In today's competitive market, having a decent product at the right price often isn't enough to attract and retain customers. What do you need to do to cut through the clutter and drive more sales?
Customers want to feel connected to the brands they purchase from. In fact, a research by Gallup found that a fully-engaged customer generates 23% more revenue than average.
Having a customer engagement strategy allows you to systematically build trust and relationships with your audience so you can progress them down the sales funnel and increase customer retention.
Here are 8 quick wins your sales and marketing team can implement right away to increase engagement and encourage customers to take action:
Email marketing is a great way to re-engage current or lapsed customers and stay top of mind. You can increase the effectiveness of your campaigns by segmenting the email list so you can send the most relevant content and promotions to optimize response rate.
In addition, you can set up behavioral triggers in the email workflows to send follow up content to those who engage with your content and encourage them to take the next step.
When customers click through to your website, they're showing interest in your products or services. By activating automatic notifications, your sales team can see what pages a customer has viewed so they can identify and contact high-quality leads as soon as possible to accelerate them down the sales funnel.
Armed with a customer's browsing history, past purchases, and preferences, your sales reps can tailor the conversation to meaningfully engage the customer and increase conversion.
Studies have shown that live chat on a website can increase conversion rates by as much as 30%. This feature allows you to add a personal touch that will help improve the customer experience and build relationships with your prospects.
Live chat also makes it possible to leverage one-to-one conversational selling at scale to ensure that customers are getting the most relevant and helpful information to make a purchasing decision.
A lead scoring system helps improve collaboration between sales and marketing. Leads are ranked based on a variety of factors, such as prospects' level of interest, their customer lifecycle stages, and whether they're a good fit for your products or services.
Once a lead meets certain criteria, the sales team will be notified so they can contact the prospects right away. By aligning your sales and marketing efforts, you can effectively accelerate your sales cycle and increase conversion rates.
Customers at the bottom of your sales funnel are more ready to convert. By using a well-designed BoFu (bottom of the funnel) offer, you can address common concerns or objections and help prospects make a purchasing decision.
Some of these offers include complimentary assessment or consultation, discount, personalized demo, free trial, and interactive content such as product selector or calculator.
By tracking the web pages customers have visited, you can retarget current customers or prospects with Facebook and Google ads to drive them back to your website.
To optimize the results of your retargeting ads, segment the audience (e.g., by content viewed, customer lifecycle stages, demographic data etc.) so you can deliver the most relevant content and messaging to increase engagement.
When customers share your content with their friends, colleagues, and followers, you'll more likely reach new prospects similar to your existing customers and therefore more likely to engage with your brand.
Include a call-to-action in your content and make it easy for your customers to take action by adding social share buttons on your website and emails. In addition, you can use an affiliate program to drive traffic to gated content so you can track lead generation and conversion.
Customer testimonials allow you to leverage the power of social proof and are found to increase revenues by as much as 62%. When others see that people "just like them" are getting results with your products or services, they're more likely to make a purchase.
Besides written content, you can also use video and audio testimonials to deliver an engaging experience. Post these testimonials on your website, share them on social media, and send them to your email list.
While these quick win tactics are great to help you get the low-hanging fruit and build momentum, it's also important to implement a long-term customer engagement strategy to ensure a consistent flow of business.
By initiating dialogues, adding value, and cultivating relationships, you can improve customer retention and increase customer lifetime value. Looking to obtain valuable strategies to grow your web Traffic, Leads, and Clients? Download our free eBook below!