Consumer participation is all about letting consumers have a say and working together to attain healthy policy decisions from various perspectives.
It also encompasses how consumers think about why they believe in their views and their active involvement in service delivery, which consequently affect production, specificity, and the outcome of the service you provide. It’s important to encourage consumer participation and involvement to spread brand awareness as a brand.
While consumer participation benefits the brand, there are still risks of emotional and behavioral consequences that could lead to frustration and the feeling of betrayal by the employees. Therefore, the success of consumer participation will depend on how you interact with your audience as you encourage them to participate. To help you achieve this success, here are the best practices to adopt.
1. A Personal Invitation
Participation marketing is the next level of marketing as it involves more experimental strategies to help consumers interact with your brand effectively. In today’s business world, consumers want to be involved. According to a survey, almost 70 percent of users will likely become loyal customers after interacting with your brand and your brand’s engagement marketing.
Your brand marketers can encourage consumer participation by personally reaching out through brand messaging. To ensure that the marketers make a compelling personal invitation, enable them to strategically use customer profiles and client user personas to better understand and target the right audience that deserves to be involved in brand activities like campaigns and promotions.
2. An Easy Buy In
Another tip to encourage consumers to participate in your brand’s activities is offering an easy buy-in or appealing to them. It can be a public offer through your marketing messages for your audience to participate in the simplest way, like leaving a comment on a social media post, taking a short survey, or participating in a contest. The best way to appeal to consumers to participate in the brand’s activities is to go with their emotions.
Most people are moved to action by emotions rather than anything else logical. If you have struggled to achieve significant consumer participation, consider working with influencers to get much-needed brand exposure and more people talking about your products and services.
Never stop working on your brand, as how people see it determines their willingness to participate in the brand’s activities and eventually convert. While encouraging consumer participation, avoid sounding salesy and focus more on customer needs.
3. Freebies
Offering complimentary items or freebies is another excellent way to encourage consumers to participate in your brand’s activities. It’s normal to look at freebies as money losers. However, when you handle them wisely, giveaways encourage consumer participation and ultimately offer a guaranteed boost to your sales.
There are various freebie ideas that your brand can offer. Try e-vouchers, free membership/subscription, sample products, discounts, and free shipping, among others. When you offer something for free, consumers can respond in a host of unconscious and surprising ways.
Almost 90 percent of consumers say they are likely to buy from a brand whose premium loyalty membership is held in high regard as opposed to a brand that offers lower prices. Freebies make consumers feel obliged to buy more from you.
With social media becoming a must-have marketing strategy for any brand, companies are now more concerned about word of mouth marketing and reputation management. Freebies can make consumers talk more about your brand, say nice things about your products and services, and can be as effective as traditional advertising.
4. Create Communities
Lastly, brand marketers can encourage consumer participation in campaigns and other brand promotional efforts by creating communities. These communities can be offline through in-store memberships or online through social media followers and online forums. Communities can make a huge difference in how your product will be successful in the market and propel brand loyalty.
Consumers who participate in communities are highly likely to give genuine feedback about their pain points, share experiences with others, and help spread the word about your brand and products. For instance, targeted mailing lists for high ROI can create more than just conversions. A highly-targeted mailing list can help establish client relationships and increase customer loyalty.
Key Elements of Consumer Participation Marketing Strategies
Participation marketing utilizes various elements that make it stand out against other forms of marketing. It is customer-focused, emphasizing convincing people why they should do business with you. Participation marketing focuses on keeping your target audience engaged so they stay around for a long time and continue to build your brand.
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