In this blog, we will discuss how to increase customer engagement. Running campaigns is not enough for a successful business. Brands and companies are more human than just an organization. Since humans are social animals, brands should build relationships. Interact with your customers. So, focusing on human interactions is a vital customer engagement strategy. IKEA developed a successful strategy with the idea of human interaction. They brought in-store experience by launching the AR app Place. Customers can envisage furniture in their homes. Thus, IKEA also adopts video chat next to augmented reality. Here are top strategies of how to increase customer engagement:
1. Market strategy and position should align
Firstly, you should be sure that your customer engagement marketing strategy aligns with the company’s position. That is the most essential step. Since, if your engagement strategy and brand positioning don’t relate with each other, you wouldn’t get any customers interaction. Positioning is creating a consumer perception about your brand or business. The market positioning is done related to competing brands, products, and services. Hence, the business image gains a distinctive place in the mind of the consumer. Positioning strategy is achieved by defining price, place, promotion, and product. The more detailed information you provide, the stronger is your positioning statement. Besides defining your four P’s there are other questions you may need to answer:
- What advantage your product will provide to the consumers?
- Does your price give you any priority in your market?
- How do you differ from your competitors in terms of quality?
- The unique way of use. Is there anything special about product application?
- What is the main difference from your competitors?
- How do you respond to your target audience’s needs and interests?
For example, Mercedez Benz offers high prices and high quality. Therefore, Mercedez Benz positions itself around luxury and high-quality domain. In consequence, their marketing strategy is formed around luxury perception. While Dacia’s marketing strategy is formed around ‘’the same for the less’’. They position themselves around affordable car fields. So that, even though both brands are active in the automobile industry, their consumers’ perceptions are different. Therefore, they follow different marketing strategies for how to increase customer engagement.
2. Follow Customer Relationship Management process
Customer relationship management (CRM) is creating and following main business strategies to enhance relationships with customers. Each department such as marketing, sales, and customer service has different roles during the CRM process. Thus, successful consumer relationship management leads to an efficient customer engagement strategy. Since first you have to reach and preserve the right audience. Hereby are the main steps of CRM:
- Reach potential customers by creating brand awareness. Your marketing team should create customer personas by researching potential audiences. They will gather data about demographics, background, preferences, behaviors, and interests of potential clients. Different customer personas mean different campaigns.
- After reaching your potential customers by running various campaigns it’s time to gaining leads. Managing leads can be done by communicating via digital channels. For example, you can use a sign-up form, create automated messages or live chats. In addition, creating eye-catching content can generate leads and convert the audience into buyers.
- The third step is the combination of content marketing and communication. Your team gathered information about leads. So that, now you know your main customer personas. They are most likely to be future brand consumers. Therefore, it is time to create content and marketing automation around the main audiences. During this process, the sales team should keep communicating with the customers.
- However, customer relationship management doesn’t end when the purchase is made. Excellent support service is a must for long-term success. Make sure that your customer can reach you via email, live chat, and phone whenever they need to. Also, make the communication process easy to find and proceed with.
- Finally, inform your current consumers about new products and services. However, the updated products/services should be related to their previous purchases. For example, if you are selling books you can update your consumer about a new book of the author. Or, if you are selling phones you can send an update about a new wireless charger of the same brand. In that way, the consumer will feel like you know their needs and interests. Therefore, brand loyalty will be formed over time.
3. Interact with your audience
Interaction is one of the most efficient customer engagement strategies. Since in the digital age customers are active rather than passive. You can engage with your customers:
- Ask a question at the end of your post or blog.
- Ask a more specific question about a part of the content.
- You can create weekly or monthly discussion posts. In that way, you will gain loyal and engaged customers.
- Using polls make customers feel valuable. By using polls you can get feedback for your products or services. Moreover, you can learn your customers’ expectations.
- Challenge your customers! For example, you can give them a goal and ask them to share their results with a specific hashtag. Make them fun and profitable. At The Entrepreneur House, we challenge our community each weak. Take a look at this week’s challenge! Join our challenge and share your experience with other entrepreneurs.
4. Patience is the key
Most businesses fail at the beginning of their journey. Since the main answer of how to increase customer engagement is to give it time. It is the same as you need time to build up personal relationships. Brand loyalty and trust are formed slowly but effectively. If you want your customer engagement strategy to work, you should keep going and wait.
5. Care about social and environmental issues
You should prove your social stand by using digital media. For example, you can start discussion posts and polls. Also, emphasizing diversity in your team is an effective marketing strategy. Moreover, providing a donation campaign would be impactful as well. Since it would lead to creating a community and feeling of social responsibility. Indeed, the unique brand product/service will be associated with social responsibility.
6. Involve your customers with User Generated Content
You can’t stop thinking about how to increase customer engagement? Your strategy is to create this unique and catchy content? Let your audience create it for you! Then you can share their contents. Besides, you can tag your customers on your post or stories. Another way of involving the audience is the use of hashtags. As a company, you can create hashtag challenges for your audience. Sharing customers’ videos and pictures are more successful than regular marketing content. Since it feels more trustworthy, real, and sincere!
User-Generated Content (UGC) leads to 29% more web conversions than other media. User-Generated Content marketing strategy is especially effective on Millenials and Gen Z. GoPro’s #MillionDollarChallenge is an outstanding example of how companies can use User Generated Content. GoPro wanted to make the launch of HERO7 unforgettable. They asked their loyal audience to share their video using #MillionDollarChallenge. Then they selected the best videos to make a short clip of their audiences’ content. GoPro’s #MillionDollarChallenge was a turning point. Since the campaign received over 25.000 submissions from around the world. Click here to watch the video that GoPro made from the user-generated content!
7. Create a valuable newsletter
The answer to how to increase customer engagement is not just about business profit. Create newsletters that provide information about your businesses. Then, add some promotions at the end of the email. Don’t start your mail by asking your customers to take action. Instead, give them valuable information first. With well-organized emails, customers would think that your product is affordable. Hence, newsletters are useful to keep the clicks rates high.
8. Give rewards for the engagement
Rewards are an efficient strategy for a loyal and active audience. Yet, your rewards should fit into your brand image and strategy. Hereby are some reward ideas for high customer engagement:
- Post your customers’ achievements. For example, share the brand challenges they had accomplished.
- Share customers’ stories about your product or services.
- Offer prizes for particular categories related to your business.
- Sponsor events with your customers.
- Offer training and certificates.
- You have no idea about how to increase customer engagement? Ask them! Ask your audience what do they value the most about your business.
9. Value customers’ feedbacks
You can improve your business around customers’ feedbacks. You can use surveys, polls, and interviews to gather information. Also, communicate with your customers about their feedbacks. Answer and analyze their comments. So that, they would feel valuable. Finally, when you improve your business around feedbacks, let them know! Emphasize what kind of changes you had made based on customers’ feedbacks and reviews.
Gymshark adopted an effective customer engagement strategy by reaching out to its customers. They send email surveys to customers that had purchased their products. In addition, they gather data from people who engage with their content. Furthermore, they share their research results with the audience before launching new products. As a result, they gain customers’ trust by sharing results. That leads to a fast-growing online community and an eager audience.
10. Finally, be present, be one of them!
The essential customer engagement strategy is communication! You should always focus on customer communication and community. Well-engaged customers tend to create or take part in companies’ communities. You should get to know the people behind the devices, and shouldn’t treat your customers as data but as valuable individuals. Also, you can host live streams/webinars or live chats with your audience. Being present among the audience tends to create brand loyalty. Thus, this strong communication will bring long-term success.
As a result, answering how to increase customer engagement is crucial. Each business has different characteristics and paths to follow. Yet, we gathered the top 8 rules of customers engagement for you! Any business would be successful by applying these rules patiently. If you need help while applying these strategies you can contact us! The Entrepreneur House created a community for efficient business communication and cooperation. You can join our entrepreneur community from here. Let’s grow together!