Chintan Zalani

<div class="last-updated" style="background: #f0fdf4; border-left: 3px solid #16a34a; padding: 8px 12px; margin-bottom: 20px; font-size: 14px; color: #166534;">&#10003; <strong>Last Updated:</strong> August 21, 2019</div>
<p>Content marketing is now mainstream. It’s used by all kinds of business for creating brand awareness and establishing credibility with prospects.&nbsp;</p>



<p>However, the way most brands approach&nbsp;<a href="https://hellotars.com/chatbot-templates/agency/SJzA1c/content-marketing-agency-chatbot">content marketing</a>&nbsp;is broken. There’s no feedback taken from the audience and zero efforts are put to build a community around the brand.</p>



<p>In this article, you’ll see the importance of having a conversation with your audience. Let’s get started by looking at a couple of ways in which most brands approach content marketing and the gaps in them.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h.l0jwlvh9l31u">2 Ways Brands Approach Content Marketing (And What’s Wrong With Them)</h2>



<p>A common way most brands begin content marketing is by starting a blog. In a small company, it might mean that someone from the C-suite writes on subjects that (<em>they think)</em>&nbsp;might interest their audience. Unknowingly, every article becomes an advertorial to promote the products.</p>



<p>Such a model rarely delivers <a href="https://www.hellotars.com/blog/reduce-ppc-spend-in-2019-while-still-driving-exceptional-results/">business results</a> because there’s no value-addition for a prospect. The blog soon dissolves in obscurity.</p>



<p>Another&nbsp;widely used strategy&nbsp;involves dissecting competitors using competitor intelligence tools. The idea is to find the articles and marketing channels that deliver business value in your industry. Once the research phase is complete, brands try to “replicate their competitors.”</p>



<p>Sure, you’re providing value in such a model. However, the approach is one-sided and lacks efforts for establishing a relationship with your audience. In the long-run, another competitor might knock you down by “replicating your strategy.”</p>



<p>Do you belong to either of the above two categories of brands? Then, you need to spend time deepening your connection with your audience. Regular conversation with your tribe is essential. Before we move forward, I have reverse engineered&nbsp;<a href="https://elitecontentmarketer.com/content-marketing-examples/">brands pursuing content marketing successfully here</a>&nbsp;that you can explore for inspiration.&nbsp;</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h.54ij5ta3elyi">An Introduction To Conversational Content Marketing</h2>



<p>To develop a healthy relationship with your readers it’s not sufficient to&nbsp;create high-quality content that’s prioritized by search volume and keyword difficulty. You need to solicit feedback and cater to the needs of your prospects as well as buyers.</p>



<p>The art of conversational content marketing involves listening intently, finding the interests of your audience, and delivering content that helps them. Your brand consequently becomes a hero of their story.&nbsp;</p>



<p>As an example, let’s dissect Into The Gloss. It’s the blog of Glossier, a billion-dollar&nbsp;brand that has thrived on maintaining a&nbsp;<a href="https://ecomacademy.com/direct-to-consumer/">direct and intimate relationship with its customers</a>. One&nbsp;of its most popular posts right now is on the different types of acne.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" width="1024" height="61" src="https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/6756905c4f1eabb644da6afe/6a0f1f90227363a218d646fb_6a0ebfe12fb2f9204e3a4583_wp-image9-1024x61.png" alt="" class="wp-image-3378" /></figure>



<p>If you would go by search volume, then the phrase gets 2,300 searches per month. However, the article gets over 5,000 visitors every month to their blog showing that the subject had a much higher traffic potential.</p>



<p>Do you know how they decided to write on the subject? It was based on the feedback they received from their highly engaged community. Even their products are created after interacting with them.</p>



<p>To further streamline having a dialogue through your content&nbsp;marketing&nbsp;and building a relationship, here are three simple ways.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h.l32gomiwioim">1.&nbsp;Deliver Personalized Experiences</h2>



<p>Do you treat all of your first-time visitors in the same way?&nbsp;</p>



<p>That’s what most businesses do.&nbsp;</p>



<p>They have a right sidebar that shows their “most popular posts.” The website also offers a free eBook (or a similar lead magnet) to any reader that subscribes. However, the subject of the offer is only loosely related to the article.</p>



<p>While the strategy worked fine, now you can deliver personalized experiences to prospects on the first exposure to your brand. You can use a tool like TARS to start a conversation. For maintaining context, you can chat on the topic of the page they land on. Suppose the user visits:</p>



<ul><li><strong>A blog post &#8211;&nbsp;</strong>Offer them a content upgrade that helps them implement the advice you share in the article. You can also quiz your audience and based on the answers make more specific offers.</li></ul>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter is-resized"><img decoding="async" src="https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/6756905c4f1eabb644da6afe/6a0f1f91227363a218d6472a_6a0ebfe4902e925b09e7aa4f_wp-image5-1024x583.png" alt="" class="wp-image-3380" width="366" height="208" /></figure></div>



<ul><li><strong>A&nbsp;landing page&nbsp;&#8211;</strong>&nbsp;Arnav from TARS, has already discussed how you can&nbsp;<a href="https://www.hellotars.com/blog/ppc-conversion-rate-conversational-landing-pages/">replace your landing pages altogether with bots</a>. You can also ask&nbsp;questions related to understand the needs of your visitors and offer them to talk with your sales team.</li></ul>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter is-resized"><img decoding="async" src="https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/6756905c4f1eabb644da6afe/6a0f1f91227363a218d6471e_6a0ebfe7ad54cbe490ede1d3_wp-image4-819x1024.png" alt="" class="wp-image-3381" width="298" height="372" /></figure></div>



<p>Won’t you make a better impression by delivering relevant information to a prospect after understanding what they seek?</p>



<p>To begin, you can&nbsp;<a href="https://www.hellotars.com/blog/lead-generation-form-sucks/">implement personalization</a>&nbsp;through bots on your five most trafficked pages. The best part is that you don’t need to create content from scratch. You can repurpose a piece that’s contextually relevant.</p>



<p><strong>Pro Tip:&nbsp;</strong>If you have an email list, then you can request information from them to serve relevant content. Here’s a question Pat Flynn asks his subscribers at the end of his&nbsp;<a href="https://www.hellotars.com/blog/how-to-newsletter/">email newsletters</a>.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter is-resized"><img decoding="async" src="https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/6756905c4f1eabb644da6afe/6a0f1f91227363a218d64721_6a0ebfeb166c1e63b84bd10a_wp-image1-1024x748.png" alt="" class="wp-image-3370" width="257" height="187" /></figure></div>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h.jwj5w68pu3bi">2. Gather Feedback From Your Audience</h2>



<p>While spanking articles on low-competition keywords to get traffic is a great strategy at the beginning, it needs to evolve. You need to collect emails of your dedicated followers. Then, involve them in content creation by asking them about their interests and pain points.</p>



<p>I already showed you how Glossier has a dialogue with their audience and builds a relationship through conversational content marketing. Let me show you another example.</p>



<p><a href="https://www.adamenfroy.com/">Adam Enfroy</a>&nbsp;recently started a blog and started guest posting extensively to build his domain authority. Once he had some traffic and email subscribers rolling in, he didn’t rely on conventional keyword research alone. He actively involved his newly acquired audience for fresh blog post ideas.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter is-resized"><img decoding="async" src="https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/6756905c4f1eabb644da6afe/6a0f1f91227363a218d64704_6a0ebfed26ac07ce76a464a1_wp-image3-1024x356.png" alt="" class="wp-image-3372" width="453" height="157" /></figure></div>



<p>The feedback from your audience can also be turned into keywords. That’s what marketing agency, Grow and Convert, do with their clients using their proprietary&nbsp;<a href="https://growandconvert.com/content-marketing/seo-content-conversions/">pain-point SEO strategy</a>. Here’s how it looks like and compares with the traditional keyword research:</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter is-resized"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/c9xyhVMdH93ZcXFsuXHlIVkRdCmOMdkncsYB6sCq3eLABxlxKEiNBhz8_VUZkZ2FXfKhNsszAGqFBujkFlR8uAECwh8x44nXckqgNeAWHnr24rdLDvxZfu1MRtk3Rl88pzz14jwD" alt="" width="377" height="202"/></figure></div>



<p>Often through the strategy, you might end up with low-volume keywords. However, the traffic you will generate will convert more.</p>



<p>In the process of listening to your audience, you will also know the exact phrases they use to describe their problems. By using them in your blog posts, your content will start resonating with your audience.</p>



<p>If you have existing customers, then your job becomes easier. You can answer their common questions on your blog as well.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Marcus Sheridan calls the strategy as “They Ask, You Answer.” For his inground pool company, he attributed&nbsp;<a href="https://heidicohen.com/blog-post-generated-2-million-sales/">$2M in revenue to a single blog post</a>. It covered the cost of creating a fiberglass pool and was one of the most common questions asked by his prospects.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter is-resized"><img decoding="async" src="https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/6756905c4f1eabb644da6afe/6a0f1f92227363a218d64734_6a0ebff153a3b7ba4e2fbd31_wp-image10.png" alt="" class="wp-image-3376" width="372" height="452" /></figure></div>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h.1ytzv11sko96">3. Create A Private Community</h2>



<p>To connect authentically with your customers and prospects, there&#8217;s no better way than getting your enthusiasts together at a place.&nbsp;</p>



<p>The community provides a direct communication channel with you and close the feedback loop. If a customer faces technical problems, then other members can help. Also, it lets your customers and prospects to influence your brand’s story.</p>



<p>Besides getting feedback for your products and getting feature ideas, a community is also useful for discussing blog post ideas. Here’s Gael from&nbsp;<a href="https://www.authorityhacker.com/">Authority Hacker (AH)</a>&nbsp;asking his customers what they would like to see in a new article he’s writing. He received 50 comments showing the incredible engagement you can generate from such a group.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter is-resized"><img decoding="async" src="https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/6756905c4f1eabb644da6afe/6a0f1f92227363a218d64737_6a0ebff4e63ced7651a95cff_wp-image8.png" alt="" class="wp-image-3375" width="406" height="399" /></figure></div>



<p>Want to start a Facebook group for your customers? Then first lay down ground rules like&nbsp;<a href="https://www.createawesomeonlinecourses.com/">Create Awesome Online Courses (CAOC)</a>&nbsp;does below.&nbsp;</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter is-resized"><img decoding="async" src="https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/6756905c4f1eabb644da6afe/6a0f1f91227363a218d6471b_6a0ebff72fb2f9204e3a5097_wp-image2-797x1024.png" alt="" class="wp-image-3371" width="349" height="448" /></figure></div>



<p>As you can see, the subjects of your community should hover around the core interests of your customers and prospects &#8211; it allows all the members to bond and derive value.</p>



<p>A&nbsp;couple of months ago, Jimmy Daly from&nbsp;<a href="https://www.animalz.co/">Animalz</a>&nbsp;started a Slack community on content marketing. At the time of writing, 237 content professionals had joined the community, communicating across 11 channels. It has become a great avenue to discuss all things related to content marketing and build relationships with industry folks.</p>



<p><a href="https://dispatch.m.io/">Dominic Kent from Mio</a>&nbsp;interacted with&nbsp;<a href="https://automate.io/">Archita Sharma at Automate.io</a>&nbsp;through the guest-post channel on&nbsp;Slack. And they struck a mutually beneficial partnership. Later Kent thanked Daly on Twitter for starting the community.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter is-resized"><img decoding="async" src="https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/6756905c4f1eabb644da6afe/6a0f1f91227363a218d64707_6a0ebff9ddd05f7231c6b285_wp-image7.png" alt="" class="wp-image-3374" width="328" height="311" /></figure></div>



<p>Note that while opening such a group, privacy is key. It will allow conversations to freely and openly thrive. To give assurance to your members, you can lay down guidelines to convert your community into a secret space where discussions aren’t made public without permission.</p>



<p><strong>Pro Tip:</strong>&nbsp;Facebook is aggressively pushing the reach of Groups in the News Feed and encouraging businesses to use them. However, be wary of creating a community on Facebook. It might take a single algorithm change to wipe out the reach of your Group and let your community-building efforts to go waste.&nbsp;</p>



<p>For reference, look at the decline in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.marchex.com/blog/decline-organic-facebook-reach-outsmart-algorithm/">the organic reach of Facebook Pages</a>&nbsp;over the last decade.&nbsp;</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter is-resized"><img decoding="async" src="https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/6756905c4f1eabb644da6afe/6a0f1f91227363a218d64710_6a0ebffc3906cfec658b9e89_wp-image6.png" alt="" class="wp-image-3373" width="305" height="230" /></figure></div>



<p>A Slack channel is a better bet than relying on Facebook Groups!</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h.bwr6siycgs0x">Final Thoughts</h2>



<p>Content marketing is not merely a tool to build awareness of your brand. It’s also the beginning of a conversation with your prospects and customers. Show your advocates you’re on their side, communicate with them delightfully, and you will strengthen your relationship with them.</p>



<p>I discussed three ways to take a conversational approach in your content marketing and hope that you’ll experiment with them to improve your marketing efforts.</p>



<p><em>It’s your turn now. Are there any other ways you in which you pursue conversational content marketing? Let me know in the comments below.</em></p>

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How To Practice Conversational Content Marketing: 3 Simple Ways

How To Practice Conversational Content Marketing: 3 Simple Ways - Tars Blog

Josh Brown

Using Conversational Marketing for Lead Generation

Using Conversational Marketing for Lead Generation - Tars Blog

Ish Jindal

<div class="last-updated" style="background: #f0fdf4; border-left: 3px solid #16a34a; padding: 8px 12px; margin-bottom: 20px; font-size: 14px; color: #166534;">&#10003; <strong>Last Updated:</strong> April 24, 2020</div><figure><span style="font-size: inherit;">Too often when people think of </span><a style="font-size: inherit;" href="http://www.hellotars.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">web based bots</a><span style="font-size: inherit;">, they tend to imagine a widget sitting in the bottom right corner of their website that opens up into a bot upon clicking. While this is certainly a reasonable proposition, this line of thinking pigeon holes the possibilities of bots you can make and users you can engage with those bots.</span></figure>
<blockquote><p>The biggest advantage of a web based bot is that it can live anywhere on the web.</p></blockquote>
<p>This might seem like a ridiculous statement to make but it has profound implications for the way you think about distributing your bot. In particular, I challenge you to not think of your bot as a widget for your website, but rather <strong>a link that can be shared through a whole host of channels across the web.</strong> For example, at Tars we are particularly familiar with using <strong>bots in our email</strong> <strong>campaigns</strong> to great success. <a href="https://blog.hellotars.com/bot-salesmen-2ca605995596" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">This article is about our experience with the same</a>.</p>
<p><strong>E-mail is a crucial channel for most businesses to interact with their customers.</strong> The promos tab in your gmail inbox is testament to this. The advent of <a href="https://www.sendx.io/blog/using-mailchimp-alternatives/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">services like Mailchimp</a>, <a href="https://www.getrevue.co/profile/tars" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Revue</a> and <a href="https://www.sendx.io/">SendX</a> have also made it easy for even small businesses and startups to create professional looking email campaigns which garner legitimacy in the eyes of recipients.</p>
<p><strong>But what happens when someone clicks on a link in one of these emails?</strong> More often than not, you are greeted by <strong>a web page that often (especially on mobile) is not as responsive or slick as Mailchimp’s templates.</strong></p>
<figure><img decoding="async" src="https://tarsblog237898623.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/a0878-14nj6shtjqldang8xnloavq.png" /></figure>
<figure><img decoding="async" class="aligncenter" src="https://tarsblog237898623.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/bb46b-1djc1prjew0maa4ilvwu3sg.gif" /></figure>
<h3></h3>
<h3>Using a chatbot instead…</h3>
<p>Working in the bot space perhaps makes us bias in our inclination towards bots, but it has also pushed us to experiment using bots in a whole host of places so that you do not have to. Sometimes, the channels that we test do not work out. But sometimes, the experiment works and we find a new place to use bots that people have perhaps not thought of before. One such place has been in our weekly company newsletter.</p>
<p>Last summer, we began sending out a weekly newsletter informing our users about the bots we were making, the bots we like and updates with the company. Over the course of the year, we have experimented using bots as content within the mail to varying degrees. After speaking to many of our subscribers we have found that bots offer two particular advantages in email campaigns that might be useful for you.</p>
<h3>Engagement</h3>
<p>A good way of thinking about this advantage is to think about a situation in which a user clicks on a link in your email and does <strong><em>not</em></strong> land on a bot. Imagine a situation in which you send a user an email with an offer that your business is offering. The user interested in the offer clicks on the link.</p>
<p>They are greeted by a static webpage? Perhaps a form, if you are trying to generate a lead directly? What is expected of the user at this point? They must read the page, figure out what they must do to avail of your offer or in the case of a form, they must go through the arduous process of filling out a form (which I am sure no one likes).</p>
<p>A bot enhances this experience by providing users with a chat UI, which is familiar to them and a clear call to action that is almost immediate. In other words, when a user lands on a bot with a chat interface, they do not need to figure out where to click and what to fill, they know exactly what they need to do.</p>
<figure><img decoding="async" class="aligncenter" src="https://tarsblog237898623.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/abbee-146mfkpk0qmnumyjze-7s5a.gif" width="283" height="504" /></figure>
<h3>Human touch</h3>
<p>The second advantage that bots offer is that they provide a more human landing point for your users. Sending someone an email is a personal form of communication. While you might blast the same email out to thousands of people, each email represents a one on one interaction between you and a subscriber.</p>
<p>As such, it would only be natural for links within the email to take a user to an equally personal page. Web forms and websites struggle to do this. The user knows that they are just one of the many people who have been redirected to the page. Ideally, you could personally carry on the conversation with each subscriber but <strong>since this is physically unfeasible, a bot makes sense</strong>. The conversational nature of a chatbot makes the interaction after clicking a link feel human. Rather than ending the personal interaction with a subscriber in the email, a bot allows you to continue the experience all the way to conversion.</p>

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