The Power of Customer Engagement Marketing: From Chasing Leads to Building Trust
I spent a lot of time in my early days as an entrepreneur trying to acquire customers. It was exhilarating to see my funnel fill with new prospects. That excitement wore off when I realized how much time, effort and money it took to convert a prospect to a client. Add insult to injury, when I did to get new customers, they often didn’t stay long term or weren’t willing to pay me what I was worth. I needed to do better because I was on a hamster wheel of doom and I was starting to hate my job. Soon, I had one of my first ah-ha moments as a business owner. I realized that instead of focusing exclusively on finding new customers, I needed to put effort into building valuable, mutually beneficial relationships with my existing customers. I’ve written this 5 part series of blog posts to share what I’ve learned and help you start building trust with your customers today.
Trusted Relationships are Profitable Relationships
Customers buy from brands they like and trust. Believe me when I tell you, you’re going to have to work hard to earn trust with your customers. Like with any relationship, trust is built over time with consistent, helpful actions and proactive, honest communications. For a deep dive into how to build trust, I highly recommend reading “The Speed of Trust” by Stephen Covey. This was a major game-changer for me. In the book, Covey outlines 13 behaviors that help build and maintain trust in both personal and organizational relationships. These behaviors include things like being transparent, clarifying expectations, and righting wrongs. By implementing these behaviors, Covey argues organizations can build a culture of trust that leads to increased speed, effectiveness, and profitability. Throughout the book, Covey emphasizes that building trust takes time and effort, but the benefits are well worth it.
Trust is the foundation of all successful relationships, and is essential for organizations that want to thrive in today’s competitive market. Throughout this series, we’ll be exploring strategies, tools and tactics through the lens of customer success / customer engagement, but at its core, this aspect of marketing is highly focused on earning and nurturing customer trust.
You Need a Customer Engagement Marketing Plan
Creating a customer engagement marketing plan is critical for businesses seeking to establish a strong and long-lasting relationship with their customers. To ensure the plan is effective, it should begin with thorough customer research, which will help you better understand your customers their needs, and preferences. Once the research is complete, the plan should establish a goal and the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that will be measured to evaluate its success. It is important to determine which strategies will be used to achieve the goal, such as email marketing, social media, or events. Afterward, set out the tactics that will be executed to implement the strategies effectively. The plan should also include a detailed execution plan that allocates resources and budget to ensure the strategies and tactics are executed seamlessly. In summary, a well-crafted customer engagement marketing plan can be a powerful tool for businesses to strengthen their relationship with customers, and ultimately, drive growth and success.