June 13, 2018
The fact that lead generation is the primary objective of online marketing assumes even greater significance for B2B companies where the buyer’s journey is often a longer and more complicated process. As several marketing strategies jostle to capture the attention of the target audience, obtaining valid leads and achieving conversion targets is becoming increasingly difficult for businesses. In such a scenario if there is one method that can play a crucial role in lead generation for B2B companies, it is live chat. Adding the live chat functionality to your website could well prove to be a turning point in the lead generation process as it is pro-active and customer friendly – exactly matching the needs and expectations of your website visitors.
Here are some of the key benefits of live chat for B2B companies that will encourage you to consider taking advantage of this extremely robust marketing strategy.
1. Real time Engagement
We live in a super competitive world where customers have short attention spans and are spoilt for choice with easy access to huge volumes of information at just the click of a button. If viewers do not easily find what they are seeking, they have a thousand other websites to browse through. You can prevent this from happening by providing your visitors with a human interaction in real time whenever they access your website. Live chat makes it possible to add a personal touch and engage with your audience by understanding their needs and offering tailor-made solutions. The software also has a feature that tells you the location of the user and this can be used to break the ice with the visitor and begin a more relevant, personalised conversation.
This real-time, one on one communication helps build a rapport that can steadily be nurtured into a long-lasting relationship. It manifests as a smart but unobtrusive widget at the bottom right corner of your website, making visitors aware that they have help on hand should they have any queries.
2. Quicker Response
Everyone appreciates a prompt response and a company that provides one definitely scores over its competitors. Live chat enables you to reply to customer queries and get back to them faster than most other means of communication. Time is key in such interactions and connecting with users when they most need assistance is going to play a major role in turning visitors into leads and taking them deeper into the funnel of the buyer’s journey. It helps build trust and projects your company as a reliable brand. It paves the way for future interactions as people will be more open to communicating with you after they have already had a positive exchange in the past.
3. Customized interactions and the ability to educate prospects
One of the best ways to connect with your target audience is by making them feel valued. Live chat has built-in features that facilitate personalization so that you can completely customise interactions based on user location, preferences and requirements. This enhances overall customer experience and triggers a favourable response in the decision making process. In the case of B2B companies, prospects typically spend a far longer time in the consideration stage of the buyer’s journey, with very few actually making it to the final stage. Live chat can circumvent this problem by educating users on product features and by providing them with the best options for their situation. Essentially, it enables you to highlight your distinctive USP and present it to the customer at a time when they most need your service. So with live chat not only are you promoting your product in the most effective way but you are also providing top notch, prompt customer service thus saving valuable time and effort for your users.
4. Availability of chat history and analytics to support personalization and generate leads
A unique feature of live chat software is that it maintains a record of all the past interactions with visitors so the agent can refer to previous conversations and offer personalised solutions to every user. Having easy access to the history of past communications enables a better understanding of where the prospect is in the buyer’s journey, their preferences and browsing habits. This insight in turn determines the suggested course of action that will best benefit the prospect and would gently lead them towards making the purchase decision. Thus live chat actually succeeds in accelerating the buyer’s passage through the sales funnel
5. Possibility of having chat box replace landing pages
A landing page is a web page that contains a form where users add their contact information in exchange for a valuable piece of content. This provides marketers with quality leads which can then be nurtured into potential customers. Live chat gives you the option to replace an impersonal landing page with a more welcoming experience in the form of live chat via trained human agents. Having the prospect connect with a real person would certainly enable a friendlier interaction thus reducing the likelihood of the user changing their mind at the last minute about parting with their contact details (as does happen every so often).
Live chat could thus prove to be the best solution for B2B companies looking to leverage their website traffic to generate quality leads. If you think you would prefer availing of professional assistance to set up live chat and have it fully managed externally, reach out to us at CommVersion. Our expert team will not only add the live chat functionality to your website but also provide you with round-the-clock support for your online visitors. Connect with us today and watch those conversions multiply!
