by Kingsley Emezie | Copywriter | Lead Generation Expert | www.ckmdigitalmarketing.com

Customer engagement in 2022 has become widely popular thanks to the endless marketing content put out daily by various businesses to capture our attention.

As the customer attention span continues to plummet, customers are more distracted now more than ever. 

A recent study reveals customer attention to be 8 seconds and it is expected to decrease in the future. 

This means you have just 8 seconds to hold a customer’s attention in a busy, noisy, marketplace. 

Sharing useful content and interacting with your customers still remains the most effective engagement strategy. 

So, how do you go about converting customers in a world changing at a rapid rate?

In this post, you will learn how to use content marketing to create ‘customer engagement’ and drive more sales.

What is customer engagement?

Customer engagement is the process of interaction between a business and a customer. 

These interactions are done via multiple channels to help strengthen customer relationships, improve brand awareness, make more sales, and enhance customer perception. 

Customer engagement is the opposite of advertising which makes it more effective and trustworthy. 

Thanks to the internet, there are no barriers of entry and no barriers of reach. You can reach and connect with your customers globally in little time. 

Here are 7 benefits of customer engagement

• Brand Perception 
• Brand Awareness
• Customer Loyalty
• Building Trust
• Retaining Customers 
• More Sales
• Effective Marketing Strategy

Brand Perception

Perception is reality. A customer’s opinion of your brand determines your success in the marketplace today. 

One bad review can tarnish the image of your brand and affect sales in a significant way. The customers have more power now than ever before and you can use it to your advantage.

Here’s how: 

Create a friendly, engaging community by sharing content your customers find useful. 

It could be behind the scene photos, company announcements, helpful tips, brand mission and goals, customer feedback and suggestions. 

The idea is to spark a conversation, make them know you value their input. This creates an engaging welcoming environment. 

Brand Awareness

Imagine posting a content that gets shared by thousands of people. If you post useful content, there is no limit to who can see your content thereby increasing your awareness.

This could be podcasts, videos, blogs, social media posts, whitepapers, newsletters. (These are just a few of the various content marketing channels to consider).

For example, a short 5 minutes youtube video explaining a complex topic or sharing an announcement could reach millions of people globally which increases your brand awareness significantly. 

Customer Loyalty

When you engage customers, you draw them closer to your business and that’s when the magic happens (forbes).

Customer engagement helps retain customers and enhance loyalty. A recent study shows that 61% of purchase was a direct result of customers reading a blog. 

When you provide your customers with industry insights, expert tips, they view you as the authority of your industry and will remain loyal customers because you provide them useful information they can’t find elsewhere. 

Building Trust

Customer engagement helps build trust between the customer and the business. This could be retweeting customer feedback, asking questions, and creating social interactions. 

Most importantly, engaging with your customers helps create a human feeling. When customers feel like they are communicating with a human and not just a business, trust is built.

Retaining Customers

There is no doubt customer engagement can help you retain current customers because it provides the best customer experience. 

As a business, you want to collect as much data as possible to from your customers. This will help you create better products tailored for them. 

You can do that by asking questions, getting feedback, analysing the feedback and providing valuable solutions. 

Listen to what your customers are saying, provide specific information, create content that will be shared. It could be educational content, funny content, quizzes, surveys, etc. 

Remember, get as much data as you can to provide better service.

More Sales

One thing is for sure, content marketing brings in more leads than traditional marketing. There is no high pressure or manipulation.

Customer engagement is all about creating useful content that potential and current customers will benefit from. 

I’m sure you will agree that, when a customer gets useful, free content from you, selling becomes easier. 

In fact, a recent study reveals that SMBs who practise content marketing tend to bring in more leads 126% than those who don’t.

Never forget: More leads equals more enquiries, and more enquiries lead to more sales. 

Effective Marketing Strategy

In today’s competitive marketplace, having an effective marketing strategy makes the difference. 

There’s no other way to develop an effective marketing strategy if not through customer engagement. 

Customer engagement gives you first hand information about your customers.

You can extract vital information like best time to share content, best products, feedback on current products. 

You can also encourage customers to share their experience using your product, start a hashtag movement and create social interaction. The insights you gather will improve your marketing strategy. 

Conclusion

Customer engagement should be fun and creative. It is a social interaction that gives a human feeling to the customer which helps to enhance purchase decisions.

By implementing customer engagement into your brand strategy you can significantly boost your company reputation and sales.

Are you struggling with content creation? 

Do you find it hard to keep up with useful content? 

What is your biggest challenge? 

Drop a comment in the section below and I will respond to you.

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