You’ve probably heard about conversational marketing or, at the very least, experienced it. It’s that chat window that pops up allowing you to have a real-time conversation with a company when you’re visiting their website.
At a recent Portland, OR B2B Marketers User Group, we dove into a deep discussion about conversational marketing. Many of the members have conversational marketing set up at their company to varying degrees.
We all took the stance of how we, as a prospect (not as the marketer), have engaged with a chat window on a company’s website. And we dug into why we engaged, to see how this could make us better marketers.
Conversational marketing: a doorway to personalized content and human interaction
Think back to the last time you engaged with a chatbot.
Most Portland user group members reported being mostly likely to engage when they feel there’s a real person behind it personalizing the experience, waiting for you to reply. It was also rare that we ran into these high-quality, engaging chat windows.
The more we dug into our experiences, we noticed the chat windows we have engaged with were heavily using personalization to draw us in. They called out what we’d seen on their website already and tailored their content to what they knew about us. And they assured us we could talk to a real person.
The role of trust in prospect interaction
My biggest takeaway from the user group discussion was most people began engaging with a chat window when they knew there was a human behind it, earning their trust. The idea of having to staff a chatbot can be a tough pill to swallow, but it immediately earns trust when there’s a real person waiting to talk.
And in 2019, not having trust with a company can be a deal-breaker.
According to the 2019 Edelman Trust Barometer Special Report, only one-third of consumers trust the brands they buy. And 81% of survey respondents said trust is a deal-breaker when considering a purchase.
But, Edelman says:
“Brands can build trust by communicating with consumers through various platforms and voices, not with advertising alone.”
Introducing Qualified for conversational marketing
Our user group meeting discussion had actually been sparked by a demo of Qualified, a conversational marketing app built specifically for Pardot.
Even though many people in the room had a conversational marketing tool already, I was surprised to see multiple people shake their head or say “wow” to just how much Qualified could do.
Qualified showed us how the tool helped add personalized content to the chat and brought in a real human at the right moment. Through Qualified’s tight integration with Pardot and added data enrichment from Clearbit, whoever was behind the tool had all the data they needed to make the experience tailored to the prospect- without ever having to ask the prospect for all of this information first.
4 ways Qualified helps build trust
Let’s talk specifics on how Qualified builds prospect trust:
1) Moving beyond text with voice calls
No more waiting for a form fill or sending over a calendar invite. With Qualified, you (or the prospect) can instantly start a voice call or screen share right through the chat window- going from chat to online meeting. Your team is right there the moment they want to talk, helping them get the information they need.
2) Starting conversations at the right time
With Qualified, you can allow the prospect to navigate your website and orient themselves before you initiate a conversation. Not only can your team use their LiveView feature to see exactly where within your website the visitor is, but your team can use Qualified to wait to start the conversation until they’ve navigated specific pages like your products page or pricing guide.
3) Tailoring your chat to engage your top leads
Nowadays, we all expect communications to be personalized to our online activities. But with Qualified you can not only personalize the experience, but you can also prioritize your chats with top prospects and immediately route them to a real person- giving them the concierge service. What a fantastic way to grow trust and create an engaging brand.
4) Using data enrichment to tailor your messages
Just like Pardot, Qualified uses GeoIP information to guess the location and even the company the prospect works for. Paired with just a prospect’s email address, you could unlock information on the prospect’s role in the company and company information. All of this data can help your team tailor their messages to speak the language of the prospect and their industry- quickly gaining their trust that you know their industry and could be a valuable asset to their business.
Building better marketing that earns trust and drives growth
In 2018, the average marketer has 20+ products in their martech stack. It’s overwhelming to consider owning and managing all of the data and tools at our fingertips.
And that’s why using a tool like Qualified (or any conversational marketing product) should be a team effort. While one person will need to own it (like any of your marketing tools), it’s meant to help your team get in front of prospects the moment they come to you (or rather, your website).
You and your team are doing the work to bring in qualified prospects to your site. Now your team can meet them when they arrive, building trust immediately through tailored messaging, personalized content recommendations, and a full stack of online meeting tools.
What’s your experience with chatbots and conversational marketing? We’d love to learn how you’re using the tool to see growth and build trust.
