Let’s Talk… Conversational Marketing and AI-Powered Interactions
- andrea5853
- Feb 26, 2024
- 2 min read
Updated: Feb 27, 2024
This has been highlighted as one of the key marketing trends for 2024... but what is it?
Conversational marketing is all about providing real-time, personalised, and interactive conversations with potential and existing customers.
These conversations are delivered through Chatbots (automated assistants able to handle inquiries, provide product recommendations, and collect data); Voice Assistants (which offer information and complete tasks through voice commands) and ‘Live Chat’ (enabling direct communication via virtual representatives.)
AI plays a crucial role in powering these interactions, making them more intelligent, highly personalised, and scalable. AI chatbots can learn and adapt to respond to complex questions and situations in a natural - almost human - way. AI analyses data to deliver tailored recommendations and offers based on individual preferences and interests. These tools can handle high volumes of inquiries simultaneously, ensuring consistent quality and 24/7 availability.
So what are the benefits of using AI-powered conversational marketing?
Increased engagement and retention - real-time, interactive conversations keep users interested and invested. AI-powered chatbots can respond to comments and messages on websites, apps or social media platforms, improving response time and user experience.
Improved customer experience - personalised interactions and assistance builds loyalty and satisfaction – and makes for an all-round more enjoyable experience. Sephora – the online make-up and skincare store - uses notification bots to alert customers about the availability of out-of-stock products. This way, customers are spared the need to register accounts or disclose email addresses. Instead, they get alerts directly via the Sephora app or website.
Higher conversion rates - AI can guide customers through the buying journey and suggest relevant products. UK furniture retailer DFS uses conversational AI personalisation within its email marketing strategy. When a customer shows interest in a particular furniture category, DFS's chatbot triggers tailored email recommendations and exclusive offers. This drives higher conversion rates and revenue.
Cost reduction - Chatbots are able to handle basic inquiries, freeing up human agents for more complex tasks or scenarios that may need more subtlety or a human judgement call. AI-powered chatbots are able to answer FAQs, troubleshoot issues, and escalate complex cases to human agents. A great example is Breckland Council in Norfolk who received over 9,000 enquiries per month from live chat, phone calls, and email. By implementing a chatbot to cover the most frequently asked questions, they recovered 80% of their customer service team’s time and 70% of customers found the answers provided by the chatbot helpful - indicating high levels of customer satisfaction.*
Valuable data collection - AI gathers insights into customer preferences and behaviours, which can be used to inform marketing strategies and thereby, increase ROI through more targeted activity. Interactive quizzes and assessments or chatbots, can be used to gather insights and suggest relevant products or services. Chatbots capture leads and gather information to qualify them for sales follow-up either by automated marketing touch points, human sales representatives, or a telemarketing team member.
Considering the benefits of Conversational Marketing and AI-Powered Interactions, it looks like they are here to stay… and will be shaping our marketing communications more and more through 2024 and beyond.
It’s good to talk…. If you're interested in learning more about conversational marketing and AI-powered interactions, give one of us humans at Plum Ideas a call! Contact us now
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