Any business that plans to survive in today’s competitive market should have multiple customer engagement strategies in place. Customer acquisition is heavily dependent on customer engagement. After all, customers engage with a brand before buying from them. There are several customer engagement strategies floating around in the market. The best bet for any emerging brand is to cherry-pick the best tactics from each of them. There is no one perfect customer engagement strategy that can be applied to any business model. Most brands use a combination of customer engagement strategies to keep their customer acquisition pipeline robust. The idea is to make sure that the brand latches itself to the public consciousness. Otherwise, there is a chance of falling victim to the “Out of sight, out of mind” rule. Any brand that doesn’t put itself out there cannot have long-term success. No matter how great your product is, it will not take off in the market without customer engagement. That’s where customer engagement strategies come in.
Digital Customer Engagement Strategies
Here are some of the most popular digital customer strategies that you can implement in your marketing model. If a marketer consistently exercises these tactics, they won’t have any problem driving customer engagement. The secret is that customers want to be engaged, just not with brands that are monotonous and communicate like robots. Make your brand into a person and have it communicate like a real person. One of the finest examples of this would be the rowdy brand persona of Wendy’s on Twitter. Nevertheless, here are some strategies that you can consider:
1: Interactive Content
Interactive content is the future of content marketing. What’s better than content being consumed by the audience on a regular basis? The answer is interactive content that engages an audience and drives them to take action. Quizzes, Polls, customer-inputs, etc., are all examples of interactive content. If someone were to trace the trajectory of interactive content, they would find that there is a lot of Literature that is interactive in nature, and Literature is a form of content. Goosebump comics allow the reader to decide how the plot unfolds. The same is true for the Netflix original “Bandersnatch”. The same is true for small games that are published by brands to engage the audience. One of the most overlooked examples of interactive content is the dinosaur game on Google Chrome. In addition to informing their users that they’re not connected to the internet, Google Chrome encourages them to play a small Flash game to pass the time. And a lot of people do spend time on that game! That’s how powerful interactive content marketing is.
2: Social Media Presence
Building a solid social media presence is imperative for any brand that wants to succeed in today’s market, because that’s where most of the youth is today. Social media marketing is essential for any up-and-coming brands, as it is very cost-effective. Thus, a proper social media marketer can easily find new leads, drive sales, and increase customer engagement via organic promotional methods on social media platforms. An influencer marketplace like Ainfluencer offers some amazing publishing tools. Apart from that, brands can offer entertaining and informational content on their social media accounts as a part of their customer acquisition strategy. Driving customer engagement on social media platforms requires content creators and social media executives that are updated with current affairs and the latest developments in popular culture. For instance, a lot of brands employ marketers who regularly publish memes in order to boost customer engagement. These unconventional methods of social media marketing are the USP of up-and-coming brands.
3: Paid Promotions and Collaborations
Influencer marketing and similar collaborations are a part of a larger customer acquisition and engagement marketing strategy – affiliate marketing. In this process, the onus is on the affiliates of the company to push a product or service. They share the product with their active audience and offer special discounts. This is a great way to find new leads. There are active groups on Instagram and Facebook where brands can find the perfect ambassadors and influencers to boost business. However, with bigger influencers and celebrities, an “in” is often required to get in touch with them. That’s where the network of a marketer comes in. Affiliate marketing can only be successful if the marketing team has some amazing contacts.
4: User-based Content Marketing
User-based content marketing is a relatively new phenomenon. It involves promoting the content produced by customers and potential leads. Campaigns such as “McDonald Stories” and “Share a Coke” are perfect examples of this strategy. Herein, the consumer shares their story related to the brand, and the brand highlights it on their communication channels. This way, the brand creates its own micro-celebrities. For instance, if a struggling musician shares a story of using a certain product, a brand can promote it. The musician will become more visible, and if they succeed in their endeavors, the brand can feed off of their audience. This is more of a long-term user-based content marketing strategy. On the other hand, if an already-established celebrity or influencer is impressed with your brand or product, their story can also be shared to improve brand visibility and reputation. User-based content marketing emphasizes the creativity of consumers and makes them feel valued and important. The result is an increased rate of customer engagement.
Conclusion
In a fast-paced world like ours, retaining customers is one of the most important targets for any business. Using the right customer engagement strategies, companies can see phenomenal growth in their marketing efforts. These can be tracked using the right behavioral analytics platforms like WatchThemLive and visitor tracking tools.