As a small business or emerging startup, one of the biggest challenges you face involves engaging customers and moving them to action. Regardless of the industry you’re in and how confident you are in your products and services, maximizing engagement is no small feat. In order to get you started in the appropriate direction, let’s take a look at some tips that are working for other businesses in 2016.
Launch an Online Community or Group
There are many different benefits to building an online community around your business. These include SEO benefits, the creation of additional equity, increased exposure, and more engagement. It’s this latter benefit that matters the most, though.
Online communities do a great job of bringing your target market together and allowing them to sort through common issues and pain points. This helps establish relationships with individual customers and provides you with invaluable insights into what they need and want moving forward.
Give Customers a Stake in Your Products
What better way to get customers involved than to give them a stake in your products? When customers are involved in part of the process, they tend to pay more attention to what’s going on. They’re also more likely to advocate on behalf of your brand and support it through good and bad times.
One way startups are doing this is by leveraging crowdfunding to raise money for charitable causes or fund new products. When a customer gives money to support something your business is doing, they automatically feel like a part of the launch or execution. It ties them to your business in a way nothing else can.
Master the Art of Social Media
No tool is better equipped to facilitate engagement between customers and brands than social media. However, you can’t just create profiles and then sit back and watch. The key is to master the art of social media through clear and frequent communication.
When followers comment on posts, send messages, or tag your brand in a post, reciprocate the communication. No comment or message should go unnoticed. By regularly communicating with customers, you can establish your brand as highly engaged and customer-centric.
Co-Create with Your Customers
Have you ever considered co-creating with your customers? Your target market includes people with all sorts of talents and specialties. By reaching out to your customers and asking them to help you with your next e-book, website redesign, logo creation, or product development, you can gain some calculated direction and simultaneously involve them in key decisions.
Starbucks provides us with a great example of what this looks like in practice. In 2014, Starbucks launched a contest where they asked customers to draw on their cups and then upload their designs to social media for a chance to have their design featured on the next line of cups. It was a huge success and encouraged a lot of additional engagement.
Humanize Your Brand
Finally, don’t be afraid to humanize your brand. In 2016, one of the best ways to do this is by putting members of your brand in front of the camera. Whether it’s a weekly webinar, occasional YouTube video, or regular Periscope shows, video does a tremendous job of bringing life to your brand, regardless of where customers are.
Never Stop Innovating
The key to engaging your target market is to never stop innovating. Not only should you be innovating your products to meet the needs of your customers, but you also must innovate your communications and branding strategies to engage your target market and satisfy their evolving demands.
Consider the tips mentioned in this article and look for additional opportunities to put your brand in front of the right people.
