Dave Chaffey7 digitally mediated selling techniques that can boost conversion rate
Despite the growth in importance in digital channels to inform buying decisions, there are many more complex, higher-value products for which human support is required for users of websites and social media channels.
In multichannel selling, the most important path is that where someone doing online product evaluation and making the decision to purchase on a company website, but finds they don’t have sufficient information to make the decision online, so they switch to an offline channel.
This scenario can be facilitated by these different techniques and tools:
1. Offer phone contact (and track it)
It’s obvious to make it easy for potential customers to contact you by phone if they want to. This is less relevant and will be less prominent for businesses, who are looking to minimize support costs and instead focus on ‘customer self-service’
2. Email contact form
A form defining questions and setting expectations on response time.
3. Book a meeting or demo
Suitable for more complex, higher-value business services and some consumer products.
4. Livechat
Can be quite resource-intensive and demands a fast response time. Limit to relevant pages and set response expectations.
5. Interactive prompts
Systems like Intercom, Drift and Continual.ly prompt for responses around specific content or services. Similar to Livechat, but with a structured workflow.
6. Social media customer care
As part of social media listening, potential pre-sales questions should be monitored and responded to
7. FAQ and knowledgebases
FAQ are suitable for smaller businesses. Knowledgebases are used by larger businesses for web self-service. Should cover pre-sales.
