The latest data and analytical tools used by digital marketing agencies show that user engagement is one of the biggest factors in influencing a customer’s purchasing decision. It’s sometimes confused with customer satisfaction and experience, and while there is some commonality, each one is different at heart. For example, customer experience describes the perception that people form of your company based on everything they see, hear, or learn about you. Customer satisfaction relates to how much they like or dislike your product, service, or experience. On the other hand, user engagement involves building a rapport and appealing to a customer as someone who can provide a solution to their problem. Crucially, engagement also extends beyond the first sale – it should be maintained with existing clients. Any experienced sales professional will tell you, it’s easier to sell to someone who has already done business with you.
Boosting user engagement is an effective way to bring prospects on board. The first step is to pinpoint your target market. It’s imperative you know your customers’ engagement styles and understand what they value – not just during the buying process but in their personal life as well. Data and further research will identify each customer’s needs/wants, as well as their age, income, vocation, interests, and more, to determine what motivates them. This all adds up to creating a buyer persona that will direct your engagement strategy.
By knowing more about your ideal customer and their goals, you can build content that reflects their interests, as well as their needs. Your customer has many options available to them – you’re not the only company that can provide the solution they need. You have to stand out from the rest and one of the best ways to do this is to develop a content strategy that feels as if you are communicating directly to them. This customer-driven content is personal, empathetic and helpful; it shows them you have the answer. By crafting content with them in mind, instead of talking endlessly about how good YOU are, and providing solutions to their pain points and challenges, you will achieve what you want to do all along: engage. Always track your data to identify your best-performing content, as well as the pieces that didn’t resonate.
So, how do you create customer-centric content? It can be based on feedback that customers provide about their experience with you. This could mean taking a proactive approach and reaching out to your existing clients to ask about the benefits and challenges they had in dealing with you. Also, social comments, forums, reviews, and focus groups are rich sources of knowledge that is based on real-world experience.
Any information you gather will drive your ongoing content strategy from a client’s perspective. Anything you can do to build a company culture where the customer is at the centre of the buying process will increase engagement exponentially. You’ll be able to deliver a winning experience before and after the transaction. This will help you to convert leads and build brand loyalty. This is a very lucrative strategy as your best customers are usually your existing ones. They must never be forgotten once you’ve completed that initial transaction. Stay in touch and show you value them by offering discounts on their next purchase, vouchers, invitations to VIP client events, or free trials of your new service or product.
Engagement is very much about being on the customer’s side. While you may be the expert in your field, it’s your customer who possesses the most important knowledge in this relationship: they know exactly what they need to fill the gap in their life. By showing you are empathetic to their desires, you’ll go a long way to connecting with them and, eventually, converting them.
