Dialogue Marketing

Dialogue marketing as a concept has existed for getting on for twenty years now. It is built on a simple, but elegant principle, that itself is inspired by a simple question.

How do we really get to know anything of substance about anyone or anything?

We are not talking just the surface veneer here, but the more meaningful, sincere stuff. The stuff that engages us, intrigues us and inspires us – the values, and value, of a person that chime with our own.

The sort of information that keeps you committed as an actively contributing participant in a relationship.

Well. We start a meaningful dialogue; we enter into a conversation.

And we enter into that conversation with an individual.

 

Why is dialogue marketing so important?

We understand that it really isn’t rocket science to say that the most meaningful and lasting relationships grow from an ongoing and deepening dialogue. But it is surprisingly easy to forget.

The very best and most effective organisations take the time to reflect and understand what makes them intrinsically unique, and how this then provides value to their own people and their customers.

When we are in touch with that, we reflect that in our conversations. When we reflect that in our conversations, we build meaningful relationships with our customers.

And the worst and least effective organisations? They don’t listen. They assume.

So, with dialogue marketing it is vitally important to remember that we are not merely informing our customers about our products or services, we are learning what matters to them, what it is that they genuinely need from us.

It is about building a relationship, one that provides value to both you as a business and, critically, to the customer as a purchaser of your products and services.

Some argue, mistakenly, that the main goal of dialogue marketing is for companies to gain a better understanding of their potential and existing customers.

We would argue it goes much, much deeper than that. True dialogue marketing not only grows your understanding of your customers, it also allows these potential and existing customers to gain a much more nuanced understanding of your company, your values, and the usefulness of your products or services in meeting their specific needs.

How does Dialogue Marketing work?

Dialogue marketing is a generic term. It covers all marketing activities, across all channels which are used to establish and develop an active and ongoing dialogue.

This dialogue is most likely initially to be with potential customers, the aim being to convert these leads into purchasers.

However, the dialogue is equally appropriately applied with existing or lapsed customers.

In all cases the interaction is designed to be, and indeed NEEDS to be measurable, as this allows for greater personalisation of content and ever-increasing relevance in the messaging with the customer.

Unlike outbound marketing, dialogue marketing does not use a scatter-gun/one-size-suits-all approach with its messaging.

Instead, it is built on developing an understanding of and answering the needs and requirements of specific target audiences, and then delivering content and messaging determined to be of continuously increasing relevance and interest those audiences.

To open the conversation, companies will use advertising channels that allow for a measurable response from an individual. The initial interaction could come from, for instance, clicking through on a display ad, visiting a microsite to fill out a survey, subscribing to a newsletter, calling customer service, or engaging with a social media profile.

 

The Dialogue Marketing toolkit

There is no one “right place” to start the conversation with dialogue marketing. Where this initial interaction occurs will necessarily vary according to the type of product, the type of audience, and when and where you are most likely to find them.

Furthermore, it is worth remembering that this dialogue does not have to start in one single proscribed place. Your conversation with a new prospect can begin in any number of different channels.

However, regardless of where the conversation starts, the trick in developing that dialogue comes in using the right combination of channels at the right time, continuously deepening the individual customer relationship you are fostering with ever more relevant and meaningful content.

The channels and/or tools used in dialogue marketing typically include (but are not limited to):

  • Email marketing (both newsletters and sales/marketing mails)
  • Search Engine Marketing (advertising)
  • Social media
  • Websites (corporate/product/micro sites)
  • Bonus and customer loyalty programmes
  • Mail order catalogues
  • Direct mail
  • Coupons (online/offline)
  • TV or radio advertisements (with a response element)
  • Magazine advertisements (again with a response element)
  • Telephone marketing (outbound and inbound)
  • Cross-selling/Up-selling
  • Live Chat
  • Moderated Support Forums
  • Blogs

Irrespective of whichever channels are used and a what time, it is vitally important that the initial engagement allows for a measurable interaction and response in order for the dialogue to start.

This response should also be as simple and straightforward as possible. A potential customer needs to be able to engage with your brand easily and any hinderances to this should be removed.

To facilitate this offline, typically organisations will use things such as freephone customer helplines, free pre-addressed envelopes, or instore discount coupons.

Online, they will deploy Early Bird offers, limited-duration offers, redeemable discount codes, QR codes, click-through online discount coupons, and refer a friend bonuses or discounts.

Once the initial interaction has taken place, the flow of the dialogue can begin. And how that flow develops is entirely up to you as a marketer. Using marketing automation tools, flow builders, data, and analytics, you are able create and deliver whatever the most appropriate and relevant content may be for your aims and the identified needs of the customer.

Dialogue marketing and ecommerce

Nowadays, dialogue marketing is not just advantageous for ecommerce, it is essential.

Nurturing and developing your customer relationships through meaningful dialogue is, to put it in the vernacular, a no-brainer.

Tracking user responses with tools like Google Analytics, allows you to evaluate the success or otherwise of campaigns such as email marketing, by revealing bounce, opening and click-through rates – all of which will inform your understanding of an individual’s responses to your content.

Technologies such as MarketingPlatform’s LeadScoring, which works across all CMS and webshops tracking everything from a user’s clicks on content and downloads to the purchase of products, allows you to essentially follow a customer from before they even become a customer, enabling you to serve them up with specifically targeted relevant content, motivating them to deeper engagement.

Similarly, both simple A/B and the more nuanced MVT (multivariate) testing can be a very powerful tools for use with dialogue marketing, as they allow for you to optimise the efficacy of your messaging in a raft of digital touchpoints, again such as email campaigns, or with social media campaigns and microsite content.

Furthermore, applying the data that your dialogue with the customer creates through tools such as website tracking enables you to potentially populate all your digital touchpoints with increasingly relevant dynamically created content.

However, whilst the technology and analytics tools available are the enablers of creating a meaningful dialogue, successfully applying the principles of dialogue marketing goes way beyond just opening your CMS of choice and clicking away in a well-intentioned but not entirely well thought out way.

Never forget that it is you, and not the technology at your fingertips, that is the participant in this dialogue.

Be the second human amidst all the technology. Be the second human in the conversation.

Serving up content at the right time is meaningless if the content itself does not engage or motivate the other party in this dialogue. In fact, serving up less than relevant content, even at the appropriate time, goes a very long way to destroying all the hard work you may have put into nurturing a customer relationship up to that point.

Even the giants of ecommerce don’t always get it right. Naming no names, but I am sure that more than one of us had the experience of receiving an email following an online purchase asking if you want to buy the products you have just bought.
Again.

Sometimes more than once.

Now, in some product categories that might make perfect sense, but are you really going to buy the same book, the same humorous Father’s Day pair of socks, or a second PS4 a week after the last one?

That said, if you manage to knit this all together coherently, and combine the data that tools such as these can provide correctly with relevant and engaging content, you will enrich not only the individual customer experience but also the customer relationship, and perhaps most importantly your understanding of that relationship. All of which will work wonders in terms of building customer loyalty to your brand, your products and your services.

 

It all starts with the right words

Dialogue marketing as a concept may have existed for getting on for 20 years now.

But that does not mean its relevance, efficacy and meaning are old hat. Nurturing a stranger from being a prospect into a regular and loyal customer is not rocket science.

It starts with one thing.

A conversation.