Conversational Marketing: Chatbot and SMS Marketing Benefits

Conversational marketing is a dialogue-driven business strategy that uses automated and human sales reps to guide website visitors through the customer journey. Conversational marketing automation greets website visitors, answers simple questions, and collects customer data for human representatives. This style of marketing puts the potential client in the driver's seat of the customer experience.

Artificial intelligence and automation integrations allow companies to scale responses to meet customers' needs on their terms and preferred schedule. Companies use the collected data to improve the user experience and functionality of the sales process.

People often confuse a conversational marketing platform with inbound marketing; however, the two perform separate roles. Examples of inbound marketing approaches include banner ads and blog posts, which aim to attract online shoppers to landing pages.

For the right company, a conversational marketing strategy can improve customer relationships and optimize the team's sales cycle. Here are three advantages of conversational marketing:

1. 1. Customer support provides a personalized experience. Meaningful conversations with an actual human representative can create a better customer experience. Automated bots are efficient at answering simple questions or navigating through an options menu, but they are less equipped to listen and empathize with a dissatisfied customer.
2. 2. Digital marketing channels can improve lead generation. Creating numerous touchpoint interfaces will provide more opportunities to gather detailed information about your customers. This information can help your sales team pursue qualified leads and guide them through the sales funnel.
3. 3. Real-time conversations can boost customer engagement. A thoughtful sales rep or customer service agent can guide new leads through pricing options and help them navigate around pain points or objections throughout the customer journey.

A conversational marketing strategy might include one or more of these four marketing tools:

1. 1. Customer relationship management chatbot: This automated service greets visitors when they arrive at a homepage and navigates them through the website. A customer relationship management bot, or CRM bot, will respond in real time to customer queries and transfer the customer to a human representative.
2. 2. Email marketing campaign: You can send deals or promotions to your email list of loyal customers and lure them back to your e-commerce website. As part of your email marketing campaign, you can also send a call-to-action email to remind potential customers of their incomplete orders.
3. 3. Frequently asked questions page: This website page references common issues and answers frequently asked questions (FAQs). This page often features an instant messenger window that enables customers to type back and forth with a customer service representative.
4. 4. Short message service: A messaging app or short message service (SMS) can provide customers with a convenient method of communication and a nearly instantaneous response time to their questions and issues.

If you choose to implement a conversational marketing strategy, here are three steps you can take to ensure you’re connecting with potential customers and driving sales:

1. 1. Ask for feedback to improve the customer experience: A follow-up email or text message will communicate your company appreciates a customer's business and guarantees service and care after the transaction. You can use this message to ask customers to fill out a survey or review. The survey data might enable you to celebrate the customer service all-stars on your team and address opportunities for improvement.
2. 2. Collect data from customer interactions: You can track or record customer conversations to make information more accessible to various teams. A customer service agent can reference call notes from a previous customer complaint so the customer does not have to reiterate their problem. The agent can reference these call notes and work with the customer to design a creative solution. This passive data collection strategy will also help the marketing team create a detailed illustration of your customer base.
3. 3. Use data to improve your conversion rate: Most customers want to be heard and validated. Conversational marketing establishes a two-way dialogue and provides the customer an opportunity to share their experiences and problems. These details will help you form a realistic customer model, and you can use this model to tailor solutions and finalize sales.

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