We’ll Take Brand Engagement For One Million, Alex

Tips for Garnering Loyalty in Your Customer Base

Brand engagement is a slightly contentious topic, as hardcore marketing gurus need everything to be about precise, measurable goals. Any agency worth its salt will tell you that having defined goals and then reaching them is imperative, but it’s not necessarily all there is. While it might not be completely quantifiable, brand engagement represents a significant emotional commitment on behalf of the customer. Beyond brand awareness, it’s old school word-of-mouth marketing and loyalty. And when it comes down to it, it’s hard to even put a price on how valuable those two things are to a company. 

Work It From the Inside

You can’t expect brand engagement from your target demographic if you haven’t secured it from your own employees first. If the business is small enough, get everyone involved in the branding, as that will give the employees a feeling of belonging. Plus, you want all your employees to fully grasp your brand, as everything that comes out of your company - whether it’s products, newsletters, e-blasts, and more - needs to consistently reflect this brand. So make sure your brand is something that won’t just appeal to the consumer. Build a brand that your employees can get behind, too. 

Up Your Brand Engagement Through Social Media

Remember when we thought social media was a passing phase? Yeah, we don’t either. It’s here to stay and is truly the most effective way to get your message to your target demographic. “Engagement” is right in the term, and social media is a great way to offer your clients and customers two-way communications. For better or worse, anyone can go online at any time and write something about your business, so it’s how you handle these social interactions that will separate you from the competition. Connect with influencers, reply to comments, and make sure you handle negative reviews in a way that they become positive ones. We don’t care what anyone says - this kind of social media management translates to increased revenues, market share, and profitability.

Distinguish Engagement From Value

Engaging with your customers is never a bad thing. Of course, you need to add value with at least some of your brand engagement or risk going out of business. The quintessential example of brand engagement that went off the charts without really adding any value was Pokemon Go. You might recall people getting in car accidents, getting the police called on them for wandering into neighbors’ yards, etc. - all due to the mass hysteria this Augmented Reality (AR) game started. It accumulated over 20 million active daily users within the first few weeks. The confounding thing is that these people caught up in the zeitgeist didn’t make a blip for Pokemon Go company Niantic’s bottom line. It sure did have tongues wagging, though.

Go for Broke When it Comes to Emotion

Anyone who has been in advertising, social media, marketing, or all three of these knows that content that has an emotional message at its core is more likely to get forwarded on to others. And because brand engagement is really about eliciting unwavering loyalty, hitting the end user on an emotional level is what it’s all about. There’s a reason cat videos and footage of dog rescues are all the rage. If you can find a way to tie in this kind of message in with your content, ensuring brand engagement is going to be a sure thing.

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We might not be able to get a clear definition of brand engagement that everyone in marketing is going to agree upon, but most experts will tell you that eliciting this kind of loyalty from a customer is invaluable. Not sure how to go about doing it? Let our staff of digital marketing experts work their brand engagement magic. Contact us today.