What are the benefits of Conversational Marketing?

Conversational Marketing means we are able to interact with customers online but as if they were standing in front of us. The main benefits are the ones usually associated with a great face-to-face service:

Become a market leader in digital experience

Conversational Marketing is still within its infancy. Not only do those companies who implement these techniques stand to establish themselves as innovators in their industry, but they also stand to raise the bar for customer experience. Companies who improve the online buying experience through conversational marketing solutions will become the reference point for customers in their sector. Companies can not only improve this by offering a better experience, but also by implementing conversational tech that gathers feedback. This can allow companies to know their customers in more detail and then be used to further improve the experience.

Maximizing call center and retail staff

Conversational Marketing allows companies to harness their existing offline assets and integrate them with online marketing channels. It neatly combines the benefits of in-store experience and knowledgeable call center staff with the benefits of online marketing technologies. It will allow you to smoothly integrate digital lead management structures, by allowing you to easily qualify leads and use technology to connect them with the staff who are in charge of closing deals and helping customers with conversational tools.

Increased conversion rates

Simply put, talking to consumers means it’s more likely they will buy from you. This approach is likely to increase conversion rates from web visits, turning all that organic web traffic you’ve fought so hard to create customers. A submission form alone will likely have a high abandonment rate, conversational marketing tools help consumers jump that barrier and dive into a conversation. Chatbots do not ask buyers to wait on a callback, they put them in a direct chat with a member of the sales team, improving the experience and conversions.

Conversational Marketing is proven to increase conversion rates from web visits, turning all that web traffic you’ve fought so hard to create customers. It also helps increase cross-selling and up-selling and improves customer experience, driving up the NPS.

Increased cross-sell and up-sell opportunities

By engaging with buyers, you are able to get the root of their needs. This information, combined with the expert knowledge of staff, is essential in identifying up-selling and cross-selling opportunities that have high-value to the consumer. This is especially useful in the case of telecoms bundles, where a buyer’s preferences can change what will be better for them in the long run.

Improved customer satisfaction

In many cases, it is the buying experience, not the product or service that leaves a lasting impression. By ensuring consumers are able to engage with your company in a manner that is convenient for them (e.g. using methods of communication they use in their day-to-day like chatbots or video calls) and not asking them to wait for callbacks or go to a FAQs page, it naturally follows that their experience will be better. Think about the comparison of going to Taxi’s website, finding the number, ordering the cab and then receiving a call when it arrives, compared to opening up a taxi app, inputting your destination and using the live chat if there is a change of plan –  in the end, product is the same (the taxi journey), but one tends to lead to much more satisfied customers than the other.

Customer satisfaction, not just with the product but with the buying experience is one of the major factors in determining referrals. While this is one of the more difficult elements to measure accurately, it’s good to bear in mind.

Decrease the sales cycle

Needless to say, the more interaction you have with a qualified lead in one session, the quicker the lead conversion time will be. By having a dynamic, conversation-driven approach via a chat or phone in real-time, you are avoiding the waiting time of forms, emailing back and forth or arranging a call time that suits both parties. Apart from the trust element, you are simply communicating more information in a smaller amount of time.

“With Conversational Marketing sales cycles get shortened through conversations that answer questions in real time. Conversational Marketing is working when you get real time interaction for your answers, not just another way of trying to schedule a meeting to answer questions later (even a short time later). That’s where the chatbot is really important because it begins the conversation with zero latency and can transition it smoothly from unassisted conversation to assisted where necessary.”

– Kuan Foo, Product Director at Whisbi