As a start-up or SME, it can be challenging to stand out in a competitive market. Building a strong relationship with your customers, and engaging them is a crucial element for your business’s success. It could also potentially help you differentiate your brand, and establish a loyal customer base. 

Consumers today are more empowered, and have higher expectations when it comes to their interactions with brands. In order to attract, and retain loyal customers, merely selling goods or services is insufficient.

It requires continuous effort to genuinely establish a connection with them, and foster long-term business relationships. 

What is consumer engagement?

In this digital age, the average person is estimated to encounter between 6,000 to 10,000 ads every single day. This is almost twice as many as in 2007 when market research firm Yankelovich estimated that the average consumer saw up to 5,000 ads daily.

Consumer engagement refers to the interactions, and experiences that consumers have with your brand. It involves building relationships with your customers by providing them with valuable content, personalised experiences, and excellent customer service.

This can be done through various ongoing, omnichannel conversations, and activities, such as social media, content, email marketing, company website, and blogs.

It’s all about creating a two-way conversation with your customers, and making them feel heard, and valued by allowing for open communication, feedback, and collaboration. 

Benefits of building strong consumer engagement

There are numerous benefits to building strong consumer engagement for businesses. By engaging with customers on a personal level, you can create a loyal customer base, improve customer satisfaction, and increase your overall business performance by gaining a competitive advantage.

When customers feel engaged with a brand, they are more likely to become loyal customers. Thus, engaging with customers on a personal level can create a strong emotional connection which leads to increased trust, and brand loyalty. 

Additionally, building strong consumer engagement leads to improved customer satisfaction for your business. Engaging with customers can help businesses to understand their needs, and concerns better.

By providing personalised experiences, and excellent customer service, businesses can improve customer satisfaction, and create a positive reputation.

This may lead to customers sharing their positive experiences with others, allowing for increased word-of-mouth marketing, and thus businesses expanding their customer base. 

Lastly, by building strong consumer engagement, businesses can differentiate themselves from their competitors. By creating a unique, and memorable customer experience, businesses can stand out in a crowded market, and gain a competitive advantage.

4 tips to boost your consumer engagement

1. Building a brand voice

Your brand voice is how your brand communicates with customers, and it’s essentially the business’s unique personality. First of all, it’s important to establish, and define your brand’s personality. Consider what kind of personality traits you want your brand to display or embody (e.g. friendly, innovative, professional, etc.).

Once you have identified this, develop them into a suitable tone, and language that reflects it. Next, you would want to make sure that your brand voice is authentic, and reflects your business’s values, and mission. It should be consistent across all channels, from your social media, and website to customer service. 

Storytelling is another powerful tool that allows you to develop a connection with your customers. By using your brand’s voice, you can tell stories that showcase your brand’s personality, and values.

This elevates your brand by allowing customers to relate on a deeper level, and at the same time, create a sense of community. Lastly, it’s important to note that your brand voice should be simple, and easy to understand.

Avoid using jargon or overly complex language that may confuse customers. Instead, use language that is clear, and straightforward to communicate your brand’s message effectively. 

Overall, it’s important to establish an authentic, clear, and consistent brand voice that aligns with your brand values, and resonates with your target audience. 

2. Personalised interactions (AI chatbots, email, etc.)

Personalisation is key to building a strong relationship with your customers, and it’s increasingly becoming one of the most popular consumer engagement strategies as consumers are looking for products, and services that are suited to them, and their needs.

By tailoring communication, and experiences to each customer’s needs, and preferences, businesses can create a more engaging, and memorable customer experience. 

The use of AI chatbots has been on the rise these days. They are a powerful tool for personalising interactions with customers as they can provide support 24/7, respond to customer queries, and even make personalised product recommendations based on a customer’s purchase history or browsing activities, and behaviours.

Another way to personalise interactions would be through the segmentation of email lists. Segmentation is the process of dividing your email list into groups based on specific criteria or categories (e.g. purchase history, demographics).

While it may sound tedious, segmenting your email lists allows you to send more targeted, and relevant messages to each customer, thus in turn increasing engagement, and conversion rates.

3. Engaging campaigns

Engaging campaigns can help you create a buzz around your brand, and attract new customers.

By utilizing various social media channels such as Instagram, TikTok or LinkedIn to create visually appealing, and shareable content, you can create memorable, interactive experiences that resonate with your customers, and showcase your brand values.

Running contests, and giveaways is an effective way to encourage customer engagement, and build brand awareness. This is where social media platforms come into play as it further boosts interaction, and engagement.

Another form of engaging campaigns would be creating video content. Video storytelling can be used to showcase your brand’s personality, highlight your products or services, and create emotional connections with customers.

Businesses can also leverage user-generated content that’s created by customers, and shared on social media platforms, to create social proof that can help build trust, and loyalty with customers.

4. Post-purchase experience

As important as the purchase experience of products, and services are, the post-purchase experience is also equally important.

This stage of the customer journey is critical for boosting consumer engagement, as it provides an opportunity for businesses to create a positive, and memorable experience that can drive customer loyalty, and repeat business. 

Providing excellent customer service, and support is key to creating a positive post-purchase experience. Businesses should respond to customer inquiries, and issues promptly, and professionally, and assist them in resolving any problems or concerns they may have.

Send personalised follow-up emails to customers after a purchase or service to thank them, and offer additional support or resources. This helps to build a relationship with customers, and encourages them to return in the future.

Gather feedback, and insights from customers through surveys, reviews or feedback channels on their post-purchase experience, and identify areas for improvement. 

Consumer engagement is an essential part of every business’s marketing strategy. By building strong consumer engagement, businesses can create lasting relationships with their customers, increase customer loyalty, and drive long-term growth.

By implementing these strategies, and taking these tips to boost consumer engagement, businesses can build a loyal customer base, and achieve long-term success in today’s competitive market. 

If you’re interested in finding out more about how you can boost consumer engagement for your business or brand, and are looking for a reliable PR agency Singapore, reach out to [email protected] today.</span

Author Bio

Terng Shing is the CEO, and Founder of PR, and content marketing technology startup SYNC. With over a decade of experience in public relations, and content marketing, Terng Shing is combining traditional PR, and content methods with automation technology to create a scalable agency.

Terng has experience in both agency, and in-house positions including Head of PR (APAC) for gaming brand Razer, healthcare startup MyDoc, and senior marketing roles in the region.

Terng Shing has also held senior positions in global, and regional PR, and content agencies, working with clients that include Grab, Visa, Paktor, HP, and other leading brands.

As the CEO of SYNC, Terng Shing oversees business strategy, and expansion, as the brand continues to grow in the region. He has led the company’s expansion into four markets – Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and India – as well as set up strong partnerships in Thailand, Vietnam, and The Philippines.

Terng is also the lead media, and messaging trainer for SYNC, having trained over 50 leading founders, CEOs, and entrepreneurs in his career. He regularly conducts training sessions for startup founders through numerous startup accelerators, and venture funds.

Besides SYNC, Terng is also the co-founder of travel community platform Travel Wanderlust, and co-host of the business podcast Business Over Drinks.