There is a difference between simply reaching consumers and actually engaging them. Effective engagement requires salespeople to take a sincere interest in customers’ needs and desires. In order to determine whether businesses are actually engaging customers or simply reaching them, salespeople need to ask themselves: Am I promoting a product or solving a problem?
True engagement requires relevance to be at the center of sales initiatives. All parts of marketing campaigns – from message to collateral – should reflect how products and services provide a solution to customers’ problems to ensure engagement. Customers with high-rise apartments in New York City are not going to buy lawn care supplies, and they will almost certainly feel disengaged from any company offering these products to them. Engagement extends beyond simple marketing, it’s an extension of brand management.
Engaging Customers
So how do you effectively engage consumers? Ultimately, it’s a matter of hitting the right person with the right message at the right time through the right avenue. By showing customers you are offering a relevant solution to the problem they are facing, you can create a special connection with your prospects.
Going back to the previous example, a prospect in a New York high rise may not buy lawn care products. However, they could be in need of an air conditioning unit. By leveraging a variety of sources and information (their location, their living conditions, seasonal data, etc.), a home care retailer could craft a campaign that is relevant to their needs – in this case, an air conditioning unit.
Achieving engagement forces salespeople to truly understand their customers. In addition to knowing the needs of leads, they also have to understand which communication platforms they use. This ensures they are actually reaching customers in a way that makes sense to them. For example, younger consumers are more likely to use social media, whereas older prospects may read newspapers and direct mail more frequently.
Campaigns should be designed with this data in mind. While it can seem like a lot of work to customize initiatives specifically for consumers, technology is improving to the point where it can be leveraged to quickly and effectively personalize promotional efforts for individual prospects.