In today’s competitive market every customer matters more than ever. Your marketing must work harder and go further, to not only attract new customers but to keep existing ones engaged too. The experience your customers have sets your business apart and can keeps you one step-ahead of your competition.
Engagement is the foundation of a successful customer journey. Each interaction with your customers helps to build their connection with your brand, turning initial interest into long-term loyalty.
As a leading digital marketing agency, LOCALiQ has a wealth of experience helping businesses like yours generate sales leads, build meaningful relationships with audiences and create loyal customers. Below we’ve put together everything you need to know to about creating engagement in the sales funnel, why it is important and how you can master it.
In this blog, we’ll cover how you can create engagement and win your local audience:
- Creating engagement in the sales funnel
- What is customer engagement
- Why should you care about increasing customer engagement
- Marketing strategies to build customer engagement
Creating engagement in the sales funnel
The sales funnel is the name given to a model which is used to show the journey customers take from initial interest to making a purchase from your business. It visually represents the key stages customers go through before deciding to buy.
Engagement happens throughout the whole customer journey, but it is particularly important in the middle of the sales funnel, also known as the consideration phase. It comes after customers have first become aware of your brand, products or services in the ‘building awareness’ phase and, is followed by the ‘drive conversions’ phase where customers have made the decision to make a purchase.
This part of the funnel is about being remembered and encouraging customers to interact with your brand. It’s all about building a relationship with your future customers and strengthening the connection with existing customers. You may have heard of this referred to as Customer Engagement.
What is customer engagement?
Customer Engagement is the ongoing process of building meaningful relationships with your customers and audiences to create lasting connections. Engaged customers are more likely to spend more and remain loyal compared to others.
Think of it like building blocks where each interaction adds to the foundation. Engagement begins the moment a customer becomes aware of your brand, products, or services and continues after they make a purchase. Every touchpoint along the customer journey (or sales funnel) is important.
The goal with customer engagement marketing is to go beyond one-time transactions and create trust, loyalty and an emotional connection to your brand by nurturing future customers and retaining existing ones.
Did you know that adverts associated with news brands, like the ones we produce for our clients here at LOCALiQ, have a 68% uplift in brand trust!
What do engaged customers look like?
Unlike other marketing metrics, measuring customer engagement can be difficult. It’s not as easy as counting the number of link clicks, or social media posts likes. Rather than being something tangible, customer engagement focuses on how people feel about your brand and how they interact with you.
An engaged customer might do the following:
- Regularly interact with your social media posts
- Share their feedback or post a review
- Sign-up for a loyalty program
- Refer a friend
Whereas a disengaged customer might do the following:
- Have longer durations between signing into their account
- Stop opening your emails as frequently
- Leave negative feedback
- Stop using products or services they’ve previous used
Individually customers who are engaged can be worth up to 23% more than others, whilst disengaged customers can worth up to 13% less.
Why should you care about increasing customer engagement?
Creating engaged customers could be the secret weapon to growing your business. Some companies reported an average increase in revenue of 90% once they had invested in digital engagement strategies.
When done well customer engagement generates loyalty. Customers become advocates for your business, sharing your brand messages, making repeat purchases and referring your business to others.
Building an emotional connection with your customers significantly increases the chances of repeat purchases. When your interactions are regular, consistent, and meaningful, they shape how customers perceive your brand and helps move them along the sales funnel.
Trust grows when you show genuine care by helping solve customer problems and offering information or services that deliver unique value they can’t find elsewhere. This isn’t just about selling; it’s about creating experiences that matter.
Why is customer engagement a game-changer for SME’s?
Mastering customer engagement could provide a real opportunity for small businesses or sole traders to leapfrog over the competition. Building loyal customers and driving growth is even more important as an SME working to a budget and with a limited audience reach. Compared with larger brands having even a few customers drop out of the sales funnel can have a bigger impact on your business.
Salesforce found 80% of customers believe experiences provided by a company are as meaningful as their products and services. Whereas 64% of consumers have avoided brands because of a bad experience in the last year. Small businesses have the advantage of being able to personalise their service to show customers that they are valued individually. Something which is harder for big businesses to do. Building stronger relationships and emotional connections with customers means they are more likely to become loyal to your brand.
Marketing strategies to build customer engagement
Building customer engagement should be an integral part of your wider marketing strategy. Focus on understanding who your customers and audiences are and what they value. Then, deliver consistent experiences that meet or exceed their expectations. When customers feel recognised, they are more likely to stay connected with your brand. In fact, 91% of consumers are more likely to shop with brands who recognise them, remember them, and provide relevant offers to them. Proving how essential it is to tailor messages, offers, and experiences to individual preferences.
In a world where consumers are flooded with information this matters more than ever. Over 60% of customers engage across multiple channels, and they expect a consistent experience regardless of how they interact with you. Provide your future and existing customers with flexible ways to engage with you. Use more than one marketing channel to reach and interact with them such as social media, email and digital advertising.
Below we’ve identified some of the marketing activities which have worked best for LOCALiQ clients looking to build engagement.
Utilise video
Video content is everywhere. It can be short and concise, or long and informative. Video is versatile, entertaining, and typically leads to much higher customer retention. In fact, audiences tend to retain 95% of a message when they watch it in video format, compared to 10% when reading it in text.
Video content is also convenient as it can be viewed and interacted with anywhere. Making it a great tool to use to engage with your customers and to reach a local audience too.
As a video production and digital advertising agency, LOCALiQ can help businesses establish, showcase and promote their brand. No matter what size your business is, we can create a bespoke video that tells your story and captures your audience’s attention.
Use sponsored content to help build trust
Sponsored content allows a business to place editorial style advertising on an already trusted platform such as a news site. This helps brands borrow credibility, making the message feel more authentic. It’s a great way for small businesses to build trust, tell a story or showcase products.
81% of Brits say they trust the news and information they see in their local newspapers and websites. Advertisers experience a 68% uplift in brand trust when advertising in news brands, compared to other media environments. (Source: IPA Databank 2012-2022 UK for profit cases)
As part of Newsquest Media Group, one of the largest publishers of local news in the UK, LOCALiQ are proud to provide trusted, community-rooted journalism through more than 200 local titles in print and online.
Use social media to increase engagement
The power of social media to strengthen customer engagement cannot be overstated. With 68% of consumers saying they follow a brand on social media to stay informed and 73% of consumers saying they use short videos for product research, it has become an important part of the modern customer journey.
Unlike traditional marketing channels, social media allows for two-way communication. It’s easy to build a meaningful connection with your customers and audiences with real-time comments, replies and messaging.
Paid social media adverts can be highly targeted making them one of the best tools for helping brands boost awareness, sales, and engagement. A Bespoke Facebook ad from LOCALiQ puts your brand in front of a relevant and engaged audience with an endorsement from our local trusted newspaper titles.
Win your local audience
With over 200 news brands across the UK, LOCALiQ can connect you with your local audience. Whether you’re looking to attract new customers or strengthen long-term recognition, our Brand Awareness solutions ensure your message is seen, remembered, and trusted. We have the unique advantage of being able to convert our readers into your customers!
Take the next steps
Contact us today to discover how you can attract more customers and grow your business through trusted local news partnerships as part of your marketing strategy. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to boost your engagement.
If you’re not ready to reach out yet, why not learn more about building trust and why it can help your business to grow. Read our recent blog article on the 7 ways LOCALiQ can help you build brand trust here.
