The dawn of social media influencers, the continual increase in tech-savvy consumers, and the ability for brands to interact with customers via digital platforms, means that the opportunities to encourage engagement with your brand are on the rise like never before.
Engagement with your brand can take many forms – from encouraging likes and shares on social media, to the smart use of hashtags to get your brand noticed – there are multiple ways you can reach out and connect with customers, encouraging them to take a desired action, and it starts with “why”.
Why would your target audience care about what you’re doing, and how can you make them care?
Whether your objective is to move more products off the shelf, get new customers to sign-up for a free trial, increase the number of subscribers to your email newsletter, or spread the word about your brand on social media – engaging customers with your brand is about inspiring them to take action.
In a digital world that is saturated with content, imagery, videos, and more, personalising and creating a multi-layered experience for the customer will get you much more engagement than a standard awareness or advertising campaign.
A great example of this is the Photo Booth – used for weddings, functions, and corporate events – Photo Booths have become the hot new trend for ensuring your brand name gets out there. With the ability to customise the software to include your logo, and any other bits of information you like, customers take photos of themselves with props, which they later post to social media.
The trick with a Photo Booth is that the customer has a fun experience that they associate with your brand, and you can request that they perform an action before being able to use the Photo Booth – such as signing up to your email newsletter. Then, once they have taken their photo, encourage them to share it on social media with your predetermined hashtag, to be entered into a draw to win a prize. You get customers to perform multiple actions, you can measure the Return on Investment, and they have a positive, fun and interactive experience with your brand.
Photo Booths have become popular, and are very effective, but now we can take this a step further. Developments in technology have presented us with even more fun ways to engage with customers, through a Selfie Mirror (https://vimeo.com/235843145), 360 Photo Booth (https://vimeo.com/200357531), and a Graffiti Wall (https://vimeo.com/187365587).
Customers love to new and novel experiences: The Selfie Mirror allows for full interactivity including the ability to sign and customise the image with emojis, the 360 Photo Booth takes both video and stills from 360 degree angles, and the Graffiti Wall allows you to get creative with your photos like a life-size Photoshop.
So how can these tools be put to good use?
- Decide what action you want your customers to take. Try to stick to two or three actions, as too many overcomplicate the process, and make sure it’s quantifiable. Remember, you want results, not just awareness.
- Figure out what you’re going to offer the customer in exchange for their action – an experience with a Photo Booth or Selfie Mirror, for example. Then work out how you can incorporate your brand into that experience.
- Include ways to maximise on engagement and create a lasting impression – think of follow-up actions. These are additional actions customers can take for additional benefits beyond the use of the Photo Booth, such as posting the image on social media along with your chosen hashtag to be entered into a prize draw.
The most successful engagement campaigns put the customer at the heart of their strategy to inspire others to take action!
