With the continued emergence of new technology and channels including social media, mobile, avatars and more, the relationship between brands and their customers and prospects has been changed forever. It’s interesting to consider the role of technology in these increasingly dynamic relationships. For some, it’s been an inhibitor; for others, a great catalyst.
Enterprise marketing technology helped many marketers make the initial shift from basic single- and multi-channel approaches, to adopting cross-channel marketing strategies. Once a relatively nascent market, cross-channel marketing used to be discussed in terms of consistency and coordination, as well as the value of a centralized data mart, and the importance of establishing a single marketing view of the customer and data. These attributes all signaled a dramatic shift from previous marketing strategies.
Today, we are on the verge of yet another important shift — to conversational marketing. Marketers who embrace this next phase, which is built on heightened interactivity and personalization, will be rewarded with customer share of mind and wallet.
How Conversational Marketing Is Different
Conversational marketing is about building and sustaining one-to-one personalized lifetime dialogues across all marketing channels to drive revenue and marketing effectiveness. It means unifying inbound and outbound communication strategies by tracking and managing all marketing activity data to generate targeted messaging, and by making the best, most relevant offers based on customer behavior and established preferences.
The term “conversational marketing” has been through an evolution over the past decade. In many ways, it was ahead of its time — a concept without the technology backing to make it a reality, and therefore considered “hype” in some circles. Social media adoption had just begun, and the marketing challenges related to channel diversity and customer expectations were just starting to show signs of modern-day complexity.
Continues at: CRM News: Social CRM: Conversational Marketing: The Next Phase of Customer Engagement.
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