In the last article, we started talking about site-wide abandonment and briefly mentioned user engagement amongst other points that can be improved to combat abandonments. This is the first article to look at these points in more depth starting with user engagement. After all, it all starts with engagement! Developing an engaged audience will make it less likely they abandon as they browse and shop on your site.
There are two parts to the challenging world of user engagement, understanding who your audience is and how they behave and the platforms and methods you can use to develop that engaging relationship with them.
Your Feisty Audience
Browsing Experts
Your shoppers are experts at clicking through content and discarding the posts that aren’t interesting to them. Your empowered visitors have grown up with social media and the influx of content looking for their attention. With the abundance of information at their fingertips, your audience has become extremely educated, making it very easy for them to make decisions. While your audience may have started with Facebook and Twitter, keeping up with friends and the latest gossip, they now see the value that these platforms provide.
They love their cell phone
Your target audience is constantly connected. The cell phones are able to connect to the internet, stream live video and process secure transactions any time of the day. To have a computer in the palm of your hand is empowering and your audience loves staying informed of all that is new and interesting. It’s no wonder that cell phone transactions have increased year on year. May sure that all your content is cell phone friendly and that your embracing omnichannel strategies.
Loyalty
Loyalty seems to be a complicated status to earn. So many brands are fighting for attention like baby kittens looking for their mother’s milk. You can create a loyal, you just need to show your appreciation. If your loyal customers receive exclusive deals and updates it shows them that you appreciate the connection and they remain engaged. The give and take develop a relationship and user engagement. This approach implemented correctly can create lifetime loyalty even in a competitive environment.
Browsing
Your customers are browsing on the social media platforms like pro’s and geographical borders mean nothing to them. They can be in Europe, then Asia and then be back to their home town in the comfort of their armchair, waiting room or office. That’s exciting because you really have a global audience. The challenge is to manage your payment processing solutions and logistics to cater to your international business. Your customers might not mind if their additional charges but they expect a perfect service from check-out all the way to delivery.
Three mediums that will transform your user engagement!
Written Content
Your customers like a good story and good content can convey that story very well. You should write what you think your audience wants to read and what will ultimately be valuable to them. You can start posting content on your own blog but don’t stop there. You’ll want to market the content by sharing it on different platforms that will increase the likelihood of people reading it and bring them to your website. With millions of pieces of content being produced daily, your content can’t sit on your blog without anyone reading it. Providing valuable content is key either in the form of an instructional post, educational blogs or academic article. You might find your audience sees value in an ebook on a particular subject. That’s something you can share or allow them to sign up to receive giving them something to enjoy.
Alongside your own blog is the blogosphere. You should take the time to contact other blogs and then submit content to relevant blogs to reach a broader audience and expand your company’s influence. While your readership is engaged you need a strong call to action to bring them to the site. Your focus might be exclusively on writing engaging content but always remembers that your content needs to move your audience along to convert on your site.
Images
A picture is like a thousand word! Pictures can allow you to be creative and show off your awesome brand and breathtaking products very effectively and with amazing results. As we have said providing valuable content is key so framing boring pictures aren’t going generate the reaction you’re looking for. Be engaging and capture that wow moment or let the pictures tell a great story. You can decide to start snapping away and capture moments when a new product is revealed or when you have an update for your audience. Attending great events is also an interesting time to take pictures and embrace the events to develop user engagement with your audience. Creative visuals like memes also work really well with interesting quotes and ideas. You can develop user engagement and experiment to see what works with your audience. Your strong imagery can powerup a blog and make the content more engaging. If your having a hard time improving a post, visuals can make a huge difference. You probably notice that Facebook and Twitter have updated their platform to accommodate the increase in visuals so don’t forget to use them.
Video
Producing videos is a great way to engage your audience. If your videos are produced well they can be very compelling and immersive and catapult your user engagement to new hights. You will see the huge opportunity with in Youtube and other video platforms. The problem is that planning and execution need to be perfect to get those results. Launch your own Live video channel and do the same thing you do with daily content creation by creating daily live videos. Live video is more rough and ready and less polished. The advantage with live video is that you can come across more naturally. The natural look can be more engaging and drive better results for your business. You will have to experiment to see which type of video works with your audience.
User generated content
Your audience likes to see what others experiences have been with your company or one of your products. If there are no reviews on your company it will seem like a red flag to users checking your company out online and if the reviews don’t seem to be genuine it’s also a red flag because your visitors really want content that can help them form an opinion. The reviews on your company will help and support your customers remain engaged and its an opportunity for them to get a valuable perspective before they make a decision. There are many review sites online and you can choose a few and create an account and let people know they can post reviews.
You can use of user generated content to leverage offers and promotions from your business. Invite your audience to get involved in these campaigns and provide a place where they can post their content. You will see user engagement and interest develop and a great way to get to know your audience. The campaigns are powered by your community’s involvement and they feel they are getting something out of it, usually the chance to win something.
