Rashida
There are hundreds of thousands of articles on how to write and distribute content.
But there is not enough written about what to do with that content once it’s been produced.
This blog is for marketers who want to know how to captivate their online audience and turn them into customers.
Here are our top 10 strategies and best practices for engaging, converting, and retaining your customers’ attention.
Find Your Target Audience Online
First thing’s first, you need to know how to find your target audience online. Start by creating (or refining) your customer avatar. Your customer persona should describe a real person, not a vague demographic. If your current target audience sounds something like “Working women 25-40,” then it’s time to re-evaluate your avatar.
Instead, you need to get specific. Describe a person. Your target audience is Jane, a young mother of two who works full time and does Yoga 3x a week. Or maybe it’s Rachel, a single millennial dog-mom with a plant obsession who’s struggling to build her savings.
Don’t just rely on opinions to build out this persona, use data. Leverage Google Analytics to learn more about your customers, like who they are, what they do, and where they are online. The data you collect from your visitors will tell you a lot about what content they enjoy, their behaviors, and the channels they use most.
How to Reach Your Target Audience Online
Once you know who you are looking for, it will be easier to find them. The key to engaging and converting customers is to reach them where they’re at.
Here are some tips for how to reach your target audience online:
- Evaluate the current user base of several platforms. Look into the demographics of who uses which channels. For example, the audience Twitter is quite different from that on Instagram, which also differs from Facebook. Note that some people are likely to be on several platforms, but your goal is to figure out which are the most impactful.
- Look at their activity. Start to follow and monitor people who fit your target audience. What are they doing online? How do they interact with brands? Social listening will give you a good idea of what you need to do to engage your audience.
- Cross-promote your brand. Your target audience may know of your website, but perhaps they didn’t know you had other platforms. Cross-promote your brand to help people find you online.
- Build your online audience. Many of the strategies that we’ll soon discuss for engaging your online audience will apply here are well, but of course, you need to start by building your online audience.
How to Engage an Audience Online
Valuable Content
Content marketing is one of the strongest audience engagement tools out there. It’s all about delivering valuable, relevant content to your audience. You grab their attention and interest while building trust with this content. According to Hubspot, “marketers who prioritize blogging as a serious priority are 13x as likely to see a positive ROI.”
Here are qualities of an effective content marketing strategy:
- Consistency. It’s not a one-and-done method. You need to commit to content marketing, producing and sharing content regularly.
- Quality. The content must be well-written so that it’s engaging and interesting to your target audience. Google and other search engines prioritize quality content as well, so that will make it more likely to show up in front of your target audience.
- Value. The vast majority of your content should provide value to your audience, not just promote your business. Provide your audience with tips and tricks, tutorials, helpful information, and more.
- Relevant. The content should be relevant to your brand, your audience, and their needs.
Leverage Metrics from Multiple Channels
Data is a key part of not only defining your audience but also engaging them. You need to understand how your audience moves through and engages with your brand on multiple channels. You should also look to layer this data together for a comprehensive view of your customer experience.
Gather Feedback from your Audience
Another excellent way to engage your audience is to ask them for feedback. This not only encourages communication but can also help you make key improvements in your business. Ultimately, you can leverage feedback from your audience to create a better experience, and this will drive conversions.
When asking for feedback, make the process as fast and simple as possible. Ask for ratings or multiple-choice options when possible, and do not require people to sign up for accounts to give feedback.
Of course, you can send feedback via email after purchases, cart abandonment, etc. However, you can also use social channels to gather quick, engaging feedback. Leverage features like stories and polls to quickly obtain feedback.
For example, you could ask if people want to see a blog about X or Y and have it as a poll on your Instagram (or Facebook) story. People can vote with one click, and you will be able to get a good idea of what your audience wants to see.
Feedback may also be more elaborate or in-depth than that, but it’s easy to incorporate into your existing social media/content strategy.
Engage First
You do not need to wait for your target audience to engage with you. Take the first step by interacting with them.
On social media, this may mean commenting on photos, reaching out to them with questions or promos, etc. It can also include sending out emails to cold or warm leads, following up after purchases, and more.
Every time you engage first, your name shows up. This helps build familiarity, which may help prompt future interactions.
Automate Marketing
Create a well-oiled marketing machine that reduces manual labor. Why? It lowers the chances that you forget to follow up or send out something important. It can streamline the process of moving leads through your funnel, and help create a better experience.
There are many ways to automate the process including:
- Set up email campaigns based on user activity.
- Assign tags to people in your list. For example, a user that abandoned their cart gets a certain tag, one that purchased within the last 30 days gets a tag, etc.
- Remove people from the segment when they complete the desired action.
- Automatically personalize pre-formatted messages with the person’s name.
- Intervene personally when needed, like if the customer asks a question or needs help.
How to Convert Your Online Audience
Engaging your online audience is just part of the process. You also want to close leads by converting them.
Here are some key strategies for converting more leads:
Give Something First
Trying to push a sale too early is a common mistake that causes many lost conversions. Instead, of fixating on what you want to get from the other person, concentrate on what you will give.
One of the best ways to start out the conversion process is with a freebie. Giving away something first helps to build trust and reciprocity. An example of this is the Snack Factory started to offer free samples of flat pretzel crackers, and they found that the conversion rate of samplers was very high, between 25% and 30%.
Content marketing is something free you are giving, but it often takes more to differentiate your brand.
Instead, take it a step further by offering something else for free (that doesn’t break the bank). A common example is a checklist or downloadable white paper.
Here are some tips for freebies:
- Opt for things you only make once (not customizable options). When you make a checklist, everyone gets the same freebie.
- Choose something that’s inexpensive and will not cost your business money to give away.
- Send the freebie to their email, this way you collect the email address.
- Make the freebie part of a larger funnel to bring people to a bigger offer.
Focus on Value Over Price
Rather than promoting a highly affordable price for your offer, focus on its value. Explain what it will do for the person, how it helps them.
If you fixate on low prices, you will soon enter a race to the bottom. You turn your offer into a commodity and one that someone else can beat simply on the basis of price.
Instead, focus on framing your offer based on value. Organize it in a way that does not zoom in on the cost. This allows you to remove the cost from the equation in the buyer’s mind, and get them to make a decision based on the value you bring.
Always Include a Call to Action
Don’t leave it up to your visitors to complete the desired action. A simple reminder goes a long way! That’s why you should always include a call to action in your emails, content, and social media.
Add a clear, definitive call to action in all marketing efforts. This eliminates the need for guesswork, helping to nudge people in the right direction.
Of course, the call to action will vary depending on the customer’s stage in the journey. For example, you may encourage someone in the awareness stage to “learn more” on your website. On the other hand, the CTA for someone in the awareness stage may be more geared toward booking a call.
Remove Barriers
How many steps are there in your checkout process? How is your website navigation set up? Ultimately, converting should be fast and easy for customers.
Carefully assess your website and entire customer experience for obstacles. What things are getting in the way of people converting? Do they need to enter too much information to complete the purchase? Is it too difficult to schedule a call?
Identify barriers that may get in the way of conversions, and remove them whenever possible. Again, leverage online data and customer feedback to find out why people do and do not convert. This will help you improve the process.
Some common tips include:
- Allow people to checkout as guests
- Reduce the # of fields people must fill out to complete a purchase
- Use calendar scheduling software for booking calls
- Accept many different payment methods
- Make sure your checkout page adheres to your brand image and looks professional
Never Stop Learning
Every business and its target market is unique. What works for other industries or companies may not work for you.
Be flexible, and always be willing to adjust your approach. Measure your engagement and conversions consistently. Look at what works and what doesn’t. Try to do more of what works. Ask questions and incorporate feedback.
The key is to never stop learning. As the market, technology, and competition change, so must you.
Get Help From Professional Content Writers
When you really look at it, engaging and converting your audience all boils down to how you communicate. At every stage of your customer journey, quality content is essential.
If you’re looking for how to engage an audience online, a huge part of the answer is with words.
That’s where our professional content writing service can help. Between running and growing your business, there’s not much time left for writing.
Leave it to our trained content writers to handle your email newsletters, web copy, blog posts, social media copy, and more. We know how to take your ideas and transform them into compelling content for your target audience.
When you work with Content Cucumber, you get access to a dedicated editor and writing team for all of your content needs. Whether you already know what you want to be written or need a more hands-off approach, we have the solution for you.
See for yourself how our writers can help you engage and convert your audience. Order your sample article today!
