You do a lot of marketing. On top of your print stuff, you also do:

  • Social media
  • Blogging
  • Videos
  • Email/newsletters

But how do you get your readers to love what you do?

In a word – engagement. Every thing you do must make a connection with them in some way. To give you a helping hand, here are 5 ideas to make your marketing more engaging.

1. It’s all about them

One of the big mistakes people make is to fill their Facebook page, Twitter feeds, blogs and email communications with information that’s all about them.

You might think that’s what they’re there for – to promote your products and services and in a way you’re right, but that doesn’t mean it should all be about you. Engaging messages don’t involve selling. Instead, they provide tips, advice and useful information that help you establish trust and give potential customers a reason to care about your brand.

In a nut shell, your marketing must focus on what your customers want.

2. Questions

The best way to find out what will help you boost engagement is to ask people what they want. You can do this through email surveys, social media, or through informal networking evenings at your office. If you sell products direct to customers, have an open showroom evening where not only can you showcase your products, you can also talk to your customers to find out what they really want.

3. Conversations

This one is more about social media. Although asking questions is great, you must answer some too.

There’s so much happening on social media it’s very easy to miss questions from fans and followers. If you want to boost engagement and show yourself as a business that is open and approachable, it’s essential you monitor all channels effectively.

If you notice that the same questions keep coming up, why not start compiling and FAQ page for your website?

4. Audience participation

Get your audience involved by encouraging them to add photos of them using your products, creating case studies and blog posts using their experiences, or holding competitions. Whatever you do, they will be far more engaged if they are directly involved with you.

5. No one trick ponies please

When you think of marketing, written forms tend to be at he forefront of your mind. But don’t forget that not everyone likes to get information that way. That’s why mixing in a few videos, podcasts and infographics will help widen your appeal.

6. Human

If you’re one of these people who believe to be in business you have to come across as very corporate and impersonal, think again.

Your customers want to get to know you and that means injecting your personality into everything you do.

What do you do to generate engagement through marketing? Do you use any other techniques? If so, I’d love to hear from you so please leave a comment below.