5 Tips for Real-Time Conversations in Digital Experiences

When B2B customers start conversations with vendors, it’s because they’re looking to accomplish one of two things: to accelerate their content consumption and get new customers or to move further on in their buyer journey. But getting customers and prospects to the stage where they’re willing to reach out takes work.

In fact, according to Salesforce’s 2018 State of the Connected Consumer, 72% of customers say they expect experiences to be tailored to their needs and 80% say that the experiences they see are as important as a company’s product or services.

And top marketers deliver on these experiences. According to our report, Experiences Everywhere: What Top-Performing B2B Marketers Do Differently, 58% of top-performing marketers say they rate their performance in customer experience as “excellent” compared to 27% of mainstream respondents. These top performers also report strong performance in interactivity, personalization and driving engagement.

This means that more than ever, marketers need to create and deliver curated, personalized content that drives increased engagement.

So, how can we enhance our digital experiences? And, on that same note, what can we do to make the decision to engage in a conversation an easy one?

Real-time conversations provide an excellent solution. By integrating opportunities for real-time conversations in our digital experiences, audiences can set the tempo of how they engage in conversation. The more compelled customers and prospects are to engage, the more insights into their interests and intent you have.

So, here are five tools to bring real-time conversations into today’s digital content world:

Chatbots

According to Salesforce’s 2019 State of the Connected Consumer, 71% of customers expect real-time communication and chatbots offer a great way to make it happen the moment they come to your page.

Some chatbot solutions empower you to orchestrate specific content paths, provide resources or connect users with your sales team for direct conversations that accelerate the buyer journeys. For our first chatbot integration, ON24 has partnered with industry leader, Drift, to bring real-time conversations to ON24 experiences and increase audience engagement opportunities. So, by adding chatbots to Target pages and Engagement Hubs, you increase channels of real-time communication and capture relevant and actionable data.

Business cards

All digital experiences need a human touch. Make it happen by bringing a friendly face to the page. Integrating physical and digital business cards into your marketing campaign empowers your audience to initiate a real-time conversation in one of two ways: They can reach a representative using the contact information displayed or, with a single click, request a representative to contact them.

Contact Us Tools

Contact Us CTAs are powerful ways to prompt conversations between audiences and representatives.  With just one click, attendees and visitors are served with a form-fill asking for their desired method of contact and details about their interest or intent. It’s that easy to initiate a conversation!

Call-to-Actions

Seamless call-to-action (CTA) tiles are another way you can start a real-time conversation with attendees. These nifty yet powerful tools embed into webinars or content experiences and create a natural path for audiences to self-select and accelerate their journey. With one click you can direct them to chat rooms, auto-register for webinar or event sessions or create a direct email connection for sales or product representatives to continue the conversation.

Ratings and Comments

Want to know which of your content works and which doesn’t? Easy: ask your audience. Users want to be heard and know their input provides value. By activating content ratings and comments across your experiences, you can gather direct feedback and make adjustments as needed.

Don’t be shy when it comes to offering audiences the opportunity to talk with you. After all, providing opportunities for real-time — or near real-time — conversations can lead to a better digital experience and increase your brand awareness and customer satisfaction.

If you’d like to learn more about the ON24 platform and how you implement real-time conversations into your digital content experience pages, please contact us.  If you are already using ON24, please contact your CSM.