The 3 stages of consumer engagement.
Imagine a world when you could start a business and have people engaged with your company, talking about you to others and not buying anywhere else.
Wouldn’t that be great?
Unfortunatelly that is not usually what happens.
Most companies need to go through three basic stages before they can say they have people really engaged with their brand.
Stage 1- Listen to your market
We cannot engage people if we don’t listen to what they are saying, their wants and needs. We need to understand to which topics they react to, what they expect from us and how they want us to approach them.
Remember, the way we do business has changed a lot in the last few years and the way people buy has also changed.
Today, more than ever, it is very easy to listen to your target market. It is one reason why you should use social media tools.
You can listen and get more information about your target market than you ever dreamt possible.Twitter comes to mind as one of the best tools to listen what your target market is saying.
Stage 2
Build an audience.
We all want and need an audience.This is the moment in your business where you want to create awareness, you want attention. Attention is not easy to get today. People have a lot of options to where to look and I dare to say that the search for attention is the new gold rush.
When you build an audience, you have people that want to get together to listen to you.
This can be done with events, teleseminars, videos etc.
When you do this right, you get people participating with you on an ongoing basis.
The level of trust will increase which in today’s economy is a crucial point for your business.
At this stage is where consumer engagement really happens and it is where word-of-mouth really starts.
Stage 3- Build Your Tribe
Seth Godin was the first to tell us we need to build a tribe, a community that you lead.
The first thing you need in order to build your tribe is to have a cause, a reason why people would follow you, where they feel they can contribute and feel affinity with one another and empowered.
Yes, you can build a tribe around companies and products.
Your position here is different because you help the community with the ideas and concepts and showing where to go, but you don’t lecture.
This is as far as you could think from a one way conversation and it is an important part of this new economy. Social media tought us that our voice matters and that as consumer we have a say and we can be part. Business owners need to embrace this mindset.
On the first 2 stages, you have a lot of control and it is up to you to do it well.
The third stage will follow if you do the first 2 right and if your cause, purpose is really clear to your audience.