Conversational Marketing – How to Do It Right

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 entails all manner of ways to engage with the customers. 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

It’s a good idea to have a conversation with a potential client – just as a baker would have a conversation with her customers before creating their cake so as to be able to ask the relevant questions and understand what they might be looking for. Via conversation, you are also able to better assess your customers’ pain points and solutions.

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 the 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 make use of conversations in marketing 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.

Offer personalized messages

When you build your chatbot, it’s important to keep in mind that customers like 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 allows you to offer a more personalized experience for your customers, it’s important not to neglect other digital marketing options when it comes to 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.