The relationship that you have with your customers should not be one-way. It should be back and forth, like a conversation. Everyone benefits when this is the case — you get to know more about who your customers are, and you can improve the overall quality of your business, too. And of course, there are advantages for your customers, too. Everyone prefers when it feels as if the companies they give their money to care about who they are and what they want. If you’re going to have this type of relationship with your customers, then it’s important that you engage. In this blog, we’re going to look at some of the most effective ways to create this engagement.
Make it a Community
The internet allows you to create a real sense of community around your business. If you’ve got a loyal customer base, then they’ll want to have a space to talk with other people. There are plenty of ways to do this. You can set up a Facebook account and invite people to leave comments and so forth, or you can allow comments on your blog. If you’ve got a large enough audience, then you may consider adding a post board to your website. This will allow people to ask questions, make observations, and so on — it’s essentially just highly engaging when you know you can make your voice heard.
Post Engaging Content
Is your content as engaging as it could be? These days, it’s not enough to just post a few images on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. With standards so high these days, those types of posts will have limited traction. If you’re not receiving many likes or retweets, then something needs to change. One way to get more engaging content is to work with a video production company. They estimate that around 80% of internet traffic is video related, which is another way of saying: people love videos! And that makes it an excellent way to entice new and current customers to your business.
Competitions and Giveaways
Who doesn’t love getting something for free? We all do! By posting competitions, you’ll be giving your customers a reason to actively interact with your business. The type of giveaway you host will depend on your type of business and what you’re hoping to achieve. In general, it’s a good idea to ensure that you get something out of it yourself. For example, you might ask people to submit their email address in exchange for an entry into the competition. That’ll allow you to quickly build your email marketing list.
Show the People Behind the Company
As a smaller company, it’ll be important to use all the advantages of your status to the most effect. Large corporations can’t show all the people working behind the scenes. They don’t have that level of intimacy. But you will — and this is something that people love to see. You’ll know for yourself how much more positive you feel about a company when you know something about who works for it. You can do this in a number of ways. You could have a page on your website dedicated to your staff, with photos and some personal information, or you could spotlight an employee on your social media channels each week.
In Person Events
You might be an online business, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t exist in the real world, too. The same people that use the web are the same who walk out in public, after all. Hosting an event is a great way to get to know your customers more intimately and can really help to develop a relationship between you and your customers. There are many different types of events that you could host. It could be that you have a day event, with music, drinks, and just a little bit of business thrown in. That’s more like a celebration. You could also have something more formal, where you present information about your company.
Increase Your Customer Service Budget
Finally, perhaps the most important tip of all — increase your customer service budget! You can’t have excellent engagement rates if your customer service isn’t on point. The more you grow, the more you’ll need to have proper systems in place. This could mean outsourcing some of your duties to a professional customer service company, or you might hire full time staff.
Take the above tips on board, and you’ll be well on your way towards giving your customer engagement a boost!