99% of website visitors never make it to sales.
Yes, you read that right.
So why does only 1% of your website traffic make it to sales? Because we’ve added too many layers and hoops to jump through for our buyers. Modern B2B buying is broken and it has only gotten worse since COVID. The amount of friction in the buyer’s journey, coupled with complicated lead processing have created roadblocks for businesses and their buyers.
The good news is there’s a better path forward. Many companies are now shifting their focus towards real-time engagement with Conversational Marketing. Not only is Conversational Marketing the best way to break down your roadblocks, but it also leads to:
- Better customer experiences
- Higher conversion rates
- More marketing-generated pipeline
- Accelerated revenue
- Increased marketing campaign ROI
And who wouldn’t want that?
Today, I’m here to share with you exactly how we used Conversational Marketing at Drift through all the stages of our marketing funnel.
If you want to watch the presentation, click here. Otherwise, keep reading for all the insights 💡
Create Real-time Engagement with the Conversational Marketing Framework
There are three things that buyers value most:
- Transparency: Buyers want authenticity
- Expertise: Buyers want to trust you as a reliable source for information
- Speed: Buyers want responses in real-time when they ask questions
Conversational Marketing meets (and exceeds!) these values with this formula: Engage, Understand, Recommend.
The Conversational Marketing Framework is a straightforward strategy you can use to turn more buyers into customers and accelerate your revenue. Here’s a more in-depth look at the three simple steps:
1. Engage
Welcome and acknowledge buyers on your site the moment they show intent. Using a combination of AI-powered chat and targeted messages, engage your buyers with the personalized experience they want, while guiding them to the next stage of their customer journey.
2. Understand
Continue to build trust with buyers by helping them better understand what you offer and how you can solve their needs. Be an empathetic, helpful source of information and content.
3. Recommend
Finally, recommend what buyers should do next. Buyers want helpful and honest recommendations. Keep in mind that making the right recommendations could transition a buyer into a customer.
5 Conversational Marketing Examples from the Drift Marketing Team
Drift did more than just coin the term Conversational Marketing; we’ve also put it through extensive testing over the past few years in our own go-to-market-strategy. Here are some examples of ways we’ve incorporated Conversational Marketing throughout our funnel.
Conversational Marketing at the Top of the Funnel
At the top of the funnel, one of your biggest assets for brand and demand is your website. But, I know I’ve definitely been frustrated trying to navigate large enterprise websites with 100+ products. Where is the support? Do they have webinars? Where can I find more information about this certain product line?
On top of that, the content on most websites out there is gated. And according to a LinkedIn survey, 81% of tech buyers will abandon your website after hitting a gate.
So you’ll end up seeing your buyers get the information they want from another source (maybe even a competitor’s site). And they most likely won’t return to you again either. What a nightmare 😬
On the other hand, Conversational Marketing changes that narrative.
With Conversational Marketing, buyers get the information they need faster. They start building trust with your brand and recognize you as a reliable source of content. This leads to more meetings, pipeline, and ROI.
Drift Example #1: Homepage Bot
Take a look at Drift’s homepage bot, which recognizes why a buyer is on our site and what they need help with. A company’s homepage is one of the first places we recommend including chat on your website.
By personally engaging and guiding buyers to their desired location on your website, your chance of them returning and becoming a customer significantly increases.
Drift Example #2: Landing Page
You can also use Conversational Marketing on your landing pages to engage site visitors and improve your conversion rate (the average landing page conversion rate is only 2.35%). Here’s an example of how we used Conversational Landing Pages (CLPs) at Drift.
While scrolling through this eBook, the Driftbot follows along, so buyers have constant support for whatever they need, whether that’s a content-specific question about the book or a request to speak with sales. They can also easily request a downloadable PDF to their email.
Conversational Marketing at the Middle of Funnel
Now moving to the middle of the funnel, where Conversational Marketing really propels your buyers towards becoming sales-ready leads and accounts.
Drift Example #3: Virtual Event
Here’s an example of Conversational Marketing from RevGrowth: Account-based Engagement, a virtual event 👇
At RevGrowth, the Driftbot helped answer questions like how long the agenda was, or who the speakers/sponsors were. If anyone had any connection issues, there was even a little bell they could ring so we could provide them with technical support immediately. These details helped us provide a better virtual event experience.
We went even further by using our Drift bot to give our ABM target accounts a more tailored experience before and during RevGrowth. We welcomed them each by name, and flagged a rep the second they engaged with us so they could have a real-time conversation.
The results? We booked 100 scheduled meetings before the end of the event, skyrocketing our campaign performance and ROI.
Conversational Marketing at the Bottom of the Funnel
At the bottom of the funnel, Conversational Marketing makes focusing on the nitty-gritty details and questions of the customer more seamless and efficient.
Drift Example #4: Pricing Page
When someone comes to our pricing page, a pricing bot appears to ask what the person needs and if they’d like to learn more. This example was from a deal acceleration campaign:
If the person on our page is an open opportunity, the bot directs them to a sales rep. If they have questions, we answer those immediately. In our 2021 State of Conversational Sales Report, we found that 45% of people using Conversational Marketing solutions were able to learn more about their buyers in less time and accelerate their deals quicker.
Drift Example #5: Expansion Campaign
Here’s a campaign we ran last month:
Each time an identifiable customer came to the website, we greeted them and asked them during our conversation if they were interested in learning more about, in this case, virtual selling secrets.
If they answered yes, we alerted and routed the account manager to chat with the customer.
Boost Your Funnel Performance with Personalization at Scale
Conversational Marketing connects you with buyers in real-time, so they get the individualized help they want right away, as opposed to having to wait days or months for an answer.
It also improves the performance of your funnel as a whole, increasing lead conversion and the overall efficiency of your sales process.
Using Conversational Marketing, 55% of people generated more high-quality leads.
Plus, 40% generated more predictable engagement with leads and accounts. In other words, if you know that you can have a conversation with a buyer before even sending them over to sales you’re going to be able to more accurately forecast. You will know that your webinar not only generated 200 attendees, but also that on average you have 40 individuals that interacted with you. This information is useful in predicting how these buyers are going to flow through your funnel so you can offer them the most personalized experiences.
Final Thoughts
There are countless opportunities to use Conversational Marketing across each stage of your funnel. Be sure to implement it in a thorough, thoughtful way, and you’re guaranteed to see an increase in ROI.
Check out The Conversational Marketing Blueprint for our detailed guide to revamping your customer experience and accelerating revenue with Conversational Marketing.
