Dave ChaffeyConversation marketing is a broad concept covering different forms of dialogue between a brand and its prospects and customers as part of the sales and customer service process. The term is increasingly used since many of these conversations are digitally mediated. The Drift State of Conversational Marketing report summarizes some of the most popular techniques:
Gartner defines conversational marketing as follows:
“Conversational marketing technologies enable interactions between companies and customers that mimic human dialogue and do so at scale.”
The goals of conversation marketing in terms of the 5S goals of digital marketing include:
- Sell – Higher conversion rates through offline channels provided by human interaction or human-style interaction enabled by chatbot
- Speak – Conversations enable queries to be resolved more rapidly than static web pages
- Serve – Customer satisfaction ratings improved by better customer service
- Save – Cost savings from when fewer support staff interactions are needed
- Sizzle – The personal touch gives a better brand experience
In terms of practical tools to support this, Email, SMS, Mobile notifications, Livechat, Social media retargeting, on-site interactions and personalization are common and well-established techniques. The use of Smart speakers and chatbots are more advanced examples which are supported by AI.
Their power is suggested by this visual which shows the opportunities to use ‘sense-and-respond’ communications to interactions across the Smart Insights RACE customer lifecycle.
