Yes, you read that correctly.
A strategy for effective customer engagement is about understanding where your customers consume content and hitting those touchpoints around the web.
Sorry if anyone thought I was going somewhere else there…
It is human nature to grow attached to our favourite channel. Whether it’s a social media platform such as LinkedIn or YouTube, a newsletter subscription for those top-of-funnel folks, or even a good old-fashioned series of network events.
We’ve all chosen our faves based on the ones we enjoy the most. Me included.
But your target audience has no such loyalties. They will happily play the field despite your best efforts to usher them into your preferred method of communication. This means you need to match their need for variety with a content and distribution strategy that does indeed…
Touch them in the right places.
Become Unforgettable
If you send someone 3 emails a day for a month in the hope they might all of a sudden buy your stuff, you are wasting your time. That my friends is what we call in the business, SPAM. An email strategy like this will drive more unsubscribes than leads, ruining your brand perception in the process. It will also leave a rather sour taste in the mouths of the people you are trying to attract.
It’s not even about the volume of content (although 3 emails a day is pushing it). It’s more about the lack of variety and complete invasion of what is for a lot of people, a sacred and personal space. Yes, people with a business email expect to get the odd sales pitch thrown their way. To capture their attention with one, however, means they must have seen you before.
Now imagine instead of spamming people 3 times a day, you showed up 5 times a day. Not in their inbox, but in the form of organic, value-driven content that actually offers some value to the end consumer.
Effective Customer Engagement Example
A newsletter can be broken up into small chunks, giving you a week’s worth of social posts for LinkedIn, Facebook and X if you’re feeling fancy.
That same newsletter can be used as a script for a long-form YouTube video. This can then be chopped up into multiple shorts for distribution across all your channels including YT shorts, Instagram and Facebook reels and of course, TikTok.
That same newsletter content can then be published on LinkedIn for readers who love a bit of long-form but are not yet subscribed to your company offering.
How many birds have I just killed with one stone?
Put quite simply, this is the organic version of Google retargeting. Following your followers around the web and planting yourself well and truly in their thoughts so that when the time comes for them to pull the trigger and spend some money…
They only think of you.
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The Social Search Engine
You’d be forgiven for thinking that the moment someone needs a service, they immediately run to Google and start typing. It’s a pretty safe bet as assumptions go. But were you aware that a growing number of people are using social media channels to search for a service as well?
In fact, in several industries, both B2B and B2C, people are using social channels first. Potentially going to Google as a follow-up. This means that investing in strong SEO but leaving Carol from HR to manage your socials will very likely be losing you a tonne of business.
And to be clear, this is business you don’t know you’re losing.
These spaces are your opportunity to build not just a shop front, but an entire sales team online for people to consume in a way that they control. You aren’t selling in the traditional sense, but rather sewing the seed over and over again. This comes in various formats, capturing people are different times of their day and very importantly…
At various levels of buyer intent.
Imagine the perception a potential buyer builds when they visit your page on any one of these social search engines and it looks like you closed the doors in 2012. Then imagine they compare you to a rival on the same platform. A rival who has their social media swag on. Posting 3 times a week, being part of the conversations that matter and demonstrating a real authority in your space.
Who do you think will win the business?
You may worry that the things you say will impact the way people see you online but trust me when I say… Your silence in the spaces that matter is hurting you so much more.
Stay Unconventionall.