Conversational Marketing: Bridge the Gap Between Brand & Customers

Do you feel like there is a disconnect between your brand and customers? There could be a myriad of reasons for why that’s the case, but a lack of appropriate messaging could be the main one. 

50% of adults now use voice assistants to communicate with smartphones. People talk in a conversational manner, so it must be how they can interact with a brand. Using everyday language allows people not familiar with the industry to learn more. It’s a stark contrast to jargon-heavy messaging that is becoming a thing of the past. Boost your digital marketing strategy!

Why conversational marketing bridges the gap

Conversational marketing allows brands to build relationships and communicate in a language customers can relate to. Gone are the days of corporate messaging if you want to connect with your audience. It makes sense because people use colloquial language to connect and brands need to do the same. 

Conversational marketing allows content to feel more personalized. That’s advantageous because a lack of website personalization could lead to 74% of your customers feeling frustrated. Without using conversational language, it’s difficult for personalization to take full effect. 

There are countless examples of conversational marketing and you’ve probably encountered them while surfing the internet. Brands such as MonsterInsights, Domino’s and Drift utilize this marketing format via their chatbots. It shows that conversational marketing can be automated, which is counter-intuitive because it’s traditionally seen as a very human form of interaction. 

Improvements in AI will enable conversational messaging to be more lifelike, which allows marketing channels to be scalable. It’s a way of bridging the gap between brand and customers that’s ROI-positive. 

Where to use conversational marketing

Are you looking for channels to implement conversational marketing? You can use multiple ones to deploy a conversational strategy to enjoy the advantages. In fact, it’s harder to find a channel where you can’t use this marketing style. 

• In-person: Employees interacting with potential customers in-person can utilize conversational marketing. It takes time to have a conversation with your customers, but it pays off in the long-term. The type of places you can have conversations like this include stores, shopping malls and trade shows. Communicating with customers like they were a friend or family members helps break down barriers. 
• Email: Over the last decade you’ll notice that email marketing has seen a big shift towards conversational language. It’s a great medium for conversational language because you can regularly send messages enabling you to build a relationship with subscribers. Creating personalized email messages helps with conversational marketing because the reader feels like it’s directed at them. 
• Chatbots: by nature chatbots have predetermined messages that can seem bland without adding a conversational messaging style. Therefore, online websites are utilizing a conversational format for questions and answers. It’s a natural form of communication that helps visitors feel at ease when using chatbots. 

Conversational messaging can be used in various marketing channels if you get creative. However, you shouldn’t blindly use it just because it’s the new cool trend that’s working for other brands. Do your own analysis using A/B split testing to figure out the parts of your business where conversational messaging works. 

Conversational marketing is the future

The next big thing in search is voice, which is growing rapidly in popularity. There is currently an explosion of research and technical development in voice search. During the course of the decade, you may find that most search queries were completed using voice rather than typing. 

This has huge implications for the way brands should communicate with customers and create content. Companies that create content with conversational language will naturally rank higher in voice search. Therefore, companies should practice switching to a conversational tone if they haven’t already. 

Here is a summary of the advantages of conversational search marketing:

• Quicker and easier. Online users are always looking for faster ways of getting something done that’s also easier. Voice search meets these criteria because it’s easier to say what you want without typing. Therefore, a customer is more likely to interact with a brand that allows for voice search – especially once this form of interaction becomes more popular. 
• Personalization. Advanced search algorithms can detect a person’s age and gender. It adds towards personalization, which means the search results are more meaningful. These are just a few examples and you can expect voice marketing to offer up even more personalization improvements. 
• Cross-selling. It’s easy for the voice assistant to suggest alternative products the buyer may need based on their shopping history. Offering products to buy or try out using conversational language feels natural. Therefore, the conversion rate could be significantly higher than with text-based suggestions. 

Voice search is only getting started but it’s here to stay. Brands need to prepare for this game-changing medium by embracing conversational marketing. Getting started now gives brands a competitive advantage when the technology finally comes to fruition. 

Final thoughts

Conversational marketing is a powerful way of cutting through language roadblocks that could otherwise alienate huge portions of an audience. It allows various demographics an easier way of understanding brands and communicating with them. 

It’s an effective form of communicating because people are used to conversational messaging in their daily lives. It makes sense for brands to utilize this natural aspect of human interaction to make their brand more presentable to the target audience.