Conversational Marketing: How to Unlock the Power of One-to-One for Your Business
People are talking like never before. Or should we say, texting. Worldwide, hundreds of millions of instant and SMS text messages are sent every second. According to some sources, a massive 7 billion messages are sent through Meta’s family of IM platforms alone – Facebook Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp – every minute.
That makes messaging the world’s most popular means of communication. Not surprisingly, that’s shaping preferences when it comes to customer-brand interactions. 73% of people now say that they prefer the convenience of speaking to a business via live chat over email or phone.
This explains the massive growth in live chat and chatbots in customer service. Most websites you land on now front their support options with a chat widget powered by an AI assistant. Along with the option to chat live to a person via text, it is as highly valued as phone support.
But what about marketing? Promotional activity, whether it’s advertising, broadcast emails, or building a following online, usually follows a one-to-many dynamic. Reach and scale are important principles in marketing for the simple reason that, the wider you cast your net, the more fish you are likely to catch.
In that case, is there any role for one-to-one chat in marketing? How many businesses actually have the capacity to engage potential leads in a back-and-forth conversation at the scale that digital marketing operates at? Does it have anything to add in terms of boosting results and achieving strategic goals?
The simple answer is yes – depending, of course, on what your objectives are, and the nature of your business. This has led to the emergence of a marketing sub-discipline called conversational marketing, which, as the name suggests, is all about emphasising back-and-forth engagement and making use of digital tech tools to facilitate it.
In this article, we’ll explain exactly what conversational marketing is, why it’s worth your attention – and how even the smallest businesses can make time to nurture hot prospects one-to-one.
What Is Conversational Marketing?
Conversational marketing is built on a simple idea. If you think about a lot of marketing activity, including the one-to-many, reach-as-many-people-as-possible examples mentioned above, it’s also very one-directional. A brand pushes out an ad or email, or posts some content online. People ‘consume’ it. And that’s that.
Conversational marketing is about turning those one-way interactions into a two-way dialogue. Think of it as giving those on the receiving end a right to reply, or at least a way to reply so they can find out more. From the business’s perspective, it’s that continued, developing interaction that carries all the opportunity – the opportunity to turn mild, passing interest into a qualified lead, and perhaps even converting them straight into a customer. All through explanation, engagement and, crucially, the personal touch.
We should make clear at this point that conversational marketing is not just about live chat, nor would it be accurate to describe it as ‘marketing by messenger’. In fact, like customer service, conversational marketing should be fundamentally multichannel, because it should give people options to interact in their preferred way.
That said, the easiest and most obvious way to create conversational opportunities with prospects is via live chat. A typical scenario goes like this – you post a blog detailing a new service with a chat widget embedded, flagging the option for the reader to start a conversation if they want to learn more. You could do the same with a WhatsApp or similar IM service button, or with social posts inviting followers to start a chat to learn more, or emails inviting a response.
Ultimately, the channel doesn’t matter – the conversation does. It’s all about providing engagement that is immediate, responsive, and personal – and it just so happens that live chat sets the standard for achieving this.
What are the Benefits of Conversational Marketing?
There are some eye-catching stats around conversational marketing that are enough to make any business sit up and take notice. For example, HubSpot found that adding a live chat option to its campaign landing pages increased the number of qualified leads it got by 20%. Another study found that 55% of companies that adopt conversational marketing see the quality of their leads go up.
Perhaps most impressively of all, according to Rep AI, 12.3% of shoppers who engage with AI-powered chat tools during a shopping journey go on to make a purchase. That’s a conversion rate four times higher than when no chat tools are involved!
So how does conversational marketing have such an impact? One factor is the increased personalisation that direct interactions allow. Businesses have long sought the magic formula for personalising the customer experience. But nothing beats attentive, skilful one-to-one service, listening to a customer’s wants and preferences, answering their questions. It ensures priorities are catered for, issues or concerns are smoothed out, and trust and loyalty are built.
Another key factor is that conversational marketing shortens the path to purchase, or what marketers like to call ‘the funnel’. A lot of marketing is ‘top of funnel’, which means activity focused on getting and nurturing attention, and creating opportunities for people to discover products and find inspiration for purchases. Conversational marketing turbocharges the nurturing part. If people are curious about a brand or product and want to find out more, they can ask a question there and then, rather than thinking ‘I’ll look that up later’ and perhaps never bothering. And because of the personalised focus on what the lead wants to know, conversational marketing speeds through the research phase. In many cases, it can end with a sale there and then, blurring the line between marketing and sales completely.
One other huge benefit is the rich source of first-party customer data conversational marketing provides. In the post-data-sharing era, businesses have had to take control of gathering data about their customers for themselves. While tactics like surveys and encouraging opt-in to data tracking with various benefits are effective, nothing beats talking to people directly if you want to learn about them.
How to Make Conversational Marketing Work - Even for a Small Business
At this point, we know what you’re thinking. This all sounds great. But how would we manage 10, 20, 50 live chat queries a day? As a small business owner, you might be the marketing team. Where do you find the capacity and resources to start nurturing prospects on a one-to-one basis?
The answer is the same as scaling any kind of marketing activity, from sending out email campaigns to managing social posts to content production – you automate it. We’ve touched a couple of times on the role AI chatbots have to play in conversational marketing. Unless you can afford to run a fully staffed contact centre around the clock, it’s impossible to answer every customer query in real time, as and when they get in touch. And if customers can’t trust they’ll get an answer as and when they want one, they simply won’t use the option.
Chatbots allow you to engage with leads and customers around the clock in real time. And don’t be concerned that people will be put off by not having a ‘real’ person to talk to, at least initially. People are increasingly comfortable with AI. 61% of people think chatbots provide faster answers anyway. That tells you all you need to know about people’s priorities – what matters most is getting an answer, preferably fast and on whatever channel is most convenient to the user.
Chatbots can be trained to answer all sorts of questions and queries to a satisfactory level, to the extent of being capable of guiding a lead all the way through to conversion without the need for further input. Just think of all the rich customer data they have access to, after all.
That said, 86% of people say having the option to speak to a person is important to them if needed. Speaking to an AI that can’t answer your queries with no further options for escalation can be very frustrating and do permanent damage to trust. So, it’s important not to think of chatbots as the solution to conversational marketing. You need that human element underpinning the automation.
Think of it like a triage system – AI bots capture the first contact, assess what the customer wants, and deals with the routine responses. Anything more, you have people ready to step in. This doesn’t have to be immediate, especially outside of normal business hours. Just give clear options for a call or a live chat, or an exchange of emails, whatever the customer prefers. And most importantly of all, don’t let them down!
Conclusion: Start Small, Think Big - And Speak to a Top Digital Marketing Agency
Conversational marketing speaks to an important truth in modern businesses. In a world where customers increasingly crave both connection and convenience, it’s the businesses that talk with their customers – not at them – that are coming out on top.
The ultimate goal is to ensure one-to-one dialogue is possible across all customer-facing touchpoints. But you don’t have to aim to do too much all at once. Conversational marketing lends itself to starting small, experimenting, and building step-by-step. By starting with one channel, defining a simple goal, and measuring impact along the way, small teams can punch well above their weight in delivering a service that feels personal, fast, and truly helpful.
If you have a chatbot or live chat option as part of your online support tools, you already have the basic tools to get started. If not, chatbot builders and live chat apps are cheap and easy to use. The likes of Zendesk and HubSpot have tools that combine AI and live agent chat in the same platform. Or you can use social and messaging tools like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger as ready-made, free chat options.
Keen to learn more? As a full-service agency that specialises in digital marketing services for small businesses, we’re always delighted to help SMEs get to grips with new trends, embrace new tech, and generally take their marketing strategies to the next level. Start the conversation with us today, and we’ll have you connecting better with your audience in no time.
Frequently Asked questions
How is conversational marketing different from traditional marketing?
Traditional marketing is often one-to-many and one-directional—ads, emails, or posts are sent out for people to consume. Conversational marketing, on the other hand, creates opportunities for people to reply, ask questions, and have meaningful back-and-forth interactions with your brand.
Does conversational marketing only mean live chat?
Not at all. Live chat is one of the most popular tools, but conversational marketing can happen across multiple channels—chatbots on websites, messaging apps like WhatsApp and Messenger, or even social media posts that invite replies.
What are the benefits of conversational marketing?
- Increases the number and quality of leads
- Shortens the customer journey by providing instant answers
- Boosts conversions (AI-powered chat users convert at 4x the normal rate)
- Provides valuable first-party customer data
- Builds trust and stronger customer relationships
Do people trust chatbots?
Increasingly, yes. 61% of people believe chatbots provide faster answers. However, it’s essential to offer an option to speak to a real person when needed, as 86% of customers value human support for more complex issues.
How do I get started with conversational marketing?
Start small. Choose one channel (like a chatbot on your website), set a simple goal (e.g., capture more qualified leads), and measure the results. Over time, you can expand across more platforms and integrate conversational tools into your overall marketing strategy.
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Matthew Cowell