Before we discuss the customer engagement tools you need to drive your business goals forward, it’s...
What exactly is customer engagement? In short, it’s the way you interact with your customers in meaningful ways. Just as personal relationships make up the network in a community, customer relationships are your business network. By investing in consumer engagement, you are nurturing these important relationships.
But why is customer engagement and loyalty so important for brands?
Well, according to Gallup, successfully engaged customers represent an average 23% premium in share of wallet, profitability, revenue, and relationship growth compared to average customers. Your most engaged customers sustain and grow your business. Customers you connect with in personal, relevant ways will keep returning and stay away from competitors. So, keeping consumers engaged will facilitate a thriving organization.
Furthermore, a revenue-driving customer engagement strategy will benefit from a powerful, data-driven consumer engagement and activation platform. The right customer engagement platform will:
- Drive repeat customer visits
- Improve customer satisfaction
- Increase revenue
- And much more!
Now that we know the importance of consumer engagement and the benefits of an engagement and activation platform; let’s discuss how to leverage this technology to create effective engagement campaigns. In a well-rounded consumer engagement strategy, it’s more important than ever to harness digital solutions to engage consumers. Before wasting precious ad dollars to promote your campaign, let’s ensure it is positioned for success. We’ll do this by uncovering specific digital solutions marketers can use to enable a successful engagement campaign. Here are 4 creative ways to master consumer engagement:
Contests/Sweepstakes
Sweepstakes, giveaways, and contests are a popular marketing tactic for engaging audiences and winning new business. By tapping into the desire for free stuff, brands can boost their visibility without breaking their advertising budgets. They encourage consumer engagement, and help marketers looking to gain measurable exposure at a lower costs than traditional social media marketing efforts. Digital technology has further enabled the deployment of contests, by incorporating instant rewards such as eGift cards, coupons, and more. Brands no longer have to worry about printing or shipping costs. Instead, they can give a consumer instant access to the reward. Plus, instant rewards make it quick and easy to drive data capture unlike traditional mail-in contests and sweepstakes.
If you’re in a marketing function, why not consider running your next program through online channels as accessibility and ease of entry makes digital programs much more attractive to the end consumer, and makes engagement more likely.
For more information on creating engaging contests/sweepstakes see: How to Create a Viral Contest (in 10 Days or Less)
Engagement and Gamification
Recently, we spoke about how intrinsic and extrinsic motivation impacts consumer behaviours, and how gamification can help us power those experiences. In marketing, it is possible to master consumer engagement by leveraging gamified elements. For instance, many brands are successfully adding engagement mechanics such as: flick, tap, swipe, listen, and more to captivate audiences. These unique digital elements deliver a more immersive experience for consumers to engage with. They drive consumers to action, and build long-lasting engagements. Play the video below to see how brands are harnessing engagement mechanics to create multifaceted engagement campaigns:
Digital Incentives
By offering rewards or incentives in exchange for customer information, you can acquire new data about your customers, and also activate passive consumers. Digital incentives are a great way for brands to create real-time engagements with your consumers. The ability to deliver rewards instantly is a great way for businesses to motivate consumers to engage with them. The promise of a reward for completing a digital interaction is attractive to the majority of consumers today. Plus, instant prizing gives consumers an immediate spike of serotonin that makes them feel good about engaging with you. Even if the instant prize is a small $5 voucher, you’ll see an increase in engagement.
PIN Codes
We’ve talked about PIN codes or pin-on-pack promotions, and their benefits previously. Pin-on-pack is the process of printing and placing a pin code or any other unique identifier, such as a QR Code, on a consumer product. This code functions as an activation point for customers to participate in a particular marketing promotion. For example, Dr. Oetker used “pin-on-pack” promotions for their Find Giuseppe campaign. When customers purchase a pizza or panzerotti from Dr. Oetker, they then enter in the activation code for free ballots into a contest. The campaign generated over 80,000 entries and over 120,000 shares across social media in 6 months.
The success of this campaign is important because it utilizes all four of the solutions above: contests/sweepstakes, incentives, gamification, and pin codes. So, if you’re thinking of launching a similar creative campaign for engaging your consumers, be sure to speak to one of our experts.
White Paper: Consumer Engagement Trends Report
Companies are connecting data and content to deliver on the notion of personalization. This report assists brand marketers and agencies looking to engage consumers in the digital-first era. It outlines 10 emerging trends and technologies that marketers need for personalizing communications along the customer journey.
WHAT’S INSIDE:
- The Value of Data-Driven Creatives
- 5G and Mobile-First Marketing
- Leveraging The Internet of Things (IoT)
- Experience-Driven Marketing
- Plus, So Much More!
