The Chemistry of Customer Engagement    

Customer engagement has become easier for brands because companies can now reach customers and leads at any time. We can speak to them when they surf to a website in the office. We’re there when they pick up the phone. We’re on the screen when they lift the cover of their iPads and tablets, and pull open a folder of apps.

But although we can reach and engage with customers anywhere and at any time, not every place and every time is appropriate for every sector.

When we make content for the financial sector, for example, we’re really aware that we have to find the right content to be delivered at the perfect time, and to communicate the complex information we want to put across at the right level. It’s not enough to have a good idea. When we hit the spots in our clients’ daily agendas what they’re reading on the subway or browsing while eating their lunch needs to match their mood. It has to be relevant and it has to speak to them at that time, in that place.

That affects how we engage with customers. It affects how we put across the brand’s message, the length of time we allow ourselves to do it and the way in which we deliver the hooks that pull the customer or lead in, keep them interested — and remember what we’re telling them.

The nature of the information with which clients engage affects the way they consume it, and that affects our engagement strategy.

Even though clients consume content and engage with brands using the same devices — PCs, mobile phones, tablets — the nature of that engagement differs with each sector because the needs they have from that sector differ.

Know The Customer’s Expectations, Then Surpass Them

Every client engagement needs a strategy that’s relevant to the client’s life. It has to answer his or her needs from the sector and it has to do it in a language that’s relevant and speaks to them.

That doesn’t mean we can’t be creative. On the contrary, it means that when we’re looking for ways to really engage with customers we have to be extremely creative. When we know what customers expect we can deliver content in a form that’s unusual and memorable. If customers expect a financial video to be full of buzzwords and people in suits, then we can win their trust by speaking plain language and presenting valuable and complex information in a way that’s comfortable to consume and easy to remember.

The biggest challenge for brands is no longer how to reach customers. We know where they are and we know how to put our content in front of their eyes. But enticing those customers to engage with that content, to enjoy it, to trust it, to remember it, to look forward to receiving it again and to credit the brand when they use it — that takes a little more care. It requires an understanding not just of the product and the client, but also the sector and the client’s need from it.

Customer engagement isn’t just about the content. It’s about the right language in the right place.

To learn more about customer engagement in content marketing and what it can do for your business, contact us at contact@astelo.com.

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