Audience engagement.

How one simple change can (and will) change everything.

July 21, 2021

“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” – George Bernard Shaw

Engaging your Audience.

Businesses thrive on numbers, but it’s not only numbers driving the growth of your brand. Audience engagement is a crucial aspect of sustainable business development.

It’s natural that people prefer brands they feel emotionally connected to. In fact, a Deloitte paper cited that 60% of long-term customers use emotional language to describe their connection to favoured brands.

How well do you engage your audience? We mean, really engage. Do you talk at them, or with them? Do they see and engage with one other?

Answer honestly!

While numbers and data insights are important, seamless buyer journeys are about more than just targeted Google Ads and clever marketing slogans.

So, what does audience engagement really mean?

Local audiences, digital footprints.

Demonstrating the worth of your products and staff is about leaving authentic digital footprints in places where your audience will see them. Often this means targeted, local engagement.

There are numerous benefits to increasing local engagement:

People trust people like themselves
Local stories are engaging and authentic
People like to see products and outcomes of service in situ
It’s the fastest way to build engagement and sales momentum
Local authentic content is up to 62% more engaging than equivalent corporate content
Linking your brand with local communities keeps your business top of mind
Localisation builds engagement and trust, which speeds up sales cycles
It leverages horizontal influence over vertical influence
It inspires action and can drive positive change

Audience engagement falls under three main categories:

Business < > audience
Influencer < > audience
Customer < > customer

We all know about categories 1 and 2, but customers are drawn to brands with open channels across all three categories. Many businesses are missing out on vital audience engagement opportunities when category 3 is overlooked, and here’s why:

Humans instinctively look to their peers for guidance on how to live and behave
Consumers look to local peer groups for purchase guidance online
Individuals have become wary of paid advertising and don’t trust on marketing claims alone
User-generated content is priceless for establishing holistic brand connection opportunities

If your marketing is a one-way street, it’s not safe to assume you’re reaching the right audiences, or reaching them in the right way.

Audience engagement might sound complicated and time consuming, but with a local mindset and the right tools, it can be the most rewarding and profitable shift your business makes.

To find out more about Genion and our white-labelled, fully customisable, single point social proof technology, head to genion.com.au