Keeping customers engaged in your brand is basic Business 101, as all business owners are well aware. Although another major lesson of Business 101 is getting customers, another lesser-known lesson every business owner should learn is how to maintain customers. Although initial sales from customers are what all businesses strive for, you have to have an action plan in place to keep them coming back. We’ve taken the liberty to break this down for you so you know the best approaches out there to keeping them happy and coming back.
Check out the following ways successful business are keeping their sales up with customer engagement strategies.
Rescue Abandoned Carts
The dreaded abandoned cart notification can be anxiety-inducing for all business owners, but it doesn’t have to stay that way. Once you get an alert about an abandoned cart, don’t panic. Instead, check out the following ways you can get your customer clicking back on that cart and saving the day with abandoned cart recovery.
- Text them – one of the best ways to get their attention is through their phone, so send them a text reminder with a link to their cart
- Send an email – email reminders are another great way to get them clicking back on their cart, especially if you use eye-catching subject lines personalized to the customer
- Promos – if in doubt, send them a specialty coupon created specifically for the item in their cart or one you always use for abandoned carts
- Check out indicator – make sure you have some type of check out progress indicator that tracks the checkout process for the customer, this can really help them from getting frustrating while waiting to check out
You don’t have to feel dismissed by your customers because of abandoned cart notifications. By having a recovery plan in place, you’ll be sure to get them coming back. Be sure to be created and personalized with your approach as customers typically respond better when they are being called on. Also, keep it captivating and to the point, being too wordy can potentially turn them away from finishing. When it comes to abandoned cart recovery, it’s all about balance.
Social Media Contests
Social media will be your biggest and best tool when it comes to customer engagement. Because there are so many different platforms, this means there are many different ways to create and maintain engagement with your consumers. One great way to turn your followers into customers and vice versa are to host social media contest. You can get as creative and in-depth with these contests as much as you want. However, if you are struggling with some ideas, see the following for some needed inspiration:
- Like and comments to win – as the name states, liking and comment on a post from your business’s social media page can act as an entry for a prize
- Sharing a post – encourage your followers to share your post for a chance to win
- Photo caption – post an image to your business’s social media page and have your followers create a caption with the best one winning
- Follow to win – like commenting or liking a post, encouraging people to follow your post not only acts as an entry, it also gets more people noticing your business
Push Notifications
Another sure way to keep your customers engaged is to enable push notifications. Push notifications are not only extremely flexible but you can get creative with them, too. These pop-up messages tend to be very short reminders that can show up on mobile or desktop screens outside of a browser. Push notifications can be used for all sorts of things, including the following:
- Special offers
- Events
- Abandoned carts
- In stock alerts
Although you can use push notifications for just about anything, you do need to focus it more on the customer and securing a transaction. They also need to be compelling and engage the customer to want to spend more time with your business’s website. One slight drawback to push notifications is that most of the time, customers will need to subscribe to them. However, if you have a compelling pop-up asking customers to sign up, they should have no issues with getting future push notifications and also shows they are already engaged with your content.
Chat Boxes
Setting up a chat box is also a great way to keep your customers engaged because it gives your customers access to a virtual customer service aspect. These chat boxes serve as an automated service that helps your customer not only with their experience with your business but also with building communication. This also makes your customers feel more comfortable and that they are speaking with a representative with your business, regardless of whether it is a real person or just a bot. The fact of the matter is that it makes them feel more invested in your business.
You Too Can Keep Customers Engaged
You don’t have to spend a lot of time or money to keep your customers engaged. It does take some creative thinking and the ability to try new resources, but it can be done. Whether it is with abandoned cart reminders, social media contests, push notifications or chat boxes, there are many tools out there at your disposal to keep your customers coming back.
