Customer engagement is the lifeblood of a thriving business. Modern advertising has seen brands flock to social media and other platforms to engage with their customers in new and exciting ways. It is now more important than ever for businesses to develop and implement a successful and evolving customer engagement strategy.
Recent years have seen an exciting new frontier of advertising. With so many new potential opportunities available for brands to interact with their audiences, it can be difficult to know the right path for your business to take. Read on to find the most effective ways for your business to engage and entice potential customers.
Visual merchandising
Visual merchandising is an essential retail advertising strategy. Successful visual merchandising has positive effects on retail sales, brand loyalty and customer experience. As the leading strategy to encourage consumers to enter a store and make a purchase, visual merchandising is an essential component of increasing customer engagement.
Capturing and keeping the attention of consumers is a difficult task. Visual merchandising involves influencing consumers and stimulating their impulses and desire to make a purchase. This is achieved through a number of methods including strategic design, brand expression and product placement. When promoting a retail brand it is also important to develop brand loyalty and customer engagement through consistent design and marketing choices. Successful visual merchandising allows a business to develop and promote cohesive brand identity.
Social media
Popular social network platforms are an essential tool for fostering customer engagement. Social media has quickly become the most popular way for brands to reach and engage their target audience. Delivering personalised, real-time content via your social media channels, helps potential consumers to feel part of your community and increases their engagement with your brand and products.
When utilising social media, it is important to first understand your target audience. This then enables you to develop a tailored, cohesive content strategy that successfully engages your target demographic. Your choice of images, platform and tone all have a significant impact on the success of your social media campaign in engaging potential customers or clients. Free giveaways and sponsored posts from influences are just some ways that leading brands have successfully engaged their customers online.
Community
One of the key aspects of engagement marketing is providing your customers with a platform to not only participate in ongoing and open dialogue with you, but also with other customers of your product or service. Developing an online community has proven to be particularly successful for brands in the health and fitness industry, where customers can inspire each other with progress pictures and hold each other accountable for completing fitness programs.
Fostering a sense of community with your customers or clients has a dramatic and positive impact on their level of engagement. It also fosters a deeper sense of brand loyalty and encourages clients to spread positive words about your business.
Incentivize
Human beings are inherently motivated by the prospect of a reward. Keeping your customers engaged with your brand, therefore, requires some level of incentive. This can be as simple as providing loyalty cards, which reward your customers for making multiple purchases. It could also consist of holding a contest via social media, requiring your customers to post a photo and tag your brand in order to participate. These contests provide an incentive for potential customers to continue their interaction with your brand and provides you with free online exposure.
The meteoric rise of social media advertising means that brands must take an “always on” approach to marketing. Social media platforms and technology have provided businesses with the ability to interact and engage with their consumers in ways never seen before. In order to remain competitive in today’s market, it is essential to develop a sophisticated customer engagement strategy.
