Innovative ways to connect with customers

Connecting with customers is an important approach to ensure long term success of the company. Running a successful business is much more than sales and profit. It’s more about the company’s ability to establish a stable connection with their customers. Through multiple online surveys, it has become an acknowledged fact that by 2020, customer experience will become the key brand differentiator surpassing products and prices offered by the company. Given below are some simple but effective strategies which can be used by your startup to connect successfully with your customers:-

Create an attractive website:

This is one of the most effective strategies all companies must adapt especially during this digital age to connect with customers. According to the survey done by the American Psychological Association, first impressions are formed in 39 milliseconds. For this reason, a positive impact needs to be made on your prospective client within the first few seconds. An unappealing or outdated website develops a negative impression of the company in the mind of the customers.

Also, web design aids the company’s Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy. The website’s SEO fundamentals need to be up to the mark as it contributes to the improved visibility of the content to the customers. Hence the web design needs to be thought of as the digital face of the business and efforts must be given to make it more appealing and attractive.

Provide survey forms:

Online survey forms have become a dynamic method of reaching out to customers in a multitude of ways. Customers can be sent survey forms via web links, texts, emails, social media platforms, etc. The feedback received from the surveys furnishes sufficient statistical data required for analyzing the company’s stated objectives. Apart from this, it also offers the company an avenue of communication that helps in establishing a connection with a huge number of customers.

Designing a survey can be a cumbersome task but it needs to be brief and concise. It is a proven fact that customers tend to fill short survey forms that are to the point, and avoid lengthy ones that demand detailed answers. For designing a customized survey form, some online survey creators like Fynzo Survey, Google Forms, SurveyMonkey, Typeforms, etc. can be used. Using any of these online survey apps, you can create and send free surveys. These apps shorten the task of survey creation by providing companies with templates for creating their personalized survey forms.

Furthermore, receiving feedback from customers about their experience with the company provides insight to drive future decisions. This results in the formation of a truly customer-oriented business. Provide short and concise survey forms through email, text, or social media platforms by creating survey links.

Embrace live videos:

Streaming live videos is a new marketing strategy that offers an extremely high level of interaction and engagement between the company and its customers. It opens a communication channel of live feedback where users can add questions or comments via the platform used to host the video. These can be used to conduct Q&As, meet and greets, “behind the scenes” events, and many more depending on the type of business.

Webinars can be conducted, where the companies invite a famous public speaker to talk about any topic which their customers may find interesting. This is an effective way to attract your customers by discussing something, which they would have an interest in knowing more about. It is also beneficial since it reaches more people in general because of its easy accessibility. So it is a cost-effective way of reaching out to a large number of customers and offering a real-time interaction that brings the audience closer to the company.

Get to know your customer:

Want to know your clients better? There are certain strategies like conducting market research, sending survey forms, or reading their feedback on review sites, that can be used to connect with customers. With modern-day technology, finding out where your customers live can be an easy task. Startups can do this by asking permission through the application, for enabling the “Location” settings on their mobile phones. Therefore customers can be offered the right content depending on the person’s needs. Also by knowing the type of company that your customers work for, can help in delivering the exact type of products he/she is looking for.

Build a contest:

Contests are a great way to increase the engagement of customers on your social media pages. Surveys show that it escalates online audiences for a particular website by almost 34 percent and multiplies email signups by a significant amount. This can be procured by using the steps enlisted below:

• Set the goal you want to reach by hosting this online contest
• Choose the type of prize which attracts customers like a free 1month trial of your services or a discount coupon at some establishment.
• The platform through which you want to host your contest should be chosen wisely

Apart from increasing the number of people who interact with your brand, it also provides means of forming a strong connection with existing customers as well. As a part of the entry process, prospective clients agree to share information such as their emails, phone numbers, etc. which helps the company know more about their customers. It paves the path to connect with customers effectively.

The main goal of these cited strategies is always to put your customer first. To establish the continuous engagement of consumers beyond the initial connection, the available digital resources can be capitalized and digital marketing strategies can be elevated. These can be incorporated to form new brand strategies or improve the pre-existing ones.