In the fast-paced world of online wholesaling, building a loyal audience is essential if you want to achieve your objectives. Learning how to engage customers is a crucial aspect of this endeavor. With increased customer engagement, you can unlock tremendous potential for your wholesale business and potentially grow your bottom line.
No worries, we’re here to make this easy for you! Bookmark this guide, for it contains 12 powerful strategies to help you boost customer engagement. So, let’s get right into it!
What Is Customer Engagement?
Before we learn how to engage customers, we must first understand what customer engagement is and why it’s important.
According to Serena Miller of Outreach:
Customer engagement is the ongoing cultivation of a relationship between the company and consumer that goes far beyond the transaction. It’s an intentional, consistent approach by a company that provides value at every customer interaction, thus increasing loyalty.
In other words, it’s the process of building a positive and interactive relationship between a business and its customers. It goes beyond just selling products and instead focuses on fostering meaningful interactions and building a strong bond with customers.
Basically, customer engagement involves capturing the attention, interest, and active participation of customers through various strategies and activities. When engaged, customers are more likely to be loyal, make repeat purchases, and become brand advocates.
Research by Gallup discovered that businesses that enjoyed successful customer engagement experienced a 63% reduction in customer attrition and a 55% increase in wallet share. Furthermore, they outperformed their competitors by 23%.
With all this in mind, let’s delve into key strategies on how to engage customers!
12 Powerful Ways On How To Engage Your Customers
When learning how to engage customers, you’ll stumble across several strategies you can try. It can be overwhelming at first, so we’ve compiled the most effective tips for you. Let’s explore them below:
1. Identify your audience
If you want to master how to engage your customers, it’s important to know them first.
Nowadays, people are highly active on social media, making it an ideal space to engage with your wholesale customers. To effectively connect with and captivate them, familiarize yourself with their “language” and ensure that your content is relevant to them. Merely posting content without considering your customers’ interests simply won’t do anymore.
For instance, if your wholesale customers are tech-savvy millennials, incorporate trending topics, interactive visuals, and engaging storytelling techniques into your social media posts. If they’re professionals in a specific industry, sharing informative articles, case studies, and thought leadership content can demonstrate your expertise and provide value to them.
By knowing your audience, you gain insights into the types of content that resonate with them, which permits you to better cater to their needs. In addition, it’ll help you devise ideal strategies for attracting qualified leads, whom you can then recruit using our Wholesale Lead Capture plugin for WooCommerce.
2. Keep your homepage updated
A great homepage is crucial for making a good first impression on B2B customers, which explains why this strategy is on our list of how to engage customers. Therefore, determine what elements to emphasize on your homepage and how to provide valuable insights about your products. Also, craft a user-friendly homepage that’s easy to navigate and that delivers the information your wholesale customers need.
In addition, make your landing page impactful by highlighting your products’ key features and benefits. For example, if you offer a wide range of organic food products, you might want to emphasize their high quality, sustainability, and health benefits on your homepage.
Strategic ad placement can also boost your landing page’s effectiveness. For instance, if you’re a wholesale supplier of fashion accessories, placing ads for complementary items, such as handbags or jewelry, can encourage customers to explore additional products.
Other things that can improve your homepage include intuitive navigation menus, clear calls-to-action, and easy access to essential information (such as product categories, pricing, contact details, etc.).
3. Create a simple purchasing path for your customers
Simplifying the purchasing process can enhance your customers’ shopping experience.
If your customers already have an account on your website, strive to streamline the process as much as possible. Look at how industry leaders like Amazon or eBay simplify the shopping journey for their customers, and take inspiration from their approaches. By implementing a user-friendly purchasing path, you can improve customer satisfaction and increase the likelihood of repeat business.
For instance, consider implementing features such as one-click ordering or saved payment information to expedite the checkout process. By offering a seamless and hassle-free purchasing experience, you can foster customer loyalty and encourage them to return in the future.
Thus, when catering to wholesale customers, provide them with specialized tools that streamline the ordering process. For example, you can use our WooCommerce plugin Wholesale Order Form to simplify and automate the bulk ordering process. This ensures a smooth and efficient shopping experience for wholesale customers, allowing them to place orders quickly and conveniently.
4. Go mobile
E-commerce has undergone significant transformations, offering diverse platforms to cater to customer demands. Case in point, mobile devices such as smartphones have become ubiquitous in people’s lives and now serve as a hub for various activities – shopping included. This is why optimizing your online store for mobile is crucial when mastering how to engage customers.
According to recent statistics, 84% of households in America own smartphones, and at least 79% of smartphone owners have used mobile devices to make purchases online. Also, during the 2022 holiday season, more than 50% of all e-commerce purchases were estimated to have been made using smartphones.
For online wholesalers, enabling a seamless shopping experience for customers on their smartphones is therefore a strategic decision. Just make sure that your website facilitates quick and effortless shopping to ensure enhanced customer satisfaction.
For example, you can implement a simplified checkout process specifically designed for mobile users. This may involve integrating mobile payment options like Apple Pay or Google Pay, enabling one-click ordering, and minimizing form fields to streamline the purchasing journey. All these efforts can greatly enhance your customers’ convenience factor, encouraging them to make repeat purchases.
5. Try crowdsourcing
Crowdsourcing is one powerful way on how to engage customers. On top of that, it enables you to gather data from various sources to tackle the challenges faced by said customers.
To leverage the benefits of crowdsourcing, conduct surveys focused on your customers’ areas of interest. Encourage all website visitors to participate, then ask them to provide suggestions for improvement. Maintain the survey open for a specific duration, such as a week or a month, and ensure you share your survey’s progress and outcomes.
For example, if you’re a wholesale clothing company, you could ask customers about their preferred clothing styles, colors, or upcoming fashion trends they’re excited about. On the other hand, if you’re a wholesale technology provider, you could ask customers for suggestions on improving product features.
Seeking input from your customers will help them feel valued, making it easier to invite them to participate in your sales funnel through email invitations in the future.
6. Surprise your customers
Who doesn’t appreciate pleasant surprises? Customers cherish the feeling of being valued, so why not go the extra mile to delight them?
You can initiate this process by starting small, such as sending personalized emails to warmly welcome customers to your website. Additionally, offering complimentary items like e-books, discounts, coupons, or other incentives can bring joy to your wholesale customers. Furthermore, implementing a pop-up message that delivers these surprises can effectively enhance the overall experience.
For example, you can surprise your most loyal wholesale customers by granting them exclusive access to limited-time offers, discounts, or early product releases. This makes them feel appreciated and privileged, reinforcing their loyalty to your brand.
If you want to offer your clients such special promotions, we recommend using our Advanced Coupons plugins. With these tools, you can offer them coupons, BOGO deals, gift cards, and more. You can even invite your best customers to a loyalty program.
7. Create edgy posts
When learning how to engage customers, don’t be afraid to think out of the box and experiment with content. Remember, crafting captivating posts is crucial for grabbing attention online.
Merely posting content regularly may generate traffic, but what if the conversion rate remains low? To bridge this gap, create content that truly captures your customers’ attention. Avoid generic titles and employ eye-catching visuals such as engaging pictures or graphics. Additionally, consider tailoring your posts to different social media platforms to maximize their impact. Furthermore, ensure that your landing page is optimized to convert the incoming traffic effectively.
For example, let’s say you’re promoting a new fashion collection. Instead of simply describing the collection in text, include high-quality images of models wearing the outfits to showcase their unique style and design. Visual content is more likely to catch the eye of your audience and entice them to explore further.
8. Offer webinars
Webinars serve as interactive online workshops or seminars that are delivered through live web broadcasts using video conferencing applications. These days, they are a highly popular and effective approach when mastering how to engage customers, particularly for B2B buyers.
When planning a webinar, select a compelling topic, preferably one that’s currently trending. You can host the webinar alone or collaborate with a marketing expert to create a more appealing experience for your customers. Inviting a guest speaker is also an excellent strategy.
Of course, allowing your customers to participate is crucial. After all, it allows them to express their thoughts and ask questions, which fosters a sense of importance and involvement.
9. Provide exceptional customer service
At the end of the day, nothing beats exceptional customer service when it comes to promoting customer satisfaction and loyalty.
According to recent data gathered by Khoros, 83% of customers identified excellent customer service as the primary factor influencing their purchasing decisions. Meanwhile, a Hubspot study discovered that 68% of consumers are willing to pay more for products and services provided by companies that are known for exceptional customer service.
The same Hubspot study found that a shocking 92% of customers are inclined to switch to a different company after experiencing three or fewer instances of poor service. Therefore, to avoid such a scenario, provide your customers with the attention and support they deserve!
Thankfully, there are many ways to grant stellar customer care. For one thing, you can promptly address and resolve customer concerns. For another, you can use Wholesale Prices Premium to offer your wholesale customers wholesale prices, various payment gateway options, and other benefits.
10. Seek referrals
Launching a referral program is another excellent way to engage customers. This strategy allows you to tap into new markets and acquire new leads, which is always good news for your bottom line.
Your referral program should empower your current customers to advocate for your business. Give them the resources they need and establish clear incentives and rewards to motivate their participation. For example, you can give discounts on future purchases or provide monetary rewards for each successful referral.
Additionally, it’s important to make the process as seamless as possible. Provide clear guidance on how customers can join the program, refer others, and implement automated referral tracking systems to ensure accuracy.
11. Provide educational content
When learning how to engage customers, it’s important to understand the impact of the right content. Offering educational and relevant content not only helps you build thought leadership in your industry, it also attracts new customers and empowers their decision-making.
There are a number of content forms you can leverage to provide relevant information. Common examples include blogs, whitepapers, case studies, guides, and more. When deciding on the topics of your content, focus on the subjects that your audience is searching for. By providing solutions to their pain points, you can foster trust and build credibility in your niche.
12. Be creative with your approaches
In the dynamic world of e-commerce, it’s crucial to adapt and evolve your strategies. Therefore embrace creativity as you seek to master how to engage customers.
Be bold and stand out! By adopting innovative and unconventional approaches, you’ll capture attention and make a lasting impact.
For instance, instead of simply sending out generic promotional emails, you could create personalized video messages for each of your wholesale clients. These videos could showcase new product offerings, highlight exclusive deals, or provide personalized recommendations based on their previous purchasing history.
In addition, incorporate your customers’ names and specific details in these videos. This will make them feel valued and enhance the connection between your brand and their business. Such a creative approach not only grabs attention but also shows a genuine effort to cater to their needs, leading to increased engagement and loyalty.
Conclusion
The key to conversion is boosting customer engagement. Because the products you offer can only do so much, you must always find a way to keep your wholesale customers coming back for more.
In today’s article, we walked you through twelve key ways on how to engage customers. To recap, let’s review them below:
- Identify your audience
- Keep your homepage updated
- Create a simple purchasing path for your customers
- Go mobile
- Try crowdsourcing
- Surprise your customers
- Create edgy posts
- Offer webinars
- Provide exceptional customer service
- Seek referrals
- Provide educational content
- Be creative with your approaches
Do you have any questions about how to engage customers Let us know in the comments section below!
