The Power of Conversations in Marketing
We need to talk about conversation marketing.
Do you enjoy talking with your friends or family? Then, have you come across a situation where you feel like the other party just want to talk, talk, and talk, without acknowledging how you feel or think? It seems like all they care about is how to make sure you get what they want to say and hope that you will be persuaded and behave the way they want you to in the end.
Flip this metaphor to a marketing situation and you’ll get why consumers are fed up by the amount of content and ads companies are trying to shove into their throats.
People are naturally social creatures and enjoy a good conversation. It’s in fact our inability as marketers to get this whole communication process figured out that really works against us.
This is Why You Need Conversation Marketing
Conversational marketing, as the name implies, takes advantage of the power of one-on-one conversation. It focuses on actual real-time conversation with customers to create authentic experiences.
Today’s conversational marketing, though, has evolved from the traditional marketing that we know of. By utilizing marketing technology such as live chat, targeted messages, or chatbots, brands are able to engage their audience online across multiple channels.
But, why do marketers need it?
People love communicating with messaging because it’s fast, easy, and actually feels like a conversation. But over time, the buying process has become cold, impersonal, and way more painful for the buyer than it needs to be. Just imagine, you have to fill in several forms or go through several phone calls or emails just to get specific information. As such, conversational marketing offers brands and buyers the opportunity to return to the organic businesses communication.
After all, the goal of conversational marketing revolves around enhancing user’s experience and minimizing friction.
Building a Successful Conversation Marketing Strategy
Conversational marketing occurs when marketers engage with prospects and customers in real time and in a personalized way. In other words, it is how marketers have conversations and build relationships with their customers.
Conversational marketing is an effective approach to move people through marketing funnel.
Here are some tips to employ the strategy in your marketing plan.
- Always respond in real time.
You know that feeling when you’re looking for an answer to a question and it just feels like it should be easier to find? Your questions seem like they should be common and yet you can’t find anyone answering them. Conversational marketing is there to help brands solve this issue.
By utilizing live-chat or chatbots, for example, your customers can get instantaneous and personal solutions to their questions. When you use conversational marketing, you make it easier for people to find what they want.
2. Make it personal.
Personalization and conversational marketing go hand in hand. Instead of responding all of your customers with the same, generic response, doesn’t it make sense to treat them like individuals and solve their problems individually? Conversational marketing helps you treat your customers as unique individuals.
When they contact you via live chat or chatbots, instead of directing them to generic content that’s sort-of about their problem, brands can customize their live chat agents or chatbots to provide human-to-human interaction.
3. Speak their language.
The legendary copy-writer Eugene Schwartz once wrote: “There is your audience. There is the language. There are the words that they use.”
Voice-of-customer (VoC) language is a crucial ingredient of a great conversational marketing. VoC focuses on customer needs, expectations, understandings, and product improvement. What does it have to do with conversational marketing?
VoC speaks the language of your customers, so it only makes sense if you gather as many of those as possible, right? Where can you find them? Chat logs. Once you’ve mined enough VoCs, you can use that language to make your live chat and chatbots more effective at delivering relevant content and to actually sound human.
In Conclusion
Conversational marketing leverages the power of live conversations to move customers into the fast lane of their buyer’s journey.
A real-time conversation between two people builds a true relationship between consumer and company. It adds authenticity to the entire exchange.
But what are the actual benefits of conversational marketing in capturing qualifying leads?
- Buying experience: You provide your customers with a more ‘humanized’ experience when they visit your website online via conversations.
- Know your customers: Engaging them in a conversation will show you why a buyer came to your site in the first place, what their biggest pain points are, and which product features are most important to them.
- Increase conversions: As your relationship goes deeper with personalized conversations, chances are, people will trust you more and you’ll have an increase in leads and conversions.
By actually speaking with your customers, you better understand their wants and needs, their pain points, and what they’d like to see in future. Still, conversational marketing isn’t a breakthrough concept. It is simply about refocusing your content marketing ideals so that you can ensure that you’re doing the best for your audience.
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