marketing in few words, it is a fresh dialogue-driven approach which enables a more professional and enticing way to interact with clients.
The key here is to combine computerised communication channels with tactical human touchpoints. This will let marketers create incessant conversation loops or ongoing discussions, which progress with each interaction to raise and heighten customers experience positively. This way clients will be attracted, curious with the way they are presented with these products or services, eventually bringing them in a position where they will want to know more and check out what is in the offing, resulting in possible sales or increasing the chances.
If you are a business owner or work within a marketing/sales department, you’re aware how much pressure is there to be heard among all the noise, to stand out and attract attention. Delivering a personalised approach seems almost impossible, but there is where conversational marketing comes to the rescue, as it has become the go-to solution for businesses to leverage on one-on-one engagement. This can be done via chatbots, live chat, and customised messaging, via which companies can interact with their clients instantly and addressing their needs, no matter in which part of the buying process they are.
One can appreciate that a conversational marketing strategy then is a leap forward from the boring filling out of forms and waiting for days customers had to endure to receive replies. This strategy makes sure that every interaction feels immediate and truly human, and the company in question will stand out when compared to others which are not adopting conversational marketing. So, it is to be considered like an investment, a big plus, which will ultimately reflect on good reputation and leave a positive impact on revenue.
Key Elements of Conversational Marketing
The target here is to engage your audience by combining several elements and creating a successful conversational marketing strategy which offers a personalised, intuitive experience.
Conversations happening at clients pace – Rather than expecting consumers to engage at set hours, instead conversations are started and ended by the customers themselves at their own leisure and as they please.
Conversations can scale smoothly – Companies need to adopt a scalable way to make sure that conversations are happening at customers pace, and there is when AI (Artificial Intelligence) tools come in handy. AI will handle routine questions while offering instant support when live interactions with reps are not available. In their own way, chatbots can replace humans but still hold a somewhat human element by guiding customers and offer solutions. This flexibility will keep the customer experience positive and engaging, like when chatbots assist clients with order tracking, product searches, and returns, ensuring a smooth shopping experience.
Gaining insight through context via conversations – Without context, conversations can become clunky, robotic, and plain boring, which surely will not attract customers. On the other hand, if context is retained, the same customer asking about an order say yesterday, is enabled to continue the same conversation, as the chatbot can track the chat history and continue from where they left, instilling a human-kind element to it which is appreciated by customer, as they avoid repeating their request which can be annoying.
Conversations happening on channels preferred by clients – Conversational marketing makes it possible to meet clients on their preferred means of communication or social platform being Facebook, Instagram, Web chat, or even SMS, getting consumers feeling more comfortable, ditching the hated on hold or que calls to get answers.
How to Implement a Conversational Marketing Strategy
As in everything else, implementing conversational marketing strategy needs some prior study and homework, so that it is eventually introduced and embedded within your sales processes and customer journey in an ideally smooth way.
A user-centered experience is adopted rather than simply promoting products, while sales and marketing teams need to prioritise building relationships more than covering transactions.
Hereunder we list an intro step-by-step approach which can be explored and adopted, but there is definitely more to conversational marketing strategy, so do your research and approach experts if need be.
1. Identify your goals
– what does success look for your company?
– will you be boosting sales on Facebook messenger via personalised product recommendations?
– or maybe your approach will be more centered around enhancing customer satisfaction and high conversation ratings?
2. Define your key messages
– key to conversational marketing is clear communication, so define your message points as this is crucial
– imagine you are the customer, what will attract your attention? A limited-time discount or an invite to unlock free content in exchange of your email address?
– start off with a simple direct compelling message and focus on one main point, kicking things off with an inviting welcome message, then let conversation naturally flow into other sections like customer feedback or product/service suggestions
– remember to keep things short and relevant
3. Decide which communication channels to use
– enable automation on Facebook live chat with bots
– adding a live chat widget on the website
– integrate an Instagram chatbot
– setup a WhatsApp for Business chatbot
Wrapping Up
Conversational marketing will enable your company to guide and assist clients through the buying process more efficiently. It is also an effective way to build trust and strengthen customer relationship management.
The benefits of conversational marketing can be noticed while you read this article, as along with customer experience and boosting of sales, a company can also improve its lead generation, work more effectively as a team, gain insights into customer preferences, and speed up sales process.
We recommend that your team is trained to use conversational marketing tools effectively, while chatbots are to be tested before launching. Finally, track results so that any needed optimisations to conversation flows can be detected and ironed out.