How to Make a Customer Engagement Strategy

March 6, 2023

Guide: Customer Engagement Strategy

In the digital age, customers are not merely on the receiving end of advertising; they use digital tools to connect with each other and share insights about brands. This has turned individual customers into well connected networks. Businesses must learn to tap into the power of these networks. This means engaging, empowering and co-creating with your customers beyond the point of purchase to turn them into influencers who can find new business opportunities for you. But to successfully engage your customers, you need to understand how customer behavior has changed recently. We have put together this short guide to help you unlock the full potential of customer networks. In five simple steps, this guide will help you to develop a customer engagement strategy based on your business objectives.

Step 1: Define Your Objective

The first step is to define the objectives that you want to achieve with this customer engagement strategy. These objectives can be defined at two levels: direct and indirect. Direct objectives are the ones that you wish to achieve directly in your project. Indirect objectives are overarching goals that you are not directly responsible for, but your project will support them.

Step 2: Segment Customers

This step involves selecting the customer segments that you are seeking to target.

Step 3: Select a Strategy

Once you have identified your objectives and customer segments, it’s time to devise your strategy. Here are five strategies that you can employ:

Strategy 1. Become Accessible

The digital business has to be simple, convenient, ubiquitous and flexible. Making your product or service easier to find and avail will create additional value for your customers, ensuring their loyalty. Here are some ways in which you can make your business more accessible:

Use mobile payment systems;
Give customers an integrated experience across all digital and physical touchpoints;
Move your business to the cloud for greater mobility;
Offer on-demand services to customers anywhere at any time.

Strategy 2. Engage Your Customers

Engage your customers with content that is valuable for them. When customers believe in your content’s value proposition, they will seek it out, consume it and share it within their networks. Here are some examples of valuable content:

Create product demos that demonstrate the value proposition of your product in a convincing and engaging way;
Create an emotionally compelling story that is less product-specific;
Create useful content;
Become publishers of niche content.

Strategy 3. Customize Customer Experience

Make your offering adaptable to your customer’s needs by either personalizing it on their behalf or empowering them to personalize it on their own. You can personalize your offering in the following ways:

Offer recommendations to help viewers find what to watch from a large body of content;
Personalize interfaces;
Offer customized products and services;
Personalize messages and content.

Strategy 4. Connect With Your Customers

Focus on the social media your customers use and engage in conversation to solve problems, learn about your market and become closer to your customers. Try the following:

Listen to your customers’ conversations on social media for market insights;
Offer customer service on social media;
Join the conversation regarding your offerings on social media;
Ask your customers for ideas and content;
Host your own online community around a shared topic of interest.

Strategy 5. Collaborate With Your Customers

Invite your customers to work with you towards a shared goal or objective using an open platform. The key to success with this strategy is to:

Understand the motivations of your contributors;
Give them a stake so they don’t feel exploited
Allow participants to contribute at their own level of expertise;
Offer enough freedom for new ideas while providing enough guidance to keep things on track.

The collaboration can take the following forms:

Use an activity that your customers are already doing to power a collective project;
Invite customers to contribute directly towards a cause;
Seek active contribution from collaborators who are invested in your project;
If you are unable to find a solution to a problem, you can turn into an open competition to find the best solution;
Instead of defining the next problem, you can provide a structure on which others can build by creating an open platform.

Step 4: Generate Concept(s)

Start generating ideas based on the objectives, customer segments and strategies you have selected. Stay focused on the value you will generate for the customer with your idea.

Step 5: Defining Impact

Articulate a measurable benefit to your company and how your strategy will help achieve those objectives.

Conclusion

To thrive in the digital age, you must see your customers as a network that you can tap into to harness its power. Croyten’s Digital Marketing Services can help you unlock the full potential of your customer networks.