There’s nothing new about using conversations to move a customer through the marketing funnel or buying cycle. It’s the original sales tool. But what has changed is the channel of those conversations. Over the last hundred years it has shifted from in person to face-to-face meetings to phone calls, and now, SMS.
Conversational SMS marketing helps guide your customers toward a sale on their pace and terms. It makes it easy to gather information, qualify customers, and provide needed support.
Filling Out Forms
Mobile devices are less than ideal for filling out forms. The fields are small, and when users touch a field to type, the keyboard covers up half the screen. It’s easy for users to lose sight of the requested information as they move from one field to the next.
Conversational SMS marketing also transforms the form-filling experience. Rather than trying to key information into a form, a chatbot on SMS can get the same information from the customer. Using a text-messaging application, that chatbot can conversationally ask for users’ names, email addresses, contact information, and whatever other information the form needs. It’s easier on users, who can provide the required information through a more comfortable SMS window.
Businesses can easily add a button to their forms, giving customers the option to fill out a form online or via text messaging services.
Qualifying Customers
Implementing chat and one-to-one conversations with mobile visitors to your site simplifies site navigation and helps direct your customers to the information they need. By offering SMS chat and asking a few key questions, you can improve your user’s online experience.
A law firm can ask its web traffic what kind of attorney they are looking for, while an advertising agency can ask questions about industry or budget. With those answers, the bot can direct individuals to the right place on the website.
Improve Customer Support
Customers calling support aren’t interested in waiting on the phone until the next available representative is available. They have a problem, and they’re looking for a solution.
Fortunately, SMS can create a two-way conversation, where a customer engages a chatbot asking for support. Depending on the complexity of the issue, chatbots can either resolve the issue or pass the messaging on to a service technician to handle the problem.
For example, a restaurant might have an SMS chatbot capable of handling reservations or answering basic questions about the menu. However, if a complicated question comes up about food allergies or handicap accessibility, the chatbot can pass the conversation over to a manager. The manager can quickly read through the conversation, saving the consumer the trouble of repeating everything, and provide the answers the customer needs.
Adding Conversational Marketing to Your Marketing Mix
Adding conversational SMS tools to your marketing mix can help you engage with customers, and deliver a higher, faster level of customer service. Get in touch with our team of SMS marketers to see how you can integrate conversations into your marketing mix.
