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15 Customer Engagement Strategies That Increase Conversions

As the social media technology has risen, customers have become more robust than ever!

They can access information anytime from any place and make their decision more independently than it was before the days of the internet. Hence, the business’s are now striving to keep up with this super fast customer base.

In order to have customers onboard, engaging the customers with the business is now one of the primary concerns. People are quicker and smarter in these days thanks to the growth of social media.

So to convert the audience’s into customers, business are forming different customer engagement strategies every moment!

In this post, I have discussed 15 of those unique customer engagement strategies that have proven to increase conversion for others. Here is the list:

Ultimate list of customer engagement strategies that affect your conversion

1.Surprise the customers

Surprising means making your client feeling special 🙂

Something which they did not expect and you delivered. Here are some simple ways to surprise customers-

  • Personalized emails and phone call to welcome the visitors
  • Gifts such as E-books, journals, checklist, tips, advice and counseling’s
  • Continuity programs with free durations

Now how do you set this up?

You can use pop-ups that deliver personalized messages to the visiting customer.

Screenshot_13

A well-crafted pop-up triggers the customer to take action more promptly.

The surprising element works like a magnet that draws that visitor to your conversion funnel. It is one of the most effective customer engagement strategies that work for a lot of websites. However, using the right popup builder is necessary to achieve the maximum results.

2.Crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing is a very traditional way of customer engagement.

Crowdsourcing is about acquiring data from multiple sources both internally and externally. The purpose of this is to develop a solution for different issues and tasks.

So here are few examples of how to do it-

  • Arrange to vote on your website and make the visitors participate
  • Arrange surveys that relates to the interest of your visitors
  • Ask for a solution. Share your product development strategy publicly and request tips from the crowd
  • Make the process lengthy. Keep the campaigns live for a duration of a week, month or quarter.

It makes your customers feel STRONG and SMART. Eventually, when you invite them to your sales funnel by email subscription or beta signup the customers proceed. Thus, it’s one of the proven customer engagement strategies you can apply anytime.

3.Making the customers happy

One happy customer can bring a bunch of more customers!

According to a survey by White House Office of Consumer Affair, a happy customer shares her experience with at least 4 to 6 people. Happy customers increase your conversion by a significant amount and is a must follow practice for all business.

Some of the easiest ways to make customers happy are-

  • Respect your customer regardless of their geo, background, culture or language.
  • Hear out your customer first and then talk
  • Communicate professionally and make the customer feel like a partner
  • Be transparent and show yourself. Do not hide in the shadows.
  • Create offers that will make them benefited and save some money

Look at the following example-

customer engagement strategy _Making customers happy

 

There is nothing fancy here but the tweet is just awesome. Focused on the benefits brilliantly. This is a great example of engagement tactics that can make customers smile.

When customers are happy, they are more likely to walk in to your conversion funnel. Research states that overuse of conversion optimization techniques annoys the customers more.

Rather being a super marketer just be the best friend of your customer. That works more in increasing conversion rate. Making customers happy is one of the easiest customer engagement strategies you can apply anytime.

4.Provide real time benefits to customers

Never let your customers go empty handed.

The average landing page conversion rate is 2.35%. So you understand that a significant portion of your customers backs off before entering into a sales funnel.

So to maximize the conversion rate, you must target the 100% traffic volume and make sure everyone is getting something out of their visit to your site.

Now here are few examples of what you can do

  • Use pop-ups to thank the visitor for their visit. Sometimes a thank you is worth of a million.
  • Track the navigation of the visitor and show them contents according to their navigation.
  • Offer FREE e-books, checklist, and tips for the visitors. Make them feel that their visit to the site was worth of

Have a look at the following example-

Provide real time benefits

This offer is posted on mytrafficresearch by one of the best SEO guys I know which is Eric Lancheres! I came across this offer first on Facebook and when I landed on this page I saw the full video! The entire time I spent on the site was educative and I was thankful to Eric for this brilliant effort.

Most of the people will ignore all your offers and approach. But the few who would notice will return to your site and are more likely to convert. Just like I return to mytrafficresearch daily 🙂 Real time help to visitors are always one of the best customer engagement strategies to adopt.

5.Be social with the customers

The social networks are the online society at present

According to CNN, teens spend 9 hours a day on social media. Furthermore, according to AdWeek adults spend around 28% of their time on social media.

So it’s evident that social media is the key to engaging more of your customers with you. Here are some ways which you can apply-

  • Choose the right social media. There are 100s of social media sites online which got lot of users, and you got to choose the right platform that suits your business
  • Monitor social media mentions and get back to them with a big thanks even if its criticism.
  • Share your customer’s voice. Let the world hear them and make them feel like a celebrity.

 

Interacting with the audience on social media platforms is one of the most followed customer engagement strategies in the industry.

Alone Facebook has a conversion rate of 1.85% according to shopify. Hence, to get more sales out of the social media, it’s a must to be active on the main social media platforms.

6.Be human and not a ROBOT

Let me be honest, I am a fan of bots and love them!

But, this is not one of those customer engagement strategies that can drive conversion.

From my point of view, I don’t feel special at all when I get an auto response on FB, Twitter or any other network.

Auto responders are generic and meant for everyone! As a customer, if I don’t feel special I lose my focus. That’s where I start going away from the conversion funnel.

You may be asking that is it possible to be manual all the time on social networks?

The answer is NO! It is not unless you have a 24/7 standby team to take care of it which is relatively expensive.

So the possible way around would be-

  • Put a notice of availability. Let the customers know the time frame when you will be available.
  • Compose some templates that can be copied and send immediately
  • Before you go offline, put a notice on board and ask the customers to drop their messages. Give them an exact time by which you will get back to them.

Being personal and REAL with the audience is one of the best customer engagement strategies for higher conversion.

7.Make your post’s edgy

Your posts on the social media may draw a lot of likes or shares.

You may be getting a good amount of referral traffic as well, and your Avg page session is healthy too.

But what if the conversion rate is low? All your efforts are for a particular goal, and that is getting customers!

So how do you fill up this gap?

Some useful methods are-

  • Make your post title interesting enough. Not generic for all.
  • Use image that catches the attention of the user and stops them from scrolling over
  • Use URL shortens and use a LANDING PAGE that will acquire the traffic.
  • Make your landing page exclusive that only reflects that particular posts message
  • Use different version for various social networks

When users see a post on the social network, the likelihood of clicking and redirecting to a website is little. Most of the users just scroll down and move ahead.

If the posts are good, you may get a share or like. However, to expect conversion, your post must fulfill the points mentioned above.

Here is an example-

customer engagement strategy _Make your posts edgy

 

The post focuses on CRM users and uses a custom URL shortener. When I clicked on it I landed on the following page-

customer engagement strategy _Make your posts edgy

As you can see, this is a clean landing page with a specific goal and an exclusive offer that totally reflects the post on Facebook. Users having interest on CRM are more likely to sign up here and enter into the conversion funnel.

Customer engagement strategies will differ according to platforms and your plans. Whatever plan you implement should be based on the user’s background and interest of that respective platform. So you need to identify what can make the users feel the explosion to run towards your offer 🙂

8.Q&A session on networks

Most of the business makes a mess of it while it’s one of the most effective customer engagement strategies out there!

So how do you do it?

Implementing a Q&A session on social media that can convert is tricky. Here is how you can do it-

First step:

  • Identify the interest of the users on your network
  • Check their BIO and see what they are interested about
  • Check the pages, posts and contents most of the users one your network are liking

Second Step:

  • Create a Q&A session like AMA and make an announcement before it starts
  • Have someone expert to be live during the session and answer queries of the users as a HOST
  • Let the users discuss amongst them and motivate them to Answer and ASK
  • Make sure your Q&A session aligns with your users and your conversion goal

One of the best examples of Q&A session is inbound.org where the AMAs generate high engagement.

Q&A session on social networks

Most of the companies which participate in it get an explosive exposure in the community, and I am sure it affects their conversion rate as well.

9.Handle negative feedback’s

Social media is the world within the world

People on social media are their own boss. Nobody controls them and neither can! So always expect replies, feedback’s, and opinions that can hurt you:)

Once you take it personally, you will be on the losing side. So the first rule of handling negative feedback’s is to think as a customer, not as a business.

So here are few reminders for you-

  • Respond ASAP and no matter how aggressive the expression is. If you avoid, that will be SUICIDE!
  • Be patient and don’t rush to answer. The adrenaline while responding to a negative expression could be harmful. Take time, think and then respond
  • Check the profile of the annoyed user before responding. See if you can find out anything that can be used in your response
  • Contact the user privately. Send a personalized message explaining the situation to user
  • Start your message with an apology and end it by a solution offered

People are more hostile on social media than in real life. It gives people a virtual reality where they can say, express and do almost anything. So it’s wiser to be prepared for it and always expecting it. You can’t keep everyone happy or make everyone smile.

Users who are dissatisfied are your tools to find out your lacking. So take the negative expressions as FREE audit to your service 🙂

Here is an example from social media examiner-

customer engagement strategy _negetive feedback

Nothing extravagant, just straight forward answer ON TIME and POLITELY. No matter how disappointed the customer is an apology on time with politeness does magic 🙂

Nevertheless, handling annoyed users is an art and doing it in the right way is one of the best customer engagement strategies you cause daily. An annoyed user can become a paid customer if you can handle it properly.

Moreover, when the other visitors see how you are treating people they gain trust and follow you. This makes your image clean and gets the visitors mentally ready to convert on your site.

10.Hold on to your reputation

Your reputation is the fuel to your sales engine that runs conversion

Customers either B2B or B2C are skeptical. They have one thing in common which is they always think that a business only thinks about money. A company only wants to sell and take money from them.

However, brands like Microsoft, Apple, and Field Nation are looked in a different way.

Why?

Because of their GOD DAM reputation which these great companies have earned over the years! People even don’t think before buying services from these enterprises. They wait eagerly for their upcoming offers and technology!

So do you copy them and try to do the same?

NO! Cause you can’t be the next of any of these companies. But you can be first of YOU!

Here are few tips you can use-

  • Search about your brand on social networks. See how you appear organically
  • Share your personal bio. Your story to growth and what made you become who you are
  • Help people in your network. Don’t just keep promoting yourself. Share information that can help your audience
  • Answer questions none commercially. If someone is asking about your service, don’t try to sell them. Just let them know the benefits of your service

Reputation management has a drastic impact on social media conversion. If you have the trust factor in the community people will listen to you and follow your direction.

11.Engage with other communities

As a brand, expanding your name in multiple communities is one of the best customer engagement strategies.

It helps you to reach more and more people on social media and to grow your reputation. For example, here is what I did-

customer engagement strategy _Engage with other communities

What happened here is I got the opportunity to post different contents on each of these group, talk with the users and share my knowledge in the community. As a result, I got a lot of traffics which eventually converted on my site.

Moreover, I also share a good relationship with the admins of these groups and help them to promote their group as well.

You can do the same on LinkedIn and Twitter. The purpose of this is to spread your brand’s name and create opportunities that can draw relevant traffic to your page.

12.Create your own group or community

When you are working on others community or platforms, you always have restrictions, rules, and limits.

It’s obvious that admins won’t allow you to draw benefits from their platform without benefiting them first.

So if you have your own group on social networks, to work with that will be a huge advantage!

But first, you need to make sure that your group is related to your brand’s niche and acquires members from the same background.

Here are few tips you can use-

  • Avoid spamming! Do not create fake accounts to connect with people and invite them. That creates a bad reputation which you wouldn’t like.
  • Connect with the members of other group admins and seek their help. If you are contributing on groups and then asking the admins to help you with getting members that will work.
  • Don’t give up! If you are going organically, you will find the member’s growth number is small. But you got to keep going and spend time there.
  • Ask your colleagues to use their personal accounts to post on the group and share.
  • Take at least couple of months before you even plan to promote your product. Let the group grow and let the people get engaged. Keep adding valuable information on the group.

Here is what my group looks on Facebook-

customer engagement strategy _Engage with other communities

I don’t get thousands of traffic from my group. But I do get some visitors who goes through the conversion funnel. A social network group won’t skyrocket your conversion rate.

However, it can add some numbers to your conversion rate 🙂

13.Arrange webinars for the customers

A webinar is a workshop, lecture or seminar that is broadcasted on the web using video conferencing applications. Webinars are one of the most popular customer engagement strategies used by most of the brands in the world right now.

However, few tips before you use this approach are as following-

  • Select a topic on which the webinar will cover. The topic must include the TRENDING interest amongst your customers.
  • The webinar should have a host and guest along with you. That makes it smarter and compelling to the customers.
  • Try to get guest speakers on your webinar who are thought leaders and renowned
  • Add additional materials like a surmised checklist of the workshop or tips
  • Let the customers ask questions during the webinar and let them participate

I will put Jon Loomer ahead of others as far as webinar conversion is concerned. I came across one of his webinar landing pages on a post from wishpond and found it to be a perfect example.

webinar pages

 

14.Personalized engagement

Your customers may be from different parts of the world with a different level of interest.

For example, your customers can be from Europe, North America, and South Asia. Now, these three continents got people of entirely different enthusiasm, culture, and language!

So if your money site shows all of them the same thing that’s not going to help your conversion.

So what are the customer engagement strategies you apply to solve this? Here are few tips-

  • Use GEOIP lookup, content and content profiling and marketing automation tools
  • Track the location of the visitor and present contents on the website according to the language of the visitor’s location.
  • Present offers, products, and contents that have previously attracted first-time visitors on your website

Sounds bit complicated? It is not if you use the right tool. My personal recommendation is Sitecore!

customer engagement strategy _Personalized engagement

This is one of the best personalized customer engagement platforms I came across so far. It’s easy to use interface, and super dynamic features make it a viable option to implement your customer engagement strategies.

15. Be creative in your approach

To ensure engagement with the customer you got too steep up in front of them. One of the most important ways to be a stand out entity in front of your customers is creativity.

Your creativity will depend on three things. Time, talent and resource! The combination and availability of this three elements make it easier to be creative 🙂

Final Thoughts:

Customer engagement is the key to conversion. No matter how good your offers are or how deeply it can benefit the customers you have to instigate the customer and make your home in his brain. The only way you can do it is making your customer engage with you by effective techniques and including it with your marketing strategy.

This post is all about helping you to get a grip on these customer engagement strategies. Do share your thoughts on the techniques explained on the comment box.

Related articles: customer retention strategiesmarketing stagesUX tipsinfluencer marketingviral marketing techniques

Comments (2)

  1. Really great article for your website regarding complete SEO i.e. user engagement strategies.thanks for sharing such a valuable content

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