The best customer engagement strategies for 2021

Having customers that don’t constantly interact with your brand is similar to not having customers at all. As exciting as it is to hear from your fans regularly, it is a very tricky task to attract and retain their attention. The average consumer is exposed to 18 hours of content daily. Consequentially, people are constantly looking for short form content that is easily digestible. How then can you make use of successful customer engagement strategies to increase brand awareness and customer interaction?

What is customer engagement?

Ways to delight your users and/or customers are always evolving. It is a top prioritized goal for most teams across your business. To put it simply, customer engagement can be identified as the relationship between you and your customers, marked by the touchpoints where both parties intersect and interact. It is an ongoing endeavor. As long as there is a business, there should be customer engagement. This places high value on the relationship and ensures its long-term sustainability.

Customer engagement can be measured in many ways, including:

• Email open rates
• Social media interactions
• Time on site
• Page views
• Brand loyalty increase

It is one of the most strategic ways you can market your brand through your customers. If you ensure a proper customer experience, your customers will do the rest of the work for you by returning to use your services or products again, and by recommending you to their friends. Effective customer engagement strategies make sure to hit on all the proper aspects such as involvement, advocacy, and loyalty.

10 customer engagement strategies for your brand’s future

Here are 10 diverse methods you can start implementing for a more effective customer engagement routine in 2021 to boost sales and foster brand growth:

1) Build better products

The first thing you should focus on is to make sure your product or service is of high standard and meets all customer expectations. That in itself says a lot about the experience you’re providing for your customers. What makes customer engagement successful within the product experience is that you can refine the overall experience with direct communication (in-app or on website, for example) which improves customer engagement.

2) Focus on omnichannel experiences

Omnichannel experiences breaks down the barriers between your product and how you market it so that customers can experience it firsthand. By using several channels to serve your customers, you give them the chance to receive a cohesive experience no matter the channel they are using to interact with you. This is what is called the end-to-end experience.

3) Personalize user experiences

Personalization can go to lengths your customers have never seen before. It goes far beyond first-name greetings nowadays. By customizing the entire experience for your experience based on the data they allow you to receive, you create an ideal fit between them and the product or service they are using. And they will be grateful for it.

4) Show your brand personality

Customers are attracted first to brands that speak their language. Don’t be afraid to show your personality in everything you say or do. This type of branding engages customers on an emotional level, which is the long-lasting effect you really should be seeking. This can become apparent even in the tiniest marketing copy.

5) Offer rewards to customers

Everybody loves a gift. And especially from the brand they love or want to love. Certain incentives such as online competitions, free coupons, or personalized offers will get your customer talking, and producing user-generated content if you call for it – which is one of the most flattering ways of customer engagement. This ensures a stronger connection with your customers who will always have a reason to come back.

6) Connect with customers on social media

There are countless things you can do on social media. From Q&A sessions to getting customer reviews to sharing customer stories. You can even share behind-the-scenes action from inside your brand or come up with fun activities or riddles for your customers to solve. Any well-thought social media post will lead to amazing engagement rates.

7) Improve the in-store experience

While it is true that the digital aspect has taken over entire brands, the in-store experience still matters to most of the customers. If your business has any physical store, you should improve that experience as well. Store visits shape the overall positive review in your customers’ minds. For example, your store can offer points of sale dedicated to “buy online, pick-up in store” transactions. Moreover, stores are where customer interact directly with your employees. Excellent customer service turns any sort of customer into a loyal customer.

8) Be transparent

Going into 2021, the world is still dealing with an ongoing pandemic. 70% of customers, who are eager to return to shopping, expect stores to have a proper policy in place regarding the usage of face masks, hand sanitizers, crowd control, and temperature checks.

9) Invest in community activities

Nothing screams engagement like actual physical activities where brand and customer come together for the same cause. If your store cannot accommodate large gatherings, consider taking your employees to participate in a charity or CSR event and extending the invitation publicly for your loyal customers. They will appreciate a brand that promotes their own personal values.

10) Have clear calls to action

The most important customer engagement strategy is to be straightforward regarding what you want the customer to do. Clear and direct CTAs direct your customers in the correct way, and they will appreciate the easy experience you have created for them and follow through with the process.

CEQUENS can help

Digital age customers are bound to experience the personalized, end-to-end experiences they seek, while businesses can experience a new dimension of availability with CEQUENS Chat*.

Whichever method appeals to you to engage your customers is the one you should follow. We recommend taking a multichannel approach and incorporating several ways. To learn more about the product or how we can help, contact our Sales team.

*Get CEQUENS Chat for 3 free months if you register before January 31, 2021. The offer includes unlimited chat agent seats with no setup fees, in addition to free registration for WhatsApp Business and optional chatbot deployment.