11 Ways to Completely Ruin Your Conversational Marketing Strategy

Conversational marketing is the ultimate solution for both customers and businesses. Your customers don't like being marketed or sold to. And your business doesn't like wasting precious time or marketing budget on ineffective campaigns.

Conversational marketing solves both of those problems. For customers, it doesn't feel like marketing; it feels like a conversation. For businesses, it automates customer service interactions and streamlines processes.

Done right, conversational marketing can generate 3x more leads and revenue for your business. Done wrong, it'll waste precious time, money, and effort on undesired results. Let's take a look at a few ways you might inadvertently wreck your own conversational marketing strategy.

1. Not setting up the right notifications.

Even if you're using automated webchat for business, you should set up notifications for every chat. Knowing when a chat starts is handy in case the customer asks to speak to a staff member, or just to keep tabs on performance.

Setting up notifications is easy. Activate email, desktop, or text notifications so you never miss a message. Have your team members do the same so you're all up to speed.

2. Never reviewing the chat logs.

Just because AI chat can handle most of your conversations doesn't mean you should let those chat transcripts gather dust. Your chat logs are a gold mine of data. Customer satisfaction, suggestions, frequently asked questions — you'll find all these and so much more in the transcripts.

Extract data from those conversations to provide a frictionless customer experience across all touchpoints. You can also repurpose chat data into valuable content for your blog, social media, and advertising campaigns.

3. Not setting up integrations.

As we'll see later in this post, reviewing your chat data in isolation is inefficient and time-consuming. Integrations can:

• show you which search queries or campaigns drive users to your site to start a chat
• automatically capture leads and log them in your CRM software
• simplify conversation management by creating bots for other messaging platforms

Your webchat software should integrate with other programs, like Salesforce, Google Analytics, and Facebook Messenger. With webhooks, built-in integrations, and Zapier capabilities, ZyraTalk makes it easy to review your chat data in context to your marketing campaigns.

4. Relying entirely on automation.

Did you know that 20% of live chat messages go unanswered? It's easy to see why, particularly for small businesses without robust customer service teams.

Automation provides supreme convenience for customers and businesses alike. But letting your chats run entirely on auto-pilot is a good way to ruin your conversational marketing efforts.

As efficient as chatbots are, letting them do all the heavy lifting will backfire. Some of your customers will want to speak to a human. 

We've often said that automated chat provides a personalized experience for customers while saving businesses time. But we'll take it a step further: its efficiency depends on how you manage it. Being responsive is important, not only to ensure you never miss a message, but also to meet your customers' individual needs. 

5. Never revisiting your chat window customization options.

Setting up a chat solution out-of-the-box is the easiest way to save your team time. Sure, the default options might work well. But setting up the right custom buttons can increase conversion and even improve your SEO.

How often do you need to customize your chat window? As often as you need to. You may want to consider updating your buttons whenever you publish a new content offer. Or, add a link to your Careers page when you're recruiting. Only you know what works best for your business, but it's important to test regularly.

6. Not creating an action plan.

Like every other marketing strategy, webchat requires an agile action plan to drive the best results. To adapt an old saying, “Install it and they will come,” doesn't apply to webchat.

Be proactive. Before you even book your webchat demo, jot down the main reasons why your business needs webchat. Consider your goals. These might include:

• Generating more phone calls, reviews, or appointments
• Capturing more leads
• Providing round-the-clock customer service

Most of our clients' goals include a mix of the above. Set your goals and adjust your strategies as needed to meet them. If you fall short, own your performance, review your action plan, and keep testing.

7. Not setting up automatic appointment scheduling.

Webchat isn't just for customer service. Think of it as your digital employee. It's a greeter, content promoter, digital receptionist, and more all in one.

Long gone are the days when receptionists took calls and scheduled appointments one by one. If generating more booked jobs is one of your goals, webchat can simplify appointment scheduling for your customers and your business. 

Set up a flow so customers can book their appointment and choose their technician or healthcare provider in just a few clicks. Integrate your chat software with your appointment management software to automatically log each one.

8. Forgetting to add a click-to-call button.

No matter how sophisticated your automated chat software is, some of your customers will always prefer an old-fashioned phone call. Sure, you've plastered your phone number everywhere: on Google My Business, your social media pages, and the homepage of your website. Do you really need to add it to your webchat window too?

According to data from our clients, yes. You may be surprised to learn that webchat can generate dozens of calls each month. Because your webchat window greets them with the information your customers need, they don't have to hunt for it. This is just another way webchat reduces friction for customers looking to contact your business.

9. Not setting up custom buttons promoting special offers.

Earlier in this post, we mentioned that you need to revisit your chat window customization options periodically and update your buttons. Expanding on that, it's a good idea to include buttons linking to special offers or discounts. This is a great way to deliver value to your customers and generate more revenue for your business.

Related: 3 Ways to Increase Engagement on Your Blog through Live Chat

10. Viewing your chat data in isolation.

Consider how long it would take for your marketing team to:

• comb through your chat logs each month or quarter
• extract relevant data about frequently asked questions, pain points, and suggestions
• set up campaigns for leads captured through webchat
• create an action plan to craft relevant, search-optimized content based on that data

These tasks would probably consume a good chunk of each performance review, right? And that's just for one tool: your webchat software. That's not factoring in your SEO tools, your website analytics, your email marketing software — you get the picture. 

That's why, as we've already seen, integrations are so important to streamline those processes and assess the effectiveness of your conversational marketing strategies. You should know exactly how many qualified leads, conversions, sales, phone calls, and reviews are generated through chat. Let's not forget how your chat data fits into your SEO strategies, ad campaigns, and email marketing efforts — which leads us to our next point.

11. Not setting up UTM tracking.

If you're running ad campaigns on Google and social media, you've probably set up UTM tracking to see which campaigns drive traffic to your site. You should do the same for your webchat software.

Let's say you're an HVAC company based in Colorado. A prospect lands on your site from a local services ad you're running. They have some questions about your services, so they message your chatbot.

Tracking that engagement is difficult without UTM tracking set up in your chat software. You'll be able to see traffic from the ad, but without UTM tracking enabled in your webchat software, you won't be able to tell how many of those visitors start chats with you.

How to ruin your conversational marketing strategy: final thoughts

Conversational marketing saves businesses time and reduces friction for customers. But don't set it on autopilot and expect to achieve your desired results.

To ensure the best possible ROI, you'll need to invest some time upfront to:

• customize your chat window with links to relevant offers
• set up UTM tracking to assess the effectiveness of campaigns as they relate to chats started and completed
• review your logs regularly to discover vital data about your customers' preferences, pain points, and frequently asked questions

Once you've established a solid framework, then you can let automation do some heavy lifting. But remember, responsiveness and agility are key. Even the most effective strategies require periodical reviews.

Is your business ready for conversational marketing? Read our blog post to find out. Or, check out our other posts on conversational marketing:

What is Conversational Marketing?

4 Reasons Why You Shouldn't Invest in Conversational Marketing

Where Will Conversational AI Be 1 Year From Now?