What is Conversational Marketing?

I recently had a question about the sizing of a pair of sandals I wanted to buy online. I was interested – and confused – enough that I searched the retailer’s web page for customer service and filled out a form with my question and contact information.

Then, crickets.

Several days later, I still hadn’t received a response. Guess what I haven’t bought? Those sandals.

What if, instead of having to fill out a form, a chatbot had popped up and asked me, by name, if I needed help? What if I typed my question into the bot and received either a relevant FAQ response or one based on my behavior on its site? What if the bot recommended a size based on sandals I had previously purchased?

Why, I might now have a new pair of sandals. Conversational marketing and artificial intelligence (AI) can be important in attracting and retaining customers.

What Is Conversational Marketing?

As the name implies, conversational marketing is a dialogue-driven approach to interacting with customers on a personal level. It enables companies to meet customers where they are on an individualized and synchronous basis.

Conversational marketing employs AI-based algorithms to engage with customers, typically through the use of chatbots and virtual customer assistants. Conversational AI tools can appear on social media platforms, websites, and mobile and desktop applications, placed anywhere along the customer journey. These tools ­– which leverage platforms including SMS, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger – use natural language processing to mimic human language and respond appropriately.

Conversational Marketing to Increase Sales Conversions

AI empowers chats that can do more than just answer simple queries. Thanks to continuous advancements, AI can supercharge customer journeys and help draw prospects down the sales funnel, while also assisting with customer support and retention.

In short, the right AI conversational marketing tools provide prospective and existing customers with the tools they need to answer their questions, solve their problems, and ultimately move forward with purchases.

For businesses, conversational marketing can increase your sales conversions in many ways, from leveraging the power of personalized marketing to creating automated follow-up campaigns.

For businesses, conversational marketing can increase your sales conversions in many ways, from leveraging the power of personalized marketing to creating automated follow-up campaigns. But be careful not to overdo it: there's a difference between conversational marketing that increases sales and conversational marketing that becomes white noise – or, worse, an irritant – for customers and potential leads.

Here are five ways to make the most of your conversational AI-based marketing efforts.

1. Place Conversational AI Tools Strategically

Conversational AI-based tools are more powerful when placed strategically along the customer journey. For example, an “About Us” web page isn’t necessarily the best place for a chatbot to appear and ask a customer whether they need assistance with a purchase. In fact, doing so may jeopardize a sale. However, a chatbot that pops up during a lull between a customer placing items in an online shopping cart and checkout might be just the prompt needed to get the person to click the “Order Now” button. By mapping out the customer journey beforehand, a company can best determine where placement of a conversational marketing tool may have the most impact on converting a potential customer to a new customer.

2. Personalize the Experience

Personalization is more than desired – it’s expected. According to McKinsey & Company’s “Next in Personalization 2021 Report,” 71% of 1,013 surveyed consumers said they expected personalized interactions with the companies they do business with, and 66% said they become frustrated when their expectations are not met.

The ideal chatbot experiences happen when the technology can evolve its understanding of customers over time and use that knowledge to refine questions and suggestions – as opposed to a set of canned responses that do little more than recast information from a website or social media page in chatbot form.

Personalization also has a direct impact on purchase behavior. Seventy six percent of McKinsey survey respondents indicated they were more likely to consider purchases from brands that offer personalized experiences, and 78% said they were more likely to repurchase from those companies.

3. Think Outside the Use-Case Box

Chatbots can serve many purposes: to answer frequently asked questions, assist buyers through the purchasing process, offer recommendations, make reservations and appointments, and provide general customer care. There are many more possibilities too.

Thinking outside of these typical scenarios can positively affect conversions. For example, chatbots can be used to provide training on a technology platform that a customer has expressed interest in. 

4. Analyze the Data

The longer your chatbot runs, the more information it can shed on when, where, why, how, and how often your customers and potential customers interact with the brand. That data can be used to refine the chatbot as well as inform the rest of the business, especially sales and marketing teams. Of course, it’s important to determine which chatbot metrics are most important based on the organization’s goals and objectives.

For example, how many customers are abandoning their shopping carts per week? How many are completing their purchases? How many chatbot conversations occur per day? How long does each one last? Such insight can help organizations understand what is and isn’t working, leading to improved conversion rates and the efficacy of the chatbot itself.

5. Decide When Enough Is Enough

Many shoppers have become accustomed to chatbots, but sometimes only a human interaction will do. Whether it’s a frustrated customer who can’t figure out how to return an item, someone who has a complex situation beyond the chatbot’s ability, or a person with an accessibility issue, sometimes a chatbot or another type of AI-based assistant may do more harm than good.

Organizations can ensure their conversational AI-based tool makes it easy for a customer to “transfer” to a human representative if that’s what they want.

The Takeaway

Chatbots, virtual assistants, and other conversational AI-based marketing tools can help businesses convert prospects to customers. Placed at the right touch points along the buying journey, conversational marketing tools also generate a wealth of valuable data so companies can improve the customer experience while getting to know their targets on a deeper – and potentially more profitable – level. 

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