The Ultimate Guide to Conversational Marketing for 2021
People are much more likely to buy something from you when it’s not glaringly obvious that you're trying to sell them something. Sounds backwards, but that is the cornerstone of most inbound marketing strategies. That’s what conversational marketing is all about. Instead of telling prospects how amazing you are, and why they need to invest in you, you're having a conversation. You're helping them, you're listening to them, you're understanding and empathizing with them.?
With each new iteration of technology, our accepted response time has changed — friends make plans faster, families stay closer, and businesses provide answers instantly. In the age of live chat, customers expect conversations to happen how, when, and where they want.
Sounds intimidating, right? Don't worry; it's not as complicated as you think. While the technology we use to communicate has changed, the core elements of communication have stayed the same. People always have and always will expect conversations to be helpful, personal, and empathetic. The only difference now is we have the technology to have those conversations at scale. That’s the power of conversational marketing.
What is Conversational Marketing??
Conversational marketing is an asynchronous relationship. Meaning conversations should occur whenever the customer prefers — whether that's in real-time, after finishing their meeting, or later that night when they have a spare moment. While it's important for businesses to be able to chat in real-time, it's just as important for them to be able to finish a conversation at whatever pace the customer wants. Sometimes that means starting a conversation at 7 a.m. over their first cup of coffee and finishing at 9 p.m. after they've put their kids to bed.
Because conversations happen on customer time, all conversations need to be scalable. A customer doesn’t care if you’re talking with 50, 500, or 5,000 other people — they only care about the issue they need to solve. Businesses, especially SMBs, shouldn’t get left behind due to a lack of resources or manpower. This is where chatbots come in. Bots make 24/7 support possible by providing answers to common questions based on data that already exists. Businesses shouldn't sacrifice human interaction for scale. Rather, bots offer quick access to information or a human.
Conversations can’t exist in a vacuum; they need context and should get smarter as you collect more information. This is important for two reasons. First, it’s what customers expect. Think about it: If you called a company yesterday to report a defect in something you ordered, and then you chatted with them the next day about needing return instructions, you'd expect the person you're talking with to have access to previous interactions and know which product you’re sending back.
Second, context is what makes messaging convenient. Without it, bots or a support rep would need to ask people the same qualifying questions every time they interacted with them — wasting their time and testing their patience. If you’ve ever called customer support, you know how frustrating it is to repeat your account number time after time as you’re passed around to different departments.
Inbound Marketing is about providing value to your audience and meeting them where they are. Conversational marketing is just a part of that now — thanks to the mass adoption of messaging and new tools and technology.
Some people equate conversational marketing with live chat — something that’s been around for a while. But it’s much more than that. Conversational marketing isn’t about a single tool. While Facebook Messenger, Slack, SMS, email, and others allow conversations to happen, this is about the changing communication preferences of consumers that in turn, should change how you view one-to-one conversations.
With access to new technology, businesses can use these emerging platforms to easily meet consumers where they are already spending their time. Still not convinced? 85% of consumers spend their time in five popular apps, including WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. And according to Facebook’s February earnings, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger had 1.5 billion and 1.3 billion monthly active users, respectively.
But remember, businesses should not only be communicating on a variety of channels, but they should also be prepared to continue those conversations across all channels without missing a beat.
Benefits of Conversational Marketing?
Conversational marketing isn’t new — we have conversations every day, and as you saw from the timeline above, it’s been that way for a while. So why wouldn’t we use tools that optimize conversations for business? Let’s talk about a few of the key benefits.
Chat interfaces can record data that can then be used to optimize for better customer interactions, product improvements, more helpful content, and more. If a prospect or customer has a difficult time navigating the new website or applying the coupon, they can live chat with a representative to receive instructions on how to best navigate the issue. Not only does live chat help solve the immediate customer’s concerns and keep them on the site, but the information from that chat can also help you determine if you need to fix a part of your website’s UX or send out more detailed instructions on how to apply the discount.
People are increasingly turning to mobile to shop and make purchases. As a result, more people are interacting with content that is more mobile-friendly. Consumers that use their phone as their primary internet device have grown to prefer video content, social content, and messaging-based interactions. Conversational marketing channels like messaging apps and email are innately mobile friendly. It’s a lot easier to chat with a rep or even a bot to get an answer than spend time scrolling and clicking through a company’s website. Messaging apps allow customers to provide information specific to their problem so businesses can give quick, personalized support.
With messaging apps and social media, we’ve found a way to talk with more friends, more frequently. Conversational marketing can drive lead generation by reaching new audiences on different channels or by giving people a more convenient way to get in touch with support. Bots allow companies to collect a lot of information naturally. Instead of coming face-to-face with a long-form, customers can share a little information throughout multiple conversations.
Conversational Marketing and Business
When you have a conversation with a friend, you don't expect to have to remind them of things like your name or where you live — the same holds when customers have conversations with a business. That's why using a CRM is so important. A CRM is like a digital memory that allows you to have conversations with customers as you know them.
A successful conversational marketing strategy is dependent on fast and reliable access to a shared knowledge base that includes data such as communication history and necessary customer information. Companies who want to do conversational marketing will need a way to store and organize that data to have more seamless interactions with customers. With the help of a CRM, you can organically promote events and products, distribute content, and provide support all through chat.
So, what data should marketers collect? You don't need to know everything about them, but you should know the basics and details of past conversations. Start with what you want your customers to be able to accomplish via chat and then build out processes for acquiring the necessary information.
In addition, you can’t implement a conversational marketing strategy without a process for tracking performance, moments of confusion or drop-off, and new questions. You should always be gathering data and optimizing the experience.
Conversational marketing isn't something you can set and forget, you have to continuously optimize your strategy to see the best results, but there are five things you should keep in mind: Personalize, contextualize, standardize, empathize, and optimize.
Final Thoughts
Conversational marketing is changing the way companies talk with their customers by making interactions seamless and faster than ever before. Your customers are having conversations. The most important things to focus on are the channel, the conversation, and how the strategy fits in with your overall inbound marketing strategy. Channels should be simple for businesses and consumers to use, conversations should follow a clear process and serve a purpose, and your inbound marketing strategy should inform your conversational marketing strategy.
Remember, humans have been having conversations since the beginning of time. Technology is only making it easier and more productive for businesses and their customers to connect. While the days of communicating by the Pony Express may be over, thoughtful, friendly conversations (and gossip) will continue to stand the test of time and technology.