Progressing from email marketing to engaging marketing is one of the biggest challenges facing marketers today.
Not only has the market become flooded with a host of channels through which to communicate with your buyers, but your buyers have become inundated with the noise generated by these channels.
The ball is firmly in the buyers’ court as to where they bestow their attention before they even consider whether they will fulfil your call-to-action.
The trick to grasping buyers’ attention isn’t by shouting the loudest — which isn’t going to be possible unless you have a similar marketing budget to giants like Coca-Cola or Walmart — but by getting closest to their ear.
You need to be present on the channels that YOUR target audience seek out themselves and make your content relevant and engaging.
Your digital communication must become like real human dialogue if you want to engage real humans.
Talk to your audience on their level, about things they care about — and do it on the channels they are going to engage with.
The right audience
You can obtain information about your audience by examining the data under the Audience tab in Google Analytics.
Here you can find out details such as locations, demographics and behaviours to help you target the kind of people who visit your website.
Remember that you need to check these details regularly as seasonality, external trends and events — and changes to your own business model — can all affect who your audience is.
Moreover, when you reach out to new audiences with a marketing campaign, Google Analytics is a great tool for monitoring your campaign’s effectiveness.
The right channels
Keeping track of channels can be difficult as new channels are appearing regularly and are gaining attention at a speed that’s difficult to keep up with. This has created a diffuse digital landscape.
This ever-changing landscape makes staying abreast of digital trends a must. Signing up for weekly newsletters from companies that do the hard work for you (HubSpot, IRP Commerce, Econsultancy and so forth) is a great way to do this.
The right content
Now that you’ve found your audience on the channels they use, it’s important to make sure that you engage with them effectively. To do this you need to provide the right content.
Twitter is a great source of information on trends. You can use Twitter Search to see what your audience is talking about and join in the conversation.
In addition, companies that you aspire to be like — and the brands that you stock — all provide content on their blogs, sites and newsletters that you can emulate.
Conclusion
Being aware and proactive are the essential traits that you need for successful and engaging marketing.
Email marketing is still a great channel and still drives sales but, on its own, it is no longer enough. You need to combine your email marketing efforts with a broader approach.
Communicate with your customers via the social media channels they engage with. Share content that interests them.
And always be up to speed on market trends, shifts and events that could affect who your audience is.
