Exploring Conversational Marketing Examples
We recently took a new look at conversational marketing, after a year or so of putting the topic behind us.
Although theorising the concept of marketing through conversations with potential customers is a lot of fun, we also need to make things a little more tangible from time to time.
With that in mind, let's look at some conversational marketing examples to get your creative juices flowing. If you need to catch up on what conversational marketing is, please read this short guide.
NB: We talk about conversational marketing a lot with a focus on chatbots and mobile messaging. I will mention them below. However, you must know that conversational marketing is not just about chatbots and mobile messaging! Like we always say, it is now a new discipline and most businesses have been doing it since forever. As such, we will also explore examples that do not involve super-duper chatbots.
Email marketing
Boom, dropping a bomb on the first example.
Yes, email marketing is most of the time terrible. Yes, it annoys a lot of people - in fact, one of our surveys showed over 61% of consumers felt the marketing emails they receive are bad.
But, yes, it can be made into a great channel, a conversational channel.
Although we urge businesses to slowly move away from email marketing and look into mobile messaging marketing, we obviously know that is a big ask. So, instead of making the switch instantly, why not turn your email marketing into a more conversational channel?
The best way to do it is simple: ask questions. Ask your list members feedback on your content. Ask what they think about a specific product. Ask what they want from you (this one is gold, by the way. Incredible insights to gather.).
The point is to turn the usual email blasts everybody hates into an actual interaction with your users. Simple, right?
Chatbots
Well, yeah, I was obviously going to bring chatbots up.
Chatbots are a perfect conversational marketing tool because, much like most email marketing campaigns, they are entirely automated.
The real secret of chatbots, though, is automation beyond the blasting of messages. A chatbot can literally handle entire conversations in real time with its users about your products, simple information about your shop, or discussion of your company's ethos - in real time.
Now, while you could turn your email marketing campaigns in a more conversational way, this is automated conversations on a whole new level.
Surveys
Any web analyst will tell you a survey is the best way to gather insights into customer (or visitor) behaviour. When done well, a survey leads to a one-on-one discussion with people interested in what you have to offer.
Did I say 'discussion'? That's right, conversational marketing ahoy!
Like I touched on in my intro, surveys are one of the oldest tricks in the books when it comes to engaging with an audience. They allow businesses to gather incredible insights on multiple fronts from interested parties.
Surveys are conversational marketing in its purest form. It is a person representing the company asking direct questions to a user/customer/visitor. It is an actual conversation!
Mobile messaging
We already talked about chatbots, which for most people means mobile messaging (Facebook Messenger, Telegram, SMS, etc.).
I want to quickly touch on mobile messaging in general, that is with little (if any) automation. Mobile messaging is a relatively new channel, only available for a few years. It makes such a perfect conversational marketing tool because of its reach.
While you could send an email asking for feedback from your users, you are likely to run into a few issues. At an average open rate of 20% across industries, you are already only reaching one subscriber out of five. Out of these people, how many will actually take the time to answer? Maybe a couple percents.
Not great. Better than the usual blast & hope, but still, not great.
The power of mobile messaging as a conversational marketing tool is reach. People are always on their phones. While they tend to avoid email like the plague, they actively engage on messaging apps all day long.
Want to engage and reach your users? Get them through mobile messaging.
