Guide

How to do conversational messaging in online communities

In this guide we’ll suggest approaches for how you can get started with conversational messaging to build pypeline. It’s a continuation from the previous guide on choosing the right channel for outreach. If you haven’t read that yet, I’d recommend you check it out.

"What messages should I send?"

There’s some irony here - we’re trying to be conversational, yet want a templated message. That won’t really work since the right messaging depends on your prospect’s initial message.

Instead of trying to give you a one-size-fits-all template, we’ll share 3 approaches that worked well for us and our partners that you can easily adapt for your audience. But first, let’s state the obvious:

If you just want to send out mass-messages instead of sending out personalised ones, then this is not for you.

Approach #1: Answer & address their message directly

This is a great way to engage many members, even though you're only sending one message to a thread. Always provide value first, before extracting anything from the conversation. If someone seeks guidance, offer a clear, insightful response, drawing on your experience and expertise. Feel free to share relevant marketing assets, such as a free template, or link to an existing one possibly by tagging the community owner!

This strategy fosters gratitude amongst members and admins, builds relationships, and positions you as a thought leader, especially for inquiries directly concerning your company.

Approach #2: Propose a call to answer questions

You can suggest to answer the user’s questions on a call. It’s a very consultative approach. Show genuine interest in helping people. Others have been successful by directly suggesting a call - but there is a risk that this backfires.

It works particularly well if you sell high-value deals and can really invest into relationships with individual prospects.

Approach #3: Ask them to participate in a research call

You can organize a research report and invite community members to contribute via a research call. This allows for content creation and a discovery call-like interaction to understand their challenges.

I haven’t done this tactic for my own projects yet, but two of our partners have. The message looked similar to the following:

We have seen that this works particularly well to book calls with senior technology leaders. One of the drawbacks is that you might be in calls, where there is no buying intent yet.

Closing thoughts

There is a lot of potential for you to acquire new customers on Slack, with the right message on the right channel. I know these were quite a lot of tips at once, so if you only act on three ideas from this guide, please: