670% ROI (& 5 Other Reasons to Try Conversational Marketing in 2023)

By Kristin Hess

You’ve read the headlines. Layoffs. Budget cuts. Everyone on your go-to-market team is feeling the palpable uncertainty around the economy – and along with it, the pressure to do more with less.

But how do you generate more pipeline with less budget? How do you hit higher revenue goals with reduced headcount? And how do you maintain qualified lead volume with fewer campaigns?

There’s no easy fix for something as complex as generating pipeline in an economic downturn. But I do know one thing that can help — in a big way.

Conversations.

I know what you’re thinking: We have conversations all the time. But the truth is most B2B organizations are not having in-depth conversations with every person that lands on their website. At best, they personalize for just a handful of accounts — otherwise, they spend too much time on personalization or end up with generic, robotic conversations.

That’s why, despite spending $14.3 billion to drive website traffic, on average, B2B companies saw only a 2.3% conversion rate on their landing pages. Meanwhile, with shrinking attention spans and noisy markets, the bar has never been higher for brands to have authentic, meaningful interactions.

But how do you make the case for a conversational strategy now when you’re trying to weigh everything else in your spend? Here are six measurable ways that Drift customers are making the case for one-to-one conversations.

1. 25% Increase in Sales Team Efficiency

Revenue-generating teams are dealing with a constant flow of pings, alerts, and data. There’s only so much that a person can do in one day — so the trick is to focus on the right tasks at the right time.

Drift empowers sales teams to focus on why and when the buyer is showing the strongest intent to buy. According to Forrester’s three-year analysis of Drift customers, this has led to a 25% increase in sales team efficiency.

Drift drives up sales efficiency in three main ways:

  1. Keep revenue-generating teams focused: Prevents non-sales requests from getting to your sales team
  2. Qualify in real time: Recognizes qualified accounts instantly, fast-tracks buyers to the right sellers, and books meetings without tedious back-and-forth
  3. Automate manual tasks: Scales your existing team with AI chatbots which can book meetings and answer common questions without relying on human input

Instead of spending eight hours going through responses and trying to coordinate demos or gift cards or whatnot, we’re leveraging Drift’s technology to do that for us. And instead, we probably save six or seven hours a day on that one campaign alone.

The takeaway? Efficiency wins, especially when there’s pressure on budget.

2. 20% Increase in Win Rate

Saving time is amazing. But at the end of the day, marketing and sales must deliver on revenue.

Fortunately, Drift customers generate more revenue and see more output from their marketing spend without adding work for their existing teams. More conversations naturally lead to more pipeline which enables sellers to net higher-quality meetings and increase their win rate.

But what’s even more exciting is that, by placing chat directly on your web pages, you can reduce the time it takes for buyers to speak to you by half.

Valuing a buyer’s time with the right message at the right time? Now, that’s the fastest way to convert website traffic into loyal customers.

See more output at a lower cost with Drift

3. 75% More Likely to Gain Market Share

The data is in — and direct, one-to-one conversations give you a clear competitive advantage.

In a 2022 study, McKinsey found that 75% percent of respondents doing direct one-to-one personalization in their marketing saw an increase in market share. By contrast, only 47% saw their market share increase with “somewhat” personalized marketing.

What used to be exceptional in conversation-based technologies is now the baseline. And Drift can help get you where you need to be.

With Drift, you can instantly identify customers and their buying intent based on their on-site behavior, set up targeting criteria so you fire custom playbooks and provide visitors with a unique chatbot experience, and surface real-time insights, patterns, and trends to stay on top of what your customers are chatting about. All-in-all, Drift can help you provide a best-in-class experience that meets your personalization needs and is sure to drive a higher market share.

4. 88% Increase in Conversations Converted to MQLs

Right now, every marketing investment needs to drive a greater return on other programs in your marketing spend. Luckily for you, Drift is built for revenue-driving conversations.

Just consider: 81% of tech buyers don’t fill out forms when they encounter gated content online, and 58% of companies don’t follow up even when they do. Drift allows you to have personalized conversations with buyers instantly which is why, when it comes to higher conversion rates, higher lead quality, and delivering a positive return on investment (ROI) on your marketing spend, we’re proud to be the market leader.

Don’t believe us? Take it from our customers.

Okta

When it comes to ad spend, Drift helps maximize conversions with one-of-a-kind experiences based on who the site visitor is and how they got to your website. Drift is Okta’s #1 fastest channel to convert marketing qualified leads (MQLs) to pipeline.

Gong

Drift helps supercharge your account-based marketing (ABM) efforts so you can identify who’s on your site, get real-time notifications, and start conversations with high-value prospects. Gong uses Drift for ABM and has seen $9M in pipeline influenced.

Skillsoft

Drift helps your events team with registering attendees, answering questions instantly, nurturing, engaging in live chat, and providing attendee insights. Skillsoft leveraged Drift to drive 1800 event registrations in less than 20 days.

No matter what strategy you use to convert leads into opportunities — be it a landing page, live events, online webinars, ad campaigns, or ABM — we’ll amplify your efforts with real-time conversations.

5. One Unified Experience = Lower Cost Per Lead

All too often, you see teams that are sealed off from one another, which leads to missed communications and friction-filled customer handoffs. But now, with so much hanging on efficiency, this is the time to come together and unify your teams across the customer experience.

Drift’s Conversation Cloud spans the full customer lifecycle so that customers and buyers alike can have meaningful conversations via chat, video, phone, and email. With all your conversations on one platform, you can reduce complexity and consolidate costs.

Additionally, a conversational platform like Drift increases top-of-the-funnel conversion, which lowers your net new lead cost and improves ROI on paid advertising. And with reduced manual touchpoints and automation to nurture leads, you’ll significantly reduce the volume of lead follow-up activities so your team can focus on accelerating deal cycles.

6. 670% Average ROI

Turbulent times call for investments you can count on. And Drift has a track record of delivering a positive ROI over a short period of time. That means you’re sure to see significant value in both the short and long term.

Not to mention that third-party analysts, like Forrester, G2, and TrustRadius, and more than 5,000 customers agree that Drift is the safest bet for revenue-driving conversations. Plus, after more than three billion conversations, we’ve pretty much seen it all, which means we’ve got tons of tips and best practices to offer.

Drift Conversational Marketing results

Do More with Less with Drift

No matter the circumstances, every go-to-market team has the same goal — to drive revenue. So this year, it’s crucial that you double down on solutions that promise to help you hit your revenue targets efficiently and effectively.

And while it can be hard to get your bearings at times like these, one thing is for certain: With one-to-one conversations, you can deliver a buying experience that better serves you and your customers while generating more pipeline and revenue faster.

We’ve got a lot more coming your way this year — so don’t wait. Start having conversations with Drift today ⚡️

Waiting leaves money on the table. Find out how much with our ROI calculator.

Conversation Cloud