Aside from being an awesome Janet Jackson song of the late ‘80s, “What have you done for me lately?” may be what your customers are asking when they see yet another “industry statistics” newsletter in their email. Good customer engagement helps to build and strengthen relationships, but only if you’re doing it correctly.
If you’re spending your day wondering why prospects aren’t knocking down your door, even though you have an email newsletter AND social media accounts, the answer is simple: engagement, engagement, engagement.
What is engagement, exactly? According to Richard Sedley, Director of the Customer Engagement Unit at cScape, engagement is “repeated interactions that strengthen the emotional, psychological or physical investment a customer has in a brand.” Engagement is increasingly important due to a drastic increase in the number of choices presented to your customers. Because customers can now choose how, when and where they view content, it is imperative that your content is relevant, credible and trustworthy in order to initiate or continue building a relationship.
Here are a few engagement tips for 2013:
1) Content Is (Still) King
We’ve heard this again and again, but in 2013, across blogs, social media, and email, content marketing has become less about the number of fans or email opens and more about providing that audience relevant and engaging content to get your posts seen. Write your own content and provide links to insightful and useful industry articles that relate to your customers.
Good #CustomerEngagement Tip – Write your own content and share links to insightful articles. [Tweet This Quote].
2) The “Workhorse” of Interactive Marketing is Email Marketing.
According to Forrester Research, email marketing will continue to grow in importance through 2016. Emailing your customers regularly keeps you top of mind and increases the number of interactions between you and your customer.
3) Give Customers a Reason to Engage.
Your customers will love visiting your page if you give them a good reason. This could include contests, games, discount offers, etc. Get creative and spread the word via social networks, email or blog posts.
![Better Email Etiquette Equals Better Marketing Results [16 Rules]](https://www.outboundengine.com/wp-content/uploads/shutterstock_411184843-1-400x250.jpg)
