Increasing customer engagement can give your business a head start on achieving the end goal of every company with an e-commerce component: turning website traffic into sales. It can be easier to lead prospects through your sales and marketing funnel and convert them into paying customers if you can first draw their interest with some element on your website, then keep them there long enough to decide that your product or service will suit their needs.
The trick, of course, is knowing which tactics will work best to meet your goal of gaining and retaining the attention of your particular target audience as they consider what you have to offer. Below, 16 members of The Forbes Agency Council share their go-to tactics for boosting engagement with prospects and customers with a specific objective of helping convert their browsing into sales.
1. Make It About The Prospect
From a B2B perspective, making it about them (the prospect) can really help increase engagement. For example, we have a client who is about to launch an online calculator that will allow visitors to evaluate potential energy reductions they could achieve through our client’s tech. The visitor gets a customized report, and the client gets a prospect’s details, so it’s a win-win. – Richard Cook, Champion Communications Ltd.
2. Use Interactive Platforms
We often approach the question of how to increase conversions through retargeting and permission marketing, such as via email or SMS. But to increase customer engagement, it depends. For example, if you are a software as a service company, instead of having a demo video on your site, use interactive demo platforms, such as Storylane. Not only does it let your customers try out your product, but it also captures your visitors’ emails for follow-up. –Yan Zhang, XYZ Advantage
3. Leverage Real-Time Social Proof
Fear of missing out can help drive engagement and sales. Everyone should leverage real-time social proof on their website and landing pages. Tools that leverage this allow you to display how many visitors are actively on the site. You can even customize display notifications in real-time when people make purchases, opt in to an email list, sign up for a promotion or even book an appointment. –Bryan Citrin, Chiropractic Advertising
4. Make It Easy To Check Out
Make the checkout process easy and ensure that all applicable payment options are available—Affirm, Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, and so on. Retargeting potential customers who abandon their carts is another great tactic to adhere to. –Spencer Hadelman, Advantage Marketing
5. Include Video On Your Homepage
Website visitors expect an immersive experience. Short videos are effective at conveying what’s important to your company and introducing visitors to your brand. Including a video on your homepage can increase the prospect’s trust and make it more likely they’ll remember your brand. –Hannah Trivette, NUVEW Web Solutions
6. Utilize Paid Retargeting Ads
Our go-to tactic is utilizing paid retargeting ads on Facebook and Instagram. Getting in front of previous website visitors who had intended to buy with contextual, direct response advertisements is a surefire way to drive more sales on our client’s website. –Jonathan Durante, Expandify Marketing Inc
7. Invest In First-Party Data And Tracking Alternatives
Brands and agencies alike must invest in first-party data and tracking alternatives, or else campaign performance will take hit after hit. With the death of the third-party cookie on major Web browsers on the horizon and Apple’s iOS 14 update that limits mobile user tracking, your search campaigns will fall behind unless you prepare your campaigns now. –Donna Robinson, Collective Measures
8. Tailor Content To Specific Platforms
Content is a major component of the customer consideration phase and cutting through the noise. Having tailored, platform-specific content that is giving the customer the right information at the right time helps drive sales and engagement. We work with our clients to understand their brand messaging and key selling propositions and make sure ads and landing pages reinforce that storyline. –Tucker Matheson, Markacy
9. Give Users Personalized Service Or Information
Though there are many ways to entice user engagement, I’d single out one tactic that has proved valuable and effective across the board: personalization. Sure, giving away free and useful content or partnering with a favorite influencer are amazing ways to generate engagement, but giving the user the service or information they need truly transforms them from an interested prospect into a happy client. –Dejan Popovic, PopArt Studio
10. Optimize Your Sales Copy
Live chat doesn’t really work anymore, except for in specific industries where customers have a lot of questions. Social proof apps, such as Proof, can increase conversions by a lot because they show that people are actively buying the item. The lowest-hanging fruit, though, is optimizing your sales copy. Also, a lot of engagement and relation-building happens on social media before they hit the website. – Sun Yi, Night Owls
11. Send Push Notifications
One of the best ways to really increase your customers’ level of engagement and make sure that they are buying things from your website is to send a push notification to the buyer. This is a great way to ensure that you are able to have access to their phone or email and help them realize that they may have been interrupted and forgotten to finish their transaction. –Jon James, Ignited Results
12. Reward Enthusiastic Customers
Reward customers who participate frequently on the website as well as those who invite new customers. This can be achieved by making them brand ambassadors, recognizing their efforts publicly on social media and other communication channels, and offering certificates and badges. However, the engagement should be in line with the product, and the rewards should not exceed the profits. –Candice Georgiadis, Digital Agency, Inc
13. Offer Seasonal ‘Holideals’
One of our favorite strategies for driving engagement and conversions is to offer “holideals.” Now, this is not a turnkey strategy, but it has shown to be extremely effective when seasonal shopping is around the corner. This involves preemptively building traffic and interest, delivering a series of daily deals, and then following up with a repeat purchasing campaign to fuel lifetime customer value. –Bernard May, National Positions
14. Pair Content With Consistent CTAs
It may seem obvious, but a lot of brands neglect to pair their content with consistent calls to action. The argument for your brand’s products should always be paired with a clear route to draw customers into the sales funnel. If you’re soliciting a customer’s email address for your marketing blasts, be transparent about how it will be used and give them a legitimate incentive to sign up—such as a worthwhile discount. –Tellef Lundevall, Accelerated Digital Media
15. Put Live Chat Functions Up Front
Live chat functions have gone from being a cool gimmick to being extremely important for online shopping. Live chat can allow you to engage your potential customers without being intrusive, provide the answers they are looking for and bring your in-store customer service to your online presence. Your live chat needs to be upfront and present and making sure it is can help increase conversion rates. – Lisa Montenegro, Digital Marketing Experts – DMX Marketing
16. Offer Chances To Win Prizes Or Discounts
One tactic that works really well for our clients is offering customers a chance to win a prize or discount by spinning a wheel or doing some other activity related to luck. All the customers have to do is provide their email addresses for a chance to win. The result is a win-win for everyone—at a bare minimum, our clients collect emails, but a small discount can also push a customer to convert and make a purchase. –Rafael Romis, Weberous Web Design
