Activate Customers!

As we said in our Coverting customers is hot post, behavior marketing is what it’s all about!

And it makes sense–the information gathered allows companies to create targeted, automated email campaigns that can substantially increase the ROI of a company.  Which, for those of us who aren’t marketing experts, basically means how much money you get back for the money you invest.

There are three key aspects to a behavior based marketing strategy: Conversions, engagement and retention. In this post we’re focused on engaging customers. But what does that really mean, to engage customers? Mohan Sawhney, a professor of marketing at Kellogg School, has an enlightened answer:

Engage customers

Rather than focusing so much on pushing and selling products, which often turns off our advertisement savvy customers, engagement strategies encourage and tempt clients by telling compelling stories, framing interesting conversations and building long term relationships with clients. Most importantly, businesses need to consider–what do my customers want and need? How can I help them?

Truly help your clients

In this case, we see the importance of building relationships. In essence, the key is not just to act from self interest but to genuinely care about customers and consider their needs, recognizing that if you foster relationships with them now, you are investing in their business in the future.

Five strategies

Sawhney outlines five main strategies to engage customers:

1. Make sure customers actually benefit from your mails. In this case the focus is on advising and informing your clients because you are the expert and they benefit to listening to your expertise and experience. The key is that your customers are not annoyed by your mails, but rather interested and continue to come back for more.

2. Bring your customers together. In this way they develop identities and communities as your loyal customers. They can share via social media, respond to surveys and questionnaires, post recipes, give feedback on facebook–anything and everything that gets them active and in the driver’s seat, so they know their opinion and presence matters. 

3.Remember that customers are human and they want to be inspired!  Share the values that are at the essence of your business. Remember to tell stories and use images to captivate your listeners.

4. Don’t be so serious! Customers want to have fun. There is so much information out there that too much blah blah will make them look elsewhere. Some creative versions of this include companies who have made games for customers to play–check their stories out here:

5. Keep it real. It is all about building relationships, which means that you have to be on all the time, willing to respond to customer concerns and needs, being proactive to confront a potential problem and dealing well with conflicts if and when they should occur. Everyone knows the danger of what happens if you DON’T do this, with the infamous United Breaks Guitar video that went viral.

These are just a few ways that you can keep customers loyal and happy for years. Have you tried any of these? Let us know at hamilton@eberrybox.com