No matter what your industry, customer engagement helps grow your business. For example, studies show that in the hospitality industry, engaged hotel guests spend 46 percent more money than disengaged patrons. As a website owner, the existence of your site won’t inspire customers by itself, so how do you use your web presence to increase engagement?
Create Content That Sells Without Selling
Image via Flickr by jseliger2
As traditional sales-based content becomes less effective, it creates a need for content that sells without selling. This could be a page telling the story of your company’s inspiration and creation rather than an impersonal About Us page. It could be a blog regularly updated with posts offering tutorials, top 10 lists, and industry commentary.
The concept of content that sells without selling might seem counterintuitive, but it makes sense in the modern marketplace. As Forbes’ Mike Myatt explained, “Creating or expanding business relationships is not about selling – it’s about establishing trust, rapport, and value creation without selling.”
Ensure Your Site’s Social Media Friendly
Many businesses treat their websites and social media channels as isolated entities, but you’ll make a bigger impact if you help all platforms work together to promote your online identity. When your website is social media friendly, you’ll encourage visitors to share it and increase its reach. Social media contact information also encourages modern consumers to communicate with your firm. A third of consumers prefer to contact brands via social media rather than the telephone, and that statistic’s likely to be much higher for the youth market.
Social media buttons make it really easy for visitors to share your site’s content and increase your social subscribers. Simply getting people clicking and thinking about whether or not they want to share your site’s content can significantly boost engagement.
Answer Your Customers’ Questions
Social media may be a popular way to communicate with customers, but that doesn’t mean you can afford to forget about the people who reach out via your website. It’s shocking to note that more than half of top companies ignore website leads. Engaging with your customers in this way can encourage them to engage with you.
If the customer’s question is particularly interesting or pertinent to your wider customer base, you might like to respond in a blog post, a vlog, or a podcast. This practice can encourage more people who hope for a response to engage with your business. Remember to contact the person who posed the question, too to ensure they don’t miss your response.
Quote Your Customers
Your customers are your biggest advocates, so make use of their endorsements and quote them. Seven out of 10 consumers trust the testimonials of people they don’t know, so quotes from customers can be a great way to close sales. Research also suggests quoted customers are more engaged with businesses, more likely to visit their sites regularly, and more likely to share information about these firms.
Engaging your audience creates traffic and converts customers. With these tips in mind, your website can be transformed from a mere digital presence into a true engagement tool.
