Customer Engagement – What’s Your Marketing Soup of the Day?

Customer engagement is going to be nigh-impossible if nothing about your business (or your website, your social networks, your email newsletter, etc.) ever changes. Here are ten customer engagement marketing ideas to help you capture – and keep – the attention of clients and prospects.

Perpetuate Customer Engagement to Keep People Intrigued Enough to Come Back for More

Your products or services may not change much at all over time, but you still need a way to get the attention of prospects and keep customers interested in your business. Here are ten marketing ideas that can help you renew customer engagement to keep them coming back for more.

In a fast-paced, media-saturated world, connecting with prospects and customers on a regular basis might seem like a daunting challenge. Focus on marketing that stimulates customer engagement, creates interactions and moves people to take action in order to bring add new leads and keep customers coming back to your business or its website, social media pages, email newsletter, etc., for more.

Take restaurants, for example. Most don’t change their menus very often, but by offering a Special or Soup of the Day they lay the foundation for questions, engagement, interaction and repeat customer visits on a regular (and even predictable) basis. The more fun and interesting they make those “of the day” menu items, the more intrigue they create.

Customer Engagement – 10 Ways to Keep People Interested

1. Alter the Offer

The term “Soup of the Day” implies that even if you don’t like today’s choice, you may like tomorrow’s. Assuming that one single new customer offer will work to convert all of the prospects in your target markets is the same as assuming that one single soup will please every restaurant customer. It won’t, and it doesn’t.

Create options for new customer offers that can be rotated in and out daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc. Stick to expiration dates to create a sense of urgency (when the offer is off the table, it stays off). Test alternate versions of the same offer and change up campaign headlines, taglines and display ads.

2. Customize Rewards

Structure your reward program with options that change over time (such as in the previous point) or so that people have a say in what rewards they receive. Solicit input from prospects and customers that reflect your ideal buyer types to see what rewards they would find most attractive – and motivating.

3. Play

Contests, drawings and even games and digital apps can all help to capture the attention of your target audiences and keep it, over time.

4. Adopt a Cause

Marketing is about creating and cultivating relationships. Finding common ground, such as a charitable cause, project or movement that interests your target markets is a great way to lay the foundation for relationships and marketing that includes updates about your efforts.

5. Engage

Videos, comics, graphics, quotes and even jokes can be a great way to capture the attention of your target audiences. Plus, this type of content is highly shareable and could provide you with good reach and virality when incorporated onto your blog and social networks.

6. Use Teasers

Just having a Soup of the Day invites the question: “What is your soup of the day?” When a customer asks a question about your product (offer, reward, etc.), it gives you a golden opportunity to talk about your products or services or even suggest alternatives.

By definition, a marketing “tease” is a short introductory ad for a product or service that (usually) does not mention the name of the thing being advertised. The point of leading with a tease is to get people to ask questions or hang around to find out more.

Incorporate teasers into your marketing and advertising, use them to increase email open rates, get click-throughs to blog and product web pages and to engage on social networks.

7. Free Try-Me’s

Big box retailers have successfully used “try me” and sampling stations for many years. Use mini or sample versions of products and services to get customers to try products or services they don’t usually buy or to attract new customers to your business or website.

8. Demonstrate

In-store demonstrations, webinars, white papers and other how-to’s can be especially effective in helping to move prospects through the buying cycle, especially for big ticket items and other products or services that have a long buying cycle. Demos can help to overcome objections and alleviate fear that a product or service won’t deliver, because people can see for themselves that something works as promised.

9. Host

Whether you are hosting a special interest event that will bring members of target markets into your business or you are hosting live (or virtual) focus groups or round tables, hosting events gives you an opportunity to get people to become more personally interested and invested in your organization as well as the goods your business sells.

10. Ask Questions

Use polls and surveys to solicit valuable feedback, suggestions, ideas and other useful information from your customers and members of your target markets. Incorporating their opinions and ideas into how you run your business in some way, or into the product or service menu of your organization can make people feel personally connected to your brand and even the success of your business.

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