Marketing has been around for a long time, but only recently have consumers been invited to join the party and participate in the marketing conversation. With the introduction of an interactive conversation, that is about to change!
What is an Interactive Conversation?
The interactive conversation (not to be confused with chatbots) is a real-time, two-way exchange of information that helps your customers make decisions such as picking a health insurance plan, retirement plan or a savings plan. Moreover, it helps your company capture, qualify and connect with your leads.
Marketers are slowly placing invasive marketing strategies aside and choosing a more personalized, softer, approach. Today’s marketing is all about listening to the customers – their likes and dislikes, opinions and preferences.
This change has empowered both shoppers and brands.
Real-time feedback
With an interactive conversation, your leads no longer have to wait for your company to contact them back with answers to their questions. Instead, they can engage with your company when it’s convenient for them, 24/7, 365!
Customer can turn to another company to answer their questions while they wait!
The interactive conversation allows your customers to interact with a virtual host that assists them in making smarter choices, books a demo with a sales representative or informs customers about the company – all without any human interaction!
Real-time feedback keeps your customers happier. Instead of your leads having to fill out a static lead form and checking their email inbox every ten minutes while waiting for an answer, they instantly get answers to their questions. The virtual host will listen carefully and uncover ways to help your customers.
Saves You Time
Of course, the interactive conversation will never replace a real human being. But, it means your company can offer services 24/7 when you need to catch up on some sleep. The conversation can also feature the brand’s personality through the language used, humor and service.
Interactive conversations are meant to provide basic support such as introducing your company’s products and help your customers make the right choices.
Imagine having an army of digital consultants working around the clock for you! Generating leads and using the data gathered to create more meaningful and personalized interactions with your leads.
Personalization
By interacting with your customers, you can build trust and increase the potential for sales. After all, Edelman Trust Barometer states that 81% of consumers feel that trust is their top buying consideration.
But as you probably can’t afford to hire a whole army of salespeople to be ready to engage with your every lead, the interactive conversation may be something to consider.
The interactive conversation personalizes its approach to your leads. It gathers information and shows different results to serve the different requests. In other words, the message communicated is adjusted to the needs of the lead, increasing the chances your prospect spends more time interacting with your brand.
The marketing data gathered can be used for personalizing your future marketing campaigns.
Interacting with the interactive conversation saves your customers time otherwise spent on your website searching for the information needed, and a big part of your success is to create intimate connections with customers.
Who can benefit from the interactive conversation?
The interactive conversation is well fitted for companies offering complicated services, especially where people need guidance on their purchases. Below are a couple of examples.
- Does your company offer savings? Help your customers pick a savings account!
- Do you sell insurances? Help your customer find out which insurance suit them best!
- Do you sell pensions? Help your customers pick the right pension plan!
- Do you offer loans? Help people find the right loan for them!
The interactive conversation can also be used in service feedback. If a customer is unhappy with your service or product, the interactive conversation can offer personalized assistance right away. Acting as a company representative, it will ask questions about what has caused the customer to be unhappy and provide an action such as giving a discount, further follow-up or something else.
See how Barry Callebaut, the world’s leading supplier of high-quality chocolate and cocoa products, engages with its customers with an interactive conversation.
How to get started with the interactive conversation
Here are a couple of questions to ask yourself, before getting started.
- What are the general problems or questions your customers need assistant with?
- What value can you offer your possible leads and customers through the conversation?
The process of creating an interactive conversation
When creating the interactive conversation, it’s helpful to have all the components ready for starting. This includes the script, the storyboard, audio files and the graphics.
- Start by defining your objectives. Try to limit them to no more than three.
- Figure out the problems you want to assist your customers with and what value your conversation will bring to them
- Craft the story with a script
- Start by writing down the questions you want to include
- Decide upon the tone of voice (humorous, serious, etc.)
- Create a storyline (it’s helpful to do a mindmap for this)
- Write the script
- Create a storyboard
- Create Audio Files
- Decide if you will say the script or if you will find a voiceover
- You can use sites like fiverr.com to access voiceover freelancers
- Decide which graphics you will use.
- Put all the elements together!
Ready to automate customer service and save time?
Using an interactive conversation can save you a lot of time and effort! This may seem complicated to set up, but we’ve made it super easy to create an interactive conversation on Dot.vu, which can be changed later on if it needs updating. .
You can start by orientating yourself with the interactive conversation by trying out the one here and get to know our friend Mark!