If you work in or have dealings with digital marketing you will have probably come across the terms ‘Inbound Marketing’ and ‘Conversational Marketing’.
Whilst Inbound Marketing has been a pillar of marketing since 2015, conversational marketing is a relatively new direction for marketing that has gained quite a lot of attention over the past few months. But should we really consider Inbound Marketing and Conversational Marketing as entirely separate styles of marketing?
So What is Conversational Marketing?
Conversational Marketing is an entirely customer-centric style of marketing that focuses on real-time, one-to-one conversations with people to capture and connect with potential leads.
The entire concept hinges on offering the best and most streamlined buying experiences. Think about the last time you purchased something on the spot. It was most likely because you found it easy to talk to the salesperson (or use their website) and your questions and requests were dealt with in realtime rather than having to wait days to get a response.
The heightened focus and interest in conversational marketing comes from the advances in technology and the shifts on consumer behaviours. Customers want direct, one-to-one conversations on their own timeline, rather than working to ours.
Read our previous article to learn more about Conversational Marketing
Is there really a difference between Conversational and Inbound Marketing?
The answer to that is yes…and no!
Inbound marketing is the methodology of attracting customers through the channels they use most often. Conversational marketing is the interaction we have with these customers on those platforms and giving them the control of when, how and where they prefer to communicate.
So in essence, Inbound Marketing and Conversational Marketing go hand in hand and can be very powerful as long as you are working in the era of Now rather than the era of…sometime later.
How does conversational marketing fit into the inbound methodology?
Well, in all honesty, conversations take place throughout the entire customer journey, however, it plays the biggest part after the ‘attract’ stage of the funnel. Conversations can be used in place of long, arduous forms to attract and capture leads, answer product or service questions and generally help to convert visitors into leads and leads into customers.
Take a look at the diagram below to see where conversations fit into the inbound funnel!
Want to learn more about generating inbound leads? Take a look at my previous blog or get in touch with our super conversational live chat in the right-hand corner of our website 😉
