You’re looking for stats on conversational marketing, and we’ve got them.
Conversational marketing is all about having an open dialogue with your customers and potential customers, and it has become more popular in recent years as social media has grown and become more accessible to everyone.
Now, many brands are using conversational marketing to gain a competitive edge over their competitors by providing better customer service and making sure they are always meeting the needs of their audience.
But how do you know if conversational marketing really works? And how can you use it to our advantage? Well, luckily for us, there are plenty of studies out there that show how effective conversational marketing really is!
In this post, we’ll be sharing statistics about conversational marketing so you can see firsthand just how powerful this type of marketing strategy really is and make your conversational marketing efforts more successful than ever before—all without having to spend hours searching through dozens of articles trying to find relevant information.
Conversational Marketing Statistics (Editor’s Choice)
With conversational marketing, you can seamlessly engage your website visitors. Moreover, you can convert leads with the help of one-on-one personalized dialogues. It’s a simple but genius way to grow your business and increase revenue.
Here are some of the most mind-blowing conversational marketing statistics we discovered.
- Eight out of ten businesses have a conversational marketing solution.
- Conversational marketing leads to 50.7% faster response times.
- Over half of customers will remain loyal to a company with a live chat feature.
- About 38% would buy a product or service from a company that offers a live chat feature.
- The average email marketing ROI is $36 per $1 invested.
- 41% of customers would choose a company with live chat support rather than phone support.
- AI-powered conversational marketing solutions are among the most popular choices.
- Well-built chatbots can lead to 90% response rates.
If you are not using a conversational marketing solution yet, we are sure these stats will convince you to invest in one immediately. And we have many more below!
General Conversational Marketing Statistics
1. Eighty percent of businesses have adopted conversational marketing solutions.
A growing number of firms recognize the need for a conversational marketing solution. That is especially true for live chat or an online communication tool.
Of the businesses that do not yet have a conversational marketing solution, about three-fourths (74%) said they plan to add it to their marketing plan. The main reason is to create a better online customer experience and engage potential customers.
(Drift)
2. Conversational marketing leads to 50.7% faster response times.
The expectations for fast response times have been significantly growing in the past years. That is why many businesses need to adjust.
Conversational marketing software is one of the best ways to reach these expectations. In fact, the latest studies show that a conversational marketing solution can lead to almost 51% faster response times.
Other top features of conversation marketing are learning about customers (46.3%) and providing a more human and authentic experience (36.2%).
(Drift)
3. Conversational marketing helps businesses learn more about their buyers and increase revenue.
It takes about a year for a business to learn more about its buyers and use that data to grow. However, according to Zoho research, 43% of companies better understand their customers’ needs and wants after implementing a conversational marketing tool such as live chat.
Moreover, 30% of the businesses who used some online tool for communication reported a 5-10% revenue increase in less than one year.
Here are some other interesting conversational marketing trends highlighted in Zoho’s research focused on the live chat segment.
- 49% of companies that implemented a live chat saw an increase in conversions within two years.
- 68% of companies pay under $10 per live chat agent per month.
- 92% of companies expected the cost per live chat agent per month not to exceed $20.
- 78% of companies use the live chat feature for selling.
- 64% of companies use it for customer care.
(Zoho)
4. Email marketing has an ROI of $36 per every $1 invested.
A Litmus report shows strong results when it comes to the return on investment for email marketing. This channel remains a significant segment of conversational marketing and cannot be ignored.
The ROI across all industries varies, and the ones with the most impressive results are:
- Travel, tourism, and hospitality with an ROI of 53:1.
- Retail, eCommerce, and consumer goods with an ROI of 45:1.
- Publishing, media, sports, events, and entertainment with an ROI of 45:1.
- Marketing, advertising, and PR with an ROI of 42:1.
These figures show that specific industries will have better results when implementing email marketing as the cornerstone of their conversational marketing strategy.
(Litmus)
5. Direct messages have 30% better ROI than retargeting ads.
It seems that free Facebook messages between businesses and their users lead to a significant increase in revenue. That is especially true compared to paid ads on the same platform.
The data show that only a few people click on the daily ads they are bombarded with. On the other hand, those interested in a specific product can learn more about it by communicating directly to either a chatbot or an employee. That leads to the customer feeling heard and a potential sale.
(Business Insider)
6. Personalization is the most crucial part of the conversational marketing strategy.
More than three-fourths (77%) of businesses believe personalized conversational marketing leads to more robust and long-lasting customer relationships. A customized plan makes the customers feel closer to the company and are willing to stay loyal to them.
Moreover, the same study showed that over half (55%) of businesses had seen company growth and witnessed increased revenue after implementing a conversational marketing strategy.
Here are some more interesting conversational marketing stats focused on personalization from the Folloze study:
- 42% of marketing professionals believe that marketing efforts are not yet fully personalized.
- 15% believe their conversational marketing strategy is not personalized at all.
- 21% of marketing professionals don’t use customer data to personalize their marketing efforts.
- 31% believe the word “urgent” mustn’t be included in conversational email marketing.
(Folloze)
7. COVID-19 caused a spike in user engagement rates.
An interesting survey showed that the COVID-19 pandemic positively affected many B2B marketers.
Nearly half (45.2%) of businesses raised their engagement rates significantly by implementing conversational marketing strategies during the lockdowns.
These are the most affected areas by the implementation of conversational marketing:
- Delivering better customer experience – 26%
- Increasing customer support – 25.3%
- Converting web traffic into qualified leads – 24.7%
- Management events – 16.1%
- Generating sales pipeline – 7.8%
Moreover, when asked to say how valuable implementing conversational marketing was to their business, 99% and 62% said it was “valuable to highly valuable” and “highly valuable,” respectively.
(Drift)
8. 75% of millennials prefer receiving texts for appointments, payments, or promotions.
The biggest target group for a conversational marketing strategy is millennials. According to OpenMarket, 75% of millennials would rather receive texts for notifications than calls, emails, or mails. Of course, that is not surprising since their entire existence revolves around texts.
- 62% get texts for coupons or product offers.
- 51% get texts for appointment reminders.
- 55% find texts to be the best way to get reminders.
- 76% believe texts are the least invasive way of conversational marketing.
So, if you want to market something to customers from this generation, text messages are the way to maximize your profits.
(OpenMarket)
Conversational Marketing Strategies Statistics
9. Nine out of ten customers prefer contacting a business through a messaging option.
A staggering 90% of customers worldwide would love to communicate with their favorite brands via messaging. Still, barely 50% offer this communication option.
The survey, which included 6,000 customers from three continents (Europe, North America, and Asia), found that less than half of the companies they regularly interact with do not have a messaging option yet.
Businesses that invested in customer engagement and conversational marketing saw their revenues increase by an average rate of 70%.
However, the report shows the disparities between what businesses believe versus what their customers think. For example, 95% think customers trust them when it comes to protecting data, but only 65% of customers feel that way.
(Twilio)
10. Over half of customers will remain loyal to a company with a live chat feature.
Live chat can make a big difference for your company. That can be proven by the fact that 52% of customers remain loyal to a company that offers this feature. Moreover, better quality live chat leads to long-term customer satisfaction.
The same research showed us that memorable live chat experiences lead to better sales, revenue, and customer loyalty. Almost 80% of the surveyed businesses confirmed that.
(Kayako)
11. Live chats have the least waiting times, with an average of 36 seconds.
More and more customers favor using live chat over any other communication method. With an average waiting time of only 36 seconds, live chats are the fastest ways to contact a company.
Regardless of whether you want to ask a question, buy a product or service, or contact customer care, live chat is the fastest way to do so.
There are many other reasons why both the customers and the employees prefer live chat. Some of the most widespread ones are chat history, image and file sharing, chat transfer, and CRM integration.
Here are some other interesting live chat conversational marketing statistics from the Comm100 2022 report:
- 714 – the average chats per live chat per month in 2021.
- 33% – year-over-year growth of the average number of chats per month.
- 4.2 out of 5 – average customer satisfaction score of live chat agents.
- 36 seconds – average response time by live chat agents in 2021.
- 11 minutes and 9 seconds – average live chat duration.
- 63% – share of mobile chats among all live chats in 2021.
(Comm100)
12. Live chat can lead to higher customer satisfaction.
Based on Zendesk research, 85% of customers were satisfied with their live chat experience on the platform. This is the second highest customer satisfaction rating. Only phone support is ahead of it, with a satisfaction rate of a staggering 91%.
As for the other support options, the research showed us that the help center articles have an 83% customer satisfaction rate, email support has 82%, and Twitter support has 81%. Of all, Facebook has the lowest results, with a customer satisfaction rate of 74%.
These figures can help businesses create their conversational marketing strategy and focus on the most efficient channels. In 2022, some still prefer talking to a real person on the phone. Though, younger generations seem more inclined to the ever-growing live chat features.
(Zendesk)
13. About 38% would buy a product or service from a company that offers a live chat feature.
The best conversational marketing plan is live chat. It leads to almost 40% of your customers buying something from your company. Moreover, if they already purchased from a company with a live support feature, 51% would buy again.
Interestingly enough, customers who spend between $250 and $500 per month are most likely to spend on online companies with a live chat feature.
In today’s modern world, where many people struggle with social anxiety, live chat has become the only acceptable feature for fast one-on-one communication. Furthermore, younger customers prefer live chat because it feels familiar to them. It’s the same as talking to their friends via messaging apps.
(Kayako)
14. Almost half of the customers never had a positive live chat experience.
Companies increasingly strive to create an exceptional user experience, especially in live chat. But it seems that many fail to achieve this goal.
For example, Kayako’s research reveals that about 47% of customers haven’t had a positive live chat experience in the last thirty days. Moreover, 20% of those have told their friends and colleagues about the bad live chat experience. That, in turn, creates a bad reputation for the company.
So, employing a conversational marketing strategy isn’t enough for happy customers. You must tailor and personalize the experience to meet your consumers’ needs. Many times, having no conversational marketing at all is better than having a poor one.
(Kayako)
15. 41% of customers would choose a company with live chat support rather than phone support.
Contrary to popular belief, most customers prefer live chat over phone support. In fact, 41% of them like a live chat feature compared to 32%, whose most crucial feature is phone support.
As for the other means of support, only 23% prefer email support, and barely 3% prefer contacting the company through social media.
Live chat offers lightning-fast response times and one-on-one chat communication.
(Kayako)
16. 65% of businesses are wrong about what type of customer support their users prefer.
It seems that businesses are wrong when it comes to the type of customer support their users prefer.
Based on the latest conversational marketing stats, 42% of companies believe their users prefer phone support, 14% prefer email support, and 9% prefer social media support. However, the reality is that most customers prefer live chat support and about 35% of businesses understand that.
(Kayako)
17. Almost 40% of customers are frustrated by poor live chat experience.
Regardless of whether support is not available even though the live chat feature shows them online or they are disconnected during a live chat, about 38% of customers consider poor live chat experience as a deal-breaker.
Most customers believe that effortless live chat conversations should be the norm, and they are not satisfied with anything less than that.
The worst part is that many companies know their live chat user experience is not good. In fact, over 43% of businesses are aware of the frustrations their users are experiencing with the live chat features. Yet, they don’t seem to take any measures to fix that.
(Kayako)
18. Both customers and employees hate scripted responses.
About 29% of customers and 38% of customer service employees hate scripted live chat responses. The main reason is that they are impersonal and don’t help customers feel like individuals.
There are many ways to personalize these responses, but many businesses fail to do so and make their customers frustrated.
(Kayako)
19. Over 80% of businesses are trying to create memorable customer service experiences.
About 84% of businesses agree that a unique and memorable customer experience is the top priority for their user support team. They are aware that bad customer experiences lead to losing customers and, with it, revenue. Still, many businesses seem to fail at this task since almost 60% of customers haven’t experienced a memorable live chat interaction.
Moreover, nearly 90% have left at least one live chat due to frustration from a bad experience. That means that many businesses are not asking for customer satisfaction ratings. Or they are not listening to their feedback and are unaware that there is a problem.
(Kayako)
20. AI-powered conversational marketing solutions are among the most popular choices.
Smart chatbots are among the most popular conversational marketing solutions. Of all businesses that currently use AI-powered technology, about 82% claim that their chatbots are leading to better sales. They also have data that chatbots lead to more successful marketing campaigns.
Here are the other advantages of implementing AI-powered conversational marketing solutions for a business:
- 49% said it helped with real-time customer qualification.
- 41% said it helped keep customers engaged 24/7 and regardless of their location.
- 35% said it provided effective and fast ticket support.
(Drift)
21. The chatbot industry is believed to reach $142 billion by 2024.
With chatbots becoming crucial for conversational marketing, their popularity is skyrocketing. The industry was barely worth $3 billion in 2019, but it is expected to jump to over $140 by 2024.
Also, the bots are becoming much more personal, which helps businesses program them in a way that people can’t tell if they are bots or actual human beings. That helps with creating a customized and personalized experience that increases engagement. It also encourages response rates.
(ThreeSixtee)
22. Over 70% of customers expect to communicate with a chatbot in real time.
Customers are aware that it’s impossible to reach an employee every moment of the day, so they expect a replacement. Presently, we are talking about an AI-powered chatbot.
Since people have high expectations about fast response times, even at odd hours, they know that chatbots are the next best thing. That is why 71% expect the business to communicate with them through a chatbot.
(Salesforce)
23. Eight of the ten (79%) most often asked questions can be answered with a conversational marketing chatbot.
We have already discovered that people expect to talk with a chatbot, especially if they plan to ask routine questions.
They would indeed prefer talking to a human employee if they have more complex questions or problems. But, when it comes to straightforward, often asked questions, they don’t mind getting the answers from a chatbot.
The leading chatbots learn 50 times faster and are 14.7% more accurate than cheap solutions. That’s why investing in a well-built chatbot is essential for a successful conversational marketing campaign.
(IBM)
24. Well-built chatbots can lead to 90% response rates from responsive audiences.
A well-built chatbot can do wonders for eCommerce businesses. In fact, it seems that chatbots are one of the most popular conversational marketing strategies to keep engagement high at all times.
According to experts, the most popular chatbots lead to 80-90% response rates. What about the bots that are not as good at their job? They still get 35-40% response rates, which is better than not having a chatbot.
Moreover, these conversational marketing statistics are from a 2017 report. Things and technologies have improved significantly ever since. So, the performance of chatbots will have even better results in the 2020s.
(Matthew Barby)
25. Almost 90% of customers who interacted with chatbots reported a positive experience.
It seems that chatbots are doing something right. Based on a Drift study, most customers who had at least one interaction with a chatbot had either neutral or positive experiences. Only a small percentage (12.8%) of the customers complained about negative experiences.
These figures show that trusting your conversational marketing to chatbots may not be a bad idea. They can help clients find what they need or guide them through your website until they convert. Chatbot conversational marketing is already a reality for numerous businesses, so there’s no need not to invest in it.
(Drift)
Conclusion
We hope these statistics have been helpful to you and that they’ve given you a better understanding of the state of conversational marketing today.
Conversational marketing is the future of marketing. And it’s not just about chatbots and voice assistants. It’s about understanding your customers’ concerns, frustrations, and needs. It’s about connecting with them on an emotional level. It’s about making your brand feel like a friend—and that friend happens to sell stuff.
So what are you waiting for? Start building your own conversational marketing strategy today!
Thanks for reading, and we’ll see you next time! If you have any questions or comments about what we’ve covered in this article, please don’t hesitate to get in touch!
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