Conversational

Begin by Using Basic Marketing Techniques
1. Be Conversational
2. Make Life Easier (Provide Value)
3. Measure Your Efforts (ROI)
1. Using the Web to be Conversational
First, for a conversation to be successful, you have to care about the customer, their long-term needs, and what they are looking to accomplish at that moment. Then …
Listen to what your customers are already saying.
If you already have ways of receiving feedback from your customers (call logs, snail mail, support emails, etc.), read them. They’re conversations just waiting to begin.
Search the Blogosphere to manage what people are already saying about you and how you do business with tools such as:
• The Social Pipe
• Technorati
• Google Blog Search
• Twitter Search
Respond to the conversations you find.
By responding to the people who have contacted you directly (even just to thank them for their correspondence!) you’ve facilitated a conversation. As long as you solve their problem courteously and in a timely manner, you’re their hero (and now they are your customer evangelist).
Blogs – Publicly thank (and reward) the people who are saying nice things about you on their blog. Publicly apologize and request a more personal conversation method (phone call, email) to fix the problem for the people who are speaking badly of you.
Initiate new conversations (once you’ve got the other ones under control).
Every good marketer knows that one disappointed customer is worth ten delighted ones. It used to be that if you could get the disappointed customer to provide you with their thoughts and feedback, you could tailor your business practices to appease them. These days, the web-savvy customer not only wants to be involved in the tailoring process, they’d rather do it for you!
Feedback forms are a good way to invite conversations. Ask questions like:
• “How was your experience?”
• “What would you change?”
• “Frustrated? Let us have it!”
Surveys & Polls are another good way to spark conversations.
• On your website or another
• By email
• Using Facebook
Social Networking has proven to be viable time and again.
• Create a page, a group, or an application for Facebook
• Get a MySpace page up to allow for grassroots feedback
• Start a Google Group about a topic your company knows best
• Get on Twitter to allow people to contact you
Email is great for starting new conversations with existing customers who have already given you their email address.
• CampaignMonitor
• MailChimp

2. Using the Web to Make Life Easier
Start by making every interface (website, phone calls, mail, etc.) understandable! Don’t use long, difficult words and legal jargon. (Attorneys generally don’t write good public interface copy.)
Making It Easier for the Customer
Take what your customers are saying into account, then …
Allow them to do things from the comfort of their own home, such as:
• Managing their account online
• Filling out and submitting forms online
• Engage customer service and support online using web chat (or Twitter)
Allow them to do things from anywhere:
• Making payments or checking balances via SMS or mobile browsing (Bank of America has executed this nicely for the iPhone)
• Give them the option to receive SMS notifications for account events (e.g. “Your payment has been applied to your account”)
Making It Easier for You
There is an alternative to spending tens of thousands of dollars for IT solutions that integrate with your current workflow: Web Applications. A web application (webapp) is software that is online, and therefore available everywhere, 24/7/365, and is a solution that is quickly becoming the most efficient way of getting things done.
Webapps… • don't require a large IT staff to maintain - no software updates or patches.
• are cost-efficient - no more expensive servers or upgrades to buy.
• are platform independent - any moderately recent browser works.
• don’t lock you in - generally, you go monthly and can cancel any time.
• aren’t bloated with confusing and unnecessary features - generally, they are geared toward accomplishing one (or two) things, and doing it well.

3. Using the Web to Measure Your Efforts
The great (and sometimes scary) thing about using the web to connect with customers is that everything is traceable. This means that when you send an email, or post a comment on someone’s blog, and someone visits your website because of it, it’s all able to be seen and measured using web analytics software. Once they come to your site, you can then see everything they do on your site. At that point it’s up to your web-guru’s to design a site that capitalizes on their visit. (When was the last time your ad agency offered you the ability to see such detailed ROI for your analog media campaign?)
Web Analytics
• Google Analytics
Online Buzz
• Social Pipe
• Facebook Lexicon
• Twitter Search

About me
Joel Wilson
New Media Director & Project Manager, COSTEP Marketing Dept.
B.S. in Media Arts & Sciences from Indiana University