Two-way communication is the key to building healthy and lasting relationships in all walks of life. That said, open conversation is imperative for a business to develop a greater understanding of their customers’ needs and deliver services that solidify their confidence and trust in the brand. And this is where the concept of ‘conversational marketing’ comes into the picture.
What is conversational marketing?
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Conversational marketing is a fast-emerging marketing trend that employs the use of the one-on-one approach to learn more about the target customer, shorten the sales cycle and essentially create a more humane buying experience. While many people believe that conversational marketing can be carried out only using intelligent chatbots and targeted messaging, it is much more than just that. Conversational marketing involves personalised interactions over multiple channels such as the social media, blogs, Facebook messenger, email, Slack, phone calls and almost anywhere your customer wishes to communicate with your brand.
How conversational marketing impacts your content marketing efforts
We all are well aware of the unprecedented power of words and how great content is the key to striking a connection with your target audience. Content helps in not only monetising your social media marketing efforts but also educating your potential customers about your brand. It helps in creating a distinctive image of your brand in the minds of your customers.
But how exactly is content marketing related to conversational marketing? To understand that, you need to recall our aforementioned definition of conversation marketing that describes it as a two-way interaction between the brands and their audiences. Nowadays, businesses make use of a variety of chat applications and messaging platforms to stay connected with their customers at every stage of the sales cycle. That being said, you can leverage these conversational marketing channels to establish context while developing your content.
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Speaking of context, it is essentially the most crucial aspect of content that renders it relevant and readable. When you design content for your audience, you need to ensure that it is relevant with respect to the context that defines their current situation. For instance, you need to know the stage of the purchase cycle they are in. Is there an urgent need for them to make the purchase or is it just leisurely holiday shopping? Are they aware of your brand? Have they reached out to your competitors?
The key here is to pitch the right content to the right person at the right time. A marketer must always know how to pitch the relevant content to a customer who is prepared to receive it with open arms. That said, predicting the context with respect to a customer’s buying habit is a tough challenge, to say the least. And how do you deal with that? Well, by interacting with your client at the various stages of his/her journey with your brand.
Conversational marketing helps marketers get into the minds of their target audience by actually talking to them and deriving valuable information about their needs and expectations. Based upon the context established through conversational marketing, you can create highly relevant and compelling content that is sure to convert a potential lead into a loyal customer.
What are the other benefits of conversational marketing for your business?
- Conversational Marketing helps develop a comprehensive understanding of your customers within the relevant context. For instance, while lead forms may help derive the contact information of a customer, direct one-to-one conversations can help analyse as to what exactly they are looking for on your website. Armed with accurate information about their needs and concerns, you can directly provide product recommendations based on the context of the prospective purchase.
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- Conversational marketing helps provide a more humane buying experience for the customer that makes him/her feel comfortable with your brand. It allows your customers to reach out to you exactly when they feel like it. Conversational marketing helps take your sales strategies a notch above mechanical sales scripts and mundane website layouts. It helps establish a connection with the audience on a more personal level and helps build brand loyalty and trust in them.
- Conversational marketing helps shorten the traditional sales cycle by ensuring that the CQLs or conversation qualified leads (leads generated through conversation) close sooner as compared to those qualified through conventional marketing methods.
- While a typical conversion goal is to ‘close a sale’ and make money out of the transaction, not all content is targeted at selling a product or service. Content marketing is also associated with educating your readers about your brand, encouraging them to subscribe to your mailing list or generating demand for your offerings. As such, conversational marketing helps in improving the overall customer journey by providing content that has been highly personalised to their needs and requirements. According to a recent study, nearly 80% of the businesses have reported substantial growth in revenue solely with the help of personalised content for their customers. Conversational marketing helps gather relevant information about the customers and pitching them content that has value for them. To put it in simpler words, it helps in presenting them with products that they are looking to buy based on your interaction with them.
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- According to a study conducted by Harvard Business Review, a company must respond in less than five minutes from the time of the initial contact by the customer to have greater chances of qualifying the lead. Any delay might imply a severely lower probability of lead qualification for your business. Conversational marketing ensures round-the-clock availability of your brand for the potential customers who might want to reach out to you in wee hours of the night. Studies indicate that nearly 60% of all online purchases happen either in the evening or during weekends. As such, an efficient conversational marketing channel can help compensate for the lack of traditional customer support outside of your business’s working hours and guarantee a sure-shot competitive advantage over your rivals in the industry.
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