One of the most severe concerns for marketers today is customer engagement. Why? It’s a primary goal of marketing: to cultivate long-term connections with consumers so that they will select your company above the competition, utilize and profit from your product or service, and return to buy more.
Your consumers must be engaged for you to recruit, convert, and retain. Connect with them in a meaningful and suitable manner. Companies can no longer depend only on slogans and celebrity endorsements. Because of social media and mobile devices, businesses and brands must constantly be “on” and ready to take advantage of opportunities to connect with customers.
Don’t be intimidated if it seems like a daunting task. Increasing client engagement doesn’t have to be complicated, and there are a variety of tactics and methods you can use. Several factors must be taken into consideration when creating an effective marketing campaign.
Ways to get your customers more involved
To develop a loyal customer base, here are six ways to engage your customers:
1. Improve the quality of the experience for the consumer
According to 84% of organizations that seek to enhance their customer experience, increasing income is a direct result of their efforts.
It all makes sense, in a way. A terrible encounter with a company may drive even the most loyal customers away. Bad user engagement may include problems like lengthy waits on hold, complex online checkouts, or transactions that don’t go through even after you’ve entered all the information. These are all instances.
So why don’t we get to work on some excellent ones?
Making sure your consumers have a positive experience begins with a thorough inventory of your customer contact points. When it comes to a brick-and-mortar business, website, social media platforms, or customer care center—or anything else—do a comprehensive review of each to identify where you can make changes.
2. Set up a system for receiving push notifications
This will maintain a positive relationship with your consumers and allow you to jog their memory about the benefits you provide. And one of the best ways to achieve it is via the use of push notifications.
Push notifications are brief messages on a user’s mobile or desktop screen, outside the browser, without the user having to open a separate app. Customers may be alerted of sales, events, and other noteworthy occurrences by sending them these messages. If a customer opts in to get push notifications, they already indicate an interest in the brand. The next step is to create appealing push notifications that entice customers to click on them and interact further.
When it comes to push notifications, getting the information and timing right is the challenge. Users in the US get an average of 46% push notifications every day, and 32% of those users will turn off push notifications altogether if they receive more than 5 per week. Segmentation is another else to keep an eye out for. Customers may not be interested in all of the alerts that are sent to them. Identify subgroups of your receivers so that you may send them just the most relevant messages. As an example, the younger generation of 30 and below is more accepting of more frequent notifications than people 40 and over.
3. Use conversational marketing to your advantage.
Customers’ demands and the sophistication of digital marketing are both increasing. No longer does the notion of a 9-5 shop make sense. Customers want and expect to be able to communicate with brands and businesses at any time and from any location. If a consumer makes an online purchase late at night and has an issue with the payment process, they expect the issue to be resolved quickly.
Conversational marketing solutions like chatbots may be of tremendous assistance for firms who can’t give that level of interaction at all hours of the day and night.
Automated chat services, such as chatbots, arise online to assist clients with their interactions with a business. Powered by artificial intelligence technology, they can replicate human communication patterns and create engaging experiences that seem like they are happening in real life. Even if the customer is aware that they are interacting with a bot, they won’t mind if the communication is efficient. Customers are more likely to become engaged if they feel they are being taken care of.
Creating content and conversation flow is a critical step in successful conversational marketing campaigns.
4. Retention is the key
Retaining existing customers is far more cost-effective than finding new ones, as every marketer knows. Significantly. A customer’s lifetime value may be measured by how much money they spend, how frequently they spend it, and how many people they refer to become new customers.
If a consumer has a bad experience, they will not likely return to that brand or company. To keep consumers interested and pleased, a firm must consistently engage them in pleasant encounters they can rely on.
When customers feel valued, cared for, and intrigued by fresh and creative offerings, they are more likely to return to a business.
Customer engagement and retention go hand in hand. It’s not possible to have one without the other. As a result, any effective strategy for interacting with consumers must include measures to keep them pleased over the long term and the course of their relationship with the company.
5. Elevate your social media marketing
If you’re a company, social media is a must-have. Every marketer understands they need to be on social media, but the issue is how to effectively engage clients after you’ve established yourself in the social media landscape.
Brands and goods jostle customers’ attention on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Because of this, client engagement efforts must be very targeted.
How to use social media to interact with your clients
Although it may seem tedious, responding to consumer comments on social media, particularly unfavorable ones, is critical. Companies should take the time to respond to customer concerns thoroughly and thoughtfully. This may genuinely improve a bad relationship.
Posting on a regular and frequent basis is also critical. While this does not need updating every day, it does imply that consumers should be able to count on a steady supply of material and contact. In addition, strive to establish dialogues on social media rather than simply chatting with consumers. Interactive material, such as polls, competitions, and quizzes, may be used to encourage involvement and conversation. Make sure to follow up with clients that interact so they know they’ve been heard and taken into account.
6. Capture the hearts and minds of your audience with videos
In terms of marketing effectiveness, video is unmatched. And as more and more people worldwide spend more time on their smartphones, marketers are finding new ways to entice consumers with attractive video bites.
Video storytelling is the key to generating high levels of engagement. Some fundamental human traits, such as our love of storytelling, will never change, despite the tremendous impact of digital technology. Narratives pique the interest of the human mind. It’s the way we make meaning of the world and everything that occurs around us. Customers will be much more engaged with a company’s brand film if it tells a compelling story.
Along with telling tales via video, the target audience for those stories is vital. It is more probable that you will succeed in grabbing their attention and engagement if you target the right films to the right customers through social media or native advertising.
The significance of consumer involvement
Customers may now be reached in more ways than ever before. Because of this, companies have several options for attracting customers and getting them to join the cause. Additionally, this implies that our rivals will have the same chances.
Increasing customer involvement requires companies to be proactive in connecting with and interacting with consumers at every opportunity. In the end, be consistent in your customer engagement efforts. Messages on-brand and appropriate for the target demographic should be crafted to promote pleasant end-to-end customer experiences.
Trust, loyalty, and engagement are all built on delivering a consistent (and outstanding) customer experience.
Cooperative Computing provides strategies and solutions that help your brand intimately connect with customers, service consumers more efficiently and track your interactions more effectively for more accurate reporting. For your consumers’ benefit and convenience, we develop customer engagement solutions that incorporate a variety of communication methods helping your brand develop trust.
