What is Conversational Marketing? Conversational Marketing Framework.
As the Marketing industry is now seeing things for what they are (customer is a lot more important than your competitor), we've embraced a more customer-centric approach. Conversational Marketing plays a major role in that. Let's take a look...
Why the customer-centric approach?
Another topic in the Marketing industry is the Dark Funnel ( a funnel where you can't see how your customer landed on a particular page or how they converted), which shows that word of mouth or communication amongst various people can drive customers to your business.
How to get people to talk about your business? Easy!.....(well....not really)!
The customer-centric approach focuses on building relationships, understanding the customer's problem, and suggesting an appropriate solution. Long gone are the days when people answer a bunch of broad questions by chatbots on our website. Conversational Marketing helps to build a solid foundation and more or less delivers a human-like interaction.
The Conversational Marketing Framework
The 3 terms- categorizing, learning, and suggesting, are what make up the entire framework.
Customer Experience
Once your customer lands on your website, after giving them a few seconds, your chatbot pops up and offers to help them. But customers don't want to talk to a bot, they want to talk to an actual human. Remember, a human conversation has far more chances of conversion than that of a bot.
You can never know when your dream customer will land on your website, and it is not quite possible to identify which one of the visitors fits your ICP. Conversational Marketing saves you from all this hassle. This also helps customers to realize that you will be there for them 24/7.
#1. Categorizing (also known as engaging)
In this stage, you do not really know if the visitor is your ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) or if it's just someone browsing. Remember, each page on your site delivers different information, so it is important that you address and guide the visitor appropriately. This is the stage where you familiarize yourself with the visitor, the target is broad, and you do not know if they fit your ICP. "Hey there, can I help you with something? , I can grab a human if you'd like" would be one of the many appropriate prompts you could use.
Once the visitor engages, try asking them questions that will help you understand if they fit your ICP.
Understand their website behavior and engage accordingly,
For example,Let's say the visitor is viewing the "Customer Service Solutions" page on your website, a prompt like "Hey, do you want to want to know how this would work for your business?" would be appropriate and it would personalize the conversation.
Take a quick note of their demographics and get their details. (Why? You will understand soon)
Offer solutions, for example, A blog post, a playbook, a podcast?
I always talk about the W's, for this first stage the following W's are used:
Who? - Unknown, Known, Returning?
Where?- Website (most probably)
What?- A specific page like Blog, Products, Solutions, Pricing, About, Contact?
Why?- Why are you trying to get to know them?
Understanding the business and buyer outcome is very important in this first stage, always offer to chat more to get to know them better. Speaking of which... why do we have to get their details?
Let's say you are already communicating with a visitor who seems interested in your business, but they get a call or just leave the chat without any explanation? Now, do you assume they weren't interested? Absolutely not! So what do we do? There are two possible scenarios
The client forgets to get back to the conversation: What can you do? - Fortunately, we have their details and can send them a follow-up e-mail.
But imagine the same visitor getting back to your website only to start over the same conversation? No one has time for that! - Having their details will help you to keep the conversation going or even jog their memory.
Other ways to follow-up
E-mail
Video
Offer educational content
Invite to webinars
Updates regarding the product/solution they are interested in.
Offer to set up a meeting by dropping your sales rep's calendar link.
#2. Learning.
In the second stage, you now know the client's interests, and how they fit into your ICP. You can use that to personalize their experience. How? Your visitor is now a 'known- returning visitor'! You can address them by their 'Name' or 'Company Name', use the previous conversation as context and throw out a prompt like " Hey Anusha, it's good to have you back! Do you want to learn more about our Customer Services Solutions?" Even the follow-up message can be personalized for target buyers.
Understanding the W's:
Who?- ICPs could still be a wide range of visitors, like - unknown, known, target buyers, customers, sales (previously engaged)
Where?- In this stage, your visitor could also be from various marketing channels, such as paid search, e-mail marketing, etc- so, where are you targeting them?
What?- You could target them with a webinar, a blog post, or even a product update (offers).
Why?- Why are you targeting them? What is the business and buyer outcome? (New lead and More information?)
These clients are possibly your best high-value accounts, so treat them like you would Beyoncé.
When you acknowledge their source, it adds a more personalized touch.
With the history, try to jog their memory and ask them questions like, "Hey Anusha, how did that Conversational Marketing Blueprint work for you? Do you want to learn more?"- This shows that you remember your previous conversation with them.
Did you notice how I used Hey "Anusha" in the previous point? That's recognizing them with the information they gave us previously. If you have their title or company, even better.
In fact, having their company name can help you share case studies done for similar organizations.
Other ways of targeting:
We have discussed how to target them on a chatbot so far, but how about an e-mail, or video?
E-mail Targeting:
Let's say your visitor (target) is from a webinar, send them a follow-up e-mail, especially a personalized one!
Make sure it has the following
First of all, it has to be a human.
The subject line must be engaging.
Make use of the conversation you had with them earlier or their website behavior and address their pain points.
Give them a free trial (if possible)
Add educational content
Encourage them to set up a meeting with you to learn more
Remember you always have to tell the audience what to do, so concluding the e-mail with a perfect CTA is extremely important. Be direct with what you want your target to do next.
Video Targeting:
The next best thing is video targeting. Hold on, don't start thinking about how you are going to produce the video!! Remember, your buyers like authenticity, not over-produced content.
Your video follow-up must also have all the points similar to e-mail targeting but on a video.
Is a bot necessary on the contact page?
100% YES! This is the one page where your visitor is already thinking about taking a chance on your business, here your chatbot could loop in a sales rep as soon as possible.
It is always recommended that you send the follow-up e-mail content within 5-10 minutes of initial contact. And, within 24 hours for video.
#3. Suggesting
In the final stage, we have nothing left to do but provide a solution and see where and how to take/make a deal. Chatbot- This is where Artificial Intelligence plays a major role. Your chatbot cannot personalize after an extent, because during this phase the target could ask any question, they may not even know how to ask their questions correctly, this is where Artificial intelligence is used to decipher the meaning and intention.
Sales Meeting- After a sales meeting or a product demonstration, the sales rep would have a pretty good idea as to what the client is looking for. This is where you provide the appropriate solution. Say the client was looking for something to do with customer service that could be e-mail, chatbot, re-targeting videos, n number of options. But after a couple of meetings, if the client frequently talks about abandoned chat, it most probably means they are looking for a chatbot. Now how do we suggest a solution to the client? What are the channels we can use to get in touch with our clients if they ghost?
Chat
E-mail
Video
Let's look at the W's:
Who?- A client that has to be taken to the next step, we are trying to expedite them. Who is "them"? Are they a previous customer, or an existing customer? Unknown? Known? Target Buyer?
Where?- Where are you doing this? In the awareness stage? Decision stage? Justify? Expand?
What?- What are you trying to achieve? Provide the most appropriate solution? Educate them more?
Why?- What are the business and buyer outcomes? (Purchase and Revenue closed?)
Remember, in all these re-targeting methods, the content plays a huge role. Understanding which stage of the cycle you are in, you have to tailor your messages accordingly.
First Phase: Categorizing.
The visitor can be anyone, so the messaging has to be a little broad at first (not too broad, still acknowledge the page they are on), you can personalize them as you get to know them.
Second Phase: Learning.
You know the visitor and their needs, try educating them and ask them how you can help, offer to chat more, and book a meeting for information.
Third Phase: Suggesting
Suggest an appropriate solution and see if that needs any customization or educate them more.
Conversational Marketing can be used to engage and understand your customer. It is the most effective way to always be available to website visitors and generate new leads. Conversational Marketing is a customer-centric approach that can be used for your business to understand and recommend better solutions to your customers.
-Anusha