Why Is Customer Engagement Important?
Any business is made out of two wheels - the buyer and the seller. Anyone of these elements disappears, and the system collapses. Over many years, the concept of business has become more consumer-centric. It focuses more on the needs of the buyer and aims at adding value to their lives. And this has led to a huge change in how companies market themselves today. Things have moved beyond the spectrum of just quality products and services. There's a lot more to the market today. Customers appreciate more interactive content than static information.
We, as businesses need to engage with our customers, interact with them, make them a part of the equation. We need to create an 'experience'. In fact, statistics say that 82% of customers will be willing to pay more for a better experience. And we need to gear up and understand just how to go about doing customer engagement!
In this blog, we will be discussing how you can engage your clients online through content, Furthermore, we will be discussing how building online communities and social media can help you further communicate with your clients effectively.
Tips To Engage Clients Online
With the advent of the digital wave, the scope for customer engagement has become even more vast. It isn't just about one of one meeting, sales pitches, and marketing events. Everything can be done from anywhere at any time - online. So here's how you can engage your customers:
Through Content -
1. Interactive Content
Interactive content is any kind of dynamic content that requires engagement and responses from the users. Interactive content types like calculators, outcome quizzes, assessments, chatbots, surveys, etc. can help you provide value to the user. This, in turn, can help you with lead generation. Statistically, 93% of marketers agree that interactive content is effective in educating its buyers versus just 70% for static content.
You can embed this kind of interactive content on your websites, landing pages, social media, email marketing, display ads, and various other places to attract more audience. For example, a construction company can embed a calculator for 'Construction Quote For Kitchen' on their website. This does not only help the consumer in determining an estimated price before they invest. It also offers you more pre-qualified leads for your future business.
2. Live Chats
Live chats are a great way of conducting real-time conversations with your clients. These chats allow your team to have simultaneous conversations with multiple clients, solve their queries and provide instant support. You can also educate your customers about your product/service through live chat, direct them to demos, landing pages, etc.
Live chats improve customer experience drastically. They increase session duration, decrease bounce rates and improve the chances of conversion. Research has found that almost 57% of customers abandon their purchase if they can't get their queries answered quickly. This is where live chat jumps in as it is a one-stop solution for all the customer's queries without having to wait.
3. Videos
Videos are fun and entertaining. Demo videos, review videos, tutorial videos are a great way of reaching out to your customers. They take more interest in getting to know your content and your product. Plus, they are able to retain your information better. You can also invite comments and reactions to your videos in order to engage with your customers better!
Video is very popular on social media as well! Short videos can convey more data in a short amount of time. Studies show that 54% of consumers want to see more video content from a brand or business they support. Customers tend to stay until the end. Moreover, videos are eye-catching and hard to miss. It gives a deeper understanding of your product or service and makes the consumer trust you. After all, everybody likes to know what they're spending their money on.
4. Webinars
A webinar is an online video conferencing event where a speaker or a group of speakers deliver a presentation to an audience. Webinars save time and money and educate your audience in an efficient manner. They are a great way of generating new leads and engaging already existing customers. They help you develop a better online presence as well.
Every time you host a webinar, you engage a large audience at the same time. You cumulate your brand value, and especially to your target audience. And you can even use webinars to show your audience how your product can add value to their business in a very subtle and effective way.
Webinars almost function like personal tutoring sessions with feedback, questions, and engagement that your audience can give you. Seth Godin is the founder of altMBA, an online leadership and management workshop. He uses the tool of the webinar to engage 100s of students in interactive lectures and group discussions. It allows students to participate from anywhere at any time.
5. Podcast
Podcasting has gained a lot of popularity over the years. It is a powerful marketing tool to reach out to a wider audience at the same time. It also helps in lead generation and increasing your email lists! Podcasts cost less than videos and are more engaging than blogs. Most importantly, they can help you generate a lot of targeted traffic.
Podcasts engage audiences and help you in building better relationships with them. With the amount of information out there, podcasts help add a certain credibility to your content. It leaves room for the speaker to offer actually relevant content in an engaging manner. In a survey conducted on 300,000 podcast listeners, it was found that 63 percent of the respondents had bought what the host had promoted.
Now, these are some of the ways using which you can engage your audience through content. But, of course, we can't just stop here!
Engaging clients entails covering all the channels where your customer might be available. Responding to their queries through online communities and social media is a huge part of this. Have a look at the following section for some actionable tips.
As A Business:
1. Build Online Communities
When a customer first signs up with you, they don't have a lot of ideas about what's happening around them. They often need help with making the best use of your product or service. You can form and introduce them to online communities of your existing customers and other like-minded people. This will make them feel engaged and a part of your business entity.
These online communities allow your customers to interact with each other and solve queries on their own too. It also gives you an insight into what issues your customers are facing and what they want. This also helps you with your product development and developing your marketing strategy. You can also hold polls and ask questions on these online communities in order to engage your customers even further.
2. Hold Offers And Contests
Giving offers and discounts and holding contests is another great method to engage customers. After all, according to contest statistics, contests have a conversion rate of almost 34%. This is higher than any other content types. You can use it to increase your subscribers, newsletter lists, and email lists. A price incentive is always a good way of attracting more people and building a trust factor within your audience. Incentives like online spin wheels to get offers and discounts are bound to help you get leads and engage your customers. Member-exclusive rewards, free shipping, loyalty rewards - the options are endless!
Statistics show that 96% of customers use coupons and 92% of customers always look for deals while shopping! So make sure to leverage on that and you and your customers both can benefit out of it!
3. Social Media
In today's world, your basic existence is defined by your social media personality. If you're off the social grid, you're basically off the grid. And especially as a business, you need to be able to connect with your customers socially. You need to decide on the right mediums, channels, times, content types to have a strong social media identity.
You need to make sure that you post regularly and offer quality content with good visuals to your customers. You need to give them relevant CTAs and ask them questions - make them participate! You can add interactive content on social media, host online games, polls, etc. on the right channels. Social media is the key to changing your customer engagement game!
Conclusion
We have reached at the end here, folks. Never forget, that customer is king. And you need to engage your king if you want to present your product. There's a million products and services out there and how you treat your customers is the only thing that will make sure that you stand out. So remember these tips and even the things that you already know. And give it all you can! Happy Engaging!
