Brand Engagement Strategies

“More than 60% of customers interact through multiple channels, and irrespective of time, place, device, or medium, they expect consistency” (Deloitte Digital). There are two types of brand engagement: internal and external. External is what we will be talking about here between the brand and customers. Brands can engage with their audience in a variety of ways today more than ever. Social media, email marketing, digital advertising, live events, etc. That being said, there is a difference between brand engagement and customer engagement. Brand engagement is focused on pulling consumers to the business whereas customer engagement pushes people toward actions towards a purchase. Brand engagement tends to be on a larger scale than customer engagement as well. Here are strategies to increase customer engagement for your brand.

1. Surveys to improve the brand: people will feel seen and heard. If your brand listens to and implements feedback well, it will develop a good reputation from WOM.

2. Emphasize customer reviews: this is a form of user-generated content and others will trust the brand more if they see good reviews from real people.

3. User-friendly mobile websites, etc.: everyone uses their phone to look up things on the internet in today’s world. Your websites and social sites must be mobile-friendly. Otherwise, their time spent there will be less than limited.

4. Post consistently on social media channels: social media makes the world go ‘round. You have to be consistent with not only posting but also your brand voice. This will engage your customers to like, share, and comment. Integrating your social media channels onto your website can also be great.

5. The Four I Strategy

   1. Involvement: make your customers part of your marketing campaigns

   2. Influence: use influencers or content creators they like to endorse your brand

   3. Interaction: when your customers do interact with your brand, you have to respond to them quickly and personally.

   4. Intimacy: get up close and personal with your audience at different points in their journey on different channels. This will help you further understand their needs.

Brand engagement matters! It can help your brand get its name out there even more through WOM. Aside from this, it can also increase your knowledge of customer expectations so that you’re better equipped to meet them. This will improve overall customer experience and in turn, increase sales to give you a competitive advantage. There are a few ways to measure your engagement strategy efforts: social media engagement, email subscribers and opens, website traffic, and customer feedback. Once you start your strategy it will be important to improve on the areas that are performing low. One great way to do this is to incorporate UGC into your campaigns. The ultimate goal of brand engagement is to cultivate a culture around your brand that bolsters advocacy. If you’re looking to add user-generated content to your marketing campaigns but aren’t sure where to start, contact us to learn more!

Increasing External Brand Engagement with Sourced Content

Let’s talk about why brand engagement even matters but first, it’s important to know that there are two types of brand engagement: internal and external. Internal is that within the company through engaging with employees. External is engagement with the brand audience and what we will focus on in this article. External customer engagement is all about the emotional connection to the brand itself. This helps drive customer loyalty and word of mouth business. And let’s be real, word of mouth business is the best kind of business. People trust the people they know to steer them in the right direction. Brand engagement will also increase overall customer retention and help a brand improve on their products and/or services through getting feedback from their audience. “Literature found that customer-brand engagement exerts significant effect on organizational performance, particularly growth of sales, reductions of cost, products/services development, customer commitment, satisfaction, and loyalty” (Harrigan et al. 2017; Kumar et al. 2010). In an ever-increasing social media space, CBE (customer brand engagement) has never been easier. There are many types of ways to engage consumers with a brand, such as email newsletters, surveys, polls, contests and, most importantly, in-person customer interactions. However, in the digital space, sourced content is one of the most beneficial ways to increase customer engagement. An in depth, scientific study concluded that UGC has, “functional and emotional values (that) exert positive and significant effects on customers’ brand engagement.” But why? Why does this type of content advertising increase engagement between brands and consumers more than traditional advertising? Well, it’s simple really. People trust people. Not logos. “UGC is created by a fellow consumer for their friends and online followers. This content gives viewers a sneak peek into people’s lives and daily habits, which deepen the audience’s connection to the product.” (Forbes) Younger generations want brands to be aligned with their own personal beliefs and values. With social media channels the way they are now, people can voice their own opinions through likes, comments, shares and even direct messages to a brand on social media platforms. Therefore, since there is a positive correlation with UGC and increased brand engagement, companies should be mixing in this form of user generated content marketing to increase overall productivity.