Conversational Marketing - How World s Fastest Growing Companies Use Chatbots to Generate Leads

Real-time conversations turn leads into customers
 
Conversational Marketing is the definitive guide to generating better leads and closing more sales. Traditional sales and marketing methods have failed to keep pace with the way modern, internet-savvy consumers purchase goods and services. Modern messaging apps, which allow for real-time conversations and instant feedback, have transformed the way we interact in our personal and professional lives, yet most businesses still rely on 20th century technology to communicate with 21st century customers. Online forms, email inquiries, and follow-up sales calls don't provide the immediacy that modern consumers expect. Conversational marketing and sales are part of a new methodology centered around real-time, one-on-one conversations with customers via chatbots and messaging. By allowing your business to communicate with customers in real time--when it's most convenient for them--conversational marketing improves the customer experience, generates more leads, and helps you convert more leads into customers.
 
Conversational Marketing pioneers David Cancel and Dave Gerhardt explain how to:
* Merge inbound and outbound tactics into a more productive dialog with customers
* Integrate conversational marketing techniques into your existing sales and marketing workflow
 
Face-to-face meetings, phone calls, and email exchanges remain important to customer relations, but adding a layer of immediate, individual conversation drives the customer experience--and sales--sky-high.

List of contents

Introduction: The Shift from Supply to Demand xi
 
Today, Customers Have All the Power xi
 
Winners and Losers: Why Companies Need to Adapt xiv
 
Amazon vs. Borders xv
 
Netflix vs. Blockbuster xvi
 
Uber and Lyft vs. Yellow Cabs xvii
 
Why I Wrote This Book (and Why Now) xix
 
Part I: The Rise of Conversational Marketing and Sales 1
 
Chapter 1: your website is leaking revenue (here's how to fix it) 3
 
58% of B2B Websites Are "Empty Stores" . . . Is Yours One of Them? 4
 
90% of B2B Companies Don't Respond to Leads Fast Enough. . .Do You? 581% of Tech Buyers Don't Fill Out Forms . . . Are You Still Using Them? 7
 
Using Real-Time Conversations to Achieve Hypergrowth 10
 
The Conversational Marketing and Sales Methodology 12
 
Chapter 2: The rise of messaging 17
 
The Three Waves of Messaging (and How the Third Wave Changed Everything) 18
 
Why 90% of Global Consumers Want to Use Messaging to Talk to Businesses 24
 
Using Messaging to Capture and Qualify Leads in a Single Step 27
 
But . . . How Does It Scale? 29
 
Chapter 3: the rise of chatbots 31
 
Chatbots: They've Got Our Backs 32
 
A Brief History of Chatbots 33
 
Chatbots and Humans: Finding the Perfect Balance 38
 
How Chatbots Enable a Better Buying Experience 41
 
How a Single Marketer Can Book Meetings for Dozens of Sales Reps Using Chatbots 45
 
Chapter 4: Replacing lead capture forms with conversations 47
 
The Problems with Lead Capture Forms 48
 
How the #NoForms Movement Got Its Start 52
 
Rethinking Our Content and Lead Generation Strategies 57
 
Replacing Marketing-Qualified Leads (MQLs) with Conversation-Qualified Leads (CQLs) 59
 
Chapter 5: Ending The Family Feud Between Marketing And Sales 63
 
A Flawed System: The Ongoing Battle Over Leads 64
 
Streamlining the Marketing/Sales Handoff with Artificial Intelligence 67
 
The End of Business Development Reps (BDRS)? 69
 
Sharing the Most Important Metric: Revenue 72
 
Part II: Getting Started with Conversational Marketing 75
 
Chapter 6: Step One: Add Real-Time Messaging To Your Website And Start Capturing More Leads 77
 
Replace Your Forms or Add a "Second Net" (Don't Worry, It Takes Five Minutes) 78
 
Put Up a Welcome Message 83
 
Set Expectations with Online/Off line Hours 86
 
Show Your Face 87
 
Create Separate Inboxes for Sales, Support, Success, Etc. 89
 
Know Your Stuff (and Use Tools That Can Help) 91
 
Capture Leads (Without Using Lead Forms) 93
 
Chapter 7: Step Two: Give Your Email Marketing Strategy A Real-Time Makeover 95
 
Email Isn't Dead (You're Just Doing It Wrong) 96
 
The Problems with Traditional Email Marketing 97
 
A Few Simple Tweaks for Bringing Your Email Marketing Strategy into the Real-Time World 100
 
Why Replies Are the Most Important Email Metric 105
 
Chapter 8: Step Three: Master The Art (And Science) Of Qualifying Leads Through Conversation 109
 
So, Uh, What Do I Say? 110
 
The Best Questions to Ask Your Website Visitors 112
 
Use Data to Have Better Conversations 114
 
Score the Leads You Talk to (and Send the Best Ones to Sales) 118
 
Chapter 9: Step Four: Filter Out The Noise And Target Your Best Leads 123
 
Where to Start: Targeting the High-Intent Pages on Your Site 124
 
Targeting Visitors Based on Their On-Site Behavior 125
 
Targeting Visitors Based On the Sites They're Coming From 126
 
Targeting Visitors Based On the Companies They Work For 128

About the author

DAVID CANCEL is the co-founder and CEO of Drift, the world's leading conversational marketing and sales platform, named to the Forbes Cloud 100, LinkedIn's Top 50 Startups, and Entrepreneur's Top Company Cultures. Cancel is also a serial entrepreneur, podcast host (Seeking Wisdom), angel investor, and advisor. Cancel has been featured by media outlets including The New York Times, Forbes, Fortune, Wired, and Fast Company, and has guest lectured on entrepreneurship at Harvard, Harvard Business School, MIT, MIT's Sloan School of Management, and Bentley. In 2017, Harvard Business School named Cancel an Entrepreneur in Residence at the School's Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship. Cancel's blog davidcancel.com has been read by more than a million entrepreneurs, while his Twitter account @dcancel has more than 60 thousand followers and is considered a "must-follow" for entrepreneurs and executives. DAVE GERHARDT is VP of Marketing at Drift and a passionate advocate of building brands around compelling stories that connect with customers. Since joining Drift in 2015 as employee #6, Dave has helped to create the category of conversational marketing and get 150,000+ businesses onboard with Drift, and Drift has been profiled in more than 100 publications, including The New York Times, Forbes, Fortune, TechCrunch and the Harvard Business Review. Before joining Drift, Dave worked at some of the fastest-growing SaaS and B2B marketing companies in the Greater Boston Area, including HubSpot and Constant Contact.

Summary

Real-time conversations turn leads into customers

Conversational Marketing is the definitive guide to generating better leads and closing more sales. Traditional sales and marketing methods have failed to keep pace with the way modern, internet-savvy consumers purchase goods and services. Modern messaging apps, which allow for real-time conversations and instant feedback, have transformed the way we interact in our personal and professional lives, yet most businesses still rely on 20th century technology to communicate with 21st century customers. Online forms, email inquiries, and follow-up sales calls don't provide the immediacy that modern consumers expect. Conversational marketing and sales are part of a new methodology centered around real-time, one-on-one conversations with customers via chatbots and messaging. By allowing your business to communicate with customers in real time--when it's most convenient for them--conversational marketing improves the customer experience, generates more leads, and helps you convert more leads into customers.

Conversational Marketing pioneers David Cancel and Dave Gerhardt explain how to:
* Merge inbound and outbound tactics into a more productive dialog with customers
* Integrate conversational marketing techniques into your existing sales and marketing workflow

Face-to-face meetings, phone calls, and email exchanges remain important to customer relations, but adding a layer of immediate, individual conversation drives the customer experience--and sales--sky-high.

Product details

• Authors: Davi Cancel, David Cancel, David (Drift.com) Cancel, David (Drift.com) Gerhardt Cancel, David Gerhardt Cancel, Dave Gerhardt, Dave (Drift.com) Gerhardt
• Publisher: Wiley, John and Sons Ltd
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 28.02.2019
• EAN: 9781119541837
• ISBN: 978-1-119-54183-7
• No. of pages: 288
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Business > Management; Marketing, Business and Management, Business & management, Wirtschaft u. Management, Marketing & Sales, Marketing u. Vertrieb