4 Ways to Improve Customer Engagement Across All Channels

Susan Guillory

January 18, 2019

No matter what industry you’re in, you likely have this problem: capturing your audience’s attention for more than a few seconds. But beyond that, you also want to engage your customers. Get them feeling more invested in your brand.

In an era where consumers are exposed to up to 10,000 brand messages a day, it’s become understandably difficult to elbow in for more than a nanosecond. So, how can you engage your customers no matter what the channel?

The right technology, paired with savvy strategy, is all you need.

1. Start By Dating Your Customers

If you were dating someone new, you would do everything you could to get to know that person. Treat your customers the same. What are their interests? Where do they hang out? What motivates them? What are they looking for?

As you get to know their preferences, record what you learn in CRM software. It’s like your little black book that will help you remember what’s important about each and every customer. Once you have this information, you can deliver exactly the right marketing message that each one wants.

2. Give Them a Little Attention

Consider this bringing a giant bouquet of roses to your date’s door. Pay attention to your customers individually if possible (harder for an e-commerce company with thousands of customers than it is a B2B brand with only a handful of customers).

Share their social media updates and comment on them. Send a personalized email checking in. Call them. When you humanize your brand by interacting with your customers one-on-one, they appreciate it and feel more loyal to you.

This sounds more difficult than it is. There are great MarTech tools that help you schedule or automate social media shares, and with a little customization, you can send “personalized” emails to everyone on your contact list.

3. Create Really Great Content

Your audience is picky about the content they interact with on social media, email, and blogs. That’s why getting to know them is so key: once you understand what drives your audience, you can create content that will ignite them and get them to engage.

A funny or informative post can get comments, shares, and likes. This tells you that it’s working! Pay attention to insights and analytics on your content so that you understand what moves the needle and can do more of it.

4. Keep Paying Attention

Just like your date wants you to hang on his or her every word, so do your customers want your attention. Analytics are your best friend: by constantly staying on top of email click-through or unsubscribe rates, social media engagement, and website traffic, you stay tapped into what’s working in terms of your marketing campaigns. Lather, rinse, repeat…or tweak one thing at a time for better results.

Your customers’ attention is precious. Don’t take it for granted, and never stop trying to provide more reasons to engage with your brand.

Susan Guillory

Susan Guillory is the President of Egg Marketing, a content marketing firm based in San Diego. She’s written several business books, and frequently blogs about small business and marketing on sites including Forbes, AllBusiness, and Cision.