{"id":1318,"date":"2009-04-02T19:45:29","date_gmt":"2009-04-03T00:45:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.invespcro.com\/blog\/sales-marketing\/five-tips-to-keep-marketing-conversations-going.html"},"modified":"2009-04-02T19:45:29","modified_gmt":"2009-04-03T00:45:29","slug":"five-tips-to-keep-marketing-conversations-going","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.invespcro.com\/blog\/five-tips-to-keep-marketing-conversations-going\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Tips to Keep Marketing Conversations Going"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time: <\/span> 3<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

\"how<\/p>\n

Yesterday, I started a discussion about conversational marketing and its relation to conversions.<\/p>\n

Today, I want to give you a few tips on how to make the most out of your conversational marketing attempts.<\/p>\n

How do five tips sound?<\/p>\n

Good?<\/p>\n

Well, then read on\u2026.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Avoid repetition<\/b><\/p>\n

Repeating points is not conversation. It almost borders on aggressiveness or argument. The art of marketing often consists of not appearing too pushy. True conversations keep moving forward- they don\u2019t stay in the same place or keep going back to the same points. This means letting go of your overt and non-stop pitches.<\/p>\n

Maintain interest<\/b><\/p>\n

To be clear, I\u2019m not just talking about interest in what you<\/i> are saying. Drive your conversation in ways that will retain the interest of the prospect as well as yours. You can do this in a number of ways, but the fail-proof one will always be related to finding value in each other\u2019s contributions. Are you giving your prospects information that they can apply somehow? That they appreciate? Are they learning<\/a> from you?<\/p>\n

What can your prospects teach you?<\/p>\n

Listen to your conversation partner<\/b><\/p>\n

This could easily be the most difficult task for any marketer to do. Let\u2019s face it- we\u2019re all wrapped up in our own agenda. We have products to sell and we have to sell them now! Somewhere in that mix, we forget that we\u2019re actually trying to sell to people<\/i>\u2026people with whom we\u2019re supposed to be engaged in a mutually satisfactory conversation<\/i>. Whether it\u2019s pride (\u201cOur target markets don\u2019t know what\u2019s best for them- we do!\u201d), tunnel-vision (\u201cWe have a deadline to move these products!\u201d) or simple neglect (\u201cWhy should we listen to our prospects? They should be listening to us!\u201d), marketers tend to let their conversation responsibility drop to the wayside.<\/p>\n

This is probably the worst thing they could do. Prospects have the answers. If they\u2019re willing to engage in conversation with you, they\u2019re also willing to share them.<\/p>\n

Anticipate the future of communication<\/b><\/p>\n

Communication methods, like language, change over time. Don\u2019t even think about developing a \u201cscript\u201d, unleashing it onto the world and hoping it will stick. That\u2019s like being blindfolded in front of a wall painted with a bulls-eye and being told to throw darts until you hit the target. It\u2019s a waste of time\u2026unless you know where to aim.<\/p>\n

Your target market\u2019s communication methods could be different tomorrow. Consider the difference between blogs and micro-blogs- both are cut from the same communication cloth, but both function entirely differently. You have to be aware that your conversations will need to be fine-tuned to correspond to the communication method du jour.<\/p>\n

If you understand that the new age of communication and its participants are mobile and counter-authority (and I don\u2019t mean that in the sense that they\u2019re anti-establishment\u2026rather, they\u2019re simply tired of being talked \u201cat\u201d instead of \u201cwith\u201d), then you\u2019ll understand that there will always be a new way to communicate and a new medium to communicate through.<\/p>\n

Prepare for this by keeping your marketing conversations completely adaptable. Think about it this way: new communication methods and means should always be your third \u201cconverser.\u201d Take into account what potential the mediums can contribute to the conversation and it can inform yours.<\/p>\n

Let go of old assumptions<\/b><\/p>\n

I can\u2019t blame marketers for holding onto their notions of \u201cmainstream media.\u201d It\u2019s safe and orderly, after all. It makes their jobs easier by neatly segmenting markets and framing techniques so that they can be easily referenced in dusty textbooks.<\/p>\n

The fact is this: mainstream media, as we\u2019ve all come to understand it, is on its way out. It will be surpassed by what we\u2019ve now come to deem as \u201cnew media\u201d- that terrifying, current no-man\u2019s-land abyss that no one really has a handle on, but everyone really loves to postulate about and argue over.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve got entirely new, young generations on our heels who are bored by or simply indifferent to the \u201cpassive consumption<\/a>\u201d of media.<\/p>\n

You may fondly remember taking turns at an arcade game with a neighborhood friend. Today\u2019s generation is sitting in their living room, playing multi-player games with people half across the world.<\/p>\n

For forward-thinking marketers, this presents potential. For the dinosaurs, it presents problems. But anyone who willing to shake off those old assumptions will escape a cruel, Darwinistic fate.<\/p>\n

Even if you don\u2019t believe in conversational marketing, you better believe that people are talking about your brand. And they will continue to do so with or without your blessing and input.<\/p>\n

I think Brian Solis said it best. We simply have to:<\/p>\n

[acknowledge] that brands are evolving from catchy slogans and artistic logos to living, breathing personalities that are defined by the people, principles, and community-focused activities behind them.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What business owner wouldn\u2019t want to have their say in that?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reading Time: <\/span> 3<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>Yesterday, I started a discussion about conversational marketing and its relation to conversions. Today, I want to give you a few tips on how to make the most out of your conversational marketing attempts. How do five tips sound? Good? Well, then read on\u2026.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[207,58,79,63],"class_list":["post-1318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sales-marketing","tag-conversations","tag-conversions","tag-marketing","tag-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.invespcro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.invespcro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.invespcro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.invespcro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.invespcro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.invespcro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1318\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.invespcro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.invespcro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.invespcro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}