Category Archives: Audience Engagement

How To Decide What’s Right For You

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Adding live chat to your website is a great way to boost audience engagement. There’s just one question: how do you make that happen? Ultimately, there are two paths to take: buy a live chat solution or build your own solution. 

There’s no universal solution to implement a chat protocol. As a result, there are at least 11 popular instant messaging and chat protocols available on the market today. Experimenting with all of these different solutions is time consuming. Use this buy vs build guide to save time as you develop a short list of chat solutions.

When To Build A Chat Solution

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Some organizations may find it ideal to build (or heavily customize) their chat solution. This approach to live chat makes sense in a few situations.

Must Have Features Are Not Available

You may find that off the shelf live chat software lacks certain specialized features. For instance, you might have an audience that expects a multi-language experience. Or you might have an idea to use AI or cryptocurrency in an unusual way. Building your own solution is a good idea in this scenario.

Engineering Resource Availability

Many companies find that their engineering organizations are fully utilized. That’s not the case everywhere however. You might be in expansion mode and have additional capacity. In that situation, building a custom chat solution for your audience internally may be wise.

Integration Potential

Software companies looking for ways to make their products more valuable might want to build their chat solution in house. If you see a chat as a strategic part of a product, it makes sense to build that solution in house.

When To Buy A Chat App

Buying a live chat solution off the shelf is likely to be the best choice for the majority of brands and publishers. Here are some of the reasons why buying a chat solution might be a good choice.

Chat App Owned By Marketing & Content (No Engineering Support Needed)

Many organizations want to use chat to advance their marketing goals or deepen content engagement. That’s why it is important to seek out a chat app that is made for content, editorial, and marketing teams to run. Ideally, any chat app you buy should be designed to be run by marketing and content specialists with little to no involvement from engineering or product teams.

Fast Deployment

Some chat apps take minutes to deploy while others can take weeks or even months to tweak and customize. If speed to deployment is important, look for no-code or low-code solutions that can be installed and fast. With the right app, you can have a chat app up and running in less than an hour, which can be especially helpful if you need to create sponsored content experiences for clients under tight timelines.

Focus On Audience Engagement

Lifting audience engagement is a top goal for many brands. A highly engaged audience is more likely to give you first party data which you can use to fuel personalized marketing. If you’re already making efforts to grow engagement, adding a live chat solution off the shelf is a good way to get up and running fast.

Common Chat Features Meet Your Needs

Market proven chat features and functionality may be all you need to achieve your goals. For example, features like chat moderation, social reactions, and private messaging are supported in several chat services. If these capabilities meet your needs, taking the effort to build your own solution may not be a wise use of resources.

Four Chat Protocols and Apps To Buy

Buying a chat solution is likely the best solution for most organizations, so we’ll cover these options in more detail. In the next section, we’ll touch on a few ways to build your own chat solution as well.

1. Arena Live Chat

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Arena Live Chat is a great choice for publishers and brands looking to grow engagement on their website.

Advantages:

  • First party data capture
  • High scalability
  • Ease of implementation
  • No in-house engineering support needed
  • Automated + manual chat moderation options
  • Full multimedia support
  • Support for running large chat rooms to engage your audience directly on your website

Disadvantages:

  • Not suitable for customer support
  • Pricing based on views

2. Live Chat

Launched in in the early 2000s, Live Chat is a popular website chat service. It is widely used for website customer service.

Advantages:

  • Automated messages and canned responses (helpful for after hours responses)
  • Pre-chat survey forms to gather information from customers
  • Offers integrations with email marketing and customer relationship management apps

Disadvantages:

  • Not suitable for audience engagement since the product is focused on customer service
  • Customers state that the mobile version of the app is limited

3. Olark

Olark is a live chat solution design for sales and customer service. The live chat app has also been widely used in ecommerce and higher education.

Advantages:

  • Ease of use
  • Focused on sales and customer service needs
  • Many integrations including WordPress, Mailchimp, Salesforce and Slack

Disadvantages:

  • File sharing limitations (e.g. limited ability to share screenshots)
  • Limited analytics and chat history features
  • Focused on 1-on-1 interactions so not suitable for audience engagement at scale

4. HubSpot Live Chat

HubSpot is well known for its email marketing, customer relationship management and related software tools. The company now offers a live chat solution, a good choice for users who already use other HubSpot apps.

Advantages:

  • Stores conversations into HubSpot CRM for follow up and review
  • Supports the creation of automated chatbots to answer common questions
  • Chat routing (i.e. refer a chat request to the person with the appropriate knowledge to provide a response)

Disadvantages:

  • Focused on 1-on-1 interactions so not suitable for audience engagement at scale
  • Limited integrations – mainly focused on other HubSpot apps and Slack

Three Chat Protocols When You Decide To Build 

Building your own chat app takes more work. Thankfully, you don’t have to start from scratch. There are several chat protocols you can build on and customize for your needs if you have the resources.

1. Rich Communication Services (RCS)

RCS is a chat protocol built for mobile phones. It is also sometimes called SMS 2.0. For brands focused on mobile chat, it may be a good choice.

Advantages:

  • Fully optimized for mobile devices
  • Native support for payments

Disadvantages:

  • No Apple iOS support 
  • Costs are difficult to predict accurately

2. WebRTC – Web Real-Time Communication

Developed by Google, WebRTC is an open source app that offers several types of voice, video and text communication.

Advantages:

  • Supports video and audio communication
  • Open source so it is easier to understand the capabilities in depth and develop enhancements
  • Can be used for chat rooms

Disadvantages:

  • Requires engineering resources to implement it.
  • The official website offers mainly technical documentation, so you may need to develop your own help guides for users
  • Very limited support options (i.e. online discussion forums)

3. XMPP

Launched in 1999, XMPP is one of the oldest and best-established chat protocols on the market. 

Advantages:

  • Multiple end-user clients available for desktop users, Android and iOS
  • Ongoing development by engineers passionate about the protocol

Disadvantages:

  • XMPP requires users to download a chat client which adds friction to the chat experience
  • XMPP doesn’t appear to offer website chat support so it is not well suited to audience engagement

Choose Your Live Chat Solution

There are chat solution designed for different goals, so you may need multiple tools. For example, use Arena Live Chat to engage your customers and grow your audience. Then, you might use a different app for post-purchase customer service fulfillment. Find out more about Arena Live Chat. 

Get 7 Proven Tactics To Grow Now

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Audience engagement is vital to succeeding in today’s online world. Your website competes against dozens of streaming services, social media platforms, email, etc. The art and science of keeping your audience engaged is crucial to reach your growth goals.

What Is Audience Engagement?

Successful audience engagement happens when people interact with your website and live experiences for prolonged periods. Instead of bouncing away in a few seconds, a highly engaged audience member looks forward to visiting your website and online experiences.

Audience engagement matters for brands and publishers for a few reasons. First, a highly engaged audience is more likely to give you first-party data, fueling high ROI personalized marketing campaigns. Second, audience engagement stretches your marketing budget further because your audience will likely share your content.

Knowing what audience engagement means is just the starting point. You also need practical steps and tools to bring audience engagement to life. Use the growth tactics in the rest of this guide to grow your audience and keep them coming back.

1. Make A Positive First Impression Quickly

First impressions count a great deal in online experiences. Research shows that the average attention span is down to 47 seconds as of 2023. That’s a sharp decline from 2004, when it was 150 seconds, according to research reported by CNN.

To keep things simple, look for negative factors and positive factors. Negative factors are barriers or distractions that make engagement less likely to stick. Positive factors encourage audience engagement.

Negative factors

  • Slow website speed. The overall speed of your website matters. Slower websites are likely penalized in search engines, making your audience less likely to find you.
  • Unclear call to action. Overwhelming your audience with too many options will deter some people from engaging with you. Aside from the homepage and navigation elements, ask yourself if each significant page is focused.
  • Disruptive notifications. Some websites partly or entirely obscure the user’s experience to display notifications (e.g., privacy notifications). While important, excessive notifications make it difficult for your audience to focus on what matters most: your content!

Positive factors

  • Engaging content. Regularly publishing relevant content to your audience is one of the best ways to draw your audience to your website in the first place.
  • User-generated content opportunities. Give your audience a way to share their thoughts and react to your website (e.g., reviews, votes, and polls).
  • Social proof elements. Engagement is more likely to happen when people see others have already engaged with your website. Highlight the best comments, user contributions, and more to send social proof signals to website visitors.
  • Visual content. Look for ways to include visual content like photos, infographics, and videos.

Your user experience (UX), technology, and marketing teams all have a role in making a positive first impression on your audience.

2. Provide Relevant Content For Your Audience’s Changing Needs 

Relevant content is so vital to driving engagement that it needs to be explored further. There are several ways you can drive engagement by increasing relevance. Use the following prompts to look for ways to connect your content with your audience.

Relevance to external events and factors 

Sharing content relevant to current events is a top concern for publishers. Yet, it also matters for brands. Here are a few tactics to ensure your website is relevant to what’s happening in the world.

  • Calendar relevance. The calendar influences what we’re talking about and thinking about. Start by looking at the calendar to align your website with major holidays and seasons of the year (e.g., back to school, the December holidays, etc.). 
  • Competitor relevance. Your competitors should not dictate your strategy. However, if a close competitor makes a significant mistake or launches a new product, your content may want to consider that fact.
  • Economic relevance. The broader economic landscape shapes what people think and worry about. For example, emphasizing value and savings opportunities may appeal more to your audience in an economic downturn.

First-party data

The secret to unlocking relevance lies in first-party data – insights you gather directly from your website audience. This data is far more valuable externally gathering information because it shows what your audience values from you. 

Optimize your audience engagement with first-party data in the following ways.

  • Do more of what’s working. Are you seeing a significant spike in engagement for a specific type of content? Take that signal seriously and explore that theme further in future content and experiences.
  • Create micro content for your audience. Your content doesn’t need to be relevant to everybody in your audience every time. Sometimes, it is better to create content designed to address the specific needs of certain audience segments (e.g., your “VIP” audience members who are most likely to make a purchase).

3. Add User-Friendly Engagement Tools To Your Website

Increasing audience engagement with the right technology is one of the best ways to lift engagement fast. The following tools can help you to lift engagement quickly.

Arena Live Chat

Live chat makes it easy for your audience to send messages to each other, ask questions, vote in polls and more. You can install Arena live chat in minutes, which makes it one of the fastest ways to increase audience engagement.

Arena Live Blog

Covering a breaking news story like a sports championship or election is a powerful way to attract your audience. Arena live blog makes it to draft, edit and publish rapid-fire updates for your audience. When your audience knows they can get quick updates on rapidly changing news stories, they will keep coming back for more.

Video streaming

Live video experiences are an important way to draw in your audience and keep them engaged. For example, live shopping experiences where influencers and others show off products have been proven to drive significant revenue. Selling products isn’t the only way to use live video, either.

Adding video streaming to your website is easy when you use the right tools. For additional tips, see our post: How to stream video with Vimeo OTT In 7 Steps.

You can also use live video to share insights with your audience and gather feedback. Ensure you also have a live chat so your audience can quickly share their thoughts and reactions.

4. Give Your Audience Multiple Ways To Engage 

Your audience has people with different energy levels, interests, and focus regarding your content and brand. Some super fans will create content about your products, like influencers who create unboxing videos. Much of your audience is different: they’re interested in you but may also have other pressing concerns.

Giving multiple engagement opportunities is one way to unlock more engagement from your audience. It’s best to start with simple and easy engagement options since those will apply to many people in your audience.

Live Chat

Coming together to interact with other people in online chat was one of the first social experiences on the Internet. It’s still one of the best ways to interact online today. With Arena Live Chat, you can host a live chat session directly on your website. Setting up a live chat experience takes just a few minutes.

To kickstart the live chat experience, it’s best to have one or two moderators to encourage discussions and take action as needed on inappropriate content.

Social reactions

Make it easy for your audience to like or react to your content. Beyond the usual suspects of social reactions (e.g., like, heart, etc.), go a step further. Look at the different options available on Emojipedia. 

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Arena live chat supports emojis and lets users create an avatar (i.e., upload an image linked to their profile).

Polls

When your audience is attending an online event, a poll is one of the simplest ways to spark engagement. In essence, you ask a simple question and allow your audience to vote by choosing an option.

Posting a poll within the first 5-10 minutes of starting an online event is a best practice to keep your audience engaged immediately. Posting more than 2-3 polls over the course of an hour might feel overwhelming, so don’t overuse this engagement tactic.

Question & answer

Giving your audience the ability to ask questions is a powerful way to boost engagement. To see just how powerful question-focused events are, look at Reddit. The social platform often hosts wildly popular “AMA” (ask me anything) with celebrities, authors, politicians, and others.

Be aware that there is a risk of inappropriate content with Q&A (and audience engagement efforts generally). Our final tactic – moderation – will equip you to manage this risk.

Product reviews

Make it easy for your audience to write reviews of your products on your website. Your review activity will only improve if your website forces users to take fewer steps before adding a review. When you see a particularly significant review, go the extra mile and reach out to the reviewer to thank them. If the person has a complaint, reaching out is still worthwhile.

5. Use Exclusivity To Draw Audience Engagement

Offering exclusive experiences to your audience is an age-old tactic to attract attention. It’s one of the reasons that conferences and tradeshows remain so popular. Only so many people will invest the time and money to attend such an event.

With online engagement, there are several ways to leverage exclusivity to lift engagement. If you invite an influencer or celebrity to your niche, you don’t need to go to Hollywood to find someone. Simply look for someone who recently won awards or has a large social media following.

  • Time-limited event. The first way to signal exclusivity is to make your experience time limited. For example, schedule a one-time 60-minute online chat experience. 
  • Limited registration. While technology tools can support many attendees, it is sometimes helpful to go small. Limiting attendance to 25-50 people is an intelligent way to add a more intimate quality to the event.
  • Early access for registered users. Finally, give registered users on your website the first opportunity to register for the event. Giving users advance access is a great way to reinforce the value of registration.

6. Find Breaking News Opportunities To Spark Audience Engagement

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This tactic is suited to publishers and news organizations. You can boost audience engagement. For example, think about sports events like March Madness. Elections, court trials, and essential company news (e.g., an Apple or Facebook conference) all represent other breaking news opportunities.

To leverage these opportunities, get ready with the following tips.

  • People. Put together a list of people who will contribute to your live blog coverage. A combination of in-house staff and freelancers is often helpful.
  • Tools. Use Arena Live Blog so that your contributors and editors can easily submit updates and get them posted directly to your website. 
  • Process. Give guidance to your staff on how you will approach breaking news. For example, you may want to streamline your fact-checking and editorial process to a degree.

7. Use Moderation To Keep Engagement Brand Safe

Opening your virtual doors to your audience is a wonderful way to lift audience engagement. That said, it does carry some risks. Remember when people “Zoom bombed” online events with offensive content? Offensive language, off-topic comments, and more are all possible when you bring people together online.

Moderation is a crucial way to solve the inappropriate content challenge. Arena gives you several tools to moderate audience engagement experiences effectively.

Automated moderation

Arena live chat has automated moderation features like a profanity filter. This capability means that you can prevent most offensive language from making it into your chat session. 

Manual moderation

For an added level of assurance, manual moderation is a great choice. Manually screening questions during Q&A sessions with important guests is often wise. Without moderation, the discussion may wander from the primary topic.

Discover How Arena Can Grow Your Engagement

Adding Arena to your website is one of the fastest ways to increase engagement. You can break free from social media platforms like Facebook, Slack and Instagram and build a community right on your website. Learn more about how Arena can help you grow audience engagement.

How Stanford, Penn & Caltech Students Run Virtual Events

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Generation Z college and university students have an impressive track record of running virtual and in-person events. Gen Z are “Social Natives” who successfully pushed digital transformation as the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded. Their success with virtual events inspired us to share this post: 60 Awesome University Virtual Online Event Ideas For College Students.

At Arena, we saw explosive product growth for student groups as all-virtual environments – including live chat – became indispensable. 

Now, 3 years later, we wanted to check in with student leaders to see which digital  trends and tools are still being used to manage group events today.  

How Stanford, Penn & Caltech Students Run Virtual Events

We interviewed five student event organizers in the USA and UK to discover best practices so that you can run better events. 

These stories will be most relevant to people running events aimed at the Generation Z (born 1997 to 2013) cohort. Yet there are also important lessons to be learned here for other groups building communities around career goals, technology, and other subjects. Let’s kick off with Stanford.

Stanford BASES (Business Association of Stanford Entrepreneurial Students) is a long-established college group that brings together students, alumni, and industry leaders interested in technology and startups. Past speakers at the organization’s events include leaders from Fusion Fund, Khosla Ventures, and LinkedIn. 

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Stanford BASES offers a variety of events, including sponsored events (1-2 per month) and other types of events. The Stanford organization typically attracts 20 to 40 participants per event, though some draw even larger crowds. 

To find out what it’s like to run so many student events, we contacted Steven Pu, director of business development for the organization, for his insights. 

“Fireside chats are one of our most popular event types. These 60-minute events usually involve 30-40 minutes of a panel discussion or a keynote. The remaining time is dedicated to question-and-answer interaction with attendees,” Pu explained.

Running digital events brings some challenges. “It is sometimes a struggle to make Zoom events engaging and interactive. In an event with 30 people, it’s common for only five people to have their video camera on,” Pu shared. In addition, the pandemic years forced many organizations to switch to digital events, and some people have become tired of these, and many students currently prefer in-person events.

Stanford BASES relies on a few essential tools to stay organized. “The key technology and tools we use to run events include Zoom, an email, and occasionally iMessage. Stanford provides the Zoom account and email list,” Pu shared.

On the East Coast, Penn Blockchain has quickly become one of the most successful student groups focused on blockchain technology and cryptocurrency. The organization also offers several types of events, including a large annual event. To discover more about Penn Blockchain’s event strategies, we sat down with Richard Ou, one of the group’s organizers. 

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“Penn has a very entrepreneurial culture which helps to make it easier to launch and grow groups like Penn Blockchain,” Ou explained. Penn Blockchain is a larger student organization with different units dedicated to research, investment, and technology. These various departments make it easier for students to find an opportunity to contribute and learn.

“We’ve used multiple tools to organize our events. Initially, we used Telegram for the organization because many people in the blockchain community already use Telegram. Our community didn’t like using Telegram to engage in larger group discussions. 

Even though Penn Blockchain has experienced organizing a large annual event with more than one hundred speakers, numbers aren’t everything. “It’s easy to be misled by focusing on the number of attendees. Larger attendee numbers may mean there is a reduced chance of connections. The true goal is to benefit the university community and drive opportunities for students.”

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The California Institute of Technology (Caltech) is home to many researchers, technologists, and engineers advancing technology. The Caltech Entrepreneurship Club is a powerful way to bring together students interested in the challenge of starting and running companies. We spoke with Bryan Gerber, who is studying for a Ph.D. in genetic engineering and is a club leader, to find out how they engage students.

“We host several types of events for our community, including a fireside chat, panel discussions, and speaker events. We’ve found that 60-minute duration is the sweet spot and typically have between 30 to 50 people in attendance,” Gerber commented.

Recently, the Club organized a Biotech Startup panel with a panel of accomplished professionals and approximately 50 attendees.

  • Amanda Cashin, Global Head Illumina Accelerator
  • Ben Wang, Co-Founder Chimera Bioengineering (CAR-T cellular engineering)
  • Tatyana Dobreva, Co-Founder ImYoo Inc. (Single cell RNA sequencing immune cells)
  • Jerry Chen, Founder HubSeq (Sequencing data computational pipeline)

“We use several tools to run our events, including Google Forms, Zoom, and the Caltech email listserv. For internal organizations, we use Slack. I have seen some people using WhatsApp and Messenger – these apps don’t seem a good fit for our needs,” he added.

Bryan also shared a few best practices to maximize audience engagement in events.

Use Calendar Invitations

Sending a calendar invitation to registered attendees is an excellent way to lift attendance. The Caltech Entrepreneurship Club has found that calendar invites help to push attendee show-up rates to 33% to 50% of those who register.

Invite The Audience To Submit Questions

On the event sign-up form, the Club asks people to submit questions for the guest speaker. This tactic makes for better events in two ways. First, it directly connects the attendee’s interest to the event. Second, soliciting attendee questions in advance eases the burden on event organizers to come up with questions.

Event Scheduling Best Practices

The Caltech Entrepreneurship Club has found two weekdays to result in the best attendance: 12 pm to 1 pm and 4 pm to 5 pm. These are times of the day when many students welcome a break and the chance to interact with other people.

Build A Large Pipeline of Staff

Running influential events takes care and planning. “It’s important to get many people interested at the start. Over time, we find out which people can run events and use our process,” Gerber explained. Generally, it is easier to get people started with hosting events. 

This best practice applies to other settings. You might start with one or two people responsible for planning and running events. Recruiting additional staff over time is also wise because it allows you to keep events running smoothly if unexpected events affect your primary team.

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King’s College, based in London, is one of the UK’s top 10 universities. The King’s College Business Club has been active in helping students discover business opportunities and network for years through its events. Michael Tye, president of the Kings College Business Club, shared a few best event best practices with us.

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Solve A Problem For Your Audience

One of the club’s most successful events was a CV/cover letter workshop. The event featured guest speakers from several management consulting firms, including Accenture, Deloitte, Strategy& and EY. The event drew over 200 virtual attendees. “The feedback received was fantastic,” Tye commented.

Many Generation Z university students have their eyes on career opportunities, so the workshop attracted considerable interest. Consider applying a similar event format to help your attendees solve a problem. For example, a SaaS company might run a workshop with expertise provided by third-party partners.

Offer Small Group Experiences

Getting lost in the crowd is a significant risk when attending a larger event. Fortunately, there is a way to address this problem: breakout rooms proactively. “I would recommend taking advantage of breakout rooms to create a more interactive session in smaller groups,” Tye added.

Some online event platforms support breakout rooms directly. If your platform doesn’t offer that capability, the alternative is offering smaller group experiences. For example, organize a live chat session limited to 10-15 people and share it as a private invitation.

Boost Engagement With Impressive Guest Speakers

The right guest speaker can play a major role in driving higher engagement. The Kings Business Club has brought in professionals from consulting firms and senior executives from J.P. Morgan. The club has also had good results inviting startup leaders.

Look for experts and influencers your audience respects to grow your attendance and engagement. By the way, you don’t have to create the expert guest list alone. You can also ask your audience for guest suggestions. If you can meet those requests, your audience will love you!

For our final profile, we decided to explore mental health. Why? Many people in Generation Z face significant mental health struggles. 

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The American Psychological Association (APA) reported that Gen Z is likelier than other generations to report their mental health as fair or poor. Significant stressors for Gen Z include mass shootings, climate change, and sexual assessment, according to APA research. 

Shreyaa Venkat and Esha Venkat founded a 501 C3 nonprofit organization called NEST4US. The organization has brought together over 5,000 volunteers to deliver events and services to participants in more than 30 countries.

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The organization recently hosted a mental health workshop for students. We asked Shreyaa Venkat to share her thoughts on running influential virtual events for students.

Leverage A Variety of Digital Tools

“Zoom has been our primary platform due to its routine exposure among our target population—youth— especially with the surge in utilization during the COVID-19 pandemic,” Shreyaa Venkat shared.

While Zoom has been important, Vankat also shared that social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn have proven vital for running the group. 

Supporting Online Community Growth 

Getting to know somebody you only interact with through a screen can be challenging. 

Fortunately, that challenge can be overcome with proper planning. “We always make sure to incorporate ice-breaker activities, insightful discussions, Q&A sessions, interactive games, and team-building exercises throughout every one of our events,” Shreyaa Venkat commented.

Use A Variety of Digital Event Sizes and Formats

There are many types of online event formats that work for everyone. “Our online events include workshops, summits, conferences, social media live sessions, focus group discussions, web series, and professional development sessions,” Shreyaa Venkat explained. 

Applying Gen Z Online Community Insights To Your Organization

Your organization may not focus exclusively on Gen Z, and you may have different resources. Despite those differences, there is much to be learned from Gen Z’s approach to virtual events.

Include Video In Your Online Events

All the people we spoke to mentioned using video tools like Zoom and Microsoft Teams. Look for ways to include live video in your online experience. 

Invite Your Community Into The Event Process

Developing the initial vision for your event is a great start, but don’t feel like you have to think of everything. Ask your audience to contribute questions before, during and after the event. Taking the time to address as many questions as you can is a great way to build engagement.

Use Tools and Platforms Gen Z Likes

Hosting events on your website with live chat may be your goal. However, it’s important to consider the platforms that your Gen Z audience already likes and uses. For example, many crypto enthusiasts use Telegram. Your audience might like Instagram. 

Find out where your audience hangs out online, build a presence and invite them back to your website, where you can use Arena Live Chat to engage them directly.

Focus on High Engagement, Not Just Numbers

Registering a thousand people for your event sounds impressive, but that’s just half the story. It can be more challenging to deeply engage larger audiences. Don’t hold back from holding small group style events like panel discussions and fireside chats with Gen Z. Holding a series of events capped at 25-50 people may be just the approach you need to create a foundation for long term engagement.

How To Build A Community On Your Website

Building an online community on your website is easy with Arena. Find out more about how to create a community experience right on your website.

Setup A Second Screen Experience In Less Than An Hour

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Second-screen experiences are a powerful way to engage your audience deeply. Instead of fighting multitasking and digital distractions, an effective second-screen experience works with these audience viewing habits. 

From your audience’s perspective, a second-screen experience has two elements: viewing experience on a primary screen (typically a TV) and using a secondary screen (e.g., a tablet, laptop, or smartphone). 

Offering a second-screen experience is particularly important in a few cases. Enjoying a second screen is very popular with Gen Z and Millennials, who spend hours online daily. Also, a second-screen experience can augment a primary screen experience. 

Alternatively, you can use a second-screen experience to build your piggyback audience style – offering commentary and additional information about the primary screen experience.

For your second-screen experience to succeed, it has to be grounded in strategy. Use our quick strategy planning process to verify that a second-screen offering is a good fit for your 

Building Your Second-Screen Strategy 

The following strategy is intentionally designed to be fast and easy. It is designed to help you answer two questions. First, is a second-screen experience a good fit for your business goals right now? Second, this process will help you plan your first few second-screen experiences. 

As your second-screen experience grows, you can integrate this offering into your standard digital planning processes.

1) Choose A Goal

Focus is your friend when planning a second-screen experience. There are typically a few common goals most second-screen efforts advance:

  • Audience Engagement
  • Audience Growth
  • Advertising Growth
  • Conversions

Generally speaking, achieving audience goals (i.e., audience engagement or audience growth) is an easier objective to pursue when you first get started offering second-screen experiences..

2) Find Your Angle 

When you offer a second-screen experience, you are competing against other sources of entertainment for your audience’s limited attention. In a best-case scenario, your audience is already switching back and forth between their primary screen and what you have to offer. 

Your angle – or unique value proposition – may be to offer the best and fastest commentary on a breaking news event. Or your might focus on timing – being the first to offer pre-event coverage. 

The best part is that second-screen experiences – especially those based on live chat and live blogs – are flexible. You can change the timing, format, and concept later if you find out that your initial idea doesn’t hit the mark. 

3) Review Audience Behavior

Looking at the recent audience discussions on social media is a powerful way to generate ideas. For example, are fans creating meme images around their favorite moments? Or are people focused more on speculating about the twists and turns of a story? 

Understanding existing second-screen behaviors makes it easier to refine your second-screen experience. If you’re hosting a social experience – like a live chat on your website – the shape of the experience will be determined partly by your audience and the host. Having some prepared questions, talking points, and even special guests can help to keep the event moving.

4) Promote The Second Screen Experience

Once you have your second-screen experience planned, give yourself the time and resources to promote the experience properly. This is where your unique angle will help you to garner attention. If you have influencers or celebrity guests, invite them to join you in promoting the event.

5) Measure Your Success

The day after you run a second-screen experience, take some time to measure your results. Did you make progress toward your goal? If not, there are a few causes to explore, like insufficient event promotion, a lack of a unique angle, or failure to meet audience needs. Run at least 2-3 second-screen experiences before deciding whether or not to pause or abandon to pivot toward other ways of reaching your audience goals.

Download our white paper “Generation Z and the Rise of the Second Screen” and transform your engagement strategy today.  

Set Up Your Second-Screen Experience In Less Than An Hour

Once you have your strategy, you can launch your second-screen experience in less than an hour. With some practice, you can set up a second-screen capability even faster. 

The following techniques will help you to design a more engaging experience for your audience and get closer to your goals. 

1) Build Multiple Social Sharing Opportunities

Word of mouth is one of the best ways to promote your second-screen offering. That’s why it is critical to have several social sharing opportunities. Start by choosing one or two social media hashtags for your audience. You might use a mix of general event hashtags (e.g., #SuperBowl) and ones you create for your purposes (e.g., #SuperBowlSuperFans).

2) Improve Integration With The Primary Screen

Maintaining a close link to the primary screen experience is vital to keep your audience engaged. To maintain this link, start by doing your homework. Watch previous episodes of the show or last year’s event coverage if possible. In addition, make sure you are watching along with your audience. 

Developing significant expertise in some areas of film or television can be difficult, especially for a long-running franchise. Inviting a guest influencer with deep knowledge can help keep your second-screen experience, like a live chat session on your website, aligned with what’s happening on the primary screen.

3) Offer Rewards To Your Fans

Giving out rewards and prizes to your fans is a great way to boost interest. Aim to tie your giveaways to the primary screen experience for the best results. For instance, you might give away signed sports cards for the best comment or question during a live chat session. 

Giving away your products as a reward can also work. A publisher might give away a free premium subscription to one live chat participant. That’s a quick way to make your second-screen experience more compelling. 

4) Make Your Second-Screen Experience Highly Interactive

Put yourself in the shoes of your audience for a moment. They’re sitting on the couch watching TV and have their phones out. They’re likely focusing most of their attention on the primary screen (i.e., the TV). They’ll only look down on their mobile devices occasionally. 

In that context, interacting with others needs to be simple and easy. Only some people will want to write out comments. This is where offering more interactive options comes in.

Use polls, social reactions, and links regularly so that your audience has more ways to participate. These interactive options are quick and straightforward, even if a participant only has a few moments to view their second screen. 

Launch Your Second-Screen Experience Fast

Getting a second-screen experience up and running quickly is essential, especially if your offering aligns with a broadcast event. That’s why you need technology that is easy to implement – with no engineering support needed. Find out how Arena can help you build your digital community on your website. 

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High CTR Display Advertising Best Practices

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Winning in display advertising is hard because most people don’t notice these ads. One industry study estimated that 86% of consumers experience “banner blindness.” This finding is troubling for advertisers and publishers. 

The good news is that you have a tremendous opportunity to increase the effectiveness of your display advertising. There are two strategies to use – improving display advertising and strategies that go beyond traditional display ad methods.

Display Advertising: Best Practices To Create An Effective Ad

We’ll approach this discussion from the publisher’s point of view. Understanding these best practices allows you to sell more subscriptions, tickets, and products. Also, you’ll be better positioned to understand your advertisers’ needs and offer them a perspective. 

1. Craft Your Copy 

The copy in display advertising has significant constraints. Typically, display ads have very short amounts of copy: aim for ten words or less. With these constraints, focusing on a single, clear idea or offer is often best. 

Since a headline can make or break a display ad, it’s natural to feel pressure to get it right immediately. That’s a challenging game to win. Instead, use the rule of 10. Write ten headline ideas for your display ads. Then step away from your ad and select 2-3 promising ads for your needs.

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As a starting point, focus your ad on either solving a problem or a benefit. Consumer brands often focus on sales and discounts because these are clear, easy-to-explain benefits. Simple benefit-driven headlines are proven to work. This type of headline should always have a home in your display advertising.

Direct benefits aren’t the only approach to winning display advertising. Focusing your display ad on a painful problem your audience is experiencing can also work well. The key is to express the problem in a specific way that clicks with your audience. For example, the headline “Worried about taxes?” is less compelling than “Worried about the April 18 tax deadline?”

2. Target Your Display Ad Effectively 

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The best copy in the world will only succeed if it is aimed at the right audience. The best-targeting insights come from using first-party data. If a publisher has collected detailed demographic profiles (e.g., age, gender, income, and location) on their audience, targeting should be much easier.

Display ad targeting should also consider audience behavior and timing. For example, an audience segment that pays for a subscription may be more likely to pay for other premium content and experiences like events, streaming services, and other subscriptions. 

At the same time, don’t write off non-subscription buyers in your audience. Highly engaged audience members that regularly consume your sports content might be excellent prospects for a sports apparel brand. 

A thoughtful approach to timing the delivery of your display advertising can also lift your results. For example, displaying ads during the traditional 9-5 work day will likely attract a different audience than those displayed during off-peak hours. 

Device-based targeting is another way to target your ad. For instance, you can target desktop-only, mobile-only, and both. Cross-device targeting is often helpful. A casual mobile browser may see your ad for the first time on mobile and then click when they see it again on the desktop. 

Finally, keep programmatic advertising models in mind. Likely, your advertisers will not be selecting individual publishers directly. Instead, they may use platforms like demand side platforms (DSPs) to target demographics or broad interests (e.g., “beauty and fitness” or “home and garden”). 

3. Choose Your Design and Layout

The right design and layout decisions can go a long way to increasing display advertising ROI. At a minimum, having mobile and desktop-sized images for your display ads is critically important. Ad sizes like 250×250 pixels and 200×200 pixels can work well on both screen sizes.

In addition to display ad size, placement is an important consideration. A display ad at the top of your homepage may be more difficult to target than one in a specific section, like business news. A display ad that faces less competition from other ads may deliver more significant results. 

Large ad sizes may also drive up conversions. A 2019 study found that the best-performing ads were “leaderboards” (728×90) and the medium rectangular ad (300×250). 

4. Adopt An Experimental Mindset

It’s unlikely that your first display advertising concept will become an instant winner. To succeed in display advertising, it is crucial to have the patience to test and experiment. For example, your testing might target demographic segments (e.g., Gen Z vs. Millennials) and offers (e.g., 10% coupon vs. offering a premium). 

Some ad platforms offer responsive ad capabilities where different ad creative combinations can be tested quickly. If your budget allows, take full advantage of such automated testing. Just make sure that each test gets enough impressions over enough time.

Enhancing Your Display Advertising Results

A well-crafted display ad is table stakes to compete in the digital world. These ads may not be enough to attract attention, clicks, and conversions. Use the following strategies to increase your results further.

Use Arena Conversion Cards

Arena Conversion Cards are a powerful way to raise the effectiveness of your display advertising. Conversion cards can deliver CTR (click through rate) over 5% while traditional display ads typically deliver less than 1% CTR, which is a great benefit direct sales teams at publishers and media companies can leverage to drive revenue.

Arena Conversion Cards function like native display ads on your website. Choose your image, copy, and CTA button, and you’ll have your first conversion card style display ad ready!

Conversion cards deliver higher conversions for a few reasons.

First, conversion cards focus on getting conversions rather than other advertising goals like increasing brand awareness. 

Second, conversion cards perform better than traditional ads because they are part of an online experience like chat where your audience has already shown they want to engage. Leverage this engagement to promote premium subscriptions, content or sponsored ads sold by a direct sales team.

Third, a conversion card can be pinned to the top of an engaging experience like a live chat or live blog. That means many people in your audience will see it while they are paying attention to your website.

Conversion cards are best used for two types of display advertising: direct sponsorships and marketing your products. For instance, a live blog focused on baseball coverage would be an excellent opportunity to have a conversion card for baseball products.

Enhance Audience Engagement With Online Experiences

Online audiences are easily distracted. That’s one of the reasons why display advertising delivers poor results. What if there was a way to keep your audience glued to your content and ignore other media for a time?

It’s possible when your website offers a compelling online experience. Hosting an online event with a live chat room is one powerful way to keep your audience hooked. For example, invite your audience to breaking news coverage with some of your top personalities. Once your audience starts to engage with your coverage by posting comments and questions, you have their attention! Adding a few conversion cards to the event can drive much higher click-through rates (CTR) than conventional digital advertising.

How To Quickly Increase Audience Engagement

Developing a more engaged online audience is critical for publishers. With high engagement, you can collect better data on your audience. That better data makes your publication more appealing to publishers. Find out how Arena can help you increase online engagement.

What Are Second-Screen Experiences? | Arena

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Second-screen experiences offer a powerful way to engage audiences deeply. The best way to define second-screen experience is with an example.

How The Second-Screen Experience Makes The Super Bowl More Engaging

Watching the SuperBowl is a popular social event that draws in millions of people. Many people watch the game unfold on their first screen like a living room TV. The engagement magic starts when people pull out their second-screen (i.e. a phone, tablet or computer). 

For the 2023 SuperBowl, Arena offered a compelling second-screen experience where fans can come together using live chat. The Super Bowl LVII coverage pulled in social media content. By experiencing the Super Bowl on two screens, audiences stayed engaged for extended periods. That means greater engagement for publishers and audiences.

While live sports events lend themselves to second-screen experiences, that is just one way to use second-screen experiences. In fact, there are at least five different second-screen engagement strategies that reliably deliver high audience engagement.

Download our white paper “Generation Z and the Rise of the Second Screen” and transform your engagement strategy today.  

5 Second-Screen Examples To Grab Your Audience

Hope is not a strategy – use these proven methods to make second-screens work for you. 

Some of these strategies work well for almost any brand (e.g. social media engagement) while others are niche (e.g. augmented reality). Experiment with different options to see which one suits your needs and team capabilities the best.

1. Second-Screen Strategy: Social media engagement

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If building a buzz about your content on social media is a priority, pay attention to this strategy.

In its simplest form, this second-screen engagement strategy starts with asking your audience to share their thoughts with a single hashtag. Shows with a simple short titles like HBO’s “Succession” lend themselves to easy hashtags like #Succession and #SuccessionHBO used.

Recurring events like sports events and awards can also use hashtags. The annual Oscars award mainly use hashtags like #Oscars. However, critics can also use hashtags like #OscarsSoWhite to highlight racial equity problems in the show.

Stating your official hashtag is just the start. Monitoring the conversation and seeing how people engage with you on social media is just as important.

2. Second-Screen Strategy: Interactive ads

Assuming your entire audience wants a single-screen experience – like sitting in a movie theater to see a film – every time they watch something no longer holds true. Attention may drift to their mobile devices. That’s where a well-timed interactive ad can succeed.

Brands can use second-screen experiences to create interactive ads that allow viewers to engage with their products and services in real time. For example, a fashion brand may create an interactive ad (e.g. Facebook’s Instant Experience ads) that allows viewers to customize an outfit and purchase it directly from their phone.

Interactive ads can be even be used to give away a free product sample. How? There are interactive ads for games like Royal Match (a mobile puzzle game) that let users play the game for a few seconds for free right in the ad. Known as playable ads, this type of ad blends entertainment and advertising.

3. Second-Screen Strategy: Companion apps

Several TV shows have companion apps that provide additional content and behind-the-scenes information. These apps can also offer interactive experiences, such as quizzes and polls.

In 2018, Amazon launched the “Jeopardy! PlayShow Beta” app. This app made it possible for viewers to play the game show while watching the show. The app stands out because if offers real-time feedback: answers appear on TV and the second-screen (i.e. the user’s smartphone) simultaneously. The app includes access to a few episodes for free – ongoing access requires a fee.

Creating a specific companion app for a TV show can work wonders. However, there are other ways to use an app experience to connect with viewers.

There is also a wave of TV viewing apps that provide supplemental information for viewers. Apps like SeriesGuide, IMDb, Hobi and TVTime. Take IMDb as an example. It offers TV show and movie information like actors, directors, writers and quotes. Want to know what else the guest star in your favorite show has appeared in? IMDb might have the answer.

4. Second-Screen Strategy: Live Chat

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You can host a second-screen conversation with your audience right on your website. Simply install Arena Live Chat and you can be up, and running in minutes. 

There are a few ways to use the live chat in a few different ways a second-screen strategy. The best part is that you don’t even need to have broadcast rights. Instead, you just need to plan the live chat experience.

For this example, let’s assume your publication has an entertainment section. You’re about to cover the launch of a much anticipated HBO series. Unless you expect a very large audience of fans, we suggest focusing your efforts on a “during” experience.

Pre-Show Live Chat

A pre show live chat experience is a lot like a pre-game show for significant events like the Super Bowl. You could start the discussion for a drama with speculation about the show’s story. Consider inviting actors, writers or directors from the show to increase participation in your live chat. Alternatively, you might also invite a social media influencer to cohost the show with you.

During Show Live Chat

Launch your live chat as the show goes on air (or the first episode is released on a streaming platform). Pay attention to the show’s emotional moments and one-liners to spark audience discussion. Ask your fellow fans to react to those comments. If possible, script a few topics in advance in case of any quiet moments in the chat.

After Show Live Chat

As the end credits roll, you can launch (or continue) your live chat session to explore everything covered in the show. During the show, take a few notes about the best character moments and plot twists and then discuss them afterwards.

Running a live chat experience about a show during live broadcast is likely to bring the largest audience. 

5. Second-Screen Strategy: Augmented reality (AR)

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Second-screen experiences can also include augmented reality (AR) features that provide additional information or enhance the viewing experience. 

For example, during sports events, augmented reality graphics can show player statistics and other relevant data. For this functionality to work, second-screen users must reference a symbol, QR code or something similar. For instance, taking a photo of a professional athlete’s jersey number could be used to access up-to-the-minute statistics about the player’s career.

You can also use AR to lift engagement in news coverage. ABC News used augmented reality to enhance its midterm election coverage. This early example of using AR showed how AR could be used in the broadcast. The next opportunity is to give viewers AR capabilities on their second-screen.

The Fastest Way To Get Started With Second-Screen Experiences

Second-screen experiences have only been around for a few years. Using these strategies, there are still great opportunities to stand out and deepen audience engagement. Ignoring the second-screen opportunity means taking a chance at losing your audience whenever there’s a commercial break or slow moment. 

The fastest way to add a second-screen experience lies in using live chat. You can add a live chat experience to your website in minutes with Arena. Discover how Arena helps publishers and broadcasters grow audience engagement.

How To Track Audience Engagement Growth & Course Correct

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Audience engagement is the new essential goal that digital brands and publishers use. The reason is simple: highly engaged audiences are more likely to trust and share data about themselves. That means you can launch personalized campaigns that drive impressive results.

Build Your Audience Engagement Foundation

The path to audience engagement success starts with setting up the right foundation. The time and resources you invest will help you improve your audience engagement efforts in the long term.

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1) Get To Know Your Audience Deeply

What does your audience want, and how do those needs align with your company goals? That’s the essence of audience research. Most audience needs relate to a few core drives, such as solving problems, pursuing gain, or entertainment. Surveys are an invaluable tool for getting to know your audience better.

Use questions like the following on your survey:

  • What websites do you visit every week?
  • Which social media platforms do you use most often?
  • What type of content do you prefer the most (e.g., articles, videos, podcasts)?

If your last survey was 12 months ago (or longer), it’s time to update that information. Without these insights, your content and experiences may fail to connect with audience needs.

2) Align Engagement To Revenue Goals

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Understanding your audience’s needs and wants is the beginning. Finding ways to align your goals with the audience is crucial. 

For example, your audience may want to be the first to know important industry news to gain an advantage (or just brag about being the first to know!). That audience desire may align with a publisher’s goal to sell more paid subscriptions. To sell more subscriptions to this audience, look for ways to highlight how your best breaking news coverage is limited to paying subscribers.

For a brand selling products, connecting audience goals to your product is just as important. Without this connection, your content and offers will be seen as irrelevant. For example, a clothing brand might offer tips on building a wardrobe for each season.

3) Bring On Specialized Talent

Successful audience engagement is easier when you have the right talent. Start by looking at your employees. For publishers, your journalists, contributors, and on-air personalities should take a central role in building a connection with your audience. 

Content creation is essential, but you need other skills to build a thriving audience engagement program. Running a live online event with live chat is far less stressful when you have a dedicated support person to staff the chat room. In addition, it’s also helpful to assign responsibility for tracking and measuring audience engagement. We’ll cover measurement in greater detail below.

4) Take Smart Risks

The courage to experiment and take risks is front and center to building an engaged audience. If all of your content and online experiences are designed by a committee, standing out and keeping the audience’s attention is going to get tough.

So, what does it mean to take well-thought-out risks in audience building? It will look different in each organization. Here are a few examples to get you thinking:

Disagree with conventional wisdom

Every field has its best practices and standard ways to get things done. For example, most people recommend keeping online events to a maximum of 60 minutes. Consider going above that with a one-day virtual conference or even a “lightning” event with a few short presentations in less than 20 minutes.

Strike up unconventional partnerships

Another way to take risks in audience building is to get out of your comfort zone with who you partner with. For example, most of your competitors might work with US-based influencers. What if you contacted experts in Canada and Australia to offer a different perspective?

Invest in long term relationships and content

Risk-taking also sometimes means taking a long term view of content. Take Buffer, for example. They’ve built a relationship as a thought leader in remote work by publishing a detailed State of Remote Work survey since 2018. The brand has carved a reputation by revisiting the same theme for several years. 

5) Enhance your website with engagement in mind

Your website’s capabilities are also vital in shaping the growth of your audience. Social media platforms have set an expectation that websites offer a deeply engaging experience. The old best practice from the 2010s to build a social media following on Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok carries problems today.

Social media platforms are increasingly susceptible to misinformation, hateful content, and other problems. There’s another reason to focus attention on building a community on your website: first-party data. The third-party cookie is going to be dead by 2024. To continue engaging your audience, you’ll need a direct connection.

An engaging website with live chat is a social experience that repeatedly draws people back. Over time, your audience may make friends with others who use your website, so your website will become a community destination. 

Arena Live Chat is one of the fastest and easiest ways to make engagement easy on your website. You can install it in a few minutes and run your first event within an hour. Live chat gives your audience a way to interact with each other and discover more about your brand.

Once you have your audience engagement strategies, it’s time to build your tracking process.

The Toolkit For Tracking Audience Engagement Effectively

Audience engagement strategies require experimentation, courage, and determination. That’s why it is important to consistently measure your efforts so that you can make course corrections as needed.

Tool 1: Choose Your 2-3 Key Metrics

Choosing the right mix of metrics is vital to determining if your audience engagement strategies are working. The following mix of metrics illustrates one way to balance audience measurement.

  • Website visitors over 30 seconds
  • Percentage of email list members who open 2 emails per month
  • Content sharing: track which content assets are shared by email and social media

These metrics are intentionally simple and accessible. If your audience growth data is tough to find, you’re less likely to use that data.

At a minimum, it is best to have both a volume and a quality metric. The volume metric could be something like the number of unique visitors to your website each month. The quality metric is a counterpoint to discourage tactics that might attract significant visitors irrelevant to your goals.

Tool 2: Review Your Analytics Tools For Accuracy & Integration

The next tool is critically evaluating and configuring your analytics tools. More likely than not, you have multiple marketing tools that gather analytics data. That variety of data means you have a greater chance of getting confused in the sheer volume of data.

To mitigate this threat, evaluating the data gathered by your tools like website analytics, email analytics, and other resources is helpful. For example, you might find that geographic data – typically generated by IP address – is accurate enough for your purpose, but demographic data may be less accurate. 

To simplify the work of organizing your data, use Arena Personas (Beta). Personas Beta) makes it easier to gather and organize all the data generated by an individual’s interactions with you. That means it is easier to produce data-driven marketing campaigns to grow audience engagement and move people toward conversion.

Tool 3: Course Correct Your Audience Engagement

The final tool is a process rather than an app. Audience engagement is an art and science. While you can leverage market research and your audience’s past behavior, there is always an element of uncertainty. 

In any given month or quarter, you might launch multiple audience engagement tactics. It’s smart to pause and assess your progress periodically. When you assess your audience engagement efforts, use the following self-assessment questions to guide your reflection:

  • Which content, event, or experience had the greatest positive impact on our top audience growth metrics?  
  • What qualitative feedback did we observe from our audience? (Start with direct feedback shared in live chat sessions and people using your website, and then look at social media)
  • What’s drawing our audience’s attention in the broader environment? (Keeping a finger on the pulse of your audience is vital, otherwise, you risk being perceived as out of touch).
  • What results can we celebrate this month? (Audience building often takes a marathon effort, so it’s wise to encourage your team regularly).
  • How did we grow our network for future growth this month? (Building connections with experts and influencers takes time. Asking this question will help to maintain attention on longer-term efforts that drive audience engagement growth).

Invite a colleague to discuss the questions and supporting data with you for the best results.

The Way To Build An Audience On Your Website

Growing an engaged audience through your website is critical. Third-party cookies are on the way out. Building a direct relationship with your audience means you can succeed even when there are problems on social media. Discover how to build your online community with Arena. 

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Customer Engagement vs Audience Engagement Strategies

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The customer engagement vs. audience engagement debate is growing. The reality is that most businesses need to grow their audience and customer base. The strategic choice is to decide how to cover types of engagement and allocate your resources appropriately. 

What Is Audience Engagement?

From a marketing perspective, audience engagement refers to people who have interacted with your online presence in some depth. Think about an audience at a concert – you’re only part of the audience if you see most (if not all) of the performance. Likewise, your online audience excludes people who bounce or visit your website once and never return.

Audience engagement is the art and science of drawing website visitors to consume multiple pages or content assets. Ideally, audience engagement also has a social aspect. Again, think of attending a performance. You might go to an event with a friend and have the chance to meet other people who share similar interests. 

Translating audience growth to revenue depends on your business. Publishers earn more from audience engagement right away because a more engaged audience views more ads. Other businesses are more likely to get more leads and conversions from a high audience engagement. 

Engaging your customer base overlaps with audience engagement, but there are also some key differences.

What Is Customer Engagement?

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Customer engagement is focused on building a deeper relationship with your customers. This might include using a loyalty program to encourage more purchases. In addition, customer engagement also includes gathering first-party data from your customers. For example, you may use data to better understand the content, pages, and online experiences that customers experience before making a purchase.

Since customer engagement focuses on people who have bought before, it is closer to revenue. After all, a customer has already taken the leap of trust to buy once. If they’ve had a good experience, inviting them to buy again is easier.

The challenge with customer engagement is balancing maximizing revenue and enriching the relationship. If your customers only hear from you during a sale, some may tune out. Alternatively, brands that show appreciation for customers through events, sharing content, and seeking feedback are more likely to build a trusting relationship.

Assessing Your Need For Audience Engagement And Customer Engagement

Most companies need audience engagement and customer engagement strategies to achieve their growth objectives. Audience engagement helps to replenish the top of the marketing funnel (and grow advertising revenue for publishers). Customer engagement gives you the tools to develop loyal customers for the long term.

To decide which mix of audience engagement vs. customer engagement to pursue, take a moment to assess your current situation with the following maturity self-assessment.

Audience Engagement Maturity

Reflect on these audience engagement questions to determine your strengths and weaknesses in audience engagement.

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1) Do you have audience engagement growth metrics established?

2) Are you gathering more first-party data directly from your audience month over month?

3) Does your website offer community experiences like online events regularly?

4) Are you communicating with other stakeholders regularly to demonstrate the value of audience engagement?

5) Do you have audience engagement solutions like Arena Live Chat and Live Blog available?

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If you answered yes to most of the questions, you have a highly engaged audience. In that case, shifting your focus to customer engagement is wise. On the other hand, if you answered no or weren’t sure about the questions, audience engagement should probably be your primary focus.

Customer Engagement Maturity

Assessing your customer engagement maturity starts with exploring the following questions with your team.

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1) Do you have a customer loyalty program that rewards engagement and purchases in some way?

2) Do you know your customers better today than you did a year ago regarding data?

3) Do you regularly tell your customers that you appreciate their business?

4) Do you provide special experiences (e.g., early access, discounts, online experiences) just for your customers?

5) Do you have a customer data platform (i.e., CDP) in place to organize all of your first-party data?

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The maturity level for customer engagement is similar to the audience engagement outlined above. If you answered yes to three or more of the questions, you have a high level of customer engagement maturity. If you were unsure of your answers or had two or fewer yes answers, your customer engagement maturity has significant room for improvement.

How To Use Online Experiences To Grow Engagement

We have some good news: Whether you see greater audience engagement or customer engagement opportunities. With some tweaks, you can use similar tools and strategies to lift both kinds of engagement. Let’s consider two scenarios: increasing audience engagement and lifting customer engagement using online events.

Boosting Audience Engagement Strategies

You must offer something new and attractive when your audience is not large or engaged enough. The harsh reality is that your audience members have many other online options for connection, learning, and entertainment. The following ideas can help you to lift engagement.

Partner With Influencers In An Online Event

Influencers are celebrities for a specific niche or interest. Since influencers spend their time growing their audience, they have the know-how to help you. Depending on the size of your audience and resources, you can offer different forms of payment to an influencer to run an event with you. Add Arena Live Chat to your event so your audience can easily ask questions and connect with other participants.

Leverage Breaking News

Breaking news events offer a potential shortcut to growing your audience quickly with Arena Live Blog. If you can be the first to offer coverage or offer something uniquely different than others, you can stand out. For example, consider Nate Silver’s election coverage. His approach to offering a data driven approach to election coverage and politics helped him to build an audience.

Lifting Customer Engagement Strategies

Growing customer engagement through online experiences is different in terms of focus. Instead of throwing the doors wide open, customer engagement works best when focused. Here are some examples to get you started.

Customer Appreciation Experiences

Many companies organize an annual customer conference. However, running a full-scale live event may not suit your goals or budget. Instead, an online event focused on customer appreciation can work even better. For example, a B2B company may have many ecommerce customers. Consider inviting a small group of ecommerce company owners to an exclusive “fireside chat” where they can network with each other and meet an engaging guest speaker.

Early Product Feedback Events

Another approach is to invite your customers into the product development process. When you have a prototype product ready, invite VIP customers to see it. Let your customers use the beta product for free. They’ll feel appreciated by giving them early access and acting on their feedback. You’ll receive helpful comments that can also help you launch the product.

Reach Your Engagement Goals With Arena

Whether you want a larger audience or more excited customers, investing in engagement can help. Use Arena Live Chat and Live Blog to offer interactive online experiences directly through your website. Build your community right on your website with Arena!

Optimize Funnel Conversions With Engagement: 5 Strategies

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Drawing a person to your website for the first time is a win. Focusing too much on first-time website visitors comes at a cost. You may neglect to build an engaged audience. If you have an effective content strategy in place, your next priority should be to grow engagement.

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Start By Choosing Your “Leading Indicator” KPI For Conversions

Most businesses have a clear end result in mind for their website. They want paying subscribers, purchases, or another critical conversion. Exclusively focusing on this end result can hurt your efforts because these conversions tend to be lagging indicators. They are a result of effective marketing and engagement.

Instead, it is often more helpful to focus on leading indicator measures that you can control more directly. To clarify the difference between leading and lagging indicators, consider sales:  a salesperson is ultimately responsible for achieving a specific sales volume. That sales volume is a lagging indicator and one that is not entirely in their control as very real,external factors can delay or prevent a sale from moving to “Closed Won.”

Instead, effective salespeople focus on lead indicators that predict success, like prospecting activity and pipeline generation. The work of building an engaged online audience is no different. You can’t directly generate engagement, but you can set the conditions that make engagement more likely, including higher conversion rates.

Potential lead indicators that show your website’s online audience is engaging effectively include

  • Time on site. Usually, higher time on site is a good sign that a user is interested in what they see. This metric needs to be balanced with the KPIs noted below/
  • Pages per session. Tracking pages per session is even more helpful because you can see which pages draw the most interest.
  • Opt-in activity. Earning permission to follow up with the user with browser notifications, text messages, email, and other means is even more valuable.

Once you have clarity on your top metrics, use the following strategies to grow audience engagement.

Strategy 1: Build A Comment #1 Strategy To Jump Start Engagement

The “herd instinct” is powerful in the online context. It’s far more appealing to join an existing conversation compared to attempting to start one from scratch. The traditional way to solve this challenge is to optimize the call to action, leverage controversy and make commenting irresistible. All of those efforts are worthwhile. 

Yet, there is more we can do to make commenting more appealing. Instead of leaving comments to chance, develop a “Comment #1” strategy. In other words, don’t just trust to hope that your content will get comments. Instead, use an outreach strategy to engage specific people to encourage comments.

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Your outreach strategy to spark comments will depend on the audience and resources you have. Get started with the following ideas:

Encourage Your Journalists To Start Commenting 

According to the Center for Media Engagement, 60% of Americans want journalists to clarify factual matters in the comments section. That tells us that many people are hungry for engagement from journalists in the comments section.

Even if you don’t have a factual oversight or mistake to clarify, there are other ways to leverage comments. For example, you might ask a journalist who covers a different beat to post a question to spark a discussion. Seeing a comment from one of your well-known personalities can do wonders to lift engagement for the rest of the day.

Past Commenters

Reach out to past commenters and ask them to comment on your latest content. While you can use manual methods to invite more comments, automation is even more powerful. For example, you might collect first-party data about the types of stories that your audience is interested in so that you can invite them to be the first to comment or share about future articles.

Use Social Media

Share your content on social media platforms and invite people to ask questions. The downside is that these social media responses may not always lead people back to your website. The risk of engagement happening away from your website can be mitigated by giving your audience a reason to come back and see the original content.

Finally, try to get the first comment fast, ideally within an hour of the content being published. When other people see comments on your content, they’ll feel more safe sharing their thoughts.

Strategy 2: Highlight The Best User Generated Content (And Hide The Worst)

Larger websites and publishers suffer from a different challenge – a high volume of comments. Inevitably, only a tiny portion of these comments are engaging and relevant. In other words, you have to face the challenge of moderating user-generated content.

Let’s say you’re running an online event with Arena Live Chat. Your audience is engaged and sharing a wide variety of questions and comments. Then you see that some of your audience is distracted from the core themes, like the new features you’re announcing. Arena gives you a few ways to shape the flow of the conversation.

Crowdsource Moderation

Keeping track of all the comments in a chat session in a significant online event may feel overwhelming. You can solve this challenge by inviting your audience to participate in the moderation process. Take a few moments at the event’s start to explain your ground rules, including when and how to report inappropriate content. In this way, your audience can help to turn the tide of irrelevant comments.

Use Moderation To Maximize Brandsafe Experiences

Some online events call for a different approach. Let’s say your online experience includes important customers and executives. To ensure a brand-safe experience, it is wise to take a more active role in moderating user content. Arena supports this need by allowing you only to display comments and questions manually approved by your team. This approach takes more effort, but it yields a great result.

In some cases where emotions are running hot, your event might face a different problem: profanity. Arena can help you to manage this threat as well with automation moderation. The built-in profanity filter and AI moderation automatically allows you to set a sliding scale for brand safety to blog and prevent a wide range of offensive, and potentially offensive content.  

Use The Power of Praise

Restricting user content isn’t your only way forward. You can also use your status as the event host or moderator to praise relevant, engaging content. To ensure you apply this practice, make a note to look for quality comments and questions as the event unfolds. When a great comment comes in, take a moment to recognize it and thank the participant.

By showing appreciation for quality audience engagement, your audience is more likely to stay focused on the event.

Strategy 3: Remove Speed Bumps From User Registration

Sometimes, our efforts to deliver a great audience experience have unexpected consequences. For example, many publishers require users to register for a free account before commenting and engaging. That small speedbump helps to discourage “Internet trolls” –  to a degree –  but it can also stop casual website visitors from engaging with your website’s content.

The solution is to take a fresh look at your user registration process. For example, give users multiple opportunities and places to register for an account. Taking the time to clear roadblocks from user registration is important because registered users are much more valuable.

According to International News Media Association, about 10% of registered users on news websites typically convert to paying subscribers. That’s far better than typical ecommerce conversion rates, which rarely exceed 3%. 

Strategy 4: Mine Your Comments For Future Engagement Ideas

Past comments on your content – especially on your website – are a rich source of insight. That information can help you to lift engagement quickly. Reading the comments on their own will give you clues about your audience. For example, commenters who share personal stories are more likely to trigger others to respond. If you see that pattern, look for ways to encourage readers to share more stories in future comments.

The true magic happens when you look at comments as one part of a broader first-party data strategy.

Strategy 5: Leverage First-Party Data Across Platforms

Personalized marketing and engagement strategies are some of the most powerful ways to lift conversion rates. The key to doing personalization work at scale is using multiple forms of first-party data to verify your audience engagement.

Start with the following types of user data to inform your personalization efforts:

  • Content Interactions. Look for patterns in how your users engage with your content, such as comments, votes, and shares. 
  • Email/App Interactions. Some of your audience may engage with your content off your website. Check to see if those patterns are significantly different from website interactions. 

Get The Right Tools To Increase Conversion Rates Across Your Funnel

Converting a passing website visitor is tough. You don’t have to suffer single-digit conversion rates, though. Developing an engaged audience is one of the best ways to drive more traffic and revenue. Find out more about Arena’s solutions for publishers.

Increase Revenue & Engagement with User Generated Content

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Attracting a user to your website for the first time is a big win! Yet, that’s just the start of the journey. Transforming that passing visitor into an engaged, loyal fan is far more crucial for the growth and health of your brand. 

Why Focusing On “Website Visitors” Might Hurt Your Growth 

The standard term for a person coming to your website is a website visitor. That simple description is helpful in the context of analytics. There’s a hidden danger to using that type of language: it may encourage viewing your audience in passive terms.

Instead of thinking of people who come to your website as visitors or passive audience members, it’s vital to stress the value of engagement. Emphasizing engagement is vital because of the hectic, distracted digital world we all live in.

The average American checks their phone once every three minutes. Also, many people have an average of 10-20 web browser tabs open at any given time. That’s the reality – and challenge – we face when it comes to getting our audience’s attention and building online communities.

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The way forward is to evolve how people interact with your website. Give your audience more opportunities to interact with you, other people and personalize the experience. In brief, you need to make your website an exciting place people look forward to using.

The True Value of User-Generated Content Engagement

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Social media platforms are successful for many reasons, including emphasizing user-generated content. By allowing people to create profiles, accounts, and channels where they can showcase their content, these platforms give people a sense of ownership in their contributions.

Unfortunately, several of the largest social media platforms have lost their way in recent years. Harmful content, misinformation, and a steady stream of privacy scandals have eaten away at the trust on these platforms.

That falling distrust creates an opportunity for brands and publishers to create a more engaging website experience. Users who create content and contributions on your platform are more likely to come back, buy and stay engaged. Websites can continuously evolve their offerings to maintain audience engagement.

Growing Revenue With User Generated Content and First-Party Data

Driving increased revenue from your user’s content is easy once you have the proper framework. The starting point is to review your technology to ensure your website offers an engaging experience.

We briefly define first-party data and why it is essential. First-party data is information you gain directly from people interacting with your website, app, and other digital experiences. There is no go-between involved. First-party data is robust because it fuels personalization and makes it easier to create compelling experiences.

1. Build your first-party data foundation

Before you can grow revenue, you need the right foundation in place. You likely already have several ways of gathering first-party data in place, like your website analytics, email marketing software, and mobile app.

You need a few more tools to leverage in-depth first-party data.

  • Arena Live Chat. Live chat is one of the best ways to transform your website into an interactive digital community. 
  • Arena Live Blog. When there’s a breaking news event like an election or sports championship, there’s no such thing as too much coverage for your community. With a live blog you can rapidly publish – and automate – updates to keep your audience coming back for more on your website. 
  • Arena Personas. Personas (Beta) help to organize your first-party data in your Arena dashboard so you can better understand what your audience is interested in.
  • Video streaming solution. Offering a video experience directly to your audience from your website is another way to deepen your relationship with your audience. Arena offers video integration with Vimeo and other platforms.

With these platforms in place, your website will be equipped to delight your audience.

2. Make it easy for your audience to share user-generated content 

Persuading your audience to get into the habit of creating and posting content on your website can take time and effort. Fortunately, there are ways to lower the entry bar so your audience can contribute even when they’re busy. Start with these engagement opportunities:

  • Reviews. Offering the ability to leave reviews (or star ratings) is a must-have for any website that offers ecommerce.
  • Comments. Comments on your blog content are a long-established way to invite engagement.
  • Online Event Participation. Sitting down and deeply engaging in an online event takes user-generated engagement to the next level. Your users can share content by participating in the chat session, reacting to other user comments, voting in polls, and more.

As you deepen your relationship with your audience, offering additional opportunities to engage is worth the effort. For example, consider inviting social media influencers to participate or even co-host your next digital event.

3. Reward user engagement 

Giving your audience rewards – tangible or otherwise – leverages the psychology of habit formation to keep your audience coming back for more. 

The way you reward engagement will depend on the size of your audience and your resources. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

Community Badges

Badges are a simple way to recognize your most engaged community members for websites that let users create accounts and post content. For example, Podia’s badge options include founder (i.e., for the first ten members) and other badges based on tenure (e.g., a member over one year).

Appreciation Message

Put aside automation for a moment and spend a few minutes thanking your top participants. Whether you send an email, put a letter in the mail, or send a direct message, thoughtful messages can go a long way to keeping your top community members engaged.

Invitation To Events And Special Status

Inviting your top users to an event like a company conference is a powerful way to show appreciation. Quora had a Top Writers program to recognize top contributors. 

Tangible Rewards

Sending a small gift to your top community members is a great way to keep members engaged. A consumer company might send a discount code or offer a credit for a purchase.  Sending a gift card is another way to thank your top members.

These member recognition efforts vary in terms of the effort and cost involved. It’s generally best to reserve your most expensive recognition efforts for the most engaged community members.

4. Deepen engagement with online events and communities

Regularly publishing great content is an excellent way to draw people to your website. Encouraging people to become regular contributors to your community is even more valuable. That’s where events have an essential role to play in lifting engagement.

Arena has a wealth of resources to inspire your next event. Start with the following to get your online event idea:

Once you have your event concept in mind, use the virtual events checklist to plan, promote and run your online event successfully.

5. Enhance loyalty with first-party data campaigns

Using the strategies above, you will have a growing, highly engaged audience who loves your content. Your audience will share content, social reactions, comments, and more on your website regularly. Now, it’s time to ensure you channel that engagement toward your goals.

Clone Your Best Customers

First-party data can reveal how customers interact with your website, content, and messaging before buying. Use this data to refine your marketing efforts. If you find that conversions are linked to virtual event participation, put more emphasis on drawing your audience into those events.

Use First-Party Data To Spark Referral Campaigns

Using data to drive purchases is just one way to drive action. You can also use these campaigns to spark referrals. Once again, look at the content and experiences that drive the most engagement with your audience. Based on those insights, create more campaigns that ask users to share content and bring more people to your online community.

Increase Personalization Efforts

Personalized content and marketing are more likely to be relevant. When content is relevant, people are more likely to engage, share and buy. Therefore, make it a priority to gather first-party data that you can use for personalization. For example, if you offer an enterprise product, use contact forms and other means to ask new community members if they work for a large company so that you can share relevant information with them.

Increasing Engagement And Revenue Starts With Arena

Higher engagement means more first-party data, which fuels relevance and personalization – which ultimately drives up revenue. To seize those benefits, it’s crucial to have the right platform. Discover how to build an online community on your website with Arena.