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Conversational Marketing

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A successful business is built on well-built relationships with consumers. People love great service and often buy products from places where they enjoy communication.

According to the research, companies that pay special attention to service receive 4-8% higher revenue than other market players.

So why do we still force users to go a long way through lead forms, wait for an operator’s response and waste time on it. In the age of modern technology, when messages have become one of the most popular methods of exchanging information, we simply cannot afford to do this.

People are used to getting quick answers and solving their problems in the blink of an eye. At the same time, the research shows that the average wait time for chat support requests is 2 minutes 40 seconds. In such circumstances, the business must adapt and move away from old tools that only put a spoke in the wheel on the way to the sales funnel.

So what are we talking about? We believe the future is in conversational marketing. When it comes to business profitability, we should not rely on the human factor, but put everything in the hands of artificial intelligence. That’s right, what follows is about chatbots and their amazing features that keep you connected whenever your consumers need it. About what benefits you will get by introducing it into your business today.

What Exactly Is Conversational Marketing?

The term “conversational marketing” was coined by the marketing platform Drift. It is used to describe feedback-driven marketing, customer loyalty development, customer base growth, and, ultimately, revenue growth. Conversational marketing is based on the idea of common sense, it teaches profitable online business to listen to existing customers and to identify the needs of potential ones.

Conversation marketing is a new discipline in communication with customers, which provides the opportunity to communicate with potential customers one-to-one through various channels: chatbots, phone calls, business SMS, personal messages in social networks, email, messengers, etc. The desire to communicate is natural for people and therefore conversation marketing is a quite logical concept of communication with the client. If you do not have a conversation marketing strategy yet, create it in 2020. According to Moxie, 62% of all buyers expect the company to have a chat, and 44% say that having support in the chat increases the probability of buying.

We will only consider the use of chatbots. Online consultants are implemented on the site or target page with the help of code. Free versions of online chatbots rarely allow any settings and the use of artificial intelligence. So if you want to save money – communicate with users manually.

More serious chatbots allow you to set more individual settings so that the visitor to the site interacts with the chatbot until you – a live person – decide to go to the chat.

Why Do You Need a Conversational Marketing Strategy?

A conversational marketing strategy is a complex thing that requires a lot of knowledge. Due to its complexity, it provides a number of benefits for the company. There are not so many companies that can ignore them. That is why conversational marketing and chatbots are so popular. The main benefits that provide a conversational marketing strategy for any company:

  • Getting insights into customer needs, expectations, and pain points. All customers without exceptions have certain needs, expectations, and pain points. Using chatbots you can find out what the client thinks or wants. A chatbot is a great tool in the hands of any company, especially if it uses artificial intelligence. Chatbots with artificial intelligence are more efficient in conversational marketing.  Chatbots receive information about users, which allows you to personalize the mailing of messages to customers at different stages of the sales funnel. They can ask relevant questions, generate leads, and convince potential customers. In addition, some of them that use artificial intelligence help companies find unqualified leads using key performance indicators. This approach avoids interaction with leads that are simply time-consuming. AI is gratefully transforming everything it touches. You can integrate your chatbot with a cloud-based gateway service to send bulk SMS within seconds. You can integrate your chatbot with a cloud-based gateway service to send bulk SMS within seconds. It might seem like a ton of work to tailor each SMS to suit different customers’ needs, but with the right bulk SMS messaging platform, you’ll be able to send thousands of instant messages with the click of a button. 
  • Improving customer service. Customer feedback is one of the most important elements of any service. With the help of chatbots based on artificial intelligence, businesses can get more specific feedback from clients, which can help them to improve their services. Employees can get information about shortcomings, and management can offer useful solutions. The use of chatbots creates a favorable situation for employees, management, and clients as they all get more convenience.
  • Creating more “human” connections with leads. In a world with a high degree of digital technology, enterprises, both large and small, need to make customers feel that they are their top priority. The chatbots provide round-the-clock live chat. Chatbots are programmed to respond naturally, allowing customers to get what they need incredibly easily. The way people perceive it will affect their communication. Give a chat-bot a name and put a logo on it, which will help the user to more easily engage in conversation. The use of chatbots is a natural solution for companies that can work around the clock without interruption. Since chatbots can also be integrated with e-commerce sites, they can be placed on product pages. Moreover, it can appear when a visitor places an order to offer additional product information or even additional discounts on purchases.
  • Converting more high-quality leads. Despite the fact that businesses provide many services to their customers, not each of these services finds its right buyer. Chatbots can easily cope with the task of personalizing services for customers. In fact, providing personalized services can improve overall conversion rates by 25%. Besides being extremely useful in providing services to clients, chatbots also help in data analysis, fraud detection, and data collection. Chatbots help to attract both potential buyers and customers, which leads to increased sales. Unlike companies that use traditional methods of service, chatbots do not overload the audience with information, and each time they provide only those data that meet the needs of users. Therefore, customers regularly receive only relevant information. This approach helps to keep the audience engaged longer through an automated chain of messages.
  • Growing sales pipeline. Chatbots help companies provide quality customer service in several languages. This allows the brand to expand its activities in new markets. The chatbot can be programmed to receive all kinds of information. They can easily identify a potential customer based on a few initial questions, ask for a specific person’s email address as soon as they are qualified, and pass this information on to the sales manager. A quality programmed chatbot can grow the sales pipeline in a very short time.  Business owners pay employees for customer service. And as the company grows, so do the costs. Chatbots are a one-time investment, which helps brands to reduce staff costs. Companies can easily integrate chatbots to answer simple questions from potential customers. Moreover, doing business outside the working hours can be expensive. With the help of chatbots, companies can support customers 24/7/365. Being available when customers need help rather than between 9.00 a.m. and 5 p.m. is a significant benefit and contributes to happier customers and an overall increased sales pipeline.

The Conversational Marketing Framework

The conversational marketing framework is complex. It consists of engaging clients, understanding them, and recommending the right solutions to the existing problems. Without one of these three elements, a conversational marketing framework will not work. It will be useless or ineffective.

1. Engage 

Engaging more leads with chatbots. Involving a potential buyer in a conversation, you provoke him or her to communicate. At this stage, the main thing is to interest the client in communication. The interested client will tell you everything that you want. This will help to provide him or her with personalized solutions to his or her problems. A chatbot based on artificial intelligence is very useful for this purpose. 

2. Understand 

The chatbot should understand the needs, pains, and expectations of the client. That is why chatbots based on artificial intelligence are very popular in this business. It must understand what the client wants and what concerns him or her. A simple chatbot can not do this professionally. When a chatbot understands what the client wants, it successfully interacts with the customer at the next stage.

3. Recommend 

By understanding the clients and the solutions to their problems, chatbots offer personalized solutions. It promotes the client further down the sales funnel. Smart chatbots increase business profits by up to 40%. Chatbots based on artificial intelligence perform this work perfectly.

Conversational Marketing Case Studies  

There are a huge number of examples of the use of chatbots, which have brought profit to companies. Chatbots are very popular today, they bring significant benefits to all kinds of businesses. Moreover, it is very easy to create and implement chatbots on the site. 

The most illustrative examples of chatbots usage are Domino’s Pizza, HubSpot, Sephora, Databox, Casper. Progress does not stand still, artificial intelligence is constantly improving. In the near future, they will also be engaged in conversational marketing strategy development. 

Domino’s Pizza

Domino’s Pizza uses chatbot for quick orders. Any client that wants to order pizza just needs to send emoji to the chatbot. It is much faster than calling the manager to order a pizza. It is worth noting that the company has led a special marketing campaign to inform clients about new features. Chatbot has helped the company to improve customer service and reduce answer time to clients’ questions. This led to increased income from online orders. This chatbot attracted thousands of people all over the world to the Domino’s Pizza site. As a result, thousands of customers become satisfied with customer service.

HubSpot

HubSpot also has a chatbot. It helps visitors to find out answers to the most interesting for them questions. The chatbot works 24/7, so any visitor from any country can find answers. Chatbot helps HubSpot to keep visitors interested in its services. It generates leads from visitors and then transfers to specialists. This chatbot has great value for the company, it generates additional sources of profit. Without it, HubSpot could not achieve the heights that it has now.

Sephora 

Sephora uses specialized chatbot via Facebook Messenger. It can book appointments with the specialized consultants for the clients, moreover, it uses geolocation to find out the closest stores for the customer. It is very cool. This chatbot significantly increased the satisfaction of Sephora’s clients because they need not anymore to call the manager and to look for the closest store on Google, the chatbot does everything instead of them. Sephora was the first company that introduced chatbot via Facebook Messenger with the search of the closest stores for the customers. 

Casper

Casper uses an advanced chatbot to support its own customers. It answers many different questions related to their company. This chatbot reduces the time users have to wait for an answer. Users became satisfied with the customer support service after the implementation of the chatbot. It helped the company to overcome customer fears and to make orders. This has helped the company to reduce costs on the customer support team. Any chatbot carries great value to the business.

Databox 

Chatbot at Databox provides qualitative assistance for visitors. It is needed to give visitors an understanding that they have someone ready to help them. Using a chatbot, Databox builds relationships with visitors from the first seconds on the site. It provides useful and informative data to clients, they immediately get answers to their questions. Chatbot made clients of the site satisfied while Databox reduced costs on the customer support team. As we can see, chatbots are very effective tools in conversational marketing in all niches, they bring profit to all kinds of businesses.

Final thoughts

As we can see, conversational marketing is an integral part of the life of many businesses. It has the same importance as any other type of marketing. It is used in mailing, online customer support, loyalty programs, customer success stories, chatbots. As we find out, chatbots are very widespread today. They are used by almost all business sites because they bring great value to them. The greatest examples of chatbot usage have Domino’s, HubSpot, Sephora, Databox, and Casper. 

Conversational marketing is very useful today. It helps to get insights into customer needs, expectations, and pain points, improve customer service, create more “human” connections with leads, convert more high-quality leads, and increase sales pipeline. Not all kinds of marketing have such a number of benefits. No less important for companies is the conversational marketing framework. It is a complex thing.

The conversational marketing framework should engage, understand, and recommend. It works only in such consistency. If the framework has not at least one of these elements, it loses its effectiveness or even becomes useless. So, if you want to increase your site conversion rate, use conversational marketing with chatbots. They are very important for business today.