Customers are the lifeblood of any business. That’s why it’s extremely important to engage with your customers on a regular basis. From content marketing to social media and beyond, there are plenty of opportunities to exploit such relationships.
However, it’s not easy to get to know millions of consumers at a time. In this article, we explain 5 simple strategies you can deploy any time to boost your customer engagement.
1. Make every first impression count
There are new customers coming across your website every day. Yet they don’t have time to cling in and dig information about your brand. You have to present yourself clearly and coherently in front of your visitors.
Design your website in a way that serves the best of your customers.
- Consider real-time support and be proactive about starting the conversation to catch their attention.
- Don’t explicitly focus on the transactional value of the relationship. Rather, explain how your product can benefit the customer and let them make a decision.
2. Build a community
A key to engagement marketing is to give your customers an opportunity to speak up.
In 2016, Starbucks launched an open forum called MyStarBucksIdea.com to foster engagement with customers. This community allows customers to propose their initiatives to refine products and experiences within the franchise. After a few months, the website had received over 150.000 products, 55.000 experience, and other 30.000 involvement ideas. This campaign paved the way for new flavors such as skinny beverages, hazelnut macchiato, and pumpkin spice flavored coffee.
Building such a large-scale community might be challenging. However, you can start by creating your own Facebook group to share information and communicate with your customers.
3. Make your customers a part of the team
Feedback is a gift. It is not only a way to engage with customers but also to know where you are and what needs to be improved. After all, you’re running to satisfy the consumers’ demand. Therefore, customer feedback serves as a guide to your business growth.
One effective way to collect feedback is to send out a feedback form after the order is completed. Build an email template that allows customers to type in their thoughts quickly. You might also consider getting back to them for an explanation when it comes to negative feedback.
Another way is social media listening. Check your social media account constantly. Direct comments, mentions, and posts are useful to see what customers think about you. You can also create quick polls and Q&A stories to gather immediate responses from your followers.
4. Personalized your customer experience
80% of customers are more likely to purchase from a brand that personalizes their experience. Personalization increases the personal relevance of your message to each customer. It implies that you care about your customers’ needs as an individual, thereby improving a good impression and engagement with your brand.
Referring to the customer’s name is a good starting point to engage with customers, whether you are communicating via social media or email.
Segmenting your list for email marketing is a must-do. You can choose to categorize them by location, age, order size, or lifetime value. This enables you to have a special nurturing program for each group, which has a larger impact on your business.
5. Keep the conversation going with technology
All of the abovementioned might be easy to conduct one by one. However, things are different when the business grows. You can easily ignore customer support once you’re busy managing your internal staff. Personalizing is another frustrating task as you have to pay attention to every single customer and order. That’s why many businesses have implemented automation apps to help them.
You can set up a workflow to tag your customers whenever an order is placed without having to do it millions of times. You can also tell the system to automatically send an email tailored to each individual. This data will then be stored in your CRM to use in the future.
In this sense, automation not only saves you from daily repetitive tasks but also enhances your business efficiency.
CONCLUSION
In today’s business, it is a must to engage with your customers via content and marketing.
Rather than a single solution to connect with them, think of how multiple strategies can create a wholesome experience for your consumers. No matter what you’re selling, these tactics are keys to forming a long-term customer relationship that modern companies are looking for.
