For every business, the idea of a better relationship with customers and increased profitability are music to the ears. After all, why would you get into an industry if you weren’t interested in making money by helping people with your solution? Unfortunately, it’s not always easy to connect with your customers in a meaningful and engaging way. This is where customer engagement comes in.
Customer engagement has become a popular process for many businesses that are hoping to reach their customers. However, what you may not know is that customer engagement can also provide a great ROI and make you more profitable than ever before. In this article, we are going to explore not only why customer engagement matters and how to define the success of your campaign, but how to make you more money in the process. Let’s get started.
Why Customer Engagement Matters
When discussing customer engagement with business owners, many are unsure why it matters to interact with customers on a new level. While we will review a few other reasons why throughout this article, the main reason for this shift is profitability. In fact, Research from Gallup revealed that brands who successfully engage their customers go on to see 63% lower customer attrition, 55% higher share of wallet, and 50% higher productivity.
This should not be a surprise, it simply makes sense. The more that you are able to insert yourself into the everyday lives of your customers, the more familiar they become with your brand. As they become more familiar, the more likely they are to come to you when they need something. Not only does this increase conversions, but it brings in more money for the business as well.
However, customer engagement and retention marketing expand much further than simply creating more successful interactions with customers. There is a lot of work that goes into making that possible and, once you get started, you need a way of defining your success. So let’s talk about that.
Defining the success of customer engagement
According to Gallup, your customers fall into three separate categories when it comes to customer engagement: fully engaged, indifferent, and actively disengaged. Now, while it may not always be possible to move someone from actively disengaged to fully engaged, it is important to understand these distinctions when starting your campaign. By having a good idea of where your customers are, you can use this as a benchmark for where you want them to be.
Even if your marketing strategies only convert a few indifferent customers into fully engaged ones, it’s worth it. In fact, brands who are ‘fully engaged’ with their customers perform better with ‘a 23% premium in terms of share of wallet, profitability, revenue, and relationship growth over the average customer.’ Once your customers start to fully engage with your brand, they are more likely to bring you a health return on your investment.
This shows that a focus on customer engagement can not only show your customers that you care, but improve your bottom line. Now let’s get into how to actually make customer engagement a reality.
Paths toward improvement
Whether you have been involved with customer engagement or are just starting out, there is always a path toward improvement for your company. And while this may look different for each individual company and audience, there are a few best practices that can be universally applied. Let’s take a look.
Treat your customers well, always
One of the most widespread and powerful customer engagement strategies is to treat your customers well, always. This can be difficult for some brands to get used to, but by maximizing every step in the customer journey, you are setting yourself up for success. Make sure that your employees know that customer service needs to be the highest priority throughout.
Part of creating engaging tactics and strategies is the ability to put yourself in the shoes of the customer. Think about a recent poor customer service experience: are you more or less likely to return to that company? Simple things like this are truly the difference between making ends meet and growing your business.
Let your audience tell you what they want
Another common mistake made by far too many brands is trying to predict what customers want instead of just asking them. In order to truly provide your audience with valuable engagement, you need to let your audience tell you what they want out of your company. Whether it is an engagement survey or simply a comment section on your website, giving your audience a voice will dramatically improve your sales performance.
Additionally, in the digital age that we live in, there are more than a few ways to listen to your customers. For instance, user engagement metrics can provide valuable insight into the patterns and behavior of your audience that they may not even be aware of. Be mindful of these metrics and what your customers are saying to get the most out of your campaign.
Provide real-time benefits to customers
Once you have a good understanding of the benefits your customers are looking for, you can use mobile marketing tools to deliver those benefits in real-time. Tools such as SMS marketing, push notifications, and marketing automation are geared toward reaching customers instantaneously and are powerful when it comes to engagement.
For example, should a customer make a request for additional information, you can send a tailored message linking to a blog post or article explaining the process they are confused by. When you deliver tailored, pertinent information directly to your customers, they are far more likely to see you as someone they can trust and purchase from.
Learn more about Text Message Marketing!
Create a community
One of the best ways to keep customers engaged is by creating a community where customers can interact with others. Many businesses do this, from fitness clubs to retail stores, creating a place where community can develop and grow can do wonders for business. Customers can share best practices in regards to your brand, putting you at the center while harnessing the power of inclusion.
The thing you need to know about communities is that they don’t grow in a vacuum. It is your job as the business to create a space for your customers to come together. Once they have this place, you may need to motivate them as they get started until they see the results for themselves. Do your part and put faith in your audience to do theirs, you won’t be disappointed.
Get creative
The final way to use customer engagement to improve your bottom line and make you more profitable is to get creative and have fun with it. As we said earlier, put yourself in the shoes of your customers: would you rather work with someone that is robotic and systematic in their approach or someone who truly understands what you need?
Additionally, there are a lot of creative ways you can engage with your customers. Looking to receive more interactions with your text marketing campaign? Use short codes. Want to start a conversation with your social media followers? Take a page from Jimmy Fallon’s book and start a fun hashtag. Whatever you do, make sure you are putting your customer’s first and are bringing them content and value that they both want and deserve.
Final thoughts
As you get started with your own customer engagement campaign, we hope that this article will help guide you through the decision making process. By putting the focus on the customers and doing your part to treat them well while adding benefits to their life, you should be on the right track. However, the follow through and ability to adapt will be what sets you apart from your competition.
So, what are you waiting for? Get out there and start changing your customers lives today! After all, they might just return the favor and change yours.
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