Many brands have already mastered the art of customer engagement in terms of social media marketing. However, sustaining an audience is no easy feat. It’s not just about the industry you’re in or the products and services you offer – you simply cannot afford to ignore digital marketing trends. Remember the time when companies only needed a website and a Facebook page to promote their brands. The digital landscape, these days, is evolving so quickly that it’s hard to keep up, and as new technologies and tools come to the fore, marketers will have no choice but to adapt, and adapt quickly.
Brands know that they need to embrace technology if they want to advance and grow. Companies have to change the way they communicate and interact with their customers. While disruption and innovation are becoming the new norm, brands constantly face demanding market circumstances.
Staying on top of the changes and ahead of the competition in a world of constant reinvention may seem like a daunting task. It doesn’t have to be. Get on board our crash course and get ready to drive your brand with these must-know tools to fuel your marketing engine and boost your brand engagement.
Eat, sleep, and breathe the fundamentals
A thorough market research is essential to create strong content choices and product insights straight from the source. Paying close attention to your target audience’s demographics, identifying their habits, their most active periods and trends that they gravitate to on their social media platforms of choice, will keep you on track with changing customer behavior and preferences. Online tools like SurveyMonkey, for example, has reworked market research into three simple steps – pick your audience, create your survey and analyze your data.
1. Pick your audience
Get your survey in front of the right people by asking screening questions and segmenting your audience through demographic attributes such as age, gender, region, income and job status.
2. Create your own survey
Choose from an array of ready-to-use templates or create your own questionnaire by asking questions like “how recognizable is my brand?” and “which of my creative ideas drive purchase intent?”
3. Analyze your data
Once responses start pouring in, brands can make use of the analysis tool to do a thorough analysis of the data and create customizable charts to pinpoint trends and key takeaways.
SurveyMonkey’s Market Research Template
Hint: Performing regular surveys for customer feedback can help brands stay on the pulse of their customers.
Don’t limit your social media
A common mistake brand owners make is to have too many eggs in one basket. Managing multiple social media accounts all at once with little to no prior experience, makes it difficult to assess the success of marketing campaigns. Here’s where your market research data comes in: knowing which social media platform and content your audience resonates with can help you focus on the right platform(s) for your brand to achieve greater customer engagement.
Tip: If you’re seeing a drop in Twitter engagement, try Instagram instead, and don’t be afraid to shuffle between platforms. The aim here is to find platforms that offer the highest level of interactions (likes, shares and comments). Check out the stats page on your business profiles and monitor the days, weeks or even months where you find the most users online.
Your website is your Image
No one wants to be invisible! With 80% of internet users regularly browsing through the web via mobile devices and Google’s recent decision to reduce the search engine ranking for websites not catered for smaller screens, having a mobile friendly site is no longer optional for brands. Even old school brands like Harley Davidson have jumped on to the bandwagon for tackling users on the move by seamlessly adapting their website for both desktop and mobile devices. Put your brand’s website to the test with Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test Tool. This search console lets you preview your website through the eyes of visitors and allows you to see how functional your website interface is for handheld-devices.
Harley Davidson’s seamless website adaptations for desktop and mobile devices
Old is gold
Falling for social media’s glitz and glamour, many brands equate more followers with better audience engagement, which may not always be true. If you’re struggling with audience engagement on social media, perhaps it’s time to go back to the good ‘old basics of email marketing.
Valuable, responsive and undoubtedly a beneficial asset, an email database is the reinforcement your brand has been looking for. Unlike social media platforms, an email database gives you the advantage of personalizing experiences for both current and potential customers. Marketing automation and email marketing platforms like Mailchimp lets you create an email database and broadcast beautifully designed campaigns for one-to-one conversations with your clients, customers, and other interested parties.
Hint: Make sure your email is simple with brief descriptions and a direct call-to-action – perfect for quick readers who want bite-sized content. Uber, for instance, regularly alerts their customers with e-deals and e-promotions. They have even added a bonus “learn more” section.
Uber’s e-deals and e-promotions alerts
Make it look good
Mess, begone! Trust us when we say good design matters and your audience will certainly not appreciate messy and rambling content. Don’t do all the hard work just to leave a bad impression. Aesthetically pleasing yet understandable websites or emails with easy navigation is key. Take the Insta-famous haircare mogul, Function of Beauty, for example – they have it down with their simple and beautiful website that is not only easy to navigate but is also easy on the eye.
Function of Beauty easy-to-use and aesthetically pleasing website
Last word: Bulletproof your brand with this multi-pronged digital strategy and sustain your progress with digital initiatives that’ll help you stay in the game and exceed expectations
Written By: Tanisha Khanna
Corporate Media Services 