What is customer engagement and how do we get it?
Customer engagement is frequent attention to customer needs, offered in a relevant manner. The messages not only draw customers’ attention, but keep it. A marketer’s brand is top of mind, and customers come back to them again and again because of their relationship with the brand and the trust that’s been built.
What do highly engaged customers look like?
Highly engaged customers are PURCHASERS because they understand the product. They are crystal clear on what the brand represents and what it can do for them. Their questions are answered in a brand’s marketing before they even think of them. Not only that, but strategic marketing has helped them become an expert on their brand favorites.
Highly engaged customers are EVANGELISTS. They recommend a brand to friends and family, and even strangers, encouraging others to try out their favorite products and services. They often highlight their brand favorites on social networks, which helps spread the word and build new evangelists.
Highly engaged customers are RESPONSIVE. Customers clearly see a brand’s call to action and know how to respond because marketers have prepped them in advance. They provide feedback when it is requested, or any time they feel like it. They are invested in a brand as if they work for it. And in a sense, they do!
Highly engaged customers are LOYAL. They know they are special to a brand, because they receive relevant, exclusive offers, upgrades and features that the general public either won’t ever receive, or won’t have access to for a while. They are unlikely to switch brands because of a sale or offer from a competitor.
So how does a brand get customers more engaged?
There is no magic solution for customer engagement, but there are a myriad of tactics to increase customer loyalty. Keep in mind the average human attention span is eight seconds, compared to the goldfish, which can focus for nine. Brands need to be where their customers are and speaking to them the way they speak.
Brands should make their marketing takeaway not “buy from us!” but rather communicate value. Texts, emails, social, in-person and offline messages should all reinforce a brand and help the customer feel more engaged with relevant and helpful advice and information. These could include:
- Special offers
- How tos
- Tie-ins to local or national news/events
- Community service efforts
- Personal notes from staff (especially effective with photos, as people and faces drive clicks)
Brands should pull metrics from campaigns to track which efforts are making the biggest impact, crafting future campaigns and messages based on what has worked well. A diligent brand’s social media is constantly monitored to let brand ambassadors know that someone is listening.
New Technology Offers an Edge on Engagement
Beckon has always been at the forefront of marketing technology. With Aclate’s recent acquisition of content personalization platform OneSpot, this tradition of innovation continues. OneSpot individualizes the customer experience across digital channels, driving meaningful engagement with content, products and offers on a 1:1 level. It leverages AI and machine learning to automate the process and provide all of this as a managed service, which means there’s no heavy lifting or ongoing maintenance for marketing managers.
Beckon provides clean, trusted performance insights for better, faster decisions and brings customer engagement performance to life. To learn more about our offerings, including OneSpot individualization capabilities, contact your Beckon sales representative or click here.
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