Expanding your business is essential, but you’re spinning your wheels if you’re not engaging with your customers. Making sure to stay in communication with them before, during, and after they purchase from you is of paramount importance.
Not only will this help you gain better sales, but it will also help you get better reviews and ratings. Let’s look at six different ways you can increase customer engagement.
Search For The Platforms Your Customers Hang Out Online
Customer engagement begins with knowing your customers and understanding their unique character, needs, and desires. A business selling solutions knows its customers’ pain points intimately and can come up with an effective solution to help them address their needs.
In order to engage your customers effectively, you must first determine what their primary social media networks are, whether it is on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn.
If your customers hang out the most on Facebook, you should post your content there first.
Create A Community Of Loyal Customers
Once you have found the places where your customers are hanging out, start interacting with them. This doesn’t mean you should start selling to them right away. Instead, be approachable, and help them when they need it.
Chances are that your customers have interacted with other brands before they found your business. Make sure they know what makes your business unique and help them come to their decision to choose you.
Once you have that, you can begin building a community. Give your potential customers something for free that helps them with their need.
For example: If you have a restaurant, give out one of your recipes for making a famous dish at home. If you have an ecommerce business, give away a free eBook or a guide on how to use your product.
By helping your customers out and giving them something of value, they will want to share about you with their family, friends, and peers.
Be A Source Of Inspiration
Be the leader in your industry. Be the leader in your community. Your customers and your target audience need to see that you know what you are doing.
If you have a book, make sure you are active on social media and share your knowledge with the world. If you have a blog, make sure you are writing useful and engaging posts that will help people with their need.
If you are having a contest, make sure to be talking about it and share it with everyone you know.
Do whatever it takes to be the person that your customers or target audience would want to follow.
There is a reason why so many people love Apple products. As an Apple user myself, I can’t help but share the products with my friends.
They have inspired millions of people to buy into the Apple ecosystem. Even if they don’t like Apple, they will still say “Well, it’s a great product.”
When you build inspiration into your business, customers will equally do the same.
Create Content That Will Entertain Your Customers
Doing business is all about making money… yes, there is no doubt about that, but it doesn’t mean you can’t provide entertainment value in what you do.
If your company can provide entertainment, then it will give you an edge over your competitors. You don’t have to be a comedian to create a post that will make someone stop scrolling and simply relax and smile.
As a business owner, work with different ideas of how you can be one of the most interesting people in your community. Give your customers a good experience, and they will want to tell everyone about your business.
Never Fail To Maintain The Conversation
You spent a lot of time building a relationship with your customers, so you need to continue the conversation with them.
Offer them discounts on their next purchase for posting a good review about you on the internet.
Send your customers a handwritten thank you card for their feedback.
If you treat your customers well, they will do the same.
Always Give Your Customers A Good Experience
Great customer service can go a long way. If you make your customers feel as though they have been taken care of, they will stick with you longer.
When a customer has a problem with your product or service, you need to make sure that you address it and make it right.
Cancel your customer’s subscription if they don’t want it anymore.
Resend a customer’s order if they haven’t received it.
Give a customer a refund of their money if they aren’t satisfied with your product.
Whatever it takes, your customers need to know that you are willing to put your money where your mouth is. If you offer great customer service and good value, your customers will be encouraged to stick with you and recommend you to others.
In Conclusion…
Running a business is a lot of work, but it doesn’t have to be “work”. If you want your business to thrive and grow, you need to do the “little bit extra” to engage with your customers.
About Christy Kiltz
Christy Kiltz is the owner of Design! by Kiltz Internet Solutions and has been taking care of business owners online since 2001. Her high-touch digital agency is located in Southern Oregon and provides comprehensive online marketing services and technology solutions that free up business owners to focus on what they love to do instead.
According to Christy, “Service-based business clients come to us spinning their wheels trying to make money online. We form a partnership to turn their websites into lead-generating machines. Our White Glove Growth program is designed to help you get more leads and grow your business.”
In addition to building websites and offering technical support, Christy’s primary focus is education and empowerment. By toning down the “geek” and offering practical tools easily understood by non-technical folks, Christy opens the black box of technology with classes, webinars, and web tips developed to demystify digital marketing. With ease and a bit of humor, she reminds us that while technology continues to move forward at warp speed, many foundational marketing principles remain.
Christy Kiltz joins us as a regular contributor to share her digital marketing expertise with our business community. Enjoy her articles and commentaries!
Find out more about how Christy can help your business improve your online world.
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