Traditional Marketing or Modern Conversation Marketing – What Works Better?

    Traditional Marketing

    Traditional online marketing tactics are failing to meet customer expectations of a seamless online experience. The dip is mainly because firms are failing to understand the customers’ preferred mode of marketing communication.

    There are multiple reasons for the failure of a marketing campaign, regardless of it being a traditional or modern conversational marketing campaign. The major reason for failure is that marketers are struggling to understand customer expectations and determine their preferred mode of marketing communication accordingly. Surveys over the years have revealed two key customer exceptions – quick query resolution 24/7 customer service. This is why more agile conversational marketing has gained sudden prominence in the market. The good news is that conversational marketing, specifically chatbots, entirely ease out these expectations. Conversational marketing techniques and chatbots answer customer questions to deliver the best experience possible, 24/7.

    As per the survey by Drift and SurveyMonkey Audience regarding the preferred business communication channel over the last year, email and telephone top the list. However, while phone and email still reign supreme, it’s evident that buyers are also turning to newer communication channels to talk with businesses.

    More than half of the respondents reported relying on online chats as a preferred means of communication for displaying the evolving expectations of buyers. They want faster, more straightforward, and more seamless experiences to get real-time insights. It’s worth noting that while modern conversational channels have generated a lot of hype in the past few years, they’ve not yet reached market saturation as the widespread online chat has. This clearly indicates that traditional marketing communication channels are not close to being wiped out any time soon.

    Read more: Sales Leaders to Understand the Modern B2B Buyers Behavior

    As new communication channels emerge, customer communication will move forward to become more seamless. Experts have predicted that older channels like email might become less preferred over the years. But in reality, e-mail communication will be alive and will flourish in the years to come. In fact, considering the newer channels— like video messaging, chatbots, and one-to-one video calls the percentages of people using those channels more frequently are relatively small.

    However, breaking down the survey by age answers this question. The overall trend is that younger customers use these newer channels more frequently. But there are some anomalies. For example, 25- to 34-year-olds report using online chat more regularly than the ones below 18 to 24-year-old. Also, 25- to 34-year-olds report using video calls and chatbots less frequently than the age group above them 35- to 44-year-olds. There’s no denying that younger people are more likely to use newer communication channels more often. A similar trend emerges post-filtering the data based on the number of internet-connected devices a person owns. The people with more devices prefer modern conversational marketing campaigns.

    Also Read: Strategizing on Need Analysis – ABM in B2B Marketing

    For firms that are focused on increasing engagement with customers and leads, comprehending communication preferences becomes even more crucial. When reaching out to younger and more tech-savvy people,  newer channels will have a more significant impact. The opposite is true for people who are older and less tech-savvy. For those latter cases, sticking to the traditional customer communication channels like phone and email may yield the best results. Ultimately, the goal of marketers should be to communicate the way the leads and customers prefer to receive marketing communication. Conversational marketing is not about forcing people to use modern communication channels; it’s mainly about having conversations and providing the best experience possible to the customers through their preferred communication channel. It is not about which marketing technique is better – traditional or modern conversational marketing – it is simply about communicating through the most preferred marketing communication channel of customers.

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