Traditional marketing can often come across as condescending, which turns customers off. You must know that in today’s marketing landscape, customers have endless options when it comes to choosing the brands they want to purchase from. Only brands who can make them special, valued, and understood can engage them.

In this case, conversational marketing can be a breath of fresh air for potential customers who are tired of being talked down to by big brands. It allows brands to create meaningful, 1:1 interactions with customers so that they can build relationships with them based on mutual understanding.

At this point, the question is, “how is it important?”

Well, let’s find out!

What Exactly Is Conversational Marketing?

Before we get into the nitty-gritty of the importance of conversation marketing. It’s crucial to understand what the concept is all about.

Simply put, conversational marketing is a marketing strategy where you can effectively communicate with your target audience through a more humanized and personalized approach.

It’s really all about putting yourself in the shoes of your consumer, listening to their concerns, requests, or problems that they need help with, and then communicating back to them by offering solutions on how you can be of service. The key here is to talk to your customers like an old friend whenever they want to be talked to.

By using conversational marketing, you will be able to understand what makes them tick and how they interact with others in their social space; this way, you can use it as a part of the customer journey instead of just an afterthought when trying to sell something.

Conversational marketing is the use of live chat, chatbots, and social monitoring. The goal of this strategy is to foster genuine interaction and build meaningful relationships so you can enhance your customers’ experience while minimizing friction.

Why Do You Need It?

Now that we understand what conversational marketing is, let’s look at why you need it. We’ve mentioned it slightly in the beginning: conversational marketing can help you engage customers faster and create genuine relationships. But it’s so much more than that.

The following are the other top reasons to use a conversational marketing strategy:

Reason #1—Build Trust and Credibility

In today’s world where information can be shared easily online, building trust with your customers has become more important than ever before. Many businesses rely on social proof like product demo videos or a solid social media presence, but conversational marketing can also be a powerful option.

Conversational marketing allows you to build that trust by interacting directly with your customers, and building a closer relationship over time as opposed to simply pushing out promotional content all the time.

With conversational marketing, it would be much easier for you to prioritize your customers and ensure that you are there for them 24/7. Take a look at chatbots for example. This way, you can make your marketing messages less hard-selling and provide more value. That’s how you generate more trust.

Reason #2—Create Better Customer Experience

Today’s customers are busy. They don’t have time to wait for your email reply or make a phone call just to get the solution they’re looking for. The only way to ensure that your customers are satisfied is through listening and responding accordingly. According to the stats, more than 71% of customers expect companies to communicate with them in real-time.

Conversational AI like chatbots and instant messaging can improve customers’ experience as it allows them to communicate with your business whenever they want and however they want in real-time — regardless of the time zone and geographic locations.

Reason #3—Stand Out From Your Competitors

Besides branded video ads and visual branding, conversational marketing can also be a powerful tool to set yourself apart from the competition. If you look at your competitors, they probably still rely on traditional marketing methods to engage with their customers and stand out from the crowd.

Conversational marketing, in particular, makes it much easier for you to provide unique value with a more personal touch. It makes your messages more relevant and relatable to customers. This is the complete opposite of traditional methods like push notifications or email blasts that sound impersonal and so far away.

Reason #4—Keep Your Sales Funnel Full

When it comes to marketing, attracting potential customers is one thing — making them convert is another. Since conversational AI helps you to provide your potential customers with real-time solutions 24/7, it would be much easier to move them through the buyer’s journey, from awareness to conversion.

In other words, it can help you bring customers to your business, and then nurture them into paying (or even loyal) customers. In this case, you will be able to keep your sales funnel full at all times.

Reason #5—Increase Customer Retention

When you use a customer marketing strategy, you talk to your customer in a tone and language that is relevant to them. It helps them to understand your messages and services better, and have a personalized experience with your brand.

When they fully understand what you say, you have higher chances to increase their loyalty towards your brand—and drive up customer retention rates in the long run. Remember that increased customer retention can boost your customers’ lifetime value as well as your revenue