2019 — Your business is F@$%&D without a Conversational Commerce strategy
‘So why should we hire your Agency to handle our Facebook Ads?’
This was the question the Marketing Director in the Canadian division of a Fortune 500 automotive company asked me as I sat across from him and his team members.
I almost laughed when he asked that question. At that time we didn’t even offer Facebook advertising as a service. Yet here we were, sitting in a meeting centered around a service we didn’t even provide.
I smiled and said ‘I’ll be happy to answer that question for you, but before I do there’s something I’d like to show you.’ I connected my laptop to the projector and clicked the ‘Get Started’ button on the Messenger chatbot demo that we built specifically for them.
I came to that meeting with one goal. Show their team how Messenger Marketing can change the way their business interacts, markets and provides value to their customers at scale through automation. I was giving them a glimpse into the future of how all companies will be interacting with their customers, a strategy called Conversational Commerce.
Top Articles on How Businesses are using Bots:
1. Chatbot for Healthcare: Chatbots Can Be Money-Savers for Hospitals and Clinics
2. How to Increase sales with Chatbots — Digital Marketing
3. Fifteen Ways A chatbot Can Drive Sales to Auto Dealership
What is Conversational Commerce?
Conversational Commerce is a technology that enables brands and consumers to interact with each other through messaging or chat platforms, voice assistance and other online interfaces.
Simply put, conversational commerce allows businesses and brands to interact and nurture customers during their buying journey by offering them personalized assistance and recommendations while establishing long-term relationships.
With the goal of delivering a superior and unique customer service experience, conversational commerce strives to replicate the one-on-one experience your customers would get with your business.
From purchasing clothes, to ordering a meal from a restaurant, to insurance quotes, conversational commerce is set to revolutionize the way business is done.
Why your business is F?#$%D without it
Pardon my language, but your inability, more importantly, you businesses inability to realize that by simply ‘existing’ online isn’t going to cut it anymore. You need to be able to facilitate answers, provide value, give your customers what they want when they want. This is imperative to your long-term success. If you ignore this you will LOSE. Period.
People want answers from your business when they step into your online world and they want those answers yesterday. Imagine a bank that can give an account holder their balance, send money and provide information on their account in real time (this exists already) vs one that can’t. The bank that can’t, loses not only that person’s business, but possibly the next generation of family members that will need to bank somewhere in the future.
Imagine a restaurant that allows you to book events, make reservations, order online, see the establishment, provide cooking tips, answers your FAQs and nurtures your relationship in real time across all of their marketing platforms? Wouldn’t you want to have that experience every single time? Well, it’s already happening.
You’re not too late
…But you’re not early. The early adopters in the Conversational Commerce space are the ones that have seen the biggest benefit. We’re talking small and large businesses.
The big boys, like Sephora, CNN, Burberry, Spotify, Mastercard, 1–800-Flowers, the list goes on.
Why are they building conversational strategies across messaging and voice platforms?
Its simple, and if there’s anything you can take away from this articles let it be this — Be where your customers already are.
Messenger — 1.3 Billion monthly active users and growing
KIK
Telegram
Slack
Viber
…the list goes on
These are all Messaging platforms that your business exist on and provide massive value.
in 2017, the top 4 Messaging apps, surpassed the top 4 Social Networking apps in monthly active users. Do you know what that means? More people are spending time on messaging apps than social media apps.
“By 2020, customers will manage 85% of their relationship with the enterprise without interacting with a human.”
It’s time for you, to wake up and realize the dramatic shift in the communication landscape that is happening right now.
It’s time to make your business more available, more humanized, fun, engaging and discoverable for the rest of the world to see!
People do business with people they know…
‘I don’t think my industry is right for a chatbot,’
I get this statement all the time. It never ceases to amaze me. Do you have customers that search, engage and purchase from you online, time and time again? Then you need to build out a conversational strategy for your brand!
We’ve been building conversational commerce strategies for businesses over the last two years and by following the same exact 3-step framework we’ve managed to build and grow successful campaigns across the following industries:
Automotive, Hospitality, E-commerce, Law, Coaching, Marketing, Chiropractic…and more
Teach, Build Trust & Sell
This is it. That is what every conversational strategy is built on.
If you Teach, and educate your customers and provide value, they will keep coming back. The more they come back and see this avenue as a trusted source to get the information that they need and desire the better it is for you.
This is your first line of interaction your prospect or existing customer has with your band online. By creating and automating a superior and unique customer service experience, you will win out in the short and long-term.
By simply educating, teaching and nurturing your customers in your conversational commerce strategy time and time again — you start to build rapport, which leads to Trust. People buy from people who they know and trust. Your strategy includes both!
This all leads us to Selling. You nail the first two steps and you’re setting yourself up for long-term success….Legacy status. Keep your customers happy and give them what they want.
It’s time for you to stop prolonging the inevitable. Some of you may be the people who got in late on e-mail marketing, Facebook, Instagram, etc. Don’t make the same mistake with this.
I rolled the dice on that meeting. I could have easily made myself, my team, my company look really bad. I decided to take the meeting regardless of the outcome in order to show them the future of how their business will be building and managing their relationships with their customers for years to come.
After I ran them through the demo, Facebook Ads never came up again and that meeting was the catalyst in adopting a Conversational strategy for the Canadian division of their business.
The opportunity is here for businesses who want it. It’s time for you to understand that Conversational Commerce is the key to reaching, engaging and building relationships with your customers at scale today and in the future.
Thinking about implementing a conversational strategy for your business? We would love to help! Click the link below and book a time to get started!
To Your Success,
Andrew Bilak
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