In a world where brands are battling severe competition, driving customer engagement has become every brand’s key goal. Establishing a connection with your customers and building an enduring relationship based on engagement is vital for success. Since customers tend to make purchasing decisions based on their entire experience with a brand, and not just based on reviews or word-of-mouth, the onus of building a strong, relatable brand is entirely on you. Here are 6 points to consider while you drive customer engagement for your brand:

1. Ensure brand consistency

Since your brand is what people think and feel about you and the impressions they have of you when they hear your name or see your logo – brand consistency is one of the most critical requirements for driving customer engagement. It helps in building trust. It shows you are dependable. It enables customers to feel confident in associating themselves with your brand. By keeping your colors, fonts and messages uniform, sending the same message across every channel and living up to your brand promise in every interaction, you can be an authentic brand and engage the right values and feelings towards your brand.

Take for instance Coca-Cola; from the name to the logo, the product to the messaging – Coca-Cola has demonstrated consistency across every medium, every interaction, every bottle – in fact, in everything it does or says!

2. Leverage modern technology

Modern technology like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) are no longer limited to sci-fi movies and gaming consoles. Having seeped into the business world, they have the power to completely transform customer engagement and experience. Do you know? 56% of top performing companies are considering AI to create personalized experiences and to learn continuously from the interactions they have with their customers. Using modern technology, you can anticipate customer needs, quickly identify purchasing patterns, create highly personalized campaigns, deliver relevant products and services, and drive substantial engagement.

Furniture giant Ikea’s VR experience digitally showcases products; using the VR headset, customers can walk around a real size, make-believe 3D home, interact with objects and even change the color of cabinets and shelves!

3. Use social media as a tool

In today’s social media age, chances are, you’re using this powerful platform to connect with your customers. But don’t stop at that. Use social media as a tool also to understand customer behavior, analyze their feedback, identify questions, research influencers, and create content that resonates with customers. It’s only when you leverage social media to analyze such valuable data about customers, that you can drive customer engagement. Use social media as a medium to engage with prospects and customers. Reinvent your brand’s social media strategy and build curiosity and excite customers.

Social media giant Flipkart makes use of social media to drive engagement in an innovative way. By leveraging the Facebook LIVE platform, Flipkart creates an immense buzz right before the “Big Billion Days” sale, garnering more engagement and attention than ever.

4. Get insight into customer behavior and deliver delight

There are myriad ways in which customers communicate with your brand; through social media, through email, through the retail outlet or even through your online store. By tracking each customer action across multiple channels, you can gain a deeper, more holistic understanding of customer behavior. You can understand the what and why behind their actions, their purchase journey, as well as the impact of your ads and other marketing initiatives. By collecting thousands of data points across the customer journey, you can capitalize on the information to uncovered hidden correlations, proactively understand their needs, and serve them better – thereby improving customer satisfaction.

Johnson & Johnson integrates data from various platforms to deliver customized and engaging content to customers.

5. Never ignore customer feedback

In a world where customers are always online – communicating with friends, playing games, watching movies, buying products – never ignore customer feedback. Taking customer feedback seriously can go a long way; it can help customers feel heard by your brand, feel valued and is also a great way to improve your products and services. Honest customer feedback can be one of the most important drivers for a change in an organization. As Bill Gates says, “your unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning”. So be thankful for customers who complain, for you still have the opportunity to make them happy.

Sports brand Nike takes customer feedback very seriously; through its @NikeSupport Twitter handle, Nike’s dedicated customer service team responds to individual customer questions and queries 24×7 and in 6 different languages – driving engagement in the fastest and best way possible!

6. Personalize communications

With 70% of retailers making customer personalization a priority, it shows how important personalization has become to drive customer engagement. Personalization is about making customers feel valued; it can range from an auto-generated, but genuine, birthday email to an analytics algorithm that suggests products based on preferences. By understanding customer behavior and tailoring messaging around that behavior, you can ensure your customers feel their personal preferences and needs are being taken into account – mandatory for engagement.

Netflix’s recommendation engine is one of the best examples of personalization. By understanding customer preferences through previously watched movies and shows, Netflix curates its recommended feed of TV shows and movies and offers content that best meets the needs of the customers.

Create Exceptional Value

In an always on, always connected world, it is not surprising for customers to expect brands to anticipate and meet their needs in real time. Today, customer experience goes beyond product purchase and use — it’s about feeling heard, having problems fixed, and having trust in the brand. Since most customers only do business with brands they can trust, driving customer engagement has become imperative to every brand’s success. By interacting with customers and allowing them to share experiences you create for them, you can foster brand growth and loyalty and create exceptional value.

~If you’re not taking care of your customer, your competitor will!

– Bob Hooey, Author

 

Want to drive more engagement for your brand? Write to us at info@lokusdesign.com.