According to research by Forbes, 44% of customers claim they are likely to come back to a business that provides personalized services. These fully engaged customers can grow your revenue by 23%. The primary aim of any customer engagement campaign is to draw customers to your website and use the website to promote your products. However, remember that customers are bombarded with advertisements every day through television, social media, YouTube videos, social media, and even billboards. Thus, your goal should be to engage customers in a fun, interactive, and friendly way, that will keep them glued to your site.
ENSURE YOUR CONTENT IS PERSONALISED
Customers love personalized attention.44% of customers are likely to return to your site if they feel treated on a personal level.
Do simple things, like remembering your customer’s birthdays and wishing them well. Also, send specialized emails with targeted information based on customers’ past purchase behaviour. Use online tools that can help you keep track of the customer’s past information, and use this information in creating personalized content.
Also, remember to salute your customers with their name.
A ‘hello Mr George’ is more likely to grab customer’s attention than ‘hi there’.
RUNNING A CONTEST
The contest is one of the popular ways to boost customer engagement. Everyone loves to win and would love the idea of participating in the contest. Ensure the competition is simple and fun. Try topics like taking a selfie holding your brand, and posting it on your social media page. Other ideas for running contests include:
- Like our page and win
- Fill in the blank space contest
- Questions and answers with the right answer winning
- Crowdsources contest
- Start a hashtag with your brand
Remember to reward all the participants. Though the winner gets the primary prize, other participants can get something small like a free eBook. Also, ensure that you set the goals of the content upfront.
What do you want to achieve through the contest?
- Boost brand awareness
- Increase traffic to your website
- Build an email list
- Promote a new product or brand
- Converting followers to customers
With the goals in mind, you can create the best content that enables you to achieve the goals.
TAKE ENGAGING SURVEYS
A survey is one of the most popular customer engagement strategies since it makes customers feel that their opinions matter. The survey provides you with customers feedback that you can use to improve your brand. Make the survey short and fun, using yes or no questions. Also, entice the customers to participate in the survey by giving them something small. For instance, you can send them a small gift voucher that they can use to shop on your website.
Tips for conducting a successful survey
- Ensure the survey is easy and simple
- Ask a direct question; avoid ambiguous sentences
- Ensure each question answers one thing
- Don’t use biased or leading questions
- Use the language of the respondent
- Test drive the survey before sending to customers
GIVE YOUR CUSTOMERS THE SENSE OF BELONGING
Ensure timely response
Noting is more disappointing than a message that goes unanswered for months. The current trend in responding to followers is having a Pre-determined waiting time. For instance, you can include a post about how long you take to respond to messages, feedback, or comments. An hour is the best standard.
Make an effort to respond to everyone in a personal way. If someone asks questions, answer it genuinely without including your marketing pitch. Also, share communication channels that they can use to reach you if they have more questions.
You can share your email or phone number.
Responding to customers makes them feel special and are likely to interact with you in the future.
Invite followers to volunteer ideas for innovation
If you are trying out new product design or designing a new product, ensure you invite followers to be co-innovators. You can try something simple like asking, “given an opportunity, what will you change about our product design?” This question can give you many ideas to explore the design of your product.
Further, it makes customers feel important since their opinion is heard.
ALIGN YOUR BRAND WITH A CHARITY
One way of showing concern for your customers is participating in a charity event. It can be something as simple as a tree planting session. This way, you get to mingle, have fun, and get to know your followers. Also, charitable events give you great content to share on your social media handles. You can post the photos and tag some of the follows.
This way, you earn both customer engagement and brand loyalty, and you can convert these followers to customers quickly.
CONDUCT AMA (Ask me anything)
The AMA is a popular strategy to engage followers on social media. This can be beneficial to both personalities and brands.
If you are a social media personality, you can invite your followers to ask you questions about your life, career, music, marriage, dreams, or anything that intrigues followers. These AMA can be fun and exciting.
As a brand, your AMA should focus on answering questions about your products and services.
You can use the session to educate followers about the industry, other leaders, or new products.
VALUE COLLABORATIONS
Ever heard of synergy? Well, when you collaborate with other companies, you will benefit from the combined output, which is bigger than what each individual can contribute.
The idea of collaboration works best if you do it with your competitors. Collaborations can increase media attention in your industry, making the players better off.
Through partnership, you give your loyal customers an opportunity to show their devotion to your brand.
SHARE CUSTOMER STORIES
Sharing customer stories is one of the most popular social media marketing strategies that you should try. Customers love user-generated content, and a story is one great way to generate user content. The stories can be in the form of reviews, opinions, or testimony.
If you sell products, you can use the stories to tell the transformation after using your products. Ensure that the stories are real and authentic. Don’t use fake people with fake stories promising to change someone’s life as this makes the stories like a marketing gimmick.
About Author
Hitesh Dhawan
Founder of Neuronimbus, A digital evangelist, entrepreneur, mentor, digital tranformation expert. Two decades of providing digital solutions to brands around the world.
