Customer engagement is an essential part of any successful business’ growth formula.
An engaged customer buys from you, recommends you to their friends, and has a higher average order value. There are tons of benefits but how do you create an active and engaged customer base?
That’s a good question. There are many strategies but the linchpin is a deep understanding of who your customers are and what problem they come to have solved. Here are some proven tactics to increase customer engagement and, by extension, customer lifetime value.
Segment contacts
The first and possibly most important thing you can do to increase customer engagement is to segment your leads and customers. There are many types of market segmentation and not all of them will be important to you.
Determine what kind of segmentation matters in your business and make it a point to group your customers accordingly. For example, if you sell hardware, the gender of your customer probably doesn’t matter. If you sell clothing, gender is probably one of the most important segmentation factors.
There are two areas of segmentation that can have an outsized impact on customer engagement that being, behavioural and psychographic segmentation. Here’s what you need to know.
Also Read: The only customer engagement strategy businesses need during a crisis
Behavioural segmentation
Behavioural segmentation, as the name implies, takes the actions of your customers into consideration to improve engagement. It encompasses almost any type of behaviour such as:
- What they signed up for?
- The purchases they’ve made?
- How often they purchase?
- The pages and categories they visit on your website?
- What they click on in emails?
There are many data points you can use but it’s up to you to determine which ones matter in your situation. For example, if someone signs up for a lead magnet related to shoe care, it can be assumed they’re interested in high-quality shoes. Send them relevant emails and see how they interact with them.
You can take it a step further by asking demographic questions and pairing the insights with behavioural data. When you match behaviour and demographics, you can create ultra-targeted campaigns that move the needle even further.
Someone else may buy a belt once but come back and buy multiple bracelets. Their behaviour is telling you they’re more interested in bracelets so send them content and offers related to that.
You can also take the page they’re browsing into consideration. Drift does this well with its case studies page. A bot pops up and asks if you need any help. From there, you’re able to narrow down the kind of use case you’re looking for and see a case study that covers it.
Also Read: Customer is not always the king, says Tokopedia’s customer engagement expert
Another way to take advantage of behavioural segmentation is by giving people an explicit choice. This is especially powerful with your email marketing campaigns. Ask people what they’re most interested in and let them choose with a click.
Psychographic segmentation
Psychographic segmentation deals with a customer’s attitudes, beliefs, values, etcetera. It can be hard to get right but when you do, you’re able to connect on a deeper level. That’s because you align with what makes them tick as individuals.
Frank Body has done this well. It targets a female demographic and speaks too many of their inner desires. It’s almost like the voice in the back of their head that encourages them to do and be more. It just happens to be named Frank.
Own multiple content types
Right after segmentation, the best way to increase customer engagement is to create content in multiple formats. This allows you to appeal to customers who may not like one format but love another.
Before you start creating content at scale, run small experiments to see what your audience responds to the best. Choose the top three content types and focus on them.
Blog posts or written content
Written content is a staple of the internet. Before video became the go-to medium, writers were responsible for making the web go round. Not only is it an effective way to grow your brand, but it’s also perfect for educating and engaging your customers.
The key to making this strategy work is to focus on delivering value to your customers in an easy-to-understand conversational manner. Having 500-word blog posts that don’t say anything new won’t cut it.
Audio content
Podcasting has enjoyed a meteoric growth trajectory over the last few years. It’s becoming cheaper to host your audio files, it has just reached a saturation point in terms of mainstream awareness, and listeners tend to be loyal.
The millions of monthly podcast listeners only demand two things. The first one is a clearly defined premise for the show and the second is interesting content. If you can deliver that then you’ll be able to quickly grow an engaged audience.
Infographics
A few years ago, infographics were difficult to make and only a few brands could cut it. They ended up being the ones to generate massive amounts of traffic, links, and revenue as a result. Now, it’s easier than ever to create an infographic because of tools such as Venngage and Canva.
Before you start making infographics, look at the kind of content that has done well in the past. Use tools such as Buzzsumo and Social Animal to find content in your niche that did well on social media.
Create an infographic on the same topic but choose a unique angle and make something better. Not only will current customers engage and share, but new prospects will also stumble across your brand.
Video content
Video content is last but far from least. It’s estimated that by 2022, more than 80 per cent of all internet traffic will be video. There’s only a short amount of time left before that saturation point is achieved. With that being said, it’s not something you can jump into without careful planning.
For a brand, video can be expensive and difficult to make. Before you start, look at the competitive landscape and find out a gap you can exploit. Does everyone else do talking head videos? If so, can you make a more active type of video or documentary-style videos?
Mr. Beast has been able to find his niche on YouTube and now has almost 30 million subscribers and makes millions of dollars a year from the platform.
Also Read: Beyond consumer targeting, here are 3 ways blockchain fosters customer engagement and loyalty
While that may not be your goal, it’s still important to make content that appeals to your customers. With whatever type of content you choose to create, it’s important to follow content promotion best practices.
Get active on at least one or two social channels
Almost everyone is aware of the reach and influence of social media. Facebook alone boasts roughly 2.5 billion monthly active users. While this may seem like a no-brainer, there are many caveats with social media.
Most of the platforms throttle your reach so you’ll have to pay to promote your content. That’s part of the reason Facebook makes billions of dollars every quarter.
If you want to continue engaging your customers on social media, it’s important to carefully consider the platforms you’ll prioritise. Here are a few questions to ask yourself.
- Are your current and prospective customers on the platform?
- If so, are they active?
- Is it easy or inexpensive to reach them on the platform?
- Are there alternative ways to engage with them beyond your profile (For example Facebook groups)
- How long is the shelf life of a post on the platform (Twitter is a few minutes while Pinterest is a few weeks)?
Once you’ve answered these questions and have shortlisted a few platforms, start by running small tests. Figure out the best formats for your brand. Do people prefer long-form posts or are short and snappy the best?
Once you are done, then consider:
- What’s the best way to optimise your profile page?
- How often should you post?
- Is there a way to encourage comments?
- What are similar brands doing on the platform?
Once you’ve done your preliminary research, start implementing your strategy, and ramp up the methods that prove successful. DollarSprout followed this research trial and error approach on Pinterest and now has over a million views a month.
Prioritise VIP customers
Not all customers are created equally. Some of them trust you, understand the value you bring to the table, and purchase almost every offer you put out. Others are a drag on your customer support, use your products the wrong way, and complain any chance they get.
Which kind of customer would you like more of in your business? If you said the first type, you’re not alone. Those are your VIP customers and everyone seems to want them. The problem is that few people put in the work needed to satisfy the ones they have.
Start taking steps today to make your VIP customers happy. They’ll be more engaged with your brand, have a higher level of satisfaction, and refer even more VIP customers your way.
There are multiple types of VIP customers and you should identify all of them.
- Spenders: These customers tend to spend the most money with your brand and have a much higher LTV than the average customer.
- Referrers: These ones may spend an average amount of money with your brand over time but their value is even higher than spenders because they refer more customers. The people they refer to tend to be better customers as well.
- Referrers and spenders: The customers who spend a lot and refer a lot are precious to your brand and should be treated as such. They provide the most value to your business over the long haul.
After you’ve identified the customers that meet the criteria, spend extra time, effort, and resources to make them happy. Give them better support, prioritise their feature requests, create content they care about, and ensure you go beyond expectations.
Also Read: Knowlarity acquires Delhi-based customer engagement platform Smartwards
Final thoughts
There are many benefits associated with higher customer engagement. This post has outlined a few of the highest impact methods available. Instead of trying to implement all of them at once, look at the one that’ll give you the most leverage in your business and start there. Once it starts to yield fruits, implement the next strategy until you see a marked increase in both engagement and LTV.
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