Excellent customer engagement is a two-way conversation, and content is the primary medium for brands to initiate and maintain this conversation. Brands can engage with customers through various channels, including email, social media, community forums, etc. In order to boost their customer engagement, brands are always on the lookout for innovative engagement strategies. Engagement marketing is one such strategy that brands continuously deploy to stand out and engage with their customers.

Through effective engagement marketing, brands aim to increase customer engagement by delivering personalized messages and interacting with customers through any channel they prefer. Add machine learning to this mix, and brands can also predict customer behavior, recommend products, address customer concerns and give them what they want.

For instance, Netflix uses AI marketing, machine learning, and customer interaction data to curate a list of movies and shows specific to each individual user. As customers select and stream content, the Netflix algorithm learns more about the viewer and recommends content that the customer will enjoy. Thus, subscribers and referrals remain loyal to Netflix.

The most accurate way to gauge the impact of an engagement marketing strategy is through the interaction or engagement rate. Interaction rates indicate how many people connect with your brand and how often. A high interaction rate means more people comment, like, share, and mention your brand and content.

Components of engagement marketing

Engagement marketing is an omnichannel approach that uses email marketing, content marketing, social media marketing, and marketing automation to build an inbound marketing campaign that engages customers.

It helps brands create meaningful interactions with customers rather than just flashing ads in front of them. Here is how:

1. Recommending products and services based on customer’s past purchases and preferences
2. Personalizing customer communication in accordance to their social media interactions and online behaviour
3. Assessing and assisting customers through engagement on every stage of their purchase journey
4. Creating long-term affiliations with customers after acquisition and retain their loyalty through customised updates, after sale service and product recommendations
5. Using a variety of marketing channels to communicate effectively with customers on their needs and unique requirements

Solving problems through engagement marketing

In today’s constantly connected digital world, customers see about 3,000 ads/messages daily, of which they only remember 4 on average. That presents a challenge for brands. Customers don’t like to be flooded with brand messages or ads. However, that does not mean they don’t enjoy shopping. Thus, brands need to figure out a solution to reach their customers. That’s where engagement marketing comes in.

Brands can leverage engagement marketing to:

Low costs and high returns

According to an Adobe study, brands that adopt a robust engagement marketing strategy gain:

Simply put, by engaging with customers, brands can build trust and drive loyalty from them, resulting in higher brand revenue.

Interaction rate is the key metric to measure customer engagement 

Did you know that 74% of customers are more likely to buy a product promoted with branded engagement marketing? Customer-centric marketing is key to the growth strategy for brands. 

One of the biggest mistakes brands make is focusing on the number of followers, fans, or views. These statistics are practically worthless online, where most users often abandon pages and social media content.

Instead, brands must consider statistics and relevant metrics such as the interaction rate. Interaction is when customers actually look at a brand’s published content and then take action to engage with it. This interaction could be either liking, sharing, commenting, or accepting an offer. There are 3 levels of interaction: low, medium, and high.

Low: liking a post

Medium: commenting on a post

High: clicking on a call to action (CTA)

While it is ideal to have high interaction, low and medium interactions are also vital to measure engagement. However, a high interaction rate is necessary because it leads to a measurable ROI for the brand. For instance, a viral campaign boosts the brand’s profile and often leads to increased website traffic. Similarly, when customers click on a CTA, they either place an order or sign up for the brand newsletter.

Newsroom AI leverages interaction rates to drive meaningful customer engagement 

Huella’s partner – Newsroom AI helps brands connect with their audience, create engagement, generate leads, and drive sales. Newsroom AI supports leading brands, publishers, and creators to take their ideas to life using the Web Stories format. 

Customers find tappable story content more appealing than lengthy articles. About 75% of smartphone users read or view social stories at least weekly. Newsroom AI creates relatable customer experiences that drive an emotional response using authentic and meaningful brand-supported visual content. 

Sajid Abdul Rahiman, Director of Partnerships at Newsroom AI, firmly believes that, “Using innovative and immersive products such as Conversations Ads, Interactive Videos and Brand Stories in conjunction with highly targeted programmatic media allocations, our partners and clients are assured not just of capturing the attention of the relevant audience at their desired price points but also continue to engage with the users that lead to positive brand association and successful KPIs.”

Newsroom AI uses various forms of content such as images, videos, text, CTAs, and more to generate successful brand stories. 

Conclusion

In 2022, brands can no longer rely on third-party data and cookies to offer a personalized customer experience. Instead, the focus must be on using AI-driven engagement strategy and automation tools that enable brands to drive a more customer-centric approach. To achieve this, instead of focusing on the number of followers, fans, and subscribers, brands need to look at how their audience interacts with the published content. Brands that focus on interaction rates and prioritize quality customer experiences will be the ones that will achieve their business goals successfully. This means that redefining marketing strategy is paramount. At Huella Services, we recognize the significance of interaction rate to measure the success of any customer engagement strategy. Thus, our team and partners like Newsroom AI offer innovative solutions that enable brands to increase their interaction rate through effective engagement strategies.