Did you know that your customers can sense your intentions? Believe it or not, you’ll find that the majority of your customers can sense whether you actually care about adding value to their lives or not.
This is where customer engagement comes in. By correctly engaging your customers, you not only have a better understanding of their wants and needs. But, you also position your brand as an authentic thought-leader who’s aim is to enrich their customers’ lives.
It sends the message that getting to sell your products or services is a simple by-product of this equation, not the be-all and end-all.
Yet, if you’re just starting to dip your toes in the customer engagement strategy part of your overarching marketing strategy, you’ll need some solid pointers as to where to start.
Keep on reading to learn all about the best customer engagement strategies to incorporate in your business plans.
What Is Customer Engagement?
Before we delve into the core of customer engagement strategies, we have to ensure that we have a solid grasp of what customer engagement actually means.
In the simplest of terms, customer engagement is the process of interacting with your customers. You use different avenues and channels with the goal of strengthening your relationship.
It tends to follow specific phases. From the very first interaction with your customers to the last phase after the point of purchase.
It’s a big misconception to believe that you can just ignore your customers after they’ve purchased your product or subscribed to your service.
Moreover, you’ll find that the most common channels of communication are online-based. From social media, email, your website, to community forums and other spaces where your customers consume your content or are exposed to your brand.
What Is a Customer Engagement Platform?
If you’ve been looking up customer engagement tips, you’ve undoubtedly started seeing a lot of talk about customer engagement platforms.
A customer engagement platform (otherwise known as Customer Engagement Software) centralizes all customer communications. It also helps your service teams respond to your customers’ questions and concerns all in one place.
In addition, you’ll find that the majority of software can track your customer’s behavior on your website. This helps identify the best performing areas and the areas that need your attention.
Of course, even with a customer engagement software on hand, you won’t be able to use it to its fullest capabilities if you don’t have an underlying engagement strategy in place.
The Ultimate Customer Engagement Strategy: The Breakdown
As with all great strategies, the best customer engagement strategy is made up of separate —yet, intertwined— elements. All of those mini-strategies need to work cohesively to form a great overarching customer engagement strategy that’s streamlined and effective.
1. Create a Distinctive Brand Voice
No one wants to engage with a flat-as-a-cardboard brand, that has the emotional depth of a spoon. It’s quite natural for customers to want to engage more frequently with brands that have distinctive personalities.
The way many brands have differentiated themselves was through the careful curation of a unique brand voice and image. It gives depth and dimension to a company and makes it more ‘human’ in the eyes of its customers. When a brand becomes almost a living entity, customers relate to it on a personal level and it becomes rather memorable.
Once you have a novel brand voice, you’ll be able to establish your brand as a thought-leader in your industry. In addition, your customers will be looking at you for expert advice due to your trustworthiness.
2. Blast Your Brand Voice Online
A diamond unseen is a diamond unfound. Your brand voice needs to be shared with the world, otherwise, how would your potential customers find you in the first place?
To start building a strong online presence there is no better place to start than on social media. Start slow and steading with consistent postings and updates for your customers. Then, integrate parts of your brand voice into your content. For instance, you can post content that aligns with your brand values and share messages with consistent meanings.
3. Personalize Customer Experiences
There is something to be said for immediately forming a connection to a piece of content you just read. The same idea applies to your customer’s experience with your brand. The more personalized, the higher the probability that it will leave a mark, and definitely a positive one.
As it were, 49% of buyers have made impulse purchases after receiving personalized experiences. Furthermore, you’ll find companies like Amazon using different software to nail down their recommendations to their customers based on their past purchases or search history.
Of course, not all brands can shell out infinite amounts of money to get sophisticated software. However, there are multiple ways you can personalize your customer’s experience. All benefit from reaching out and asking them directly. You can help set the starting point of your customers’ journey by asking them to fill out a user profile or identify their preferences by taking a short quiz.
4. Create Content Guided by Customer History
Here you’ll follow the same blueprint of the previous mini-strategy. There is nothing more valuable than getting your customer information right from the source.
For example, using feedback surveys can help you create better-personalized content in the future. In addition, you can keep in touch with your customers after they’ve completed their purchase.
Ready to Launch Your Customer Engagement Strategy?
We know that things can look a bit scary at first. But, by keeping a close eye on how your customers react to your new strategy, you can avoid any major mistakes and even catch problems before they happen.
Having an active customer engagement strategy is all about keeping the communication lines open with your customers. Even if things aren’t performing as well as you would like them to, just ask your customers for more feedback.
Furthermore, there is still so much to learn out there. We hope you liked learning all about customer engagement tips and tricks. Make sure to check out our blog’s marketing section for more marketing content.
