An effective content strategy is a cornerstone of successful marketing and demand generation activities. In fact, according to the 2021 Marketing Leadership Benchmark Report, 53% of leaders said content marketing will be the most important specialization to their team’s success over the next 5 years.
But how do you turn that content into conversations? That’s what matters after all – connecting the right buyer with your sellers.
The old way won’t cut it. When your readers are searching for answers and end up on your website, giving them a PDF to download adds unnecessary friction.
And you can’t start a conversation with someone who’s reading a PDF on their desktop.
But imagine if you could? That’s where Conversational Content comes into play.
What Is Conversational Content?
Conversational Content helps you start conversations with your ideal buyers while they’re – you guessed it – reading your content.
Instead of gating your content with a form, with Conversational Content you attach a PDF to your Conversational Landing Page and engage visitors while they’re reading.
Here are four ways you can start using Conversational Content today.
1. Give Your ABM Targets a VIP Experience (and Let Them Skip the Line) While They’re Reading Your Blog
Your dream customers should get the VIP treatment on your website – whether they’re already engaged with your team or not.
For VIPs who might not be ready to book a meeting with your sales team (but who are enjoying your blog), Conversational Content gives you the perfect way to start a conversation. Here’s one way it could work:
- Send them a bot message on your blog post offering a relevant piece of content (but something long-form like a PDF case study)
- If they want that content, give them a link to your Conversational Content landing page. That page will have the PDF content on it and a new bot to further engage them.
- For the bot on the Conversational Content page, ask the buyer if this content identifies with one of their pain points. From there, you can follow up with more questions and then an offer. You might want to offer a meeting or a chat with sales, but you might also want to offer a blog subscription or something more top of funnel.
This approach requires a light touch. We don’t recommend only pushing a meeting with your sales team. Give site visitors options, so it’s easier for them to convert.
💡Pro Tip: Make sure Drift is integrated with your MAP, like Marketo, so you can email a visitor a PDF of what they’re reading, while still engaging with them on the website. Learn more about setting up your Conversational Landing Pages in our help center.
2. Nurture Qualified Leads with Content That Drives Conversations Instead of Ending Them
Nurture campaigns are meant to keep a warm lead engaged with your business. But most campaigns just push content at buyers. What you really should be doing is using that content to start conversations.
So instead of linking to a landing page with a form for your qualified leads to fill out again, use Conversational Content pages to share helpful content and offer a conversation.
3. Ungate Content To Start More Conversations
Conversational Content allowed Lessonly to ungate their content while simultaneously increasing the volume and quality of buyer conversations. Forms can often be a point of friction and without them in the way, you can start more conversations and qualify more leads.
“We ungated everything. Now visitors get to value faster – and qualify themselves by chatting in if they want to learn more. We’re now getting more qualified leads than before. Our SDRs are having more qualified conversations and we’re driving nearly 30% more MQLs.”
– Ben Battaglia, Director of Marketing, Lessonly
Now, can you imagine what that ungating your content could do for your website?
💡Pro Tip: Learn how Fastlane can help you make your existing forms more conversational.
4. Swap PDF Attachments in Follow-up Emails with Conversational Content Links to Close Opportunities Faster
When your sales reps send PDF attachments in follow-up emails, there‘s no way for the recipient to engage in real-time while they’re actually reading the PDF.
Sure, they can email you back, but email can be slow. If you want to close opportunities faster, Conversational Content allows you to engage them in real-time.
Plus, when your reps send PDFs, as a marketer you never really know how the content you produced is working. Are you helping close deals? You just don’t know.
With this play, use Conversational Content links so your reps get notified when someone engages with your content. Plus you get all the engagement reporting in your Drift playbook.
💡Pro Tip: Use the Conversational Marketing Blueprint to design your Conversational Content playbook.
Want to learn how to build Conversational Content (and other) playbooks? Get the Playbook Basics Certification today.
