Engagement Marketing
Engagement Marketing consists of connecting with people through interest-based interactions that occur along the buying journey. The Engagement Marketing approach takes into account customer touchpoints and context to develop meaningful conversations with them over time. This helps acquire, nurture, and convert customers through omnichannel technology-based interfaces.
Engagement is what ultimately drives customers to buy, and it’s what pushes them along the Customer Journey. Engagement Marketing is about connecting with people. Engagement Marketing is about creating meaningful interactions with people; it’s based on who they are, what they do, and what their interests are. It is a structured approach that can be supported by technology but must be continuously maintained over a period of time to bear fruit.
Engagement Marketing is about connecting with people in the following way:
As individuals: where customers can be progressively profiled and content can be personalized.
Based on what they do: in environments where interactions can be tracked.
Continuously over time: developing and scheduling valuable content that nurtures prospects to increase their level of interest and readiness to buy.
Wherever they are: this strategy includes an omnichannel reach to align with their interests.
Always goal-oriented: ensuring that prospects receive proper follow-up throughout the different phases of the Customer Journey.
With measurable impact: this is where Marketing Intelligence provides metrics that can help evaluate the effectiveness of a given strategy.
An Engagement Marketing approach bases communication on behavior rather than demographics; behavior reveals what really matters to customers.
To participate at this level, technology is needed that can continuously collect and compile valuable data, and then target buyers on their own terms—that is, when and how they prefer to be contacted, in relation to a topic of great relevance to them.
In addition, the Engagement Marketing approach requires developing a consistent experience for customers, one that recognizes the nuances of individual channels but still delivers a unified message. To make the shift from individual communications—and do it well—you need a platform specifically designed to drive engagement across your website, tablets, smartphones, email, social media, events, and more. In other words, technology can help drive multichannel or multi-touchpoint engagement.
An effective Engagement Marketing strategy is one that feels like a natural continuation of a conversation with your customers. The more time you spend in conversation, the more you will learn about your customers, and the deeper your relationships can grow.
Why are successful companies successful?
Success can be defined in different ways; it is an intricate concept with several layers, as it is tied both to context and to time. If you were to ask the markets what success is, you would get a specific answer related to the satisfaction of their needs. If you were to ask companies the same question, you would most likely get a goal-oriented answer.
Companies exist because of the market, which is why they complement each other. The more aligned they are, the greater their chances of growth. The most successful companies succeed because they excel at every stage of the Customer Journey:
Acquiring new buyers
Growing each customer’s lifetime value (LTV)
Turning customers into ambassadors
Fueling the Customer Journey with engagement
Needs, wants, and interests motivate customers to buy. They spark a race with no definite finish line. Companies must keep this in mind, because every time a customer ends up choosing their products or services, they have had to rule out a number of providers and offers. This means each purchase should be considered a victory—one that must be repeated over and over to achieve growth.
Customers begin their journey guided by their intuition, which is why they are willing to receive guidance and follow instructions along the way. For example, when they are looking for a particular style, they will go where they find an echo of what they have in mind. When they seek a particular quality standard, they will look where they have seen an indication of it.
The possibilities for interaction increase when buyers encounter a provider that offers them options and information to help determine or configure what they are looking for.
“Engagement is what ultimately drives customers to buy, and that is what drives the Customer Journey.”
That much-needed guidance and direction are what give rise to participation. Marketers play a strategic role in the Customer Journey because they can define which strategies to implement to interact with customers. On the other hand, engagement is what ultimately drives customers to buy, and that is what drives the Customer Journey.
¿What do you need to develop engagement strategies
When trying to define the Customer Journey, touchpoints must be considered, as this allows companies to establish the type of engagement needed along the way.
In addition to identifying touchpoints, different aspects of the customer’s context must be taken into account to develop the right engagement strategies. Use the following facts as starting points to create content that can drive engagement with customers who:
May not yet have discovered their needs
May be reluctant to acknowledge their needs
Don’t know how the solutions you offer can solve their problems
Don’t feel urgency to buy
Need to know where to find your product
Want to make sure they are making the right decision
Want to belong or have a sense of identity, and your product can help
Want to support or contribute to causes you both care about
Are looking to reach new heights, and your products can help with that
Want to provide feedback or file a complaint
Are willing to recommend your products or services
Want to tell you how to improve your products
Want to show the world how they used your products
Once a potential customer becomes a customer, the new goal is to build a long-term relationship with them, ensuring that you, as the provider, get maximum value from your customers, and that they, as your customers, get maximum value from your offerings in return. At every stage of the Customer Journey, from acquisition to advocacy, the goal will be to move those buyers to the next stage. And to do this, you need a clear understanding of that journey and a clear Call To Action throughout your marketing.
Marketing is increasingly the function responsible for driving customer engagement and, therefore, profits. Companies report achieving greater return on investment by focusing on engagement rather than acquisition.
Loyal customers are positioned to become brand advocates, helping you generate new business. That’s why engaging with customers throughout their lifecycle is not just about individual value—it’s also about the value of their networks.
For the entire organization to participate in an Engagement Marketing strategy, technology is needed to link marketing activities with profits.
Measuring is about IMPROVING, not just proving it
If you can’t know what’s working today or what worked last year, how can you develop a strategy for the next quarter?
With Marketing Intelligence, this can be achieved with greater impact, faster, and more efficiently—creating the assets that make up a given program: emails, websites, forms, segmentation, workflows, etc.—all easy to replicate and complete. By using an integrated solution, these often tedious tasks can be completed in minutes, leaving you free to focus on what matters most: engaging with buyers.