The primary purpose of any digital marketing strategy is to draw potential customers to the website. We all know that a company’s site is the central hub of any digital activity, yet large amounts of money and a significant opportunity are squandered if they don’t also engage with visitors then and there.
It is where conversational marketing software comes into play. Also known as chatbots or messenger marketing software, these platforms will engage potential customers with personalized conversations at different stages of the sales funnel.
By making use of chatbots and AI, sales teams can create smart response flows that guide visitors with helpful conversations, basing this information on user activity and similar details. B2Bs can follow up with interested customers, picking up on the conversation where it was left off.
As such, conversational marketing platforms help provide a much higher standard in terms of customer service at scale, all the while simplifying the buying process for customers. Also, these platforms can generate more qualified leads, provide quality insights into customer preferences, and improve the overall sales cycle.
Common Features of Conversational Marketing Platforms
Most commonly, these platforms integrate live chat and chatbots to produce meaningful conversations with customers at different stages of the buyer’s journey. Some involve a combination of automated and live person involvement, where chatbots pick up the conversation and ping the appropriate sales rep to take charge at critical stages of the discussion. Others may integrate SMS, email, and major social media sites, where certain visitor behaviors on the website or company social profiles may trigger a conversation.
To make it into this category, however, these platforms need to encourage sales reps to create intelligent messaging bots that can engage visitors. They should also provide the necessary tools to develop personalized response flows as well as redirect buyers to sales reps whenever needed. Finally, they should be able to track customer journeys and allow for follow-ups from both chatbots and sales reps.
Below are several such platforms that will help you keep in contact with customers more effectively.
Drift
Drift is a live chat messaging solution for both marketers and sales reps. It offers real-time conversations with customers from the website and other channels, also transforming them into great marketing platforms where you can close deals or better promote products and services.
This solution is scalable and flexible, allowing for a multitude of operations including lead qualification, automated sales call scheduling, real-time responses, and live chat across email, mobile, messengers, online sites, and others.
Drift is available in a range of plans that can satisfy both small teams within an SMB as well as entire customer service departments of large corporations. The Basic Live Chat plan is free, including one seat ($15 cost per extra seat) and 100 maximum contacts. It provides live chat capabilities, email fallback, Slack integration, mobile apps, profiles, and scheduled hours.
The Starter pack is $50 per month; it includes one seat, 1,000 contacts, as well as everything else featured in the free plan. It also provides inbound playbooks, saved replies, live view, Hubspot segment integrations, and block-specific IPs.
LivePerson
LivePerson is an AI-powered messaging platform that allows companies to communicate and complete transactions with customers over Facebook Messenger, Apple Business Chat, SMS, WhatsApp, as well as the company’s website and mobile app. LivePerson is considered among the best when it comes to real-time intelligent customer engagement.
The platform is also known in the industry for developing LiveEngage, a popular messaging solution that allows companies to communicate with visitors on their websites, social networks, and mobile messaging in real time. LiveEngage offers two monthly subscriptions and a quote-based plan.
The Standard plan is $40 per user per month and includes desktop and mobile web chat, 24/7 support, standard reporting, business campaigns, standard engagements, a meaningful connection score, APIs, predictive targeting, and standard security.
The Premier plan is $90 per user per month, contains all Standard features, as well as co-browsing capabilities, Facebook Messenger integration, and Google Adwords click-to-message.
HubSpot Service Hub
The Service Hub is the latest addition to HubSpot, alongside with HubSpot CRM, Marketing, and Sales, where you get a comprehensive suite of tools that will help you engage with customers like never before. It has features such as customer feedback, live chat, conversational bots, reporting, email tracking, calling, automation and routing, etc. It will provide enhanced customer experience and a full front office solution.
Its free customer service tools include ticketing, live chat, customer support form fields, conversational bots, email templates, conversations inbox, canned snippets, calling, team email, meeting scheduling, and reporting dashboards. The Starter plan is $46 per month per user, contains all of the features above, as well as conversation routing and email sequences.
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