When you’re working on your marketing strategies, one thing you probably keep reading about is engagement—customer engagement, brand engagement, how to get people to engage with your business, and more. By now, you probably know that getting people to engage with your brand online is an important part of your marketing strategy, but you may not know how to do it, or the best ways to do it. There are a handful of different ways to get people to engage with you online, but some of them are easier and more effective than others. For instance, people might not be compelled to sign up for a commenting platform and leave a reply on a blog you post, but if you post a poll on Facebook and ask for their opinion, they might give their two cents—simply because they’re already logged in and it’s right there.
Today, let’s check out some of the different and most effective ways to get readers and visitors to engage with you and your brand.
Introduce Yourself When You Get New Followers
As a thought leader, it benefits you to connect individually with followers if you can. When you get new followers on Twitter, for instance, you can send them a quick tweet thanking them for the follow and perhaps including a link to one of your best-read articles. Introduce yourself and introduce them to what your brand is all about. This, of course, is most ideal when your small business is growing slowly but steadily. Once you’ve reached the “dozens of new followers a day” level of growth, you may not have the time to do this. But while you can, it’s a great way to build brand trust and engagement—people know they’re dealing with a real person behind the screen.
Treat Your Social Media Posts Like a Conversation Starter
While simply sharing links to your content might seem like the quickest and best way to distribute important information you’re publishing, it can read as very spammy and even desperate to your followers and fans. No one likes to be talked at—that’s why it’s important to treat your posts on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms like they’re a conversation. You start the conversation, saying a little bit about why you’re posting whatever you’re posting, then ask for feedback. It’s also essential to resist the temptation to only post your own links. People come to you to learn more about your industry and important news within it, not just about your company.
Post content from your industry colleagues, and sometimes, don’t post links at all—sometimes it’s okay to just post to your followers that video of kittens who have a hard time jumping. Not everything on your social media has to be business-related. In fact, posting some light-hearted content is a great way to make and keep your brand relatable and approachable.
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Don’t Send “No-Direction” Emails to Large Swaths of People
One thing that will kill engagement is making your readers feel like they’re being advertised to. A surefire way of doing this is sending out emails that aren’t categorized specifically to be useful to the groups they’re going to. For instance, you don’t want to be sending “10% off your first purchase” promotions to people who have already made their first purchase, nor do you want to send emails too often that aren’t valuable. For example, twice weekly emails listing a recap of your tweets or links to posts you’ve published are going to make people hit the “unsubscribe” button really quickly. Make sure that the email blasts you are sending make sense to those who get them. Parse your email lists to ensure that the right people are getting the right messages from your brand. Knowing that they’re more than just a number to you will help boost your customers’ loyalty.
Include Author Bios on Your Blog Posts
Another way to boost engagement is to put faces to names and content on your site. When your visitors know—as previously mentioned—that there’s an actual person behind the screen at your company, your business becomes more relatable, more humanized. When your readers start to get to know the faces at your company, they start to feel more friendly or loyal toward the business, since it’s not just faceless content they’re reading.
Respond to All Customer Feedback, Not Just Negative
It can be tempting to only address your customers when they’re upset, and of course you should do that. When customers have negative feedback, a complaint, or a problem with your product or service, you absolutely need to get in touch and resolve the problem—that’s just part of being a good business. However, it’s also really important to engage with your customers when something good happens. Sometimes, people will write to you, either in email or on your social profiles, that they had a good experience with your product or staff. When that happens, make sure to address it—praise should always be acknowledged!
Hold a Contest or Offer Incentives to Engage
You don’t have to be giving away huge prizes in order to get people to engage with your brand, but contests can be a great way to get people participating on your page. Invite readers or followers to share a personal anecdote or relevant photo (for instance, if you’re a dog walker, ask for picture of your customers’ pets in costume), and whichever photo or story gets the most likes (or wins otherwise, based on your company’s internal decision making process) can receive something small—a free t-shirt, a week of free service, etc. It’s a great way to get people to engage with your page in a lighthearted, yet good-for-business way.
These are just a few of the ways that you can get people to engage in a more meaningful way with your brand. If you want to learn more about ways you can strengthen your brand and create better engagement among customers, contact Clickx today—we’re ready to help you build the best business you can be.
