What Are The Different Levels Of Customer Engagement?

There are many different levels to customer engagement. This can be important to consider when building a comprehensive and varied marketing strategy – some companies can end up focusing too much on one stage of the funnel (such as focusing on new customers and neglecting loyal customers), which can lead to you losing customers at other stages. Below are the five main levels of customer engagement and how to nurture each of these consumers.

Aware consumers

The first stage of engaging customers is to make them aware of your company. Aware consumers are those that haven’t yet used your company and who may not even show an interest – however they are familiar with your brand. Most of us are more likely to use a company if we’re familiar with them, which is why building brand awareness is so important.

You can build brand awareness by using advertising strategies such as PPC ads, posters, billboards and flyers. A marketing agency can serve as a brand catalyst, helping you to build this awareness and helping you to construct a recognized brand, which typically requires elements such as a memorable company name, eye-catching logo and identifiable color scheme.

Leads

Leads are consumers who are yet to become customers, but who show genuine interest and potential. To generate leads, you need to not just make customers aware of your brand, but appeal to their wants and needs.

There are so many different marketing strategies that you can use to acquire leads. Creating engaging informative content is often a great way of building leads – detailed product descriptions and explainer videos are great for hooking customers’ interest. You can also use sales pitches, tasters and demos to get consumers interested. Generally speaking, lead generation is best achieved by targeting your marketing at specific consumer groups using personalised strategies. Not everyone is going to reeled in the same way.

New customers

Only by turning leads into customers can you make money. Some leads will naturally convert themselves, while others will need more convincing – it’s important to nurture both types of leads.

For those leads that are already willing to buy your product, you should focus on making the payment process as easy as possible – promising leads may still be scared away if you don’t offer enough payment options or if your checkout process is overly complicated. When it comes to leads that require extra persuasion, you may have to do some negotiating. Things like follow-up phone calls, pop-ups discouraging people from leaving your website or last minute discounts can all be used to convert undecided leads.

Loyal customers

Loyal customers are customers who continuously use your service or continuously buy your product. These types of customers can help you to maintain a steady flow of income without having to constantly convert new leads.

You can generate loyal customers by nurturing your new customers. Don’t just focus on taking their money – check back on them by asking for feedback and support them with the product or service if necessary. Offering return discounts or introducing loyalty reward schemes can be another way of helping to encourage loyal customers. All in all, don’t neglect the customers you already have.

Advocates

Advocates are not just loyal customers, but customers who are willing to fight to defend your brand and who take it upon themselves to recommend you to others. These customers can essentially provide free marketing for you.

Every business should aim to build customers that are advocates for their brand. This typically involves getting to know your customers and rewarding them for their loyalty. You can even introduce a referral program that encourages customers to help find you new customers in exchange for rewards.