The Third Step in Online Marketing: Customer Engagement
Here we are at the third step in online marketing: customer engagement.
We've talked about listening to the online conversation. And we've talked about assessing where your customers and prospects are already participating online.
These steps accomplished two things for you. First, they helped you see a pattern in where people talk about you, your company, and the industry in general—including blogs, Twitter, Facebook, and other sites.
Second, they helped you understand where the people you already do business with spend their time online.
Third step in online marketing: customer engagement
Now that you're armed with this information, you're ready to build a platform where you can engage and converse with your customers. Once you build a platform—it'll take you less than an hour—you'll be ready to take the next step in your online marketing.
- Listen
- Assess
- Engage
- Measure
- Refine/Improve
Start your conversation
OK, I'll be realistic. You might very well say, "But Gini. NO ONE is talking about us or the company online." This is going to be especially true if you're a small business or a business-to-business company.
That's actually good news. It gives you the opportunity to start a conversation—not just to join an existing one. And the best way to do that is to harvest stories from your customers.
You've likely done customer testimonials in the past. In fact, if you have a LinkedIn profile, your recommendations can serve as stories to be harvested.
This is the easiest part in the process. When you're with customers, using the camera on your phone, ask them if they don't mind giving you a 30 second soundbite on what it's like working with you. If you speak at conferences or participate on panels, ask two or three attendees to stick around, and get a quick interview with them afterward.
Make sure anyone you have on video signs a release form so you have their permission to use it in marketing your own business.
Then, upload the video to YouTube. You'll need to create a YouTube channel (that takes 15 minutes max), it'll ask you for your username and password, and the work is complete!
How you use your video content depends on the type of platform you're building. You can easily embed them into your website or blog. Or you can use established social networks to drive and engage viewers.
Of course, the stories can also be written or in podcast form, but those are more difficult and take more time to create.
More articles from AllBusiness.com:
- Employee Engagement Secrets: Real Business Owners Share How They Get the Most Out of Their Staff
- 7 Effective Ways to Increase Engagement With Facebook Ads
- The Benefits of Community Engagement for Your Business
- 5 Tips for Optimizing Online Client Engagement
- Building a Customer-Centric Business Culture From the Inside Out
Key to customer engagement: give people reasons to care about you
Here's the thing about stories: They give people reasons to care about you. When people care about you, they want to do business with you. And the more people who do business with you, the more stories you have to tell.
Suddenly, and without investing a lot of time, you have content that is engaging and ideal for search engine optimization—and for driving qualified leads to your business.
RELATED: How to Develop a Content Marketing Strategy in 6 Steps
