Customer engagement plays a pivotal role in converting your customers or potential customers into long-term buyers. Therefore, it becomes inevitable to provide continuous value to your customers by connecting with them regularly. With that said, you also need to focus on the mode of communication because you don’t want to end up upsetting the highly productive and laser-focused Gen X and Millennials.
This is only possible by making use of technology and non-verbal communication, which allows them to skim through essential details during their spare time. However, while you are about to do that, several others are trying to do the same. So, the only way to stay ahead in the race is by adopting out-of-the-box strategies, and to help you do that, let us now discuss some of the most effective and innovative customer engagement strategies.
Push Notifications:
According to user-related statistics, an average user in the US receives around 46 push notifications per day. The opt-in rates are over ninety percent, which makes this technique an enormous success and our No. 1 recommendation. However, the key to keeping your customers engaged is by publishing relevant, informative, and useful content.
Close to forty percent of websites that currently use push notifications are involved in media, blogging, and e-commerce. That makes push notifications one of the most underrated customer engagement techniques, which can do wonders if combined with the right content strategy. Coming to its technical aspect, push notifications are simple to set up, depending on the platform on which your website runs. WordPress users can set them up with plugins such as OneSignal, WonderPush, and SendPulse.
Unleash the Power of Social Media:
Millennials and Gen X are known for two things — their inclination towards social media and their curiosity. As these two generations are hungry for information, the easiest way to keep them engaged is by posting informative content. By doing that frequently, you can also increase your chances of appearing in the social media feeds.
Another way to keep your audiences engaged on social media is by organizing contests and giveaways. You could also run polls, declare live web conferences, and seek feedback from your followers. In case your social media pages have a decent following, try leaping by rewarding the best comment. That would encourage your followers to post more comments, which would, in turn, help boost customer engagement and keep them hooked onto your social media page.
In-App Messaging:
From real estate companies to online pet stores, you’ll find an Android and iOS application for every business. So, if you don’t have one yet, then it’s time to buckle-up. For those who do, you need to take advantage of the hidden potential of your apps through in-app messaging. What makes this customer engagement strategy so powerful is the fact that those who download an application are already interested in the products or services of that business. Again, to make this technique an enormous success, you need to formulate an effective content strategy.
A Classified Approach Towards Customers:
Every business has different classes of customers and needs to approach them accordingly. This classification depends on the inherent nature of your business. For example, a company involved in selling holiday packages and one engaged in selling computers cannot make use of the same parameters. Therefore, you need to lay down the right parameters depending on expected consumer behavior and establish a personal rapport with those who get you maximum business.
As a thumb rule, you need to invest more in staying connected with customers that are already bringing you more business and make them feel valued. As for the one-timers, you need to devise an altogether different content strategy that does not aim at sales, but at disseminating information to grab their attention and win their trust.
Offer Better Security with SSL Certificates:
According to the FBI, billions of dollars are lost every year due to cybercrime, and as an e-commerce business, you simply cannot ignore that. Therefore, it only makes sense to implement better security measures, such as installing SSL certificates that encrypt communication between the client and the server.
So, while you are investing in an SSL certificate, do make its importance known to your customers. In your blogs, include a section that talks about your website’s security measures and tell your customers how it affects them.
Earn Customer Loyalty:
Reddit has taught us all two things — to speak our minds and to accumulate karma. Well, if you use Reddit, then you probably know that ‘Karma’ means points on Reddit, which let the user gain access to more advanced features. Reddit’s tremendous success with this customer engagement technique indicates that there is a sheer need for businesses to experiment and find innovative ways to keep their audiences engaged. Therefore, it is essential to rise above the loyalty point-based strategies and get more experimental when it comes to earning customer loyalty and keeping them engaged.
So, you need to keep your customers engaged by offering them perks and discounts for doing something different and offbeat. For example, if you are selling holiday packages, consider offering discounts and perks to those who submit the best pictures after returning from a holiday. Now that’s an easy way to get yourself a returning customer and some free images as well. Also, you can be sure that the customer would share the news with followers and friends on social media, which could bring in more customers.
Track Your Success with Analytics Tools:
While you are trying out the above-listed customer engagement strategies, remember to keep track of how your customers respond to each one of those. You can do that by making use of powerful tools like Google Analytics. If a customer engagement strategy seems to be working more effectively than the rest, then there’s nothing wrong with reusing it.
Final Words:
The abovementioned customer engagement strategies can be implemented by both brick-and-mortar set-ups and online businesses as well. While all of them are optional, the one that mentions about in-house security measures such as SSL certificates works like a charm for data encryption. Now that we have discussed some of the most productive customer engagement strategies, you are all set to launch a robust marketing campaign.