Why You Should Use Conversational Marketing: Understanding the Benefits of Chatbots & More
For a long time, the sales and marketing industry has been engaged in a battle between automation and personal touch. There’s a fine line between the two, and until the past few years, it hasn’t been easy to tread. But no matter what method your company uses to sell your products/services, you’ve likely been missing an essential ingredient that turns that battle into a dance—conversational marketing.
If you’re unfamiliar with the concept, you need to educate yourself fast. The longer you go without implementing this approach, the more opportunities you miss. That’s why we’re giving you a crash course into what it is, why you should use it, and more.
What Is Conversational Marketing?
Conversational marketing is an approach to marketing in which you leverage real-time conversations with potential buyers. Instead of talking at them, you communicate with them—often in an automated way. It’s about using dialogue to interact with people and guide them along the journey to becoming buyers.
(Fun Fact: Drift, a pioneer in the conversational marketing space, actually coined the term.)
Essentially, this type of marketing involves the following:
- Engaging the buyer
- Learning what they’re looking for
- Recommending the right solution
Learning what they’re looking for
Recommending the right solution
Through chat-type marketing options such as chatbots, live chat, social messenger, and the like, this type of marketing can work for multiple parts of your business, including support, sales, and marketing.
With the development of conversational marketing, one thing’s for sure: It trumps the more traditional sales and marketing methods, both online and off. Its power lies in its ability to communicate with customers and prospects at the time and place they want. Moreover, it allows you to do so in a personal way.
It bridges the gap between “colder” digital marketing approaches that have no face and the personal touch of a traditional salesperson. It gives potential customers a piece of each world and does it beautifully because it’s completely on their terms.
Improve upon the “Old Way” of Marketing and Selling
Make no mistake—traditional tactics still have value. You don’t need to do away with them altogether. However, it’s in your best interest to implement something more modern if you want to see an increase in conversions.
Further, even if a prospect shows interest in a product online, following up with a phone call from a salesperson is still an intrusion that makes most people cringe. It’s one reason no one answers the phone when they receive a call from an unknown number. Plus, not every person who visits your site is a qualified lead. And according to Harvard Business Review, cold calling is ineffective about 90% of the time.
Make Real-Time Conversions with the “New Way”
Now, through conversational marketing and the benefits of chatbots, you can engage people right when they are looking at your products and services.
The old way would mean having them email you or fill out a lead capture form and getting back to them in 24-48 hours. At that point, you could have lost a sale to another company that responded faster. Alternatively, the prospect might have put it out of their mind and not be in shopping mode once they do receive your response.
Facebook’s numbers will show you what we mean: “Conversations between users and companies inside Messenger have a 30% better return on investment than retargeting ads on the web.” That’s a big difference!
Listen, some people just won’t fill out a form or don’t want whatever you are giving away to get them on your list. (Yes, they’re on to you.) By having some sort of chat feature, you give them another option, so you capture more leads and make more sales.
Why You Should Use Conversational Marketing
We realize you might be on the fence about adding yet another marketing tactic into the mix, but there really aren’t any drawbacks to this one. With conversational marketing, you have a lot to gain and virtually nothing to lose. But if you’re not convinced, here are some reasons to use it to your advantage…
1) It’s Easy to Integrate & Complements Your Current Marketing Tactics
Although you can implement conversational marketing across many channels, the easiest solution is adding a chatbot to your website. One of the main benefits of chatbots is that they are easy and inexpensive to implement. Many software options are available, so it’s not hard to find one that fits your needs and budget.
You don’t need to switch over to conversational marketing and chatbots, either. They won’t take away from anything you are already doing. They simply complement your current marketing tactics and make them that much more effective.
2) It Moves Buyers through Your Funnels Quickly
When you add conversational marketing to your arsenal, you can expedite your whole sales process. You can reduce the number of times you nurture a prospect through a long email marketing campaign. And you can make sure your salespeople are chasing after unqualified leads.
With this method, the visitor can engage with your company right when they land on your site and be well on their way to making a purchase.
3) It’s Personal & Customer Centric
Conversational marketing puts the “personal” back in marketing. It makes instant connections between buyers and businesses. Further, it builds the relationship right away instead of months down the line.
Whereas traditional marketing tends to be impersonal, this type of marketing is customer centric. It treats visitors as individuals and lets them buy when and how they want instead of forcing them to do it your way.
It gives them a personal experience that is specific to what they are looking for instead of a generic experience that disrupts them in the middle of dinner. They’ll be able to get the info they need now or whenever they want. And it allows them to start, stop, and pick up conversations at a pace that works for them.
4) It’s Convenient, Easy, and Empowering for the Customer
What’s good for your customers is good for your business. Conversational marketing makes interacting with you easy and convenient. Most people would rather communicate with a company through messaging because it’s fast and easy. A study by Hiver revealed that 63% of customers prefer using live chat to communicate with businesses. Another by Intercom showed that 79% of customers prefer chatbots in certain situations.
This type of marketing even serves to empower the customer. Consumers often like handling issues without talking to a live person because it makes them feel good about themselves.
The 2021 State of Conversational Marketing report by Drift and Heinz Marketing revealed that nearly 44% of consumers are frustrated by not being able to get answers to simple questions. These are things that chatbots can certainly answer.
5) It Improves Your Understanding of Your Customer
Conversational marketing also allows you to gain a lot of predictive analytics about your leads that you can use to improve your marketing. For example, you can…
- Learn about cross-sell and upsell opportunities
- See what issues people are having on your site
- Better understand what your customers are looking for and why
- Get ideas on how to improve the customer experience
- Apply customer insights to enhance your messaging
This method is more insightful than many other marketing tactics because your leads tell you what they want in their own words. Your email marketing software doesn’t have to guess what list to put them on, and you learn new things about them that you wouldn’t otherwise know. It can go a long way toward improving your results.
6) It Reduces the Loss of Customers to Competitors
With this type of marketing, you can also reduce the chances of losing customers to the competition. When your business is one of many that offers a specific solution to a customer’s problem, one wrong move can turn your potential sale into your competitor’s. As people expect a way to get answers quickly and easily, failing to do so is basically ignoring them. And if they feel ignored, they’ll go elsewhere.
However, providing a way for them to get information on their terms shows you understand and care about their needs. By implementing live chat or a chatbot, you can convert more potential buyers before they consider a competitor.
7) It’s the Future of Marketing
Based on research, conversational marketing isn’t going anywhere for the foreseeable future. In fact, it’s only growing in popularity. It’s estimated that by the end of 2023, more than 2.8 billion people across the globe will be using messaging apps regularly.
In short, it’s the future of marketing. And if you don’t want to risk falling behind, you need to get on board.
Of course, it’s not just about the technology; it’s about the approach. Pairing automation with a personal touch satisfies the expectations of modern-day consumers. They expect authenticity from the businesses they buy from, and they expect to get the answers they need quickly. And that behavior will only continue.
3 Types of Conversational Marketing to Consider
Several tools and techniques fall under the category of conversational marketing. If you’re unsure about where to start, don’t worry. We’ve got you covered! Below are just a few of the most widely used types.
1) Chatbots
Chatbots have come a long way since they were first introduced. Now, there’s no shortage of chatbot use cases—from customer support to appointment scheduling. And they’re becoming even more sophisticated as time goes on.
Adding a chatbot to your website allows you to automate simple tasks and deliver human-like responses to questions. Depending on the chatbot software you choose, you may also be able to customize it to a pretty high level.
2) Live Chat
Including a live chat option on your website is another route you can take. With this option, you do need a dedicated support person to address questions and feedback. However, customers like it because they can…
- Get immediate service
- Avoid talking on the phone
- Multitask while chatting with a representative
3) Social Media Messaging
If you never thought of social media messaging as a form of conversational marketing, think again. It’s a natural way to engage customers and address their needs—all on their preferred platform. By encouraging people to move their questions or feedback to DMs, you can start a private conversation and give them your full attention.
As you’re likely on at least a few different social media channels already, assessing how you converse with people on those platforms better is important.
What Are the Benefits of Chatbots?
Although chatbots aren’t all there is to conversational marketing (as shown in the previous section), they certainly form the basis of it. Plus, it’s what makes it feasible for most companies because it is automated. So, let’s look at some of the more specific benefits of chatbots…
Chatbots Allow You to Provide 24/7 Support
Chatbots make having round-the-clock support possible—without keeping a staff member on call all day. You can set up your bot to provide answers to common questions based on the data you already have. That way, late-night shoppers or those located in different time zones can get the information they need without having to wait.
Chatbots Can Streamline Your Business
Chatbots can take care of the following processes in your company:
- Answering frequently asked questions
- Recommending certain articles, products, etc.
- Qualifying leads
- Booking meetings with sales reps
- Gathering feedback
Chatbots allow for immediate engagement that opens the door for follow-up with those who are most interested in what you offer instead of nurturing a lead for days, weeks, or months.
Just keep in mind that 86% of consumers want to be able to transfer to a representative if their issue goes beyond what the bot can handle. So, make sure you provide that option.
Chatbots Can Reduce Your Costs
The use of chatbots—and conversational marketing in general—can also cut costs for your business. Specifically, it can reduce customer service costs by up to 30%. Instead of hiring more staff to handle the increased communication volume, you can let your bot handle general questions and feedback. Moreover, you can free up your existing staff’s time to address complex queries.
In Closing
Conversational marketing deserves a big “Woot woot!” because it has put an end to the battle between automation and personal touch. You simply won’t go wrong by putting it into practice in your business. In fact, failing to do so can cause you to lag behind your competition.
If you’re wondering how this type of marketing can fit into your overall strategy, let us help! Schedule your free consultation here!
At Viral Solutions we are committed to seeing YOU succeed. It is our goal to grow your business with proven digital marketing strategies that will help your business for the long haul.
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