RIP generic emails and posts—those days are gone, and marketing personalization is in for brands that wish to successfully connect with their customers. Recent research by HubSpot reinforced that with findings that 77 percent of customers say a single positive experience with a brand is all it takes for them to recommend it to a friend. Conversational marketing is the key to that success.
What it is
The most memorable and positive memories people have after a visit to a store or restaurant are filled with thoughts of how empathetic and personalized the experience was. The same results can be achieved with conversational marketing using live chats, conversational landing pages and even chat bots. A major key is ensuring that the platform being used integrates with third party apps.
By employing marketing personalization, marketers can also expect to have more accurate data about their customers and improve satisfaction. Other benefits include building stronger and loyal relationships and generating more leads. If employing AI and chatbots, the system is available 24/7.
The framework
Engagement is key. Consider having a chatbot greet visitors instead of a pop-up or lead generation form. Both can be annoying, if not discouraging. By tailoring the chatbot to what’s known about the audience’s likes and brand’s voice, the likelihood of visitors continuing their journey is enhanced.
The chatbots can also manage and respond to the most common customer service or product questions. Another advantage is that those responses will always be consistent. And by setting up triggers, chatbots can accomplish other tasks like offering a first-time visitor a special discount.
Understanding the brand’s audience is also important to tailoring. Whether it’s a chatbot or “live” person, gathering the right information so visitors can be qualified and segmented based on such things like their interests is priceless.
As valuable as chatbots may be, there will be a time when human interaction with customers is necessary to complete the deal. This is important for brands selling products but especially true for those offering services. That human interaction is vital in turning leads into customers.
At some point in the journey, brands using chatbots need to recommend that visitors connect with a “live” representative. For companies offering services, links with the calendar of the sales team can be coordinated so that several days and times to schedule a call can be offered.
Similarly, if a potential customer begins deleting items from their cart or is abandoning it, an offer of human intervention can sometimes help save the purchase. At the very least, there’s an opportunity to learn the reasons for the action and perhaps learn from it and adjust.
On the tech side, marketers and digital PR pros need to be sure to select a platform that will satisfy all their needs. If chatbots are utilized, they need to be user-friendly and humanized as much as possible. Finally, all data gathered should also be integrated for use with other marketing platforms, email, and social media.
As in all campaigns, marketers should invite and gather customer feedback as well as monitor and analyze the program periodically. This will enable them to fine tune and adjust the process where and when needed to maximize success.
