Conversational marketing is one of the main trends of digital marketing that aims to listen to users, putting them at the center of the corporate communication and marketing strategy. What’s wrong with the current digital marketing system? We want to answer this question with some examples drawing a conclusion together.
Raise your hand if on the web or social media you’ve never been persecuted by displaying ads about products you simply searched out of curiosity. Not to mention the emails, carefully created by marketing experts, but that often have no value for those who receive them. Many say that today’s email is an antiquated technique to relate to customers and its nature confirms this theory: a one-way communication perceived as spam by receivers. Here is the big flaw of a traditional digital marketing strategy. Everything is focused on customers but nobody really listens to their needs. Therefore, it is a one-way communication where companies would do anything to capture users’ attention, without taking into account their actual interests.
Let’s understand together how conversational marketing can help businesses overcome these limits.
CONVERSATIONAL MARKETING: LET’S DEFINE IT
Conversational marketing is a type of in-bound marketing focused on the interaction between company and customer, and not exclusively based on one-way communication. Therefore, it is a great tool for sales and marketing professionals who are constantly looking for the increment of leads and revenue. A hubspot study found that, in recent years, almost 5 out of 10 companies have implemented conversational marketing in their strategy, overcoming communication limits between brand and customer. In this way, experts can create meaningful and authentic experiences for buyers, giving relevance to clients throughout the purchase process.
From a practical point of view, conversational marketing uses targeted messages and smart chatbots to interact with customers 24/7.
WHAT ARE CUSTOMERS LOOKING FOR?
Many companies adopt conversational marketing tools to meet customers’ expectations, being able to stand out in the market. But what do customers expect in order to establish a faithful and lasting relationship with brands? In an increasingly full context from the supply side, creating personalized experiences can really make a difference. Customers are looking for a tailor-made shopping experience based on their real needs, as well as an efficient, 24/7 support. In summary, today’s customers require commitment and high levels of customization and engagement, inserted within a direct, simpler and instant communication. Not surprisingly, one of the main trends of conversational marketing is represented by ‘Instant Messaging’, the form of communication that allows various people to communicate with each other in real time through short messages. The advantages for companies are obvious: synchrony, speed and customization. To date, about 70% of customers communicate with brands via instant messaging apps.
CONVERSATIONAL MARKETING: INTERESTING TRENDS YOU CAN’T MISS OUT
Conversational marketing is one of the latest and most effective digital marketing trends. This is why many businesses are now deciding to adopt this strategy and meet customers’ new needs. Data speaks clearly, as 79% of companies noticed a positive result on sales and customer retention after implementing a conversational marketing solution. Why? 52% of customers are likely to return to brands that offer a direct communication service. Besides, in the last two years 58% of companies adopted a conversational marketing solution in response to COVID-19, saying that their engagement rates increased during the pandemic. But what are the most common tools when it comes to conversational marketing?
Chatbot is the first thing you think about when pronouncing the words “conversational marketing”, isn’t it? It is a simple and efficient tool to use when customers need rapid assistance on your website or app. However, now that other conversational marketing tools are available, it seems a little bit limited in the offered service. Companies can’t customize the answers and there is no human being behind the screen to interact with your clients and people do love communicating with real people!
Customers ask for tailored communication and companies are starting to meet their call. How? Thanks to AI, mostly. It allows brands to collect important data using them to create personalized advertising campaigns or to send clients tailored offers.
It seems to be very performing as 82% of companies that use an AI-enabled technology find their solution to be very valuable to their marketing mix. Thanks to AI, companies not only see an increase in sales productivity, but also in the ability of qualifying customers in real-time and in the ease of engaging clients 24/7 around the world.
More and more companies are adopting conversational apps to offer a better user experience and guarantee responsive interactions between the brand and its clients. What are we talking about? Nothing but apps like WhatsApp, that are able to offer a more complete communication service which is simple and effective for both brands and customers.
WHY CONVERSATIONAL APPS ARE YOUR BEST BET?
In the last few years a lot of companies have adopted conversational apps to communicate with their clients in a direct way. Why this change of course?
But there’s more. Apps like WhatsApp, if used to establish a fast and simple communication with clients, can really meet new customers’ needs. We talked about chatbot and how its use is really common among companies’ websites, but while it remains a static and not so complete tool, conversational apps can overcome its limits. Want to know why WhatsApp or other instant messaging apps can really represent a game changer to boost your sales and increase customer engagement and retention?
Customers’ needs for continuous interaction and assistance from brands has increased, requiring a high level of commitment, customization and engagement as well as a direct, fast and simple communication. Using a conversational app allows companies to answer all these needs using a unique tool. Customers will have a better and more complete purchase experience, really feeling and appreciating the brands’ presence in their lives.
Conversational apps are not only made to assist customers and answer their doubts and questions. They also represent an innovative and effective tool to launch customer engagement campaigns directly on clients’ telephone numbers, involving them in different forms of communication and standing out in the market.
Customers are more likely to choose a brand that offers an easy and quick personalized shopping experience. During the COVID-19 pandemic a lot of companies chose conversational apps to reach more clients also remotely, offering an efficient sales service and witnessing a high rise in remote sales.
when it comes to conversational apps we don’t only talk about a tool to offer customers instant support via chat. The kind of communication brands can establish with customers is based on hyper personalization, since these apps allow companies to send tailored messages and notifications about new personalized offers available.
Modern customers require everything at their fingertips, asking for efficient and direct communication and assistance from brands. After talking about conversational marketing spread and potential, we hope it is more clear to you why conversational apps, instant messaging and, above all, tailored and complete communication services are the solution you need to really meet your customers’ calls. So, what are you waiting for? Start planning your conversational marketing strategy!
