Digital Conversations podcasts are hosted by ChatFunnels’ VP of Operations, Billy Bateman. He discusses with various guests a range of digital engagement topics including chatbots, live chat, conversational marketing, Saas, and overall best practices for sales and marketing teams.

There have been over forty Digital Conversations podcasts this year, each one chock-full of great insights and tips from experts in conversational marketing and sales.

Here is a summary of the Top 5 Digital Conversations Podcasts of 2020.

1. Amanda Stevens

Amanda Stevens shared amazing insights on the ins and outs of chatbot deployment in her Digital Conversations podcast.

Here are her 6 key steps to prioritizing chatbot deployment based on the use cases.

1. Consider the relevance of the use case. 

Chatbots can greatly increase web traffic, but there must first be demand behind the use case of the bot. You need to ensure that you build out bots that are helping solve a problem or alleviate a pain point. And you need to rely on the data to determine where to deploy a bot and what its use case will be.

2. Consider the complexity of the current interaction. 

We like ease. We’re designed to figure out the quickest ways to complete tasks while still maintaining efficiency. When deploying a bot, it’s crucial to first look at the complexity of the current state. Is it a brief interaction? Is it going to be a long process? Be wary of use cases that are going to require 20+ interactions between the user and the bot. The more steps, the more people will drop out midway through, leaving the bot before they’ve completed the process. Bots should be deployed where they will make the process easier, not where they will just complicate things.

3. Does it require multiple interactions to complete the task?

If the bot would only require one interaction, is that really saving time? You need to find a happy medium, not too many questions but still enough questions that the bot is necessary.

4. Does the user need to interact with multiple systems?

If the answer to this question is yes, PUT IN A BOT! The main one for this would be connecting your calendar to bots in order to automate the process of scheduling meetings. Bots are great at integrating different systems to make everything run smoothly.

5. Consider the current difficulties around this use case.

Remember what we’ve said: a bot should be used to solve pain points. You need to decide if and how a bot can solve specific pain points with each use case.

6. Do users feel comfortable talking about this to a bot?

For some use cases, people would prefer talking to a live agent, rather than typing in their answers to a bot. Some people are not comfortable with giving personal information through a bot. Having an option for live chat can always fix that problem.

Overall, there are many things to consider before deploying a bot. Chatbots will not be effective if they are simply thrown onto a website. You must sort out the use case and if and how the bot will make things easier.

2. Jackie Hermes

In Jackie’s podcast, she shared pro tips on starting a business.

3 issues that come along with starting your own company are awareness, website automation, and the hiring process.

1. Awareness

As a new business, you need to get people aware of your brand. You need people to start hearing about your product or services. This will come with great marketing strategies. Consumers need ungated content to become aware of your brand. It’s also crucial to get active on LinkedIn to build out your networking.

2. Website Automation 

Automation is the key to optimizing your website’s conversion rates. We are all about automation here at ChatFunnels, especially with using chatbots. Chatbots make it easier to track metrics and improve conversion rates. Jackie shared the importance of A/B testing once there is a lot of traffic on your site. The best practice is to focus on getting high web traffic and then start testing and optimizing.

3. The Hiring Process 

Everyone knows how stressful the hiring process can be, and with a start-up company it’s important to ensure that new hires work well with your existing team. Something interesting that Jackie shared was about how to get references for each applicant. She said that she asks the applicants about previous bosses and coworkers and their strengths/weaknesses, and then requests their contact information. This way you can receive more honest references. 

3. David Lewis

In David’s podcast, he shares the importance of optimizing your website in order to increase sales. Your digital engagement matters now more than ever!

In this day and age, having a great website is crucial. The main thing to consider is if your website is approachable. Would someone get frustrated trying to navigate your site? It might not be as approachable as you think.

Simplifying everything is key!

Do an audit of your website and even your mobile app, so they can live up to their full potential. If you do not regularly audit your site, it can quickly become out-of-date. Everything on your website, from layout to content to graphics is there to guide users to conversion, and if it’s not doing that, revise it!

David goes on to say how tracking contact points, such as certain buttons on your site, can be very beneficial in giving you insight into how you should rearrange or redesign things, if needed.

In conclusion, your business’ online presence is vital to driving conversion. Make sure you aren’t letting your site become old and outdated.

4. Garrett Mehrguth

In this episode of the digital conversations, Garrett talks about the importance of financial analysis and shares pro tips for marketers. 

3 keys to revamping your marketing strategy.

1. He explains that first, you need to focus on a niche market. Trying to market to everyone will not pay off. And finding your niche is simpler than you may think. Consider the following questions:
   • Which customers pay the most?
   • Which customers have the best retention?
   • Who is least serviced by the overall market?
   • Which group of prospects have the highest close rate?
2. The next key is to make data driven decisions. Garrett explains that “most demand gen marketers still don’t have a financial model that gives them confidence of where they should spend their next dollar, or how much their current dollars are making.” In order to truly be making decisions based on the data, your marketing and finance teams need to be aligned. In order to do so, it’s important to leverage the technology available such as Marketo, Hubspot, Salesforce, etc.
3. The third key that Garrett shared is to give your customers something in return. If you think about it, running ads gives no value back to the consumer. You’re just giving money to Google or LinkedIn or whatever you use to run your ads. All the money is going to the platform. But it doesn’t need to be like that. Have you ever thought about how you can give something to the customer? Billy and Garrett agree that it is a great marketing play to incentivize prospects to book meetings with you. One amazing play that Garrett has found to be very effective is to give $100 gift cards to people who book a meeting with you. Think of it like this: You will not be spending more money. You will be splitting your budget between ads and the customers. Instead of spending 100% on ads and giving 0% to customers, you could be spending 75% on ads and give the remaining 25% to the customer.

5. Jon Miller

In this episode, Jon gives an overview of account based marketing, and how it differs from typical marketing strategies. ABM marketing involves marketing directly to key accounts.

The whole point is to find and recognize these major accounts so when they come to your website, you personalize the experience for them.

In order for ABM marketing to run smoothly, your sales and marketing teams need to be aligned.

Most of us are using Salesforce, right? Jon brings up an interesting point. He says, “salesforce has a page for the leads. And there’s another page for accounts in Salesforce. And marketers tend to live on that lead page, and sales people tend to live on that account page. That literally means marketing and sales aren’t on the same page.” So you first need your marketers and salespeople to be on the same page!

A Big Thanks

We would like to sincerely thank each guest who has been on our Digital Conversations podcasts. We appreciate the insights you have all shared and are truly grateful to have had a digital conversation with you.

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