Creating a Loyal Audience with Engagement

How important is a loyal audience to the health and success of your business? We’ve been focusing on Facebook, lately, and for good reason. So just assume we’re talking about your Facebook audience. One of the biggest buzzwords in Facebook business conversations is “engagement.” Yes, indeed, getting that from your audience can be a tough nut to crack.

When you increase engagement, it can result in greater audience loyalty. It can also mean they are loyal to you. I’m going with starting from scratch and figuring out what works to gain more engagement. If you continue hitting the mark, then you’ll steadily build loyalty.

Let’s talk about what’s possible – and doable.

Have you considered what it means for people to be engaged with you? Think about those (businesses) with whom you are engaged; I mean genuinely engaged. How do you “feel” about them?When true engagement exists, there’s a strong emotional connection. In many ways an investment has developed over time. And with that connection there’s an undeniable feeling of belief in what is being done. In the case of your audience, they believe in you, what you tell them, etc.

What does that mean and what can you do, starting today in fact?

Eat the elephant one bite at a time. (Sorry for the cliché.) Begin getting your audience to make an investment of time with you. Compel them to give you attention, and then more of it each day. That way, it’s the bud of a relationship and there are lots of ways to do this. You know of some already, I’m sure of it. If it has not been working, then you need to troubleshoot the reason why.

Consider all the ways you can do something different that makes you memorable to your audience. It’s not so hard to do this. Compare yourself to other online businesses. You most likely subscribe to newsletters, right? If you have a list, how do you stack-up against the people behind the newsletters you read?

Here’s a big hint…

Personalization – and I do not mean using first names in autoresponder emails. Here’s something I see very few email marketers do: make yourself available to your subscribers. It’s easy but obviously requires a commitment of time. Are you willing to do that in the interest of building audience engagement?

Simply make your subscribers know they can email you with questions or concerns. The majority of email marketers avoid this because it can be time-consuming. But doing it will make you stand out and remembered. And it will build relationships and build digital “face time.”

A Tribe of Loyal Followers

Give to your audience. In many ways this can be viewed as rewarding them. It is transactional, of course, but it will also help build engagement and loyalty. Think of it as building a tribe of loyal followers. Large corporations know how to do this very well and it works like gangbusters.

What can you do in your business? Do you have a rewards program? You need to be creative and get away from the minimal-investment mindset – if you have one.

Here’s a powerful tool to help build your loyal following on Facebook.

Tags: audience engagement, audience loyalty, business loyalty