Engaging with your customers successfully through Strategic Marketing is crucial for any business but especially for entrepreneurs and small businesses.
Customer engagement is the repetitive interaction between customers and a brand that build and strengthen brand recognition and preference. This association allows for a brand to become the product of choice by consumers allowing for competitive advantage within the market. Engagement has found to be most popular when the product or service has been personalised to specific individuals as it makes the customer feel unique and their purchase appreciated.
Coke has created a very successful personal engagement connection with their consumers through the Share a Coke campaign where coke bottles were printed with personalised names. Unsure of the times, as social media was only still new, Share a Coke focused mainly on TV but quickly found that the excitement and word-of-mouth from consumers was mainly on social media. This then opened the doors for branded social media campaigns globally, allowing for consumers to go offline to find their personalised product and then go back online (social media) to share with all their friends. This campaign resulted in a 6.8% global increase on Coke’s Facebook page and an increase of 2.5% increase in total sales. This campaign resulted in a positive customer response with an increase brand awareness and active search for the personalised names of the customers.
Why Coca Cola Succeeded:
- Made their consumers feel important and valued with the personalisation of bottles
- Made a personal connection
- Shared consumer content on Social Media and Advertising platforms
- Created large amounts of word-of-mouth through successful marketing
How can small businesses do this:
- When sending products, include a personalised letter to the customer
- Personalised replies to customers on all communication and social media platforms
- Posting photos of your consumers using the product on your social media
- Listen to your customers and ensure you respond to their requests
- Promote customer loyalty as two-way
Expected Results:
- Increased consumer brand awareness
- Increased word-of-mouth
- Creation of a relationship between your business are your consumers and target market
- Increase of sales
Whether your business is as big as Coca Cola or is only in the early stages of business it is important to remember your customers and ensure that your products, services and communications are personalised in order to create a high level of consumer engagement.