Today’s business owners are up against some significant hurdles when it comes to connecting with consumers. Short attention spans, endless choices, and content overload to name just a few. Consumers are tired of seeing promotions pop up in their social media feeds. As SurveyMonkey points out, they’re sick of people trying to sell stuff to them. Your customers want to form real connections with brands they admire! Engaging your customers will help you turn shoppers into loyal customers who keep coming back, recommend your business to others, and are willing to pay more for quality products.

There are a number of ways to build authentic relationships with customers. Sourcezon suggests exploring some effective customer engagement strategies, from fine-tuning your brand messaging to joining social media to producing quality content.

Focus on Your Brand Messaging

Your brand messaging should form the backbone of every marketing campaign. Pardot explains that brand messaging is what makes customers connect with your brand and ultimately want to purchase your product. It should inspire, motivate, and persuade! Cohesive brand messaging includes a number of critical elements, like a tag line, an elevator pitch, a clearly defined tone, and a unique business name that speaks to your customers.

If you’re operating under your own name or a descriptive and generic name like “John’s Pet Supplies” or “Hobbies and Crafts”, consider filing a catchy DBA (doing business as) name that better resonates with your buyers. Choosing a creative DBA name can give your audience insight into your brand’s personality, mission, and values. Thankfully, filing a DBA is much easier than changing the officially registered name of your business. Most states allow you to do this online!

Use a Customer-Friendly Payment Process

When you take payments for your products or services you want the process to be as easy and hassle-free as possible. This is for your customers’ benefit as well as yours. For example, with Plaid’s Balance API feature, you avoid expensive credit card fees while your customers get the peace of mind of knowing they have the funds available to make payments. It’s a win-win, as the positive purchasing experience will be one reason many customers or clients come back time and again.

Get Active on Social Media

Social media is one of the most valuable tools for connecting with customers. By monitoring feedback on social media, you can gain valuable insight into what your customers think about your brand in real-time. Customers use social media to voice complaints, recommend brands, and rave about new products they discover.

Get in on the conversation and show your customers you care! With a well-crafted response, you can even leverage negative feedback to build brand authenticity. Such a strategy can include contest awards and giveaways, such as back-stage passes to a popular concert coming to town, or tickets to an Astros game for those fans whose mantra is “let’s go Astros!”

Produce Valuable Content

People won’t follow your brand for your promotional posts. They’ll follow you for content that offers real value, whether in the form of education, entertainment, or problem-solving advice. Producing engaging content is all about letting your brand personality shine. Don’t be afraid to crack some jokes, deviate from grammatical rules, write in a conversational tone, and inject memes into your social media posts. Consumers are much more likely to engage with brands that seem like real humans.

The B2C landscape has changed significantly over the past couple of decades. Gone are the days of impersonal print ads. Now that the majority of business interactions take place online, consumers expect tailored and individualized communications. Focus on providing an engaging and personalized experience to your customers and they’ll keep coming back for more!

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