How to apply conversational marketing to your business

Benefits of conversational marketing

Conversational marketing has the power to set your business apart from your competitors. Plus, customers greatly appreciate the opportunity to talk to your brand. In a recent study, the number of times buyers expressed gratitude through chat nearly doubled from 2022 to 2023, creating a level of audience engagement that deepens loyalty and generates revenue. Here are some of the other ways conversational marketing can benefit your organization.

Improve customer care

A key characteristic of conversational marketing is that it’s personalized based on the needs of the customer. You can improve the level of customer care by tailoring engagements based on highly specific scenarios. For example, if a customer is having a technical issue with your product, conversational marketing can help them resolve their specific pain point in a quick and convenient way. All the customer has to do is reach out to your brand, such as through social media, where you can discuss the issue in order to resolve it. Zappos is a brand that frequently responds to customer issues on social media.

Conversational marketing enables brands to have a live feedback loop with their customers. This not only provides brands with valuable insights into what their customers think, but also enables brands to improve their products and services to better satisfy their customers. In the example above, Zappos now has more details about their customer pain points—and can enhance their user experience in order to improve their level of customer care.

Similarly, some level of conversational marketing is typically available 24/7/365. Customers can choose to engage with a brand when it suits them best. They don’t have to follow specific office hours to reach a person or bot. Instead, customers can control their engagements with brands based on their own timelines. This enhances the level of care customers receive from organizations.

Get brand insights

Conversational marketing unearths valuable details about how customers perceive your brand. It also helps organizations understand what customers consider a priority because it is an inbound tactic. If something is really important to a customer, they are going to find a way to let the brand know.

For example, if customers repeatedly mention a specific product issue, you can use that insight to improve your product. The result? Customers who feel heard and appreciated, and who feel a sense of loyalty to your brand.

While you can learn what customers care about most through conversational marketing, Sprout Social’s Social Listening tool can help you understand the “why”. Going deeper into what makes your customers tick enables you to consider needs outside of a single brand interaction. It paints a bigger picture of your customers’ inner workings–details that are valuable to your brand.

Map the customer journey

The customer journey is unique to every organization, and conversational marketing helps your business map customer engagements along the journey. It also helps you better understand what your customers need at each stage.

For example, during the pre-purchase stage of the customer journey, your customers may want to ask FAQs with a chatbot. After onboarding, however, they may need to use a helpdesk integration to get advice on how to optimize their use of your product.

This information helps you delight your customers by anticipating their needs.

Enhance the sales cycle and generate better leads

Conversational marketing can enhance the sales cycle and move leads down the sales funnel. Without this marketing strategy, organizations don’t have as many insights into the customer psyche. By talking with customers, especially on social media, you can better understand how qualified a lead really is based on their consumer behavior. For example, do your customers like to use social media as a customer service tool or do they leave reviews on social media? This channel in particular can be a catalyst for conversational marketing engagements because it’s a space where brands and consumers already interact.

For example, a Facebook chatbot can qualify leads into different categories based on the types of questions they ask. It can then automatically send certain leads to a sales representative to book a call and others to additional resources on your website. By having a dialogue with the customer at multiple stages in their journey, you can more accurately qualify them based on their needs.

Lower costs

Marketing teams are frequently asked to do more with less. Conversational messaging enables you to meet your business goals with limited resources. How? Enter conversational AI. AI-powered chatbots and virtual agents can understand customer queries and provide appropriate responses.

According to The 2023 State of Social Media Report, a majority of business leaders plan to increase investment in AI and machine learning (ML) for marketing over the next three years. And it’s no wonder, because generative AI and other technologies could automate 60 to 70% of work activities. Businesses stand to save a considerable amount of money by incorporating this technology.

Increase scalability

Handling large volumes of personalized customer interactions is no problem with conversational marketing. Conversational AI enables you to scale conversations with your customers, even as the business grows.

The best part? Conversational marketing is personalized at its core. This means that each customer participates in a dialogue that is customized to their needs. Even at scale, conversational marketing doesn’t involve broad, generic messaging. It’s specific to the situation the customer is in and their needs at the time.