An Introduction to Engagement Marketing
Engagement marketing is everywhere these days. If you want to learn more about what it is and what it means for brands, here's a quick primer.
1. What is engagement marketing?
Engagement marketing is a marketing strategy designed to connect with people in a meaningful way with content, continuously over time, wherever they may be. In the digital age, thousands of messages can interrupt daily lives whether they are sales pitches or ads. Engagement marketing helps to cut through the noise and create helpful interactions that humanize the company with buyers and users.
2. What tools and strategies can you use for engagement marketing?
A range of marketing tools and strategies can be used to promote engagement with users and customers. They include email marketing, social media, and content marketing. Adding marketing automation to the mix can also increase the effectiveness of engagement marketing. Always remember your buyers’ goals when creating content.
3. Is engagement the same as social media marketing?
Social media forms an important component of engagement marketing, as I mentioned above, but it is not the only vehicle to engage with your audience. Choose wisely the social media channels that your audience or target personas participate in or engage with already such as Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. You can augment a social media marketing strategy with insightful content such as infographics, articles, and FAQs that inform your audience and help build expertise.
4. What are the benefits of engagement marketing?
Engagement marketing is beneficial for a number of outcomes. For example, you can use it to build an audience and earn trust by answering questions from your audience about a particular product or service; it can be used to educate your audience and help them make decisions or mitigate concerns. You can use engagement marketing to share resources and content that pertain to a specific set of customers or prospects in a particular geographic area. The goal is to be useful, authentic and helpful so that your users or prospects find it beneficial to engage with your brand.
5. Can B2B companies use engagement marketing?
Of course! Even though its B2C companies that have embraced social media to engage with customers and prospects, B2B companies can certainly benefit also. Just because you’re in a “boring” industry doesn’t mean you can’t embrace social media. It’s a missed opportunity if B2B companies aren’t leveraging social media to interact. B2B companies should make Facebook and Twitter part of their overall marketing strategy to connect with customers. Consider companies like Novartis (Pharmaceutical - https://www.instagram.com/novartis/?hl=en) and Hiscox (Insurance) and check out their engaging content on Instagram and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/HiscoxSmallBiz/). Similarly, Pardot, which is a Salesforce tool has its own Twitter account to help connect with its enterprise community and influencers. American Express is a unique example of a company that has both B2B and B2C customers. The goal is to provide content that resonates with you audience. Decide what your goals are and what you want to measure. Do not confine yourself to just LinkedIn as a B2B company.
6. Can you measure engagement marketing?
Engagement marketing is relatively easy to measure and, you should. For example, how many likes, shares, clicks on links, images and videos, retweets and comments did your social posts receive? How many people are participating and how often are they participating? Measuring engagement is an opportunity to determine what is working and what is not, what is getting traction and generating discussion and what is not that engaging. Therefore, measure your engagement marketing tactics and use the learnings to improve your engagement marketing strategy.