Is your organization familiar with conversational marketing? Well if not, it should be.
We’ve all had moments in our lives where companies have tried to grab our attention and within seconds, we can tell they’re reading a script, using a pre-recorded machine, or getting information that doesn’t match our needs. These types of communication methods aren’t effective anymore as today’s consumer is more thoughtful about who they will do business with.
Did you know that only 43% of people answer cold calls? What about that the average email open rate has fallen to 20%? These low success rates won’t help your organization grow.
So as a marketing professional in your organization, how can you alter your approach in order to see a positive ROI with your marketing efforts? The answer – conversational marketing.
In this article, we’ll go over what conversational marketing is, why it matters for you and your organization, and how you can experience the results with implementing the tool into your marketing strategy.
What is conversational marketing?
Since the inception of Agentology, we’ve always considered ourselves as thought leaders in this space. This is why we’ve partnered with Drift to take this concept to the next level.
Conversational marketing is a feedback-oriented approach to marketing used by organizations to develop customer loyalty, drive engagement, grow the customer base, and – most importantly – grow an organization’s revenue.
Conversation marketing is based around the idea of communicating with customers in the natural and seamless way that they would like to be communicated with. This is the key point to conversational marketing – communicating with your customers in the way they want to communicate. This can take many forms and it extends to phone calls, texts, email, Facebook Messenger, Slack, and more.
Why conversational marketing matters for your organization
As we’ve mentioned before, cold-calling used to be the foundation of any marketing strategy. The best way to garner attention to your product or service was to hammer the phones and announce what you had to offer to anyone who would listen. Of course, this model is slowly dying. As mentioned above, less than 50% of people answer the phone when receiving a cold-call.
On the flip side, did you know how often people are using text as their preferred form of communication? Research indicates that US smartphone users send and receive five times more texts than they make and receive calls. Furthermore, according to the Hootsuite blog, there are 1.3 billion Facebook Messenger users sending 8 billion messages between businesses and people every month and Messenger receives 70-80% open rates (compare that to the 20% open rates with email).
The way our marketplace is moving is actually quite ironic. In a day where everything consumers desire is instantaneous, the space for tailor-made human interaction is slowly diminishing. This is why conversational marketing can set your organization apart from the conversation. Whether it’s a business communicating with its customer base or a friend consoling with another, everyone wants to be heard and understood. This understanding comes in the form of communicating on the recipient’s terms.
Understanding this outlines the basic principle of adapt or fall behind. When a customer feels listened to, they begin to trust you.
When a customer trusts your organization, you build loyalty and the increased chance that they will come back to you and recommend your services to their network.
How conversational marketing pays off for your organization
Companies that align with conversational marketing prosper in their space. A recent study by Twilio concludes that 66% of consumers now prefer to reach brands or be reached by brands, through messaging apps like Facebook Messenger. Moreover, 63% of those surveyed, say their messaging with businesses has increased over the last two years. Finally, just over two-thirds expect to increase their messaging with businesses over the next two years.
The direction in which consumers are going when communicating with businesses is clear. Your organization should be headed in that direction as well. If you aren’t convinced yet, let’s just let some of the numbers do the talking.
- Leads that come in through Drift (chatbot) are 4 to 5 times more likely to convert into sales opportunities compared to our other lead sources.
- Automated messaging services help catalyze revenue growth. According to InsideSales, when a lead is responded to within the first 5 minutes you are 100 times more likely to talk to the lead compared to reaching out within the first 30 minutes.
- A lead is 21 times more likely to be qualified when reached within the first 5 minutes.
- A 2016 study noted that 9 out of 10 consumers would like the option of messaging when contacting a business.
As the technology in the marketplace gets faster and more customized to the customer experience, these statistics will continue to reflect the benefits of conversational marketing
Conclusion
Conversational marketing is the way of the future. As consumers get savvier with their spending they will require your organization to adhere to the way they wish to conduct business. As a company, one of your main goals should be to educate and build trust.
The days of the “pushy-salesman” are gone and you now have the opportunity to reach the consumer at a relational and trust-building level. So use the conversational marketing tools available to you and reach your customers their preferred way.
