MARKETING FOR BETTER ENGAGEMENT
One of the most severe challenges facing marketers today is customer engagement. Why? Because it encapsulates the entire reason why marketers market: to establish relationships with consumers that will ensure they select you over the competition, like and profit from your product or service, return for more, and recommend it to their friends, family, and coworkers.
Customers must be engaged to be acquired, converted, retained, and turned into advocates. To make an acceptable, effective, and meaningful connection with them.
Brands can no longer rely solely on snappy slogans or celebrity endorsements. Because of social media and mobile phones, businesses and brands must always be “on,” ready to connect with customers anywhere and at any time.
Don’t be scared if that sounds like a difficult task. You may employ various techniques and methods to increase client involvement, and they don’t have to be complicated. Instead, they must come from a genuine place, target the proper demographics, and provide customers compelling reasons to interact for them to do so.
What is customer engagement?
Before we get into the “how” of client interaction, we must first define it.
All of your interactions with consumers, whether online and offline, are referred to as customer engagement. Customers should, in theory, feel and act favorably toward your company or brand as a result of such encounters. Here are a few instances of everyday consumer engagement: A client receives an email newsletter announcing a new product launch and visits the company’s website to learn more. Alternatively, a client may contact customer service to inquire about returning an item. A consumer could view a behind-the-scenes film on a company’s social media page explaining how a product is created.
There are countless examples of customer engagement, but the primary line is that businesses that focus on customer interaction provide value rather than take cash. They provide customers with more than a sales pitch: a fantastic end-to-end customer experience, great content, or engaging, real-time customer assistance. In addition, a well-executed customer interaction plan will encourage client loyalty and increase revenue.
How to increase customer engagement
Here are seven customer engagement strategies for building a loyal customer following:
1. Create outstanding customer experiences
If you need further evidence that customer experience is critical to consumer engagement, consider this: 84 percent of firms who enhance their customer experience report more significant revenue.
It makes a lot of sense. We’ve all had unpleasant encounters with businesses that made us swear we’d never do business with them again! Waiting too long to talk with a customer care representative, a complex online checkout, or (worse!) a transaction that didn’t go through after inputting all the information or reading a tone-deaf Tweet are examples of poor user engagement.
So why don’t you make some excellent ones?
To ensure that you provide excellent customer service, you must first map out all of the ways you engage with consumers. Then, do a comprehensive study of each and identify where you can improve, whether it’s a brick-and-mortar store, website, social media sites, emails, customer care center, and anything else.
2. Make your brand relatable and meaningful
It’s not just about making the user experience as seamless and efficient as possible (though that’s a big part of it). It’s also about developing a brand personality that people will like learning about and engaging with.
This is when brand recognition comes into play. Customers must be aware that a brand exists and has something unique, relevant, or helpful to offer before engaging with it.
To capture customers’ attention and provide chances for interaction, businesses must endeavor to establish a feeling of purpose and connection with them. Part of it will come from the sense of authenticity you can instill in your brand (which is critical for today’s brand-weary and socially concerned customers). Brand authenticity is essential to 86 percent of people when selecting which brands to prefer.
Brands communicate authenticity in almost every aspect of their operations. For others, this may include obtaining goods from vendors that share your beliefs and ethics. Others may be inspired by the personal tale of how the brand came to be and the passion that went into its creation. Look for methods to allow your company’s true character to show through, so customers can become aware of it, relate to it, and engage with it.
3. Use push notifications
When properly engaging with consumers, it’s occasionally necessary to remind them of what you have to offer. Push notifications are an excellent method to accomplish this.
Push notifications are brief messages that appear outside the browser on a user’s mobile or desktop screen. Customers can be notified about special deals, events, or news via them. Customers must opt-in to get push notifications, so by doing so, they have already decided to connect with the business. The next difficulty is to create push notifications that contain a compelling offer or message that will entice customers to click on it and interact further.
With push notifications, the challenge is to get the information and timing just perfect. You don’t want to overwhelm consumers with push notifications; the typical US app user receives 46 per day, and 32% of users will turn off push notifications if they receive more than 5 per week. Segmentation is another thing to keep an eye out for. Not every consumer will be interested in every information. Try to divide your recipients into groups so that the most effective message can be sent to them.
4. Take advantage of conversational marketing
Customers’ expectations are rising in tandem with the sophistication of digital marketing. As a result, the notion of a 9-to-5 store is no longer applicable. Instead, customers want and expect to communicate with brands and businesses whenever and wherever it is convenient for them. For example, if a consumer purchases an item online at midnight and has an issue with the payment process, they want it resolved as soon as possible.
Of course, some businesses cannot deliver that degree of interaction at all day hours (and night), where conversational marketing technologies such as chatbots may be helpful.
Chatbots are automated chat services that arise on the internet to assist clients with their interactions with a corporation. They’re built on artificial intelligence technologies that can imitate human communication patterns and provide realistic engagement experiences. Even if the client is aware that they are speaking with a bot, they will not be bothered, provided the communication process is efficient. What is essential is that the client is cared for, which leads to engagement.
The development of scripts and conversation flow is an essential part of building successful conversational marketing. Take a look at these helpful hints.
5. Focus on retention
Customer retention is far more cost-efficient than recruiting new ones, as any marketer knows. Significantly, existing consumers spend more, spend more frequently, and refer the brand or product to their friends and family, some of whom become customers as well.
Consider this: a customer will only return to a brand or business if they have had a positive experience. Customers will be more engaged and happy if they regularly have good, reliable, and profitable encounters with a firm.
Customers connect with companies repeatedly when they feel valued, cared for, and enthralled by new and unique offers.
Customer retention and customer engagement are inextricably linked. One cannot exist without the other. As a result, every effective customer engagement plan must incorporate retention measures, ensuring that consumers are happy throughout time and the lifetime of their contact with a company.
6. Sharpen your social media marketing
For companies today, being engaged on social media is a no-brainer. Every marketer understands the importance of social media, but how can you engage clients once you’re there?
Social media networks are busy places, with a plethora of businesses and goods vying for attention. As a result, consumer interaction efforts must be highly targeted.
7. Capture hearts and minds with video
Without a doubt, video is one of the most effective marketing techniques accessible. With global audiences spending more time on mobile, marketers have found that engaging clients with tempting video bits at various times have become one of the most popular approaches.
Great video storytelling is the key to generating high levels of engagement. While technology has transformed the way we live, certain essential human traits, such as a love of tales, will never change. The human brain is drawn to stories. It’s how we make sense of our surroundings and the world around us. As a result, companies who use brand films to tell intriguing or touching tales will see a significant increase in consumer engagement.
It’s not only about making videos that tell tales; it’s also about who you tell those stories to. If you use social media or native advertising to target relevant films to specific consumer categories, you’ll have a better chance of attracting their attention and interaction.
Why customer engagement matters
Customers may now interact with you in more ways than ever before. This implies that businesses have many possibilities to grab consumers’ attention and bring them on board. But, unfortunately, it also means that rivals have the same chances…
Brands must actively try to connect and interact with customers at every opportunity to increase consumer engagement. Finally, remain consistent with whatever consumer engagement techniques you choose. Create good end-to-end customer experiences from the initial encounter through the whole brand journey by crafting branded messages and appropriate for the target demographic.
You’ll be rewarded with their confidence, loyalty, and engagement if you provide them with a consistent (and excellent) experience.
