Conversational marketing is a B2B sales cycle approach that leverages chatbots, live chat, voice, and video calls to engage with potential buyers. Most of these tools are deployed on a company’s website to reduce buyer friction, increase lead conversion, and increase the sales cycle speed. Typically, a B2B sales cycle can take six to 12 months. The process is often drawn out because companies rely on lead capture forms, emails, and other one-way communication tools to prospect for new clients. In many cases, the drawn-out process leads to losing out on potential sales because a customer may fail to see or respond to an email or a call from a sales representative. Friction in the Sales Cycle Picture a potential client on a website with questions before signing up for an SaaS subscription service. Without a chatbot or live chat, they may be forced to write an email or fill out a form to request a call back from the company. This wait time may lead to losing interest in the service altogether. Another common problem is when clients cannot find the right content to help them understand a product better. Without the proper knowledge, they may not appreciate the value of a product or even be able to ask the right questions. It’s important to understand that filling out forms feels like work for most people, especially when they are not yet sure they want to sign up for a service or buy a product. The people charged with making purchase decisions on behalf of their companies are also human. The goal should be to make the purchase and onboarding route as smooth and natural as possible. The Value of a Conversational Marketing Strategy What happens when you implement a conversational marketing strategy? Better Website Conversions Perhaps the first thing you may realize is an increase in the conversion rate. More of the visitors to your website will become leads, and this will eventually translate into revenue. When people can find answers to their questions and the content they are looking for, they will be more open to filling in lead-capture forms or setting up calls with a sales representative. A significant bit to remember is that people want to feel like your company is accessible. Therefore, if you set up a call with them, it should happen as quickly as possible, if not immediately. Authentic Relationships with Clients Conversational marketing is a great way to build strong relationships with customers. When someone is always at hand to answer questions or give recommendations, people will see your business as being responsive and friendly. B2B relationships can last long, and a handful of clients can be a strong foundation for expansion. It, therefore, makes sense to set up pipelines for continuous conversations long after the initial contract has been signed. Freeing Up the Sales Teams Implementing chatbots on your website means that not every query needs to be handled by a human. Using AI technology, chatbots have become so good that they can decipher and answer frequently asked questions appropriately. The sales team is only engaged when more complex questions are asked or when a lead sets up a call. This approach increases the overall productivity of your sales team. Keeping up With Target Preferences Millennials are now part of the decision-making teams in companies. This generation and those younger than them are less drawn to making calls, instead leveraging texting and other methods of communication. They also prefer real-time interaction as opposed to waiting a few days for mail. By implementing chatbots and live chat on your website or app, you are catering to their preferences. One reason for the chatbots option is their 24-hour availability. In an increasingly remote-work world, both your staff and clients are likely to be scattered across multiple time zones. A chatbot on your website ensures visitors can still have their questions answered outside your official working hours. This round-the-clock availability can have a massive positive impact on revenue. Acceleration of the Sales Cycle Shortening the sales cycle ranks relatively high when enumerating the benefits of conversational marketing. Customers can quickly lose the sense of urgency and pain they had when they initially sought your product. By eliminating back-and-forth communication channels and using more real-time interactions, a business can reduce the time it takes to close new B2B deals. You can complete the deal quicker with real-time interaction before that urgency fades. Setting up Conversational Marketing Strategy Successful implementation of a conversational marketing strategy requires careful thought and choice of tools and brand voice. Audience : First, you must define your buyer persona. You must be clear about their pain points and how your product or service eases that pain. Being clear about your value proposition determines what you talk about when selling. For instance, is your most significant selling point the price or is it a particular feature? Are you comparing your product with that of a competitor, or is yours a blue ocean strategy? All these questions determine the kind of content you will create on your website, such as the FAQ page. Brand Voice : Your buyer persona also dictates the kind of brand voice you choose to adopt. In most cases, B2B interaction is formal. Context is also crucial because directness and formality vary depending on the industry. For instance, in the entertainment and events industries, B2B conversations are more likely to be relaxed compared to the legal services field. The Channels : One goal of conversational marketing is to direct as many qualified leads as possible to a sales representative and put them on a track to becoming customers. This should be done early during the interaction. You should therefore pick only the best channels that will bring in high-quality leads. For instance, you should have a chat on highly trafficked web pages on your site. These are pages where customers land when they are highly interested in your products. These might include the pricing, blog, or product pages. You can have the chat experience on the campaign landing page if you are running any campaigns. Revenue Measurement : To keep improving your conversational marketing campaign, you must keep measuring the results. The first metric to track should be the website conversion rates. These are the proportion of your website visitors that become leads by sharing their contact information on chatbot or live chat with an agent. You should also track the revenue growth from month to month to see your strategy's influence. Features For Your Conversational Marketing Engine Certain features are considered a must-have on your chat engine to get the most out of your conversational marketing campaign. First, you must route chats to the right sales representative. Immediately, a prospect fills out a form that briefly describes their issue or product of interest. They should be automatically linked with the right person to converse with. Another powerful feature is visitor deanonymization, which helps to understand who your visitors are and what they might be interested in. This allows you to sift through the visitors and only continue engaging with those likely to convert into business. Third, chat services allow you to conduct A/B testing to see which of two greetings or responses to questions leads to better conversion rates. It’s also paramount to think about what happens when prospects want to quickly sign up for service or have a product shipped to them. You can build the onboarding process on the platform your sales rep uses to serve customers. They should be able to share quotations with customers in real time, further shortening the sales cycle. Implement Conversational Marketing Today Conversational marketing is a powerful tool because it allows you to have the full attention of your audience. While the client gets to direct the conversation by asking questions they have, you have the power to curate an excellent experience for them using the right content and brand voice. To learn more about conversational marketing and how to leverage it for your B2B revenue growth, reach out to Gray Matter Marketing. We are a full-service marketing company that helps businesses research, strategize, and implement marketing campaigns.