Customer Engagement Strategies for Small Businesses 

With the rise of mobile and social media platforms, customers are becoming more powerful than ever. They are in control of curating their digital experience and as such, marketers are realizing they must emphasize customer engagement strategies in order to stay relevant. A mental shift must be made from traditional sales perspective to focus on value creation through an exceptional end-to-end customer experience, great content or strong customer support. The good news for small businesses is this isn’t the most expensive trend to

Humanize and Personalize

At the heart of everything, it is critical to project a brand image that is approachable and above all, human. Customers want to feel like there is a real person behind the business jargon. Additionally, in this day and age, personalizing marketing materials is no longer optional if you want to achieve your desired results. 74% of online consumers get frustrated when content is not personalized to their interests. Businesses need to provide real-time, personalized experiences that reach customers just as they need them. With the help of ever-advancing data analytics, marketers can determine behavioral data with traditional demographics to much more closely define “who” your customer is.

Think Long Term

Customer engagement strategies are not overnight success stories, they are about re-branding your image to center around the customer. The payoff won’t be immediate, but will definitely be worth it. Improving your customer support is a great place to start as it is directly linked to increased customer satisfaction, loyalty and advocacy.

Know Your Audience 

A little market research can go a long way. Find out who your customers are, and what they love. Don’t stop there, it is important to also research how they are interacting with your brand online. Do they engage? What type of content gets the most interaction? Which type gets less. Pay attention to these details in order to constantly evolve to facilitate more engagement.  

It’s The Little Things

You don’t have to throw a lavish party or change your entire marketing strategy to see results. Starting with some simple baby steps can go a long way. One of the easiest ways to deliver exceptional customer experience is to see where you can provide an aspect of your product or service for free. Being generous where you can will go a long way for how your customers remember you.

Aim to Delight

Social media is no longer new or even a phenomenon - it is a fact of life. The average individual has accounts on several platforms and brands have followed suit. This means that the competition for consumer’s attention on these platforms is very high. If your business publishes content with no images, or that flats flat, chances are you won’t be drawing many eyes to your page. Be playful, be creative, be catchy - be basically anything but boring. Create a content strategy, stick to a schedule and keep checking to see what type of content works best for your brand and your customers.