In 2016, our culture has been defined as “participatory,” especially online. Recent research reveals that consumers feel rewarded when they share their personal thoughts and experiences. And that insight explains why selfies, food pics, check-ins, and posts about exactly what someone is doing during the day, no matter how boring or irrelevant it is, have taken over the internet.
Because of this phenomenon, consumer brands that want to be successful should try to engage consumers on a deeper level that will foster long-term loyalty. That’s where brand engagement campaigns come into play.
Research from Marketing Week found that nearly four out of five marketers use “engagement” as a metric to prove return on investment.
What is brand engagement, really? There is no exact definition. But basically, it’s the process of building a mutually beneficial relationship between a consumer and the brand that is built on trust and perceived value.
A successful brand engagement campaign will encourage loyal fans and potential new customers to like, comment, and share content on behalf of the brand. There are several strategies that should be considered when a brand is trying to create a successful brand engagement campaign including:
Make it topical. Using relevant topics as the basis of a campaign will encourage consumers to participate in the conversation since they want to share their personal thoughts and experiences.
Make it personal. Try to speak to each user in a way that is relatable and makes them feel like they can have a personal conversation with the brand or other consumer.
Make it shareable. Creating campaigns that feel more like shareable experiences will help with virility.
Make it rewarding. Brands are now rewarding consumers with loyalty points for social interactions like reviews or comments on posts.
It is important to remember that brand engagement should be purposeful. Martin Ashplant, digital director at news brand Metro UK, explained that it is imperative to have a core user base who is genuinely engaged with what the brand is doing rather than relying on trying to hit a big number of users and not focusing on what they are doing when they arrive to the brand profile page.
