4 Tips for Increasing Customer Engagement for Online Retailers

The expectation of an omnichannel customer experience means brands need to create a seamless customer journey across all possible touch points, from e-commerce websites to owned media channels. With 303 million active social media users in APAC, it’s no surprise that customer engagement through social media continues to be a top priority for retail marketers for it’s ability to include personal touches in engagement and build brand advocacy.

Here are 4 tips for increasing customer engagement, based on Digimind’s latest social media report, which studied 15 local and regional online retailers in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia:

• Build brand advocacy
• Act on customer feedback
• Focus on videos, promotions and product releases
• Ensure your Voice of the Customer is up to date

1. Build Brand Advocacy

Word of mouth is gold. Sharing positive experiences, or even a preference for a certain brand can go a long way in helping online retailers reach more potential customers.

To build brand advocacy, online retailers can show their appreciation by interacting with these posts. Liking, commenting on, and reposting content are ways to foster relationships with customers. Don’t forget to get permission first, and credit the person who posted the content!

Furthermore, with Instagram being a hotbed for user generated content, especially for fashion and makeup brands, online retailers can identify potential ambassadors to further amplify their brand message.

2. Act on Customer Feedback

In an age of choice, customer experiences are what differentiate brands from each other.

Keep customers happy by monitoring and acting promptly on concerns and issues raised. Customers who see that brands are actively listening and responding to their feedback, whether by resolving an issue or improving their customer experience, will be motivated to stay loyal. But don’t just look at feedback on your owned social media channels, as more than 85% of users do not include the brand’s handle when sharing their experiences!

3. Focus on Videos, Promotions, and Product Releases

Data collected in Digimind’s Social Shopping in 2017 report found that:

• Online retailers’ official YouTube channels earned an average of 66% of social media interactions,
• Videos account for 45.8% of the top three performing posts by online retailers studied, and
• Promotions and product releases made up 45.8% of the same content

Videos that tell the brand’s story in an interesting and informative manner, can boost customer engagement by leaps and bounds.

Promotions and product releases create opportunities to tell customers about new, exciting products, or take advantage of a good bargain. Following online retailers on social media is a way for customers to be informed of these things, so focus on more of such content!

4. Ensure your Voice of the Customer is up to date

By listening to conversations and discussions on social media, brands can gain insights on customer’s preferences, expectations and aversions. These insights can be used to go beyond customer personas and develop your Voice of the Customer to understand more than which products people are purchasing, but the reason why they are buying certain products.

These insights can help to create content that engages and motivates your customers and in turn improve customer satisfaction, increase sales, and improve retention and loyalty.

In Summary

Increasing customer engagement boils down to three things:

• Understanding the user dynamics of each social media platform
• Leveraging the appropriate social media platforms to engage with customers for content promotion, customer care, etc.
• Aligning the brand’s content strategy with trending conversations, or helping to fill in gaps in knowledge to demonstrate your expertise