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What Are The Different Levels Of Customer Engagement?

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StrategyDriven Customer Relationship Management Article |Customer Engagement|What Are The Different Levels Of Customer Engagement?There are many different levels to customer engagement. This can be important to consider when building a comprehensive and varied marketing strategy – some companies can end up focusing too much on one stage of the funnel (such as focusing on new customers and neglecting loyal customers), which can lead to you losing customers at other stages. Below are the five main levels of customer engagement and how to nurture each of these consumers.

Aware consumers

The first stage of engaging customers is to make them aware of your company. Aware consumers are those that haven’t yet used your company and who may not even show an interest – however they are familiar with your brand. Most of us are more likely to use a company if we’re familiar with them, which is why building brand awareness is so important.

You can build brand awareness by using advertising strategies such as PPC ads, posters, billboards and flyers. A marketing agency can serve as a brand catalyst, helping you to build this awareness and helping you to construct a recognized brand, which typically requires elements such as a memorable company name, eye-catching logo and identifiable color scheme.

Leads

Leads are consumers who are yet to become customers, but who show genuine interest and potential. To generate leads, you need to not just make customers aware of your brand, but appeal to their wants and needs.

There are so many different marketing strategies that you can use to acquire leads. Creating engaging informative content is often a great way of building leads – detailed product descriptions and explainer videos are great for hooking customers’ interest. You can also use sales pitches, tasters and demos to get consumers interested. Generally speaking, lead generation is best achieved by targeting your marketing at specific consumer groups using personalised strategies. Not everyone is going to reeled in the same way.

New customers

Only by turning leads into customers can you make money. Some leads will naturally convert themselves, while others will need more convincing – it’s important to nurture both types of leads.

For those leads that are already willing to buy your product, you should focus on making the payment process as easy as possible – promising leads may still be scared away if you don’t offer enough payment options or if your checkout process is overly complicated. When it comes to leads that require extra persuasion, you may have to do some negotiating. Things like follow-up phone calls, pop-ups discouraging people from leaving your website or last minute discounts can all be used to convert undecided leads.

Loyal customers

Loyal customers are customers who continuously use your service or continuously buy your product. These types of customers can help you to maintain a steady flow of income without having to constantly convert new leads.

You can generate loyal customers by nurturing your new customers. Don’t just focus on taking their money – check back on them by asking for feedback and support them with the product or service if necessary. Offering return discounts or introducing loyalty reward schemes can be another way of helping to encourage loyal customers. All in all, don’t neglect the customers you already have.

Advocates

Advocates are not just loyal customers, but customers who are willing to fight to defend your brand and who take it upon themselves to recommend you to others. These customers can essentially provide free marketing for you.

Every business should aim to build customers that are advocates for their brand. This typically involves getting to know your customers and rewarding them for their loyalty. You can even introduce a referral program that encourages customers to help find you new customers in exchange for rewards.

6 Workable Strategies for Businesses to Differentiate Their Brand

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StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article |Differentiate your brand|6 Workable Strategies for Businesses to Differentiate Their BrandIf you’re not the only player in your market, how do you plan to differentiate yourself from other brands? Well, the truth is, there’s a lot of antagonism in the business world, and simply being one step ahead of others does not help survive the tide. However, creating and providing exceptional products and unique customer experiences sets you apart – and it makes it more challenging to compare you with other options. So, if your goal is to build a remarkable brand, focus on being different.

Now, knowing HOW TO differentiate yourself from the rest is a daunting process. But once done, it gives your brand the upper hand and keeps everyone, including your customers, happy. For that matter, it’s crucial to know how to differentiate your brand from your competitors so that your brand strikes out positively.

So, exactly how can you put your brand on a high-reaching pedestal through differentiation? Offer a vast selection? Possibly. Look better? Perhaps. Compete on pricing? Not really! There are several ways brands can differentiate themselves – and none of them involve lowering your standards. Most of the strategies we’ll touch on in this article are actually about improving yourself. So, let’s discuss six effective ways to differentiate your brand from the competition:

1. Nurture and generate brand advocates

Brand advocates are people who are so enthusiastic about your products/services that they’ll tell their family, friends, and coworkers about it. They are also known as “brand evangelists” or “brand ambassadors.” But they begin promoting once they are convinced of the value you provide. They do this on their initiative, with no plea from your company. Consider it a positive word of mouth promotion with more persuasion from the advocates. So, if you wish to appeal to these brand advocates, offer them freebies and promotional items to nurture long-term relationships. You can also join hands and run referral programs and contests to help reach out to potential clients and customers. Indeed, this is an excellent and low-cost method of marketing your brand. Besides that, every brand advocate brings in three new customers on average.

2. Give your pricing a whirl

When done correctly, this can also be an effective technique of differentiation. On one end of the spectrum, a business can strive to be known as the “low price leader,” providing customers with exceptional value. On the other hand, they could be placed as a high-priced premium brand.

In some cases, an effective brand differentiation strategy can allow a brand to command a higher price premium than it would otherwise be able to. Walmart stores, for instance, are characterized by low prices and good virtues, which have allowed the company to change retail fundamentally.

On the other hand, Starbucks has persuaded customers that there is value in paying significantly more for premium coffee. So, learn from this and be active.

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3. Solve a real problem for customers

Create detailed buyer personas to determine which issues you should focus on solving. Buyer personas offer insight into your customer base’s main goals, challenges, interests, and pain points. You can then utilize these insights to identify critical issues your competitors aren’t addressing. Once you’ve identified the unsolved problems, you have a few options for resolving them. However, affirm it with your customers before instituting it once you’ve devised a strategy. Undoubtedly, this is an excellent strategy to attain brand differentiation.

4. Have variations and be socially responsible

This strategy is a great way to set yourself apart from the competition. But you must know where to offer variations in your product line. Once you’ve determined that your product is infinitely superior, expand its offerings. Take, for example, color. If your competitor offers a competing product in six colors, figure out how to provide your version of the product in ten colors. It’s a particularly effective strategy if you sell your products on a marketplace such as eBay or Amazon.

Other than that, according to a CGS study, nearly half of consumers were willing to pay more for socially conscious products. Donations to charity, community programs, sustainable manufacturing, and fair wages and benefits for your employees are all examples of social responsibility. It demonstrates that you care about people, whether workers or customers. Besides, customers prefer to do business with companies they trust.

5. Lean into your market

There’s no way you’ll be able to appeal to everyone out there. Everyone has different needs, interests, and motivations for purchasing. It isn’t viable to be so broad in your strategy that people become perplexed by your message. You should “niche down” instead. In a sea of generics, be the expert. Your niche segment also allows you to market how your brand differs – and outperforms – your competitors. Provide more exceptional value to your customers than they anticipate from you. Go above and beyond to meet their requirements. Determine what your customers require from you and what is most important to them. It could be how rapidly an issue is resolved, such as an exchange or return– knowing these things will boost your reputation and get you positive feedback.

6. Never compare your brand

H&M does not compare itself to Rolls Royce, nor does Rolls Royce compare itself to Mercedes-Benz Why? Because they are two completely different brands selling products at opposite ends of the spectrum.

88% of buyers now conduct online product research before making a purchase. Amazon reviews, YouTube, and other comparison websites have made it easy for people to learn everything there is to know about you before committing to you. Nothing, however, will reduce your perceived value more than being placed directly next to a competitor. You don’t need to draw attention to your competitors because people are interested in your brand. So, maintain a laser-sharp focus on yourself rather than your competitors in your marketing initiatives.

Conclusion

Lastly, you must understand that not everyone who sees your brand will love it.
Ultimately, most of the strategies above boil down to delivering a world-class customer experience. That leads to superior customer satisfaction, providing retention and long-term sustainable growth. Safe to say, differentiating your business is all about being outstanding and unique while presenting yourself to potential customers who adore you. Finding ways to distance your brand from its competitors will, of course, require a lot of consistent hard work and research. But the results are well worth it.

Five Ways To Make Your Brand Stand Out

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StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article |Make your brand stand out|Five Ways To Make Your Brand Stand OutIn today’s world dominated by the Internet and social media, brand image plays a big part in the outreach and success of your business. With so much competition in the market, first impressions are often lasting impressions. So whether it’s your brand logo or website or message, it needs to be smart, eye-catching and on-point. This blog shows you five ways to help make your brand stand out.

1. A Good-Looking Website

Every business/ company today must have a website (if you don’t, get cracking on it!) that gives potential customers all the information required. Of course, depending on the nature of the business, the website can be informational, technical, educational or entertaining. But if you want your brand to stand out, make sure you are on the world wide web!

If you aren’t familiar with web design or don’t know the technicalities of building a site that stands out, hire a web design agency to make your website. Their creative input also be of great benefit.

2. A Logo That Stands Out

What do companies like Amazon, Nike, Apple and Dominos have in common? A logo that is instantly recognized worldwide. Your brand’s logo is of prime importance if you want your business to be noticed. First and foremost it must be striking, but more importantly it has to be relevant to your niche/ brand. Putting images of flowers on a logo for a tech company will make no sense, and won’t be coherent. A picture speaks a thousand words, it is said, and that’s exactly what your logo should do!

3. Strong Social Media Presence

Social media accounts are like the appendages of a website and a business. Today, almost everyone has an account on Facebook/ Twitter/ Instagram/ Pinterest etc and if your business isn’t on social media, you are seriously missing out on exposure and thousands of potential customers/ clients.

Also, besides attracting new customers, social media helps you to stay connected to your existing customers, keeping them updated and informed about new developments in your business as well as keeping your brand constantly in their radar.

4. A Blog

Having a website is great for your business, but having a blog section in the website is fantastic. Today, every top notch business has a related blog on their website, which gives additional information and knowledge about the niche/ area of business through researched articles. You could choose to have an in-house writer/s or you could outsource the blog posts to freelancers. Whatever you choose, keep your blog updated and post articles regularly. Share them on your business’s social media pages. Keep your customers in the loop and interested at all times.

5. Advertising Options

Gone are the days of simple print advertisements in magazines or on hoardings. Nowadays, with so many multimedia options available, there are a range of ways you can advertise your business and be seen. Apart from print, television and radio, you can also place ads on websites or blogs and get other bloggers to write about your business and link to your website.

Fun Ways to Market Your Brand

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StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article |Market your Brand|Fun Ways to Market Your BrandMarketing is one of the most crucial elements of growing any business, whether it’s established or brand new, big or small. Without effective marketing campaigns, all of your hard work goes to waste. You could spend years trying to get seen, struggling to make sales, and feeling frustrated. Many entrepreneurs even give up.

For bigger businesses or those with more money to spend, marketing is often one of the first jobs that they consider outsourcing to the experts. This is undoubtedly a worthwhile investment, and one that can grow your audience, build trust and drive sales enormously.

Unfortunately, however, for many newer or smaller businesses, this isn’t an option. They are forced to use their own skills and learn as much as they can, or to rely on the talent already in their company.

The good news is, with the tremendous growth of social media and internet usage, it’s easier than ever to market your brand. Digital marketing allows you to reach a far wider audience, find your people and build your brand, without spending vast amounts of money.

The better news is, it doesn’t have to be boring. Effective marketing isn’t all about writing content for your website or hitting those social media share buttons. There are some more creative and fun ways that you can boost your business. Here’s a look at some of the best.

Get Out into the Community

Most modern marketing methods, and certainly lower budget methods, focus on digital marketing and online campaigns. While these can be exceptionally useful, there is still value to marketing in the real world and getting off the computer. Some of the most fun marketing methods are actually out in your local community.

Work with Local Businesses

If your business sells to or works with the local community, working with other companies can be a great idea. Attend, or start, regional networking events, get to know other business owners and look for ways that you can collaborate. Even if it’s just supporting each other online, and meeting to share ideas, it could be useful.

StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article |Market your Brand|Fun Ways to Market Your BrandCommission a Mural

If you’d like to get more creative with your marketing, what about commissioning a mural? Find a talented local artist to paint your logo or an image that is personal to your business, on the side of your building.

Hit the Streets

Chalk drawings on the footpaths might not last very long, but they will certainly get noticed. Pick an area with passing footfall, or close to your premises, and draw quirky pictures or quotes on the sidewalk.

Flyers and Posters

Flyers and posters might seem old-fashioned, but that doesn’t mean that they can’t still be fruitful. Flyers and even business cards can work well, as they are something tangible that people can walk away with. They don’t need to make a brilliant first impression or communicate information quickly. The recipient can take them away to process later.

Sponsor Events

Sponsoring events and working with charities on their events and fundraisers is a brilliant way to both get your name out there and also to build a reputation as a caring brand.

Have Fun with Clothing

Clothing is made to be seen. It’s probably safe to say that unless you are a clothing brand, or have a trendy logo, people are unlikely to buy clothing with your name on. But that doesn’t mean that they won’t wear them, and so advertize your business, if you give them away for free. Have t-shirts printed and put socks in goodie bags at tradeshows and conferences. Click here to look at some cool options.

Think Outside the Box with Sponsorships

When you think about sponsoring someone, as a brand, you might think of well-known brands on the front of sports shirts or at stadiums. But, many groups, businesses, companies and community spaces are seeking sponsorship to help them to make money, especially in the current climate. Think of sponsorships that could benefit your business, even if they aren’t closely related to what you do, and reach out to local teams, charities, events and community spaces with a pitch.

Host a Contest

Social media dominates many of our lives. We’re continually checking feeds, updating photos and videos, and checking in with our favorite brands and celebrities. Chances are, your audience is online a lot, and they are looking for creative and fun ways to spend their time.

So, give them something to do, that also gets you extra shares and attention. Host a photo or video contest, asking your followers to share photos or videos around a theme or their favorite images of your products. Offer the winner a small freebie to increase entries, and don’t forget to engage.

Attend Trade Shows

Trade Shows are both a great way to increase your audience and sell yourself, and to meet other businesses and suppliers who could be useful to you. Be creative with your stall, advertising your best products or services, and using props and banners to grab attention. Give away cool goodies, such as those socks, or stationary, and wrap them in a tote bag for some easy advertising, and make sure you are ready to answer any questions that anyone might have for you.

Be Controversial

Content marketing with a blog, either separately, or one your website, is a great way to gain traffic from search engines and reach a significant audience. But, it’s often the more controversial posts and opinions that get noticed. Obviously, this is a risk, and you may alienate some people, but your true fans are likely to share your ideas, and it will certainly get people talking about, and so googling your business.

Most businesses and entrepreneurs will need to experiment to find the marketing methods that work for them. Your audience might not respond to everything on this list, and some things will undoubtedly be more effective than others. Don’t be scared to try new things and remember to give campaigns and ideas a chance before giving up on them and moving on to the next.

4 Ways To Ensure Your Business Stands Out Online

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |Stand Out Online|4 Ways To Ensure Your Business Stands Out OnlineAre you looking for ways to ensure that your business is able to stand out online? This is important because if you don’t do this then it’s going to get lost in a massive ocean of competition. Luckily, there are some great ways to give your business brand the edge and guarantee that you are not forgotten.

Create A Persona

It’s important to understand that the typical customer doesn’t want to buy a product from a brand. They want to feel like they are buying from an individual. They want to see the evidence of people behind the brand. This is often referred to as ‘showing some skin’ and revealing that you care about more than just pushing profits. Some brands are brilliant at doing this through the use of social media. If you want one of the best examples of this just check out Wendy’s Twitter feed. They regularly get attention by joking with other brands as well as their followers. They’ve developed a fun way to engage with the audience and create memorable content at the same time.

Dynamic Design

Most of the websites that you click on when you’re searching for a product or service online have a stagnant design. There’s no movement, no real immersive feel and this can be a missed opportunity. Particularly, if your sector or the product you are selling lends itself to something more dynamic. You may want to explore design concepts that will allow you to bring your pages to life and ensure that your users can connect with them in exciting new ways. For instance, you might want to think about turning interacting with your web page into a fun game as long as it’s not too distracting or complex. This can be a form of guerilla marketing. You can click here to find out more about creative design services and guarantee that your website is one in a million.

Connected Campaigns

You might also want to think about how you can connect different areas of your campaign online. One of the benefits of doing this is that you can make sure that your customers start somewhere like social media and end up on your website. Or the connection can work in the opposite direction. It can be a two-way street and this could be very useful if you take the right approach here.

Deliver Value

Finally, you do need to make sure that you are showing your customers, followers, and users the value of connecting with your brand online. There are lots of ways to do this. For instance, you might be using email marketing. This is only a dead tool if you are using it the wrong way. With the right tactic, you could see tremendous advantages here. For instance, you could create content that is directly targetting a specific group of users. Or give them access to exclusive vouchers and codes for great deals. There are countless directions to take here.

We hope you love these ideas and look forward to implementing them into your own business marketing campaign.