Marketing automation tools have delivered a level of efficiency to inbound marketing that wasn’t possible just a few short years ago. But, applying the same solution to every lead no longer makes sense in today’s environment.
Now that the technology is available to deliver a more personalized experience and consumers have demonstrated that they want this, brands may wish to consider shifting their digital marketing strategy.
Here is how you can use conversational marketing, and more specifically, chatbot marketing, to deliver a more personalized message and improve your results.
Conversational marketing is an approach to connecting with website visitors in real-time. It’s different from traditional marketing strategies that might use pre-posted content, ads, or email messages to generate and nurture leads. Instead, these “conversations” are meant to meet visitors where they’re at to capture qualifying information and deliver guidance.
Most people have participated in conversational marketing and just haven’t recognized it as such. Have you ever visited a website and had a popup in the corner of the page say, “Hi, my name is ___. Can I help you with something?” Instead of shouting, “Buy our products!” these tools provide a much more subtle way of engaging visitors and qualifying leads.
Identifying, qualifying, and nurturing leads can be incredibly time-consuming. What if some of that process could be automated?
Chatbots are messaging platforms that you can leverage to have these “conversations” with your site’s visitors and do some of this heavy lifting - at scale.
When you use chatbot marketing, you can create messaging sequences that contain if/then branches to lead your visitors through different conversations. If a visitor is “new,” your chatbot can collect their information and find out what issues they are trying to resolve. If they are a repeat visitor, your chatbot can remember previous conversations and move to the next step in the process.
It would be convenient if all of your prospects go through the buyer’s journey on the same schedule, but this isn’t realistic. It’s also a bit presumptuous to expect that someone is going to spend a lot of time getting you up to speed on their pain points each time they contact you. Knowing these things is your job, and today’s customers want and expect the most prompt and personalized experience possible. And chatbots are available 24/7, so they can work on your behalf while you close the deals they’ve identified and sent your way.
Here are a few statistics to support why you be using chatbots to personalize your message:
The statistics are compelling, but how do you implement a conversational marketing strategy that works? Once you get a prospect to your website, what’s the next step? Fortunately, using a chatbot marketing app can streamline this process.
Here are the primary steps to delivering a personalized experience with conversational marketing.
The first step is to capture the lead if your visitor is new. Traditionally, brands relied on the hope that a fresh lead would fill out a capture form, which generally offered little to no engagement.
A chatbot can reduce the risk of lead form abandonment by gently guiding a visitor toward the content they want and finding ways to capture their information at the same time. You can use your site’s analytics to determine which pages get the most inbound traffic from first-time visitors. These pages should have chatbots with tailored messaging to help capture leads.
Once you’ve captured a visitor’s contact information, you can use chatbot marketing to qualify your leads. This might happen during the same visit or a subsequent one. You can greet your leads at every point in this process with highly personalized greetings, which will boost engagement.
When a prospect shows interest in your products, your chatbot can continue to ask probing questions to determine whether they are a good fit. Find out what challenges they are facing, what they already know about your products, and ask how you can help make their current visit more productive.
Some customers have expressed a desire to purchase products directly from chatbots, but most larger transactions will require additional nurturing and a human element. Once your chatbot has qualified your lead, it can continue to direct your prospects to interesting content on your site that will answer their questions. Examples include your blog, your pricing page, and product demonstration videos.
When your prospect is ready to speak with sales, the chatbot will automatically route that person to a live salesperson based on your rotation criteria.
It’s important to note that not every visit to your website is going to be someone looking to buy a product. Your chatbots should also be able to help with post-sales questions and other common issues that might impact the customer experience.
In the world of conversational marketing, Drift is a clear standout. It is the only platform entirely dedicated to conversational marketing, and it enables brands to deliver a personalized experience to visitors at any stage of the buyer’s journey.
Connection Model is proud to be a Drift agency partner and can give you more information about incorporating this platform into your overall digital marketing strategy. Contact us for a free assessment and to learn more.