Delighting customers and encouraging them to spend more money with your brand isn't enough. You need to improve the customer experience to strengthen their loyalty to your brand as up to two-thirds of a company’s profit relies on effective customer engagement.
It needs to be clear that you value your relationship with them and not just the money they spend at your business. That's why you need to consistently engage with customers to demonstrate your dedication to their needs. Here's how you can do it swiftly.
Humanise Your Brand
Customers want to engage with brands that have a personality. Many brands have differentiated themselves through the use of a unique brand voice, personifying the company and making it more relatable with its customers. Humanising your brand forges the connection that keeps your followers invested.
How does a company that's already dominating its industry do more for its customers? You need to make those loyal brand ambassadors feel special.
Take makeup moguls, Glossier. This eCommerce makeup and skincare brand stands out from competitors by donning a very playful, authentic personality. Women crave being a "Glossier Girl" - someone who embraces their true self and uses cosmetics to highlight their existing features, rather than masking them with other beauty products.
Being real makes your brand more memorable, attracting customers and boosting engagement for all the right reasons. You don’t have to compromise your brand voice. You can still maintain your organisation’s unique voice while being more human.
Embrace Humour on Social Media
There are now 3.484 billion social media users across the globe which is a 9% increase compared to last year. To captivate these users, brands are livening up their social strategy by utilising humour. While this isn’t a new tactic by any means, some brands have started using social media to find their inner stand-up comedian.
You already post content that aligns with your brand values, so start building a personality on social media. Okay yeah, social platforms are primarily for that but you should leverage their ability to create top quality banter if you want better results. Obviously, that depends on if it aligns with your brand guidelines.
The rapidly evolving behaviour of consumers in this age should impact your perception of social media marketing. It’s not about being down with the kids. It’s about ensuring your brand is at the forefront of the industry.
If you want an example of a light-hearted personality on social media, consider brands like Wendy's. This fast-food giant embraces humour as a means of poking fun, like in the tweets below.
Black Friday **** Need copy and link****
— McDonald's Corporation (@McDonaldsCorp) November 24, 2017
When the tweets are as broken as the ice cream machine. https://t.co/esdndK1iFm
— Wendy's (@Wendys) November 24, 2017
This is a great example of utilising humour and also digital engagement inexpensively. It’s more important than ever before for marketers to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to social media. It’s a great way to engage with customers that haven’t yet connected with your brand.
Personalise the Experience
When it comes to building strong relationships with customers, learning their names is an essential step for businesses at any level. Remembering a person’s name is key to winning that person over to your way of thinking.
This fact is scientifically-proven - hearing your own name has a powerful impact on the listener’s brain. Providing consumers with a personalised customer experience can change them into brand loyalists sharpish.
We all saw the demise of the one-size-fits-all messaging era. Today, a single message can’t get the job done unless it’s perfectly tailored to relate with every customer.
Back in 2014, Coca-Cola launched its marketing campaign that took the nation by storm. #ShareACoke removed the iconic logo and replaced it with 250 of the most common names in the U.S. The campaign thrived because of the customer engagement element.
It wasn't just a typical marketing campaign - the highly-personalised aspect made it even more alluring. Customers could physically see a piece of themselves on a Coke bottle. Then they’d share it on social media for the world to see, bringing in the digital engagement aspect once again.
This was a simple campaign that related to Coke's target audience and got people talking about the brand. Similarly, adding a personal touch to the customer experience, for instance, using dynamic recipient name tags in emails can enable businesses to get their voice heard, allowing them to stand out in an overcrowded market.
Create Custom Content
Are you engaging your customers with custom content? Overall, content marketing is used to drive leads and acquire new customers.
On the other hand, custom content plays a vital role in engaging the existing ones too.
Not every type of content will successfully engage your audience. It’s important to create useful content for your customers. When you tailor your custom content to answer popular questions within your niche, you’ve successfully bridged the gap.
Blog posts and articles? Videos? Infographics and images? Ebooks? Always focus on the content format that your audience prefers. If you prefer written content but you found that most of your customers want visual content, then you need to adapt and find a way to incorporate more visuals.
According to Demand Centric, 78% of CMOs think custom content is the future of marketing and custom content influences 61% of buying decisions. Creating custom content also earns the respect of your existing customers. You give them an open invitation to tell others about it, whether they do so on social media or good old word of mouth.
You’ve got the basics of increasing customer engagement in digital marketing now and you want to put it in action. However, you want to know you have the finances to facilitate your growth.
Use Our Campaign Budget Calculator to Increase Engagement in the Future
You want results and you want to be able to measure them. Budgeting can be a little tricky, especially when we’re whizzes at marketing rather than finances. You can use our handy little budget calculator so you can justify concrete ROIs and solidify your future branding budgets.
It’s easy to use and gives you clear figures to take away. Try it out using the link below.