Tips for Engaging & Connecting with Customers

Every savvy business owner and marketer understands that their success ultimately depends on the business’s existing and potential customers. This is why it is very important to keep customers interested, happy, active, and nurtured.

However, many new businesses are not aware of how important it is to engage with customers on a more personal level, in order to accomplish that. You have to work on your “know, like, trust factor.” If your business’s primary focus is pushing sales pitches to their prospects and customers, the business may lose customers quickly.

Successful businesses make their audience members feel appreciated and important. The key to creating a continual flow of customers is to build a solid relationship with them through a variety of connection points. Create engagement platforms, which enable customers to learn valuable info from peers as well as get to know you.

This is easily accomplished by using storytelling methods and techniques, which appeal to each audience segment. The best advice I can give any new business owner is to strive to be authentic, be relevant, and be visible.

Let’s look at a few other things you may want to consider and include as you plan your engagement strategies in your marketing plan.

Create emotional connections

We cannot stress how important it is for businesses to create a robust emotional link with their customers. However, for this to happen, you need to understand the audience you are targeting. Building emotional connections increases consumer loyalty. Therefore, present yourself as a person as opposed to a case of a faceless corporation. 

For example, always introduce yourself when making any communications, use images of real team members on forums and social media. You can as well have a brand ambassador, who will be the face the audience identifies with your brand.

Build a forum or a community

Online forums and communities have been in existence for quite some time, and they offer an excellent platform for direct engagement between brands and their customers. Using a private Facebook group as your forum is a great idea to meet your audience where they are. You can engage them through discussions, questions, updates, or even share information about your product or service. Don’t just schedule posts, though. Be sure to actually engage with them so you build a tribe of loyal followers who can ultimately become loyal customers. The key is to be aware of your customers’ needs, tastes, preferences, and pain points so that you can tailor your engagement for them.

Engage them through contests

Everybody loves free stuff. You can capitalize on this by creating a contest that targets your customer segments. This approach not only serves to attract the attention of potential customers but also prompts them to continue interacting with a reward, long after the contest ends. An example might be “member only” coupons.

Another great activity to consider is inviting customers to share creative photos and tag your business on the photo. Make sure that the compensation you offer is something worth their time, such as a free one-time service or bonus products. The web is swamped with free content. If you want to stand out, even your free offers must be remarkable.

Embrace technology

Technology presents business owners and marketers with various tools that they can use to achieve the necessary engagement with their customers. For example, social media has become a rich platform for customer engagement. Take advantage of social media to encourage sharing and expand your network. Don’t just focus on trying to go viral, though. Post things that not only provide value but are thought-provoking, engaging, stimulating, entertaining, etc. It is advisable to be ahead of the technology curve always if you are to succeed in your engagement goals since technology changes almost every day.

Hosting events

Events such as a local meetup or a webinar offer you an opportunity to meet and engage with your customers and prospects. Such events not only act as a meeting point but also a source of peer-to-peer knowledge. In addition, hosted events allow your audience to feel like they’re a part of an exclusive community.

Customer engagement is a must in marketing. It helps create a group of loyal customers while getting to know their changing needs. This enables you to plan and provide tailored solutions you can add to your product line. Regardless of which engagement method you use first, your success lies in how well you understand your customers, as well as how you communicate with them.