Customer engagement is a hot marketing topic right now and for good reason. Enhanced customer engagement has the ability to boost customer satisfaction and increase overall sales. More importantly, however, is that when done correctly an effective customer engagement strategy can not only create loyal (and return) customers, but it can actually turn these customers into advocates that gladly refer others to your business.
According to a recent Gartner study, companies ranked customer engagement as their biggest investmentOpens a new window . The problem facing companies is not that they don’t understand the importance or power of customer engagement, but rather they struggle with developing an engagement strategy that creates loyal customers. The trick is to understand the buyer’s journey and to know how to connect with your prospective customers at every stage throughout this journey.
Here’s a look at the three major stages of the customer journey and tips for building engagement with your customer during each phase of the journey.
Awareness
Awareness is the first stage of the buyer’s journey and it’s at the top of the buyer’s funnel. This is the stage where the customer acknowledges that they have a problem or a need to fill. The customer will start by conducting a very broad search. The customer at this stage is not ready to make a purchase but rather he is simply looking into what options are available.
For example, the customer may be looking to purchase a birthday present for their spouse. The customer knows that their spouse’s birthday is coming up and that they need to purchase a gift, but they have no idea what gift to purchase. The customer uses the internet to start searching for birthday gifts.
It’s crucial to recognize that during the awareness stage, the customer is not ready to make any purchasing decisions. Instead, the customer is simply looking for gift ideas. Your goal during this stage is to make the customer aware of the products you have available, not to make a sale.
Blog posts, social media content and even ebooks offer a great medium to engage with your customer during this stage. With the example above, content discussing how to pick the right gift for your spouse would be an ideal way to engage with the consumer. When dealing with technical information about your goods or services, whitepapers and statistical reports also can be effective during the awareness phase.
Consideration
Once the customer recognizes that he has a need to fill or a problem to solve, he will start to evaluate his options. This is the Consideration Stage of the buyer’s journey and it is in the middle of the sales funnel. While the customer is not ready yet to make a purchase, he is prepared to narrow down his options.
Your goal during this stage of the buyer’s journey is to entice the customer to consider your goods or services as an option. Your content should gently persuade the customer to take a closer look at your products or services and to consider them to be a viable option. Content, such as comparison charts, demonstrations, case studies and product guides can help boost engagement during this phase.
For example, if you are selling bicycles, video content or visual guide showing your bicycles in action and explaining special features can push the customer to take a closer look.
Decision
At the decision stage, the customer has already acknowledged that they have a problem or a need to fill and have explored their various options. In fact, the customer has narrowed down their options and they are now ready to make a purchasing decision. This stage is at the bottom of the sales funnel and puts you one step closer to transforming the perspective consumer into a paying customer.
This is the stage where you want to engage with the customer and showcase why they should purchase your products. You want to show the customer what makes your goods or services stand out from your competitors. Testimonials from previous customers and in-depth case studies work well here. You also can offer a free trial or a more in-depth demonstration so the customer gets a better understanding of what your company has to offer.
For example, if your company offers SaaS packages then provide your prospective consumers with a free 5, 10 or 30-day trial so they can see all the great features your software has to offer them. If, on the other hand, your products have a lot of technical detail, such as electronic devices, offer a side-by-side comparison chart so prospective customers can easily compare your products to your competitors.
Understanding how to connect with your prospective customers at every stage of the buyer’s journey can enhance the over customer experience. Not only can this high-level content attract more traffic to your website but it also has the power to convert prospective consumers into loyal customers.
It’s important to create a customer persona for every stage of the buyer’s journey to ensure you create digital content that speaks directly to the consumer. You also want to add more specific details about your goods and/or services as you move through the buyer’s journey. The more information you can put the consumer’s hands they better able they are to make informed purchasing decisions.