As customers transition to buying and communicating via mobile channels, the importance of customer engagement has also increased. Customer engagement is essential in driving sales, and customers who are involved in a positive, engaging customer experience are more likely to offer return business to a company in the future. Today, mobile marketing strategies are becoming increasingly popular to engage customers on the go, and businesses are wise to follow some simple strategies to improve customer engagements via these avenues.
Create a Mobile-Specific Engagement Strategy
Businesses need to remember that mobile shoppers won’t browse and buy in the same manner as traditional online shoppers, so their mobile strategy will need to be very specific. Visitors are typically more engaged on their Smartphones, although they will be consuming less content. Therefore, the mobile targeting strategy should be less restrictive than that of a traditional website in order to immediately engage with visitors immediately after they arrive on the site.
Make a Good First Impression
One major aspect of increasing engagement is to consider what your customers will see in their first use. An app that has been designed well, offers tasteful instructions, and includes features that will help users to get going quickly will make a great first impression on your customers. Each element or screen should be designed by keeping the first-time user in mind. Customers won’t likely spend a lot of time on an app that is confusing or tedious, and even if a tutorial is included, they may abandon their efforts in favor of a simpler alternative.
Spur Engagement with Push Notifications
Marketers should consider sending push notifications to mobile app users based on their previous use of the application and user segmentation. These notifications can include video, pictures, text, and external links that may redirect to specialized landing pages. Local push notifications can also be used to remind users who may not have interacted with the application in a while to check out what’s new.
Use Cloud Apps
Cloud computing offers a variety of features involving modern cloud based apps to innovative cloud phone systems for businesses to slash the expense and time involved in developing new ideas that can take customer engagement to a new level. Cloud computing has completely changed the mobile market by allowing customers to access more features than ever on their mobile devices. The cloud apps can help businesses to create innovative ideas to challenge competitors, as when businesses use the cloud, they will be able to test ideas faster. The cloud makes it possible for businesses to invest their scarce resources where it will matter most: in creating new applications that will work to engage customers and ultimately boost revenue.
Offer Real-Time Benefits and Rewards
Retailers need to do more with their mobile apps than just giving customers the chance to look at products or buy items via their smartphones. Customers will be more likely to utilize your app if they have access to real-time solutions, such as receiving detailed product descriptions when they scan QR codes found on packaging and product labels. Retailers could also show product reviews and price comparisons within their mobile apps given that most consumers will be looking up this important information anyway.
Real world rewards are also important to customer engagement. Linking the points that
users earn within an app to a real world reward like a gift card of coupon can give users an incentive to come back to the app. This is one of the smartest ways that a brand can increase their user engagement.
Put the “Social” in Social Media
Customers are more frequently reaching out to brands and businesses for answers to their questions about products. Unfortunately, many of them are waiting a long period of time to get answers, as business response times via social media just aren’t what they should be. Additionally, your customers will take to social media to express their complaints and displeasure with your lack of follow up. Remember that the more responsive that you are, the more your customers and potential sales will want to engage with you, and this can lead to referrals to friends, family, and social networks.
Integrate Community into the App
Every piece of content found in a mobile app needs to be social, meaning that it should be easy to “like” or share on networks like Twitter and Facebook. By allowing customers to add their own voice and content to a mobile app, you’ll give people a reason to keep coming back. In general, this will also make the app more interesting and engaging.
Customer engagement is crucial when it comes to keeping your customers happy. By following a few simple tips to improve engagement in your mobile marketing strategy, you’ll keep customers interested and loyal to your brand in the future.
Sheza Gary has been a Project Strategist since 2009 and also involved in the launching of startups and tech companies in New York for over 5 years. She has keen interest in writing her own experiences about business plans and upcoming business supporting technologies. She loves public speaking.