Hundreds of organizations (Drift included) have recently made the difficult decision to cancel and/or postpone large group gatherings, events and conferences in light of the COVID-19 outbreak.
The risks to one’s health cannot be understated. But the risks to one’s business cannot be ignored. And it doesn’t matter what industry you’re in – we’re all trying to wrap our heads around what the current environment and future uncertainty mean for our business and our goals.
And marketers are no exception. Why? Because we rely on in-person events to generate leads and pipeline and drive revenue for our business.
So, in light of this new reality, what’s a marketer to do?
Your website, already likely the crown jewel in your marketing strategy, just got that much more important. As marketers, we’re going to have to double down on our digital channels – social, email, paid advertising, SEO, content syndication and virtual events – for the foreseeable future. This means getting as much out of each of these channels as we possibly can to hit our goals.
But tradeshows provide invaluable benefits. They result in onsite meetings, real conversations and help us build relationships with customers, partners and prospects. All of this is hard to replicate with a website. And especially with the standard web experience too many of us know and dislike.
Today the default web experience is this: click through an ad, end up on a landing page, fill out a lengthy form. Next you’re routed into a CRM where you’re scored and handed off (if you qualify). Then it’s a couple of calls, some nurture emails and maybe, finally, if you’re lucky, you’ll be able to talk to a human.
Not a great experience to start and certainly one that doesn’t even pretend to replicate the seamless interaction you’d have in person at a conference.
So if static form fills aren’t going to cut it, what can you do instead? You need to start real conversations with people who are coming to your website from various digital channels.
That’s where conversational marketing can be helpful.
Conversational marketing gives your team real-time notifications when a target account visits your website, just like when someone walks into your event booth. With Drift, you can even start conversations via chat and quickly pivot those conversations to phone calls with Chat to Call or transfer them to a video to replicate a more in-person experience.
We know that a lot has changed in the last few weeks. But it’s unlikely your goals and objectives have. With conversational marketing, we can help you close your pipeline gap and stay on track.
