Leveraging Conversational Marketing via Chatbots in 4 Easy Steps

Many brands will establish more channels of communication with customers as eCommerce grows. eCommerce will register to use WhatsApp Business or even API accounts as customer service channels to facilitate contact with customers. Have you considered using this latest communication channel to break through in today’s fiercely competitive environment? According to the survey, the brand’s customer experience has the greatest impact on conversion rates. Yes, you are correct – not the product or the price, but the experience that the brand provides to its customers. Likewise, more than 80% of customers said they would pay more for a better user experience.


The ultimate goal of all marketing activities is to increase customer acquisition. However, it is frequently difficult to find a large number of customers when advertising in a vast ocean. Those who are truly willing to place orders in a short period of time, in particular. Conversational marketing can effectively reduce advertising costs while also assisting brands in more precisely locating and actively seeking target customers. This marketing model aims to strengthen consumer-brand interaction and achieve smooth communication and interaction with consumers. This is done using various communication tools (WhatsApp, SMS, Messenger, etc.) to seamlessly connect consumers to the sales process.


But what is conversational marketing to be exact? How can we use WhatsApp as a communication platform to create new marketing and sales channels? How can you leverage this to help you acquire more high-quality customers?


Learn about 4 WhatsApp conversational marketing strategies that will support you to increase your return on investment (ROI) quickly!


Further reading: eCommerce Trends in 2022: 3 Benefits of WhatsApp Business to Boost Your eCommerce Sales


What is Conversational Marketing?

Conversational marketing is often referred to as chat commerce or conversational marketing. Online stores can employ conversational commerce to leverage the opportunity to sell products and services during conversations. By making the shopping experience as smooth and easy as possible, this type of interaction helps to build consumer trust and relationships.


This type of marketing, however, does not replace other forms of advertising or marketing. Conversational marketing is simply a new channel for marketers to explore. It employs a slightly different strategy and method of measuring results than the traditional advertising channels. Nonetheless, its purpose is to use marketing campaigns to engage consumers with brands. It allows consumers to complete their purchases through a single platform.


Further reading: 5 Benefits of Conversational Commerce to Online Stores


Using Conversational Marketing to Acquire More Customers

1. Customer Service

When users first interact with a brand, they are bound to have questions about a product or service. According to the data, 82% of customers believe it is essential to receive an instant response when contacting an online store. Therefore, when customers initially engage with a brand, they should make a good first impression by providing prompt responses.


eCommerce businesses can use automated tools such as chatbots by registering for a WhatsApp Business API account. Chatbots answer customer inquiries and questions from various communication channels, allowing consumers to receive immediate care even during non-office hours.


Chatbots can replace customer service to answer some highly repetitive questions.  When users provide the keywords and content of FAQs, this is triggered, saving time and effort.

Conversational Marketing WhatsApp customer service


WhatsApp Business API is a WhatsApp platform designed specifically for merchants. APIs can be connected to developers’ own platforms, software, or applications to create more business communication functions. Features include automatic reply, multi-person login, chatbot, team assignment, and many more!


Furthermore, when customers initiate inquiries, they can include buttons for other frequently asked questions beneath the reply message. Customers can now click the button while also answering other questions.

Conversational Marketing via automated responses


2. Sales Interaction

When a visitor clicks “Download”, “Contact Sales”, or “Start Free Trial”, you can instruct the chatbot to begin the appropriate conversation. Moreover, you can gradually use the dialogue to push the customer down the marketing funnel.


WhatsApp Link allows eCommerce merchants to connect customers to WhatsApp via Facebook ads, websites, or other advertising channels. For instance, merchants can set up a Call to Action button on a Facebook ad as a “WhatsApp Message”. After seeing the ad, potential customers can actively send a pre-programmed WhatsApp message inquiry to the merchant.


Further reading: How WhatsApp Chat Links Can Save Your Time and Enhance Ad Performance


An automatic response is triggered when a customer sends a message. Chatbots can add up to three “Quick Reply” buttons below the message in addition to sending plain text responses. This principle is the same as keyword auto-reply.


For example, when a customer requests an e-book, the chatbot will automatically send a link to download it. Aside from this, 2 buttons will appear as part of the chatbot’s response. Customers are connected to the sales team when they click the “Book a live chat and demo” button. The marketing funnel then advances to the next stage.

Conversational Marketing


3. Understand the customer

Chatbots can assist brands in distinguishing between potential customers who are genuinely interested and random visitors who are just browsing. Depending on the level of interaction with the chatbot, brands can determine a consumer’s interest in a product or service. This is accomplished by creating a series of automated chatbot processes.


Using a gym as an example, when a customer inquires, the merchant sends a series of automated reply messages to collect the customer’s information. Merchants can distinguish the customer’s desire and enthusiasm for fitness based on the customer’s response. This determines whether the customer is serious about becoming a member and participating in fitness classes.

Conversational Marketing through chatbots


After the customer has completed interacting with the chatbot, the merchant can use the WhatsApp API’s tagging function to conduct customer segmentation. Merchants can classify customers using the tagging feature based on their responses. A customer who clicked “I’m determined”, for example, can be tagged as “Interested”. This tag indicates that the potential customer has a higher chance of making a successful purchase. As a result, the sales team can prioritize contacting him for the next real interaction.


Aside from purchase interests, chatbots can also help merchants better understand their customers’ backgrounds, preferences, and expectations. Chatbots, for example, can collect questions about the consumer’s physical condition (height and weight) and fitness level (target weight). When live customer support takes over, this information can help them quickly understand customer needs and provide the best solution.


Merchants can record customer information using the internal note-taking function in the VIMOS WhatsApp API platform. This is extremely useful for collaboration, as all employees can use it when following up with customers.


Using previous inquiries, the eCommerce marketing team can also tag customers’ preferences and needs. They can also send personalized remarketing broadcast messages to improve marketing accuracy.

live customer service via WhatsApp


4. Identify high potential customers

In previous marketing strategies, understanding customer purchasing intent and filtering out high-quality consumers took a long time. This will slow down service response times and make each customer wait an excessive amount of time. As a result, the brand may lose high-potential leads. Conversational marketing can help merchants learn more about their customers in less time. It increases the likelihood of acquiring and converting high-quality patrons.


According to the survey, 55% of businesses that use chatbots have more high-quality potential customers than their competitors. Chatbots can help salespeople determine potential customers’ spending power and purchasing intentions by asking a series of questions. They assist salespeople in determining whether the other party meets the criteria for becoming a prospective consumer. Marketers and salespeople can use this automation to quickly segment the needs and expectations of target markets. It also allows customers to connect with live support without switching communication channels.

Conversational Marketing


In the preceding example, the chatbot also asks questions to identify potential customers’ spending power and fitness consumption intentions. Furthermore, it allows salespeople to take the initiative and approach prospective consumers as soon as possible, avoiding customer churn.


Further reading: 6 WhatsApp Business API Features brands can’t miss out on!


Ads that direct customers to product browsing are only the first step in attracting customers. Conversion necessitates immediate conversations and salesperson assistance. By automating sales and improving customer engagement, chatbots can assist online retailers in increasing their return on investment and conversion rates.


Want to increase eCommerce sales through immediate and cost-effective methods? Contact VIMOS today for a FREE 15-minute product demonstration and consultation. Allow our expert team to guide you through the possibilities of Conversational Marketing and WhatsApp Business API!


By becoming an official VIMOS user, you will also receive a free copy of the “Conversational Marketing x Marketing Advertising Essentials” written by the VIMOS team. The content provides over 99 conversational marketing tips in the form of a Google Sheet list to ensure that you are updated in the digital transformation journey. Don’t fall behind!