Tag Archives: customer loyalty

How to Build Online Communities and Revolutionize Website Engagement

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You might be wondering what exactly an online community platform is and why it matters. In today’s digital age, these platforms have become vital for fostering connections and engagement.

Imagine a space where people with shared interests can interact and support each other. That’s the essence of an online community platform.

Let’s dive into what makes these platforms so valuable and how they work.

What is an Online Community?

An online community platform is a digital space that enables people to connect, interact, and share common interests. These platforms provide a structured environment where members can engage in discussions, share content, and build relationships. Whether it’s a forum, social media group, or dedicated community site, the goal remains the same: to bring people together around a shared purpose or interest.

Whether it is built for a B2B or a B2C audience, these online community platforms foster a sense of belonging and engagement among members. By providing tools for communication and collaboration, they create an environment where users feel valued and connected. Features like discussion boards, chat rooms, and content-sharing options make it easy for members to participate actively and stay engaged. The result is a vibrant community where members support each other, share knowledge, and build lasting relationships.

Benefits of Building Online Communities

You might be feeling overwhelmed by the endless options for engaging your audience and driving brand loyalty. Building an online community can simplify this process by providing a centralized space for interaction.

Increased Engagement

Building an online community encourages active participation and interaction among members. When users have a dedicated space to share their thoughts, ask questions, and engage in discussions, they are more likely to stay involved. This continuous interaction keeps the community vibrant and dynamic. Members feel more connected and invested in the community, leading to higher levels of engagement. Regular activities such as polls, Q&A sessions, and live chats can further stimulate participation and keep the conversation flowing.

Learn how to grow engagement with a virtual community to keep your audience active and involved.

Enhanced Brand Loyalty

An online community fosters a sense of belonging and loyalty towards your brand or organization. When members feel part of a community, they develop a deeper connection with the brand. This connection translates into customer engagement and loyalty, as members are more likely to support and advocate for a brand they feel emotionally attached to.

By providing a platform where users can share their experiences and connect with others who share similar interests, you build a loyal customer base that values your brand beyond just the products or services you offer.

Valuable Insights

Online communities provide valuable insights into customer preferences and behaviors. Through discussions, feedback, and user-generated content, you gain a deeper understanding of what your customers want and need. This information can be used to improve products, tailor marketing strategies, and enhance overall customer experience. Analyzing community interactions helps identify trends, pain points, and opportunities for innovation. These insights are invaluable for making informed business decisions and staying ahead of the competition.

Grow Conversions and Subscriptions

Building online communities drives higher subscriptions by increasing website traffic and generating interest in your content offerings. As more people visit and engage with your site, they become more invested in your community and the value it provides. This heightened interest and connection encourage them to subscribe to your content, products, and experiences, knowing they are part of a supportive and engaging network. Additionally, frequent interactions and valuable content keep members coming back, further boosting subscription rates as they seek to access exclusive offerings and stay connected with the community.

Improved Customer Support

An online community enables peer-to-peer support and reduces the burden on customer service teams. Members often help each other by answering questions, sharing solutions, and providing support. This collaborative environment not only speeds up problem resolution but also builds a sense of camaraderie among users. It allows customer service teams to focus on more complex issues while the community handles common queries and concerns. This efficient support system enhances your customer engagement and satisfaction strategies, ensuring that help is always available, even outside of business hours.

Key Features of a Thriving Online Community

You might be skeptical about whether an online community can truly engage your audience and provide value. The right features can make all the difference.

User-Friendly Interface

A thriving online community starts with a user-friendly interface. Intuitive navigation and easy-to-use features make it simple for members to find what they need and participate actively. Clear menus, search functions, and straightforward layouts ensure that users can quickly access discussions, events, and resources without frustration. This ease of use encourages frequent visits and sustained engagement, as members feel comfortable and confident navigating the platform.

Arena Community comes with an AI Search Feature to help users find content in seconds

Engaging Content

Engaging content is the lifeblood of any online community. Relevant and valuable content that resonates with members keeps them coming back for more. This includes articles, videos, polls, and interactive posts that spark discussions and provide useful information. Regular updates and fresh content maintain interest and encourage members to contribute their thoughts and experiences. Content that addresses the interests and needs of the community fosters a sense of connection and belonging, making the community a go-to resource for its members. Discover the ABCs of building thriving online communities to keep your content engaging and relevant.

Moderation Tools

Effective online community moderation tools are vital for maintaining a safe and positive environment. These tools help manage user behavior, filter inappropriate content, and ensure that discussions remain respectful and on-topic. Automated moderation features can flag or remove harmful posts, while human moderators can handle more nuanced situations. Clear community guidelines and consistent enforcement create a welcoming atmosphere where members feel secure and valued. This positive environment encourages open and honest communication, enhancing the overall community experience.

Gamification Elements

Gamification elements add an extra layer of engagement by introducing rewards and incentives. Points, badges, leaderboards, and challenges motivate members to participate more actively. These elements make the community experience fun and rewarding, encouraging members to contribute content, engage in discussions, and complete tasks. Gamification not only boosts participation but also fosters a sense of achievement and competition, driving continuous interaction and growth within the community.

Personalization Options

Personalization options tailor the community experience to individual preferences. Customizable profiles, personalized content feeds, and tailored notifications ensure that members receive relevant information and updates. These features make the community feel more personal and engaging, as members can curate their experience based on their interests and needs. Personalization enhances user satisfaction and loyalty, as members feel that the community caters specifically to them, making it a more meaningful and enjoyable space.

How Arena’s Platform Empowers Online Communities

You might be concerned about the complexity of managing an online community. The good news is that you don’t need to go through several development rounds to build a community on our website; Arena Community leverages no-code technology to make community building as straightforward as possible.

The online community platform offers a comprehensive set of features designed to meet the diverse needs of your audience. These tools include live blogging, chat functionalities, and content management systems, all aimed at fostering engagement and interaction. Moreover, Arena Community comes with a robust dashboard, that will help you get real-time audience data to further understand your community’s preferences.

Seamless integration with existing platforms is another key advantage. Arena works as an AI-powered RSS Feed, allowing you to integrate various social media accounts to automatically share the latest and most relevant social media content directly into your Community feed. The platform’s compatibility with various content management systems, e-commerce platforms, and social media networks ensures that your community remains connected and engaged across multiple channels.

Arena Online Community RSS Feed

Robust moderation and security measures ensure a safe and positive environment for all members. The platform includes advanced moderation tools that help manage user behavior and maintain community standards. Automated filters and human moderators work together to prevent inappropriate content and interactions, ensuring that discussions remain respectful and on-topic.

5 Strategies for Growing Your Online Community

You might be unsure about where to start with growing your community. Here are some effective strategies to guide you.

Define Your Community’s Purpose

Clearly communicate the goals and values of your community. Start by identifying what you want to achieve and why your community exists. This clarity helps attract members who share the same interests and values. Outline your mission statement and ensure it is visible to all members. Regularly remind your community of these goals through updates and discussions. This keeps everyone aligned and motivated, fostering a sense of unity and direction.

Encourage User-Generated Content

Empower members to contribute and share their expertise. Create opportunities for members to post their own content, whether it’s articles, videos, or forum discussions. Highlight user contributions by featuring them on your main page or in newsletters. This not only provides diverse content but also makes members feel valued and recognized. Encourage members to share their experiences, tips, and knowledge, which enriches the community and promotes active participation. Increase engagement with user-generated content to enrich your community.

Foster Meaningful Interactions

Facilitate discussions and connections among members. Use features like discussion boards, chat rooms, and live events to encourage interaction. Pose questions, start debates, and create themed discussions to spark engagement. Organize virtual meetups or webinars where members can connect in real time. Encourage members to respond to each other’s posts and build relationships. Meaningful interactions create a supportive environment where members feel connected and engaged.

Collaborate with Influencers

Leverage influencers to attract new members and boost engagement. Identify influencers within your niche who align with your community’s values and goals. Collaborate with them to host events, create content, or run promotions. Influencers can bring their followers into your community, expanding your reach and adding credibility. Their endorsement can attract new members and encourage existing ones to participate more actively. Regular collaborations keep the community dynamic and interesting. Utilize community tactics and tools to grow and engage your audience effectively.

Analyze and Adapt

Continuously monitor community metrics and adapt strategies accordingly. Track engagement levels, user activity, and content performance using analytics tools. Identify trends and patterns to understand what works and what doesn’t. Use this data to refine your strategies and improve the community experience. Regularly seek feedback from members to gain insights into their needs and preferences. Adapt your approach based on this feedback to keep the community relevant and engaging. Implement strategic planning for engagement to ensure continuous growth and improvement.

Engage your audience like never before with Arena.im’s powerful live chat and real-time engagement tools. Sign up now to boost interaction, build community, and elevate your brand experience. Visit Arena.im/pricing to get started today.

Digital Products: How Publishers Can Increase Sales by Enhancing Engagement and Interactivity

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In the ever-evolving digital landscape, publishers face the challenge of standing out amidst a sea of content. One of the most effective ways to sell more digital products is by enhancing audience engagement and interactivity, besides incorporating branded content into your strategy. For this to work, it is necessary to understand and target your audience, offering a rich and engaging experience, and helping your brand to build loyalty with your customers.

So now, let’s uncover some of the secrets to selling digital products that resonate with your audience.

The Importance of Engagement, Interactivity, and Branded Content

Engagement, interactivity, and branded content are crucial for several reasons:

  • Increased Attention: Engaged users spend more time on your site, consuming more content and increasing the likelihood of making a purchase.
  • Higher Conversion Rates: Interactive elements such as quizzes, polls and Q&As, and live chats can lead to higher conversion rates as they make the user experience more dynamic and personalized.
  • Customer Loyalty: An interactive and engaging website fosters a sense of community and loyalty among users, encouraging repeat visits and purchases.
  • Brand Affinity: Branded content helps build a stronger connection with your audience by aligning your digital products with trusted brands, enhancing credibility and appeal.

Effective Strategies to Boost Engagement and Interactivity

  1. Interactive Content: Integrate interactive content such as quizzes, surveys, and polls. These not only engage your audience but also provide valuable insights into their preferences and behaviors. For instance, a quiz about a topic related to your digital products can lead to personalized product recommendations, increasing the likelihood of sales.
  2. Live Events and Webinars: Host live events, webinars, or Q&A sessions related to your digital products. These events provide an opportunity to showcase your products in action, answer questions in real-time, and build a deeper connection with your audience. Promote these events through your website and social media channels to attract a larger audience.
  3. Personalized Recommendations: Use data and analytics to offer personalized content and product recommendations. When users see products that are tailored to their interests and behaviors, they are more likely to make a purchase. Implementing algorithms that track user behavior and preferences can significantly enhance this personalization. Discover how you can gather first-party data and use it to your advantage. 
  4. Engaging Visuals and Multimedia: Utilize engaging visuals such as infographics, videos, and interactive graphics to make your content more appealing. Videos, in particular, can effectively demonstrate the value of your digital products, provide tutorials, or share customer testimonials.
  5. Gamification: Introduce gamification elements like badges, rewards, and leaderboards. Gamification can motivate users to engage more deeply with your content, participate in challenges, and ultimately make purchases to achieve higher status or rewards.
  6. Community Building: Create a sense of community by incorporating forums, discussion boards, and social media groups. Encourage users to share their experiences, provide feedback, and interact with each other. A strong community can significantly enhance user engagement and loyalty.
  7. Branded Content: Partner with reputable brands to create co-branded content. This can include sponsored articles, branded videos, or collaborative webinars. Branded content not only provides additional revenue through sponsorships but also enhances your credibility and expands your reach by tapping into the brand’s audience.

Leveraging Conversion Cards

One powerful tool to enhance engagement and drive sales is the use of Conversion Cards. Conversion Cards are interactive elements that can be embedded into your website to encourage specific actions from your audience. Here’s how they can help:

  • Donations: If your digital products include free content or you operate on a freemium model, you can use Conversion Cards to request donations. By offering value upfront and then asking for support, you can generate revenue while maintaining user trust and satisfaction.
  • Paid Subscriptions: Use Conversion Cards to promote your paid subscription services. Highlight the benefits and exclusive content available to subscribers, and offer a seamless way for users to sign up directly through the card.
  • Lead Generation: Capture email addresses and other contact information through Conversion Cards by offering something of value, such as an e-book, a discount code, or access to exclusive content. This helps build a database of potential customers who can be nurtured into paying customers.

Example of Effective Use of Conversion Cards

Let’s say you’re a publisher offering a range of digital products including e-books, online courses, and premium articles. You can embed Conversion Cards in your blog posts and product pages. For instance, at the end of a free article, you could have a Conversion Card that invites readers to donate to support more high-quality content. Alternatively, you could offer a discount on your next e-book purchase for users who sign up for your newsletter through a Conversion Card.

The easiest way to increase engagement

In a competitive digital environment, publishers must focus on enhancing engagement, interactivity, and incorporating branded content to sell more digital products. By integrating interactive content, hosting live events, offering personalized recommendations, using engaging visuals, implementing gamification, building a community, and leveraging branded content, publishers can create a more dynamic and appealing user experience.

Conversion Cards, donations and paid subscriptions can further drive revenue and build a loyal customer base. If you want a platform that is easy-to-use and want to increase your website monetization through engaging and interactive content, check out Arena’s Live Blog and Live Chat features and get ready to boost your revenue.

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Strategies To Build Safer Online Communities

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Bringing together a large group of people online who share common interests is critical to starting a community. However, achieving true community success in the long term requires more. Specifically, online community managers and community moderation tools play an essential role.

What Is Online Community Moderation?

Online communities are like gardens. They thrive when well taken care of, including removing weeds and receiving the key ingredients to grow, like sunlight, water, and nutrients.

Online community moderation is the art and science of guiding a community to align with specific values. Many communities have a list of formal rules. For example, Reddit community rules often discourage self-promotion. Other online communities – particularly those aimed at younger people – have rules discouraging inappropriate language (e.g., profanity).

There are two broad categories of online community moderation: software and manual. Software-based moderation (included in Arena Live Chat) is an excellent way to filter profanity and other objectionable words. Manual moderation has a role to play in other scenarios. For instance, you might be hosting a celebrity for a Q&A event and want to keep questions on-topic — both manual and software moderation can help you run a successful event.

Ways To Streamline Community Moderation

You can use a few strategies to make online community moderation easier.

Community Rules

Posting a community code of conduct or rules is an effective way to set expectations when new people join. If you host live community online events, it is wise to repeat rules that apply to those interactions so that everybody is on the same page. For example, the r/science community – which has 31 million members – on Reddit enforces multiple rules, including:

  • Must be peer-reviewed research
  • No abusive or offensive comments
  • Non-professional personal anecdotes will be removed
  • No medical advice
  • Comments dismissing established findings and fields of science must provide evidence

Manage Access To The Community

As communities grow larger, it becomes more difficult to maintain standards. Therefore, you should curate your community deliberately. For instance, a publisher can offer several online communities. One community – open to all registered users – may have limited moderation. In contrast, the same publisher might also have a second online community limited to paying subscribers.

For example, a publisher that offers “subscriber only” content and community limits access to people with an active subscription. By the way, a single organization can host multiple communities, including an open community where anybody can join and a more exclusive community for paying members.

Recruit and Retain Volunteer Moderators

Scaling up to a larger community with tens of thousands or more members is tough if you have a single moderator. Fortunately, you can recruit volunteer moderators (often called “mods”) to help maintain community standards. Usually, extending an invitation to a community moderator is best based on the person’s track record. For example, a person who encourages positive dialogue and gently reminds others of the community rules might be a good candidate for a volunteer moderator.

To retain your community moderators, offer them exclusive benefits. For example, content moderators might be invited to ask the first question when you have question-and-answer events. Publishers can also reward moderators with gifts like apparel or subscription discounts.

Build Safe Online Communities with Arena

Although social media can be a good place to start, bringing your online communities can bring numerous advantages for your brand. You can engage with your customers through Live Chat, Live Blog, and other Customer Engagement ideas. Arena is easy to integrate, perfect for conversations, community chat, as well as ratings and reviews.

Arena Community represents a significant leap forward in audience engagement and interaction. With its comprehensive feature set and user-centric design, Arena Community counts with moderation features that guarantee your virtual community stays safe and enjoyable for your audience.

How To Improve Audience Retention

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Audience retention is one of the most important signs of a healthy digital publisher (or almost any other business that depends on its website for growth). When retention is high, there’s less stress to replenish your audience constantly. In other words, your audience-building efforts start to compound like money in a savings account!

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Declining or low retention of users on a website is an early warning indicator that your business is in serious trouble. To find out the state of your retention, open Google Analytics (or your preferred analytics solution) and dig into the data.

Defining Audience Retention Success: 4 Measures

Like many other success factors, determining audience retention success is best viewed through multiple metrics over time. Start with these four metrics.

1. Audience Composition: Returning vs New

Look at your website analytics for the past month (or better, the last 90 days) and see how your audience breaks down between new vs returning users. You always want a combination of both types of users. However, the critical measurement is the percentage of returning users over time. If returning users are falling as a share of your total audience, it means your audience is losing interest.

This data point can only be understood if you consider your broader strategy and the other measures below. For example, building your sports audience may take some time if you recently changed your strategy to emphasize sports coverage over politics. Your returning audience share will fall during that phase, and your new visitors will increase.

2. Audience Retention By Segment

Viewing your online audience as a single aggregate has its limitations. That’s why we recommend applying segmentation. For example, Google Analytics lets you track “Audience by Cohort” on a time basis. For example, you can compare the behavior of people who first discovered your website in January vs those who discovered your website in July.

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Analyzing audience cohorts by start date is helpful because it can tell you which marketing strategies work best. In one month, you might offer a series of live chat experiences with special guests and pull in a large audience of new visitors. Cohort analysis makes it possible to track the subsequent behavior of those new people. You might find that this live chat-related audience is most interested in live events on your website, so you’ll need to keep offering those experiences to keep them engaged.

3. Engagement

Engagement measures like – time on page, bounce rate, and number of pages viewed per user – also contribute to retention. Keeping a close eye on these engagement metrics matters because they signal a good match between your content and audience interests. Let’s consider each of these engagement metrics in greater detail.

Bounce Rate

Bounce rate is the percentage of users who immediately leave your website after arriving. Generally, a high bounce rate is a cause for concern. For example, you might have used aggressive search engine optimization techniques to get a specific page ranking high in Google. However, if that page fails to satisfy users and many leave in seconds – you have a high bounce rate. In that case, search engines will likely view that page negatively, and your traffic will likely suffer.

Time on Page

Attention lies at the heart of online success whether you are a digital news publisher looking to generate leads for a business or make sales. If time on the page is very short (i.e., under 30-60 seconds), that is an early warning sign that your website needs to make a better first impression.

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Improving time-on-page performance requires both technical and editorial improvements. From a technical point of view, use tools like PageSpeed Insights to evaluate your website. Using a content delivery network (CDN) may help improve speed. Evaluating the speed of applications and services running on your website is vital. Arena Live Chat, for example, is designed to be a lightweight application that runs fast. Editorial improvements may include writing more SEO-friendly headlines and making your content more accessible to scan.

Number of Pages Viewed Per User

Users who view multiple pages are highly likely to be engaged. Since these users are seeing more of your content, there is a higher chance that they will convert to paying subscribers, join your email list, or convert in another valuable way.

Arena Live Blog is a powerful way to lift your page views per user because of the way it presents content. In publishing, a live blog often provides breaking news updates on a new story. For example, post updates at the end of each inning of a baseball game. Once someone reads your updates for the first or second inning, they’ll likely keep returning to your website as the game progresses.

4. Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

Increased customer Lifetime Value (CLV) is one of the ultimate measures of successful retention. Unlike the other measures reviewed above, CLV is a lagging indicator. That means your efforts to improve retention may take weeks or months to translate into higher customer lifetime value.

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Your customer lifetime value will likely hold steady or improve if built on a solid engagement foundation. That said, drawing a straight line between a specific page and a purchase can be difficult. After all, many people may not be ready to buy a subscription after they land on your website. It may take multiple visits over weeks before a person fully appreciates your brand and decides to buy.

If Your Online Retention Is In Trouble, Try This

Improving user retention – which ultimately contributed to higher customer lifetime value – takes several strategies. Put the following options into action, and you’ll quickly turn around your retention numbers.

Find Out What’s Working And Do More Of It

There’s almost always something that is working well on a website. Start by looking at your top pages – those URLs that have received the highest number of pageviews and highest average time on site. Identify the patterns in those pages and do more of what’s working!

Interview Your Super Fans

Staring at analytics data will give you some helpful clues, but there’s a danger with relying too much on numbers. You may lose focus on the fact that your online efforts are ultimately aimed at connecting with people! On the other hand, life is short, so it’s not practical to reach out and talk to everyone.

The compromise solution is to contact your super fans. It’s easy to find these fans. Check your social media and email marketing service to find people who have engaged the most with your content over the past month or two. Set up a call with 5 of these super fans. Ask them what they like most about your website (get specifics!) and what they would change.

Offer New Interactive Experiences To Your Audience.

Presenting content in a novel way is an underrated way to lift audience engagement. For example, create an online event where you discuss current affairs with a few panelists. This could include offering in-depth coverage of a war or election with experts. Arena Live Chat makes it easy to create a live chat experience on your website quickly.

Increase Online Retention With Arena

Arena is the secret weapon major online publishers like Globo, Fox Sports, and the Japan Times use to lift engagement. Discover Arena’s solutions for media and publishers.

Gen Z Wants Something Different From Social Media

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Gen Z’s passion for social media is well documented, so much so they’re often referred to as “Social Natives,” but a recent development is challenging our understanding of this generation.

Gen Z (born 1997 to 2012) is increasingly moving away from traditional feed-based social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. According to Impero research, 65% of Gen Z users feel more confident using community-focused social media apps like Twitch and Discord. This shift in focus is a return to the pre-social media Internet communities like bulletin boards.

What We Know About Gen Z’s Online Habits

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To put the shift in Gen Z online behavior into context, it’s helpful to look at a few numbers.

  • Facebook: 49% of Gen Z use Facebook according to a 2022 survey, making it the 4th most popular social platform. In contrast, 69% of Millennials prefer Facebook over other social media platforms.
  • Twitter. 47% of Gen Z say they use the micro-blogging platform in 2022. Once again, Millennials are a larger share of the Twitter user base. One estimate pegged Millennials at 80% of Twitter (source).
  • Discord. While much smaller in absolute terms, Discord has attracted significant Gen Z engagement. Insider Intelligence estimates that 35% of all Gen Z are on Discord. Gen Z is an influential audience for a platform with approximately 140 million monthly active users in 2021.

Of course, there are exceptions to this pattern, like TikTok, which has a similar feed-based experience. Nonetheless, the increasing popularity of smaller online communities tells us something important about the evolution of Gen Z in the digital age.‍

The Problem With Big Platform Feeds‍

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Imperso’s research Gen Z’s top concerns in the online world includes seeing themselves as unique, a sense of community, voice, and privacy considerations. The Pew Research Center also points out that “Gen Zers are progressive and pro-government, most see the country’s growing racial and ethnic diversity as a good thing.”

Large social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are not well-positioned to meet Gen Z expectations.

Gen Z’s concerns over the big social platforms are unlikely to be fully satisfied soon. Take privacy as an example. Facebook’s history of privacy scandals is well documented, of large fines, legal problems, and more. Under Elon Musk’s leadership, Twitter has reduced its safeguards that discouraged misinformation, a move that alarmed many and caused advertising spend to plunge 89% since before his takeover in October.

Curated Communities Are Winning

Discord offers an interesting case study showing how to create more focused communities. While Twitter primarily operates as a fully public platform, Discord offers more curated experiences. To understand Discord’s appeal, briefly covering a few critical details about the platform is helpful.

Established in 2015, Discord first rose to prominence in gamer communities. The text and audio-based platform offered an easy way for gaming enthusiasts to gather and enjoy games together. Each Discord server comprises multiple channels, some open to all (e.g., general chat) while others are restricted (e.g., announcements or rules).

While video game-related interests remain the most popular on Discord, the platform is evolving. There are Discord servers for book enthusiasts, education (e.g., communities focused on learning a language and science), cars, and sports.

In contrast to other platforms, Discord servers have a few points in common. They are focused on a specific topic. These communities also offer the kinds of social functions that Gen Z has come to expect, like social reactions, private messaging, friend requests, emojis, and more.

In contrast to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other larger platforms, Discord does not have advertising in the traditional sense. The lack of powerful advertising tools may discourage some brands from pursuing platforms like Discord, but building a focused online community revolving around your online brand is worth the effort, even if that specific platform is not for you.

Why Relying On Social Media Platforms To Engage Gen Z Is Risky

Maintaining an active presence on social media platforms is still essential. Gen Z is still very active on TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram. At the same time, those platforms are noisy, with many different kinds of content. It can be tough to build an engaged community when there are so many distractions one click away.

Putting all your community-building efforts into social media also comes at a significant cost. It means you are depending on another company to access your community. They can change the rules (and pricing) suddenly. Apart from that concern, you’re very limited in how much data you can gather. Building your online community on your website is vital, with third-party cookies set to disappear soon.

3 Ways To Make Your Website More Engaging For Gen Z

Attracting and keeping Gen Z audiences engaged on your website is easier when you use the following best practices.

Mobile Optimized

Smartphone ownership and use in Gen Z is very high. Approximately 85% of the US population owns a smartphone, while 98% of Gen Z has a smartphone. Therefore, your website must look great and respond fast to mobile devices. Gen Z also loves video content – as shown by their heavy use of TikTok – so make sure your videos look great on mobile.

Social Media Style Functionality

Gen Z will not spend all their time browsing product pages or other forms of static content. They expect to have a social experience. Fortunately, Arena Live Chat offers an easy way to offer this experience on any digital platform you manage.

Brand-safe Community Experiences

Deloitte research found that diversity is crucial to Gen Z. Also, Deloitte found that Gen Z judges companies based on their “ethics, practices and social impact” along with the quality of their products. Running your online community in a socially responsible manner is one way to show you understand Gen Z needs.

Offering a brand-safe experience through moderation is also important given the age of Gen Z. Many in Gen Z are not yet adults, so a reasonable level of moderation is essential.

Grow Your Online Community For Gen Z

Gen Z is the future, so it’s time to prepare for them. Find out how Arena can help you build an online community on your website.

Customer Engagement Explained: Definition, Strategies & More

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Customer engagement is the new way to think about building trusting relationships with customers. It’s broader than related concepts like customer loyalty. Encouraging customer engagement makes your company more valuable for the long term. 

What Is Customer Engagement?

Customer engagement is how your customers interact with your brand over time. A high level of engagement means customers are interested in new products, online events, and content that you release. Highly engaged customers likely spend significant time visiting your website and interacting with you online.

At its highest level, customer engagement means you have fans who eagerly introduce other people to your brand. This level of passionate engagement makes marketing more efficient because word-of-mouth efforts enhance your campaigns.

Customer engagement is also closely related to other ways of relating to your customers: customer experience and customer satisfaction. Let’s explore how these concepts connect further below.

Comparing Customer Engagement Vs. Customer Satisfaction

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Customer engagement and customer satisfaction partly overlap. It’s unlikely that a brand can achieve high customer engagement levels if satisfaction falls. The scope is a crucial point of difference between engagement and satisfaction.

Customer satisfaction often focuses on rating a purchase experience or customer service interaction. For instance, a customer satisfaction survey may ask buyers if their concern was thoroughly addressed when they asked for help.

In contrast, customer engagement goes beyond purchases and interactions with company staff. Customer engagement also considers if a person is acting as a brand ambassador. In addition, customer engagement examines how a person interacts with your online content and experiences.

Customer Engagement Vs. Customer Experience

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Customer experience and customer engagement are also related. Both can reinforce each other to increase revenue, reduce service expenses and lift a brand’s long-term prospects. Perspective and emphasis are key differences between these two concepts.

Customer engagement assumes that the customer is an active participant. Moment by moment, the customer decides how much time and money they want to spend with your brand. 

Customer experience, in comparison, brings together the company’s departments and capabilities to design a consistent, integrated experience. For instance, robust customer experience ensures offline and online interactions are aligned in copy, offers, and strategy. 

A robust customer experience journey makes it far more likely that customer engagement will stay high. The opposite is also true. A dysfunctional customer experience will likely cripple efforts to foster ongoing customer engagement. 

3 Ways Customer Engagement Boosts The Bottom Line

Building and sustaining a customer engagement program takes effort and resources. So, it’s reasonable to ask what return you should expect. The return on investment from strong customer engagement takes a few different forms.

1.Improves Marketing Effectiveness

A highly engaged customer base makes it easier to boost the effectiveness of your marketing in a few ways. Engaged customers are more likely to refer other customers – a growth channel that is free for you. In addition, highly engaged customers are more likely to share a steady stream of data about themselves and their preferences. This stream of first-party data makes it far easier to create personalized marketing campaigns which are proven to deliver excellent results.

2. Improves Product Development

Changing or launching an existing product takes time and effort. Fortunately, customer engagement can reduce the risk of product development missteps. 

For example, you can ask your best customers for feedback on features and prototypes before launching them in large campaigns. In addition, early customer feedback can yield reviews, feedback, and other forms of social proof, which make it far easier to launch something new to the market.

3. Reduces Customer Service Costs

Highly engaged customers are often willing to provide help to other customers. For example, take a look at the forums dedicated to software. 

It’s common to see experienced users provide tips and advice to other users on social websites like Stack Overflow. One should not expect customers to take on all customer service responsibilities, but every bit helps to ease the burden of customer service.

Customer engagement has the potential to boost profitability. It’s important to know whether or not your program is trending in the right direction.

7 Signs Of Healthy Customer Engagement

How do you know if your customer engagement efforts are working? The best way is to build a strategy and develop custom measures associated with that strategy. As a starting point, the following indicators will tell you if your customer engagement program is on the right track.

1. Your Loyalty Program Is Thriving And Growing

High levels of participation in loyalty programs are an excellent sign of customer engagement. If customers take the extra step to register in your program, activate offers, and so forth, they are engaged with your offers.

However, relying too heavily on a customer loyalty program can be misleading. A brand offering unusually lucrative rewards may see a short-term increase in loyalty program engagement. To provide a more balanced view, look at some of the other signs below.

2. Your Online Events Pull In Excited Participants

Look at the attendance numbers and quality of engagement in your digital events and experiences. It’s a good sign if you have a cadre of loyal customers who consistently join your events month in and month out. 

You might measure the number of people who take action during live events (e.g., the number of clicks on your conversion cards using Arena Live Chat).

3. You Receive Positive Reviews

Positive reviews written directly by customers indicate that your customers like your product. In addition, a steady stream of positive reviews is an even better sign of a highly engaged customer base.

4. Customers Submit Feature Requests, Ideas & More

When customers reach out to ask for changes, such as feature requests in software or different colors in apparel, that is an excellent sign. Your brand can also encourage this type of engagement by seeking feedback in surveys, live chat sessions, and other venues.

5. You Recover Effectively From Most Complaints

This signal of effective customer engagement is associated with customer service. Simply put, it’s challenging to eliminate all customer complaints. However, a company that effectively responds to complaints promptly is more likely to retain content customers.

6. You Have An Active And Growing Referral Program

While this measure of engagement has drawbacks, it is an excellent sign of engagement. If you see consistent referral volume, that is an excellent sign of engagement.

7. Customers Are Interacting With Your Online Content

This sign of customer engagement is essential for publishers. A paying subscriber who never visits your website, downloads a podcast, or views a video is at a heightened risk of disengaging and leaving your community.

For non-publishers, interacting with your online content is also essential to track. A high level of engagement tells you that your content program is on the right track. In addition, interactions with your content are an excellent opportunity to generate first-party data.

Customer Engagement In Practice: The Customer Engagement Lifecycle

Lasting customer engagement is a lifecycle process leading to continuous improvement. Every time you go through the process, you can deepen customer relationships and trust.

1. Gather Data From Your Customers

Data gathered directly from your customers, also known as first-party data, is the foundation of customer engagement. When designing programs and initiatives for your customers, measuring your efforts and collecting feedback are vital. 

The way you gather data from your customers also matters. Email and website analytics can automate some of this to see which pages and content drive opens, clicks, and user attention. In other cases, using surveys and other direct approaches to solicit feedback is wise.

2. Analyze Your Customer Data

Arena Personas (Beta) makes it easier to get a clear picture of your customer engagement across multiple channels like email, website, and chat interactions. Gathering all of that data in one place is the starting point. Your next step is to analyze the customer data. Use the following questions to get started:

  • What customer engagement patterns are we seeing (e.g., the highest-value customers tend to attend webinars and other live experiences)?
  • Are there any gaps or quality issues in the customer data (for example, do you need data from your customer relationship management app)?
  • Does this data help us make better predictions about purchases, referrals, and other valuable actions?

3. Develop Customer Engagement Tests

Reviewing customer engagement data is interesting. However, the data on its own will not drive growth. It’s crucial to take some well-thought-out risks using customer engagement data. 

The tests could be small in scope, like creating a test around marketing copy that succeeded with your website audience and rolling it out on display ads. Or it might be more involved, like adjusting incentives to encourage past customers to return and make more purchases.

4. Observe The Results And Iterate

Once you have a few marketing tests in mind, allow some time to pass to gather meaningful data. Unless you have an extensive customer base, thirty days are usually enough time to pass. 

Once you have the new customer engagement data in, review your test. Ask yourself whether your assumptions are correct or need to be changed. Once you have gleaned whatever insights you can, iterate on the process and start the lifecycle process again. 

Customer Engagement Strategies

There are several proven strategies that drive higher customer engagement. To boost (or launch) your customer engagement program, pick some strategies to delight your customers.

1. Launch (Or Enhance) Your Loyalty Program

A loyalty program is among the best ways to encourage ongoing customer engagement. Retailers, airlines, and other companies have proven the value of these programs for years. Yet, you don’t have to build a complex program to get started. 

Your initial program could start by offering premium content or products to members first. Another approach is to offer a discount or another incentive to registered members.

2. Encourage The Right Behavior In Your Online Community

Customer engagement is ultimately built up through individuals interacting with your brand positively over time. When your online community starts, setting expectations with your audience is essential. 

Executing this strategy will generally have two elements: positive and negative. The positive element is to look for highly engaged customers and praise their actions (e.g., like their comments, send thank you messages, and so forth). This praise will help to encourage your customers to keep up the excellent work. 

The negative element is to have a set of ground rules and live up to them on your standard. For example, a brand may have a strict policy against hate speech, profanity, and other “not safe for work” content. If a community participant runs afoul of these rules, take appropriate action, such as sending them a private message to stop the behavior or potentially banning the person from your community if the negative behavior continues.

3. Invite Engagement Through Online Experiences

Creating the right environment is another way to boost customer engagement. Your website can potentially be the center of your brand’s online community. With Arena Live Chat, you can run live events from your website efficiently.

Offering a live chat experience to your customers is one of the best ways to grow relationships at scale and, what’s more, this kind of experience tends to be very popular with Gen Z… You might already have a chat in place for customer service. While helpful in solving problems, one-on-one customer service chat interactions do little to grow your community.

Instead, looking for ways to boost your community through live events where like-minded people can come together is more powerful. For example, you might invite your customers to join an “Ask me anything” online event with your CEO to bring a more human touch to your brand.

The Easiest Way To Lift Customer Engagement On Your Website

Customer engagement is good for the bottom line, makes marketing easier, and gives your customers a social experience. To bring your customer engagement strategy to life, it’s crucial to have the right technology. 

Installing Arena Live Chat on your website only takes a few minutes. Discover more about building your online community with Arena.

What Is Customer Engagement? | Arena

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The age of treating every customer the same is coming to an end. Thanks to Amazon, Netflix, and other digital community platforms, customers expect a personalized experience that reflects their interests. Without that, customers will start to view your brand as out of touch.

The good news? New strategies and technologies are making it easier than ever to connect with your customers. Before jumping into the specifics, stepping back and clarifying customer engagement is essential.

What is Customer Engagement?

A brand with strong customer engagement is one where customers have a deep, ongoing relationship. Instead of passing website visitors who forget about your content, highly engaged and loyal customers are different. They look forward to coming back to your website repeatedly. Many of them will even become ambassadors by sharing your content and reports on their social media profiles.

In other words, customer engagement is like having a group of trusted friends who would miss you if you were gone. Customer engagement helps brands develop customer loyalty, which will sustain your brand through disruption and downturns.

Why is Customer Engagement Important?

Customer engagement strategies are critically important for several reasons. Let’s dive right into them.

Reason 1: Customers Value Experiences, Not Just Products

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Recent research from Salesforce found that 80% of customers value the experience of interacting with a brand. Your customers might use your products differently, according to their own interests, expectations and preferences. That means that offering a personalized experience is essential.

If the customer experience is boring or disappointing, achieving significant growth will likely be very difficult.

Reason 2: Governments Are Changing The Rules

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Many people around the world are upset about how their personal information has been handled by digital companies. As a result, governments have imposed significant controls, fines, and laws that penalize companies that fail to protect companies. For instance, California and the European Union have imposed significant consumer rights and company obligations relating to personal data.

When your company focuses on customer engagement, the entire process tends to be transparent. Your customers will see that you’re gathering information from them and using it to provide a rich experience. In contrast, other strategies, such as relying on third-party cookies, are perceived as being less transparent.

Reason 3: The Decline and Fall of Third-Party Cookies

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Engaging customers is all about developing a direct relationship with your audience. It’s a significant change from marketers’ strategies for over a decade: third-party cookies.

For years, marketers have relied on this data to track customer activity across the Internet quietly. While powerful for brands, this type of individual behavioral tracking has prompted significant privacy concerns. As a result, Apple has removed support for cookies from their browser. By 2024, Google Chrome – the world’s most popular browser – will also remove support for third-party cookies.

The end of third-party cookies means that your brand has to find other ways to achieve growth, like customer engagement,

Reason 4: ROI Personalized Experience

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We saved the best for last: customer engagement and retention strategies deliver far greater ROI. How? Personalization can lift ROI on marketing significantly – McKinsey found it can drive a 10% increase in sales. First-party data, provided directly by the customer or audience member, is one of the most reliable ways to gather accurate data to fuel personalization.

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Want to explore first-party data further and use it to increase revenue? Our explainer post has you covered: What Is First-Party Data?

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Fortunately, there are some barriers to entry to delivering these kinds of experiences. That’s good news for you. Investing in customer engagement now gives you an edge over the competition.

Your marketing, content, and offers will be seen as much more relevant. That means more clicks, shares, and revenue without relying on third parties like social media platforms.

Customer engagement is robust and has a lot to offer. Yet, these benefits might seem a bit abstract. That’s why we’re breaking down the concept and looking at it in three primary use cases: publishing, marketing, and sales.

Effective Customer Engagement Strategies

Customer Engagement for Publishers

Most publishers earn most of their revenue from advertising and paid subscriptions. To achieve both goals, converting anonymous website visitors into registered users is vital.

There are several ways to apply customer engagement to your publishing business. For simplicity, assume you are focusing on boosting engagement with paid subscribers because you want to lift recurring revenue. The following strategies can help you to lift engagement.

Offer Small Group Experiences

Loneliness had already become a major social problem before the pandemic arrived – today, 1 in 3 Americans are lonely, according to Harvard. Publishers can lift engagement and offer chances to connect through small group experiences.

The concept is simple: invite subscribers to a “fireside chat” style event and limit attendance to 20-30 people. Running a smaller group experience makes it far easier to focus your content and allows your audience to meet like-minded people.

Offer Multiple Incentives For User Data

Maintaining high customer engagement means staying relevant to your audience even as their needs change. That means the standard approach of gathering audience preference and interest data at registration isn’t enough.

The solution is to give your audience more incentives to share data with you regularly. For instance, you might offer to extend your paid subscriber’s subscription by three months if they agree to participate in 3 short online surveys over 90 days. Beyond free access, some in your audience might be interested in sharing their insights with you if there is a prospect of being quoted or included in your coverage. Experiment with multiple incentives to see what connects best with your audience.

If you’re not in the publishing business, don’t worry. We’ve got your needs covered in the following two sections.

Customer Engagement for Marketing

Some, perhaps most, of your website visitors will not be ready to buy the first time they land on your website. Your website will likely be forgotten if you fail to offer an appealing experience. Here are some ways you can make your website more engaging for customers.

Use engagement technology on your website

Social experiences for your audience – like asking questions and reacting to others’ comments – can happen right on your website. There’s no need to rely on social media platforms as your only way of building an online community.

Installing Arena Live Chat on your website is a great way to make your website more engaging. You can install the software and launch a chat session in just a few minutes. The best part? You keep the audience’s attention focused on your website, which means more chances to earn conversions.

Create real-time experiences for your audience on your website

Live experiences like live shopping, live streaming, and even watching other people play games on Twitch are powerful ways to drive attention. There are multiple ways to draw significant attention. You can publish long-form content, including articles, videos, and podcasts. Engaging content is often the spark that draws the audience’s attention to your website.

You can also deliver interactive experiences for your audience. These experiences give people a reason to return to your website repeatedly. For example, you can use Arena Live Blog to provide coverage of a major industry event like CES if you are in the electronics field.

Customer Engagement for Sales

Customer engagement for sales is critical for any business focusing on long-term customer relationships. Use these strategies to keep your buyers coming back for more and more.

Enrich your loyalty program

Points, discounts, and other traditional incentives are all proven ways to keep customers buying. Unfortunately, standing out in the loyalty space is getting more difficult.

The average American had 7.6 active loyalty membership memberships in 2022, according to Statista, while the average number of total memberships was 16.6. That means that nearly half of loyalty program members are inactive!

One solution is to offer memorable experiences for your loyal members, like online events. For instance, you might invite your “VIP customers” to have early access to products in development or place custom requests. Going the extra mile to give your best customers something special can help to lift engagement.

Invite customers to share their experiences

You’re probably already encouraging reviews, recording customer interviews, and publishing case studies. Another way to invite your customers into your growth efforts is to shine a spotlight on your customers in digital events. For example, invite a few of your top customers to a panel discussion and leverage Live Chat to encourage discussion.

Using Arena For Customer Engagement

Highly engaging content and a deep understanding of your audience are crucial to customer engagement. Empowering your team with the right tools to create digital experiences for customers is crucial. Arena Live Chat makes building a digital community on your website easy. Learn more about using Arena to grow an online community for customer engagement.

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!

Get More Customers With A Retarget Customer Data Platform

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A customer data platform needs the right fuel to achieve growth—data from sales systems, customer loyalty data, insights from programmatic advertising, and advanced analytics all help. Ultimately, the way to lift conversion rates requires significant first-party data. 

Why First Party Data Should Be The Core Of Your Marketing Strategy

If you ask most marketing teams, they’ll say they are drowning in data from analytics tools. The burden gets even more significant when you factor in customer insights from third-party data. That’s why your customer data platforms need to emphasize direct interactions with customers (i.e., first-party data).

To make the most out of your marketing activities and get better retargeting results, you need the proper foundation in place first. With the right marketing technology, it is far easier to focus your advertising campaigns to achieve better click-through rates and increase conversion rates.

Gathering Your First-Party Data For Retargeting

Fulfilling your business strategy is easier when you can make Facebook ads, email marketing, and overall digital marketing deliver more results. Effectively gathering first-party data into a centralized database makes it easier to provide personalized experiences.

To build accurate customer profiles, look at the data you already have, like purchase history, insights from your legacy systems, and other data points available in your marketing automation platform. These data points are vital to building a company’s first-party data foundation. However, there is much more high-quality customer data you can gather.

4 Marketing Opportunities To Gather And Use First Party Data 

Online events and community experiences give you an unusual way to transform anonymous visitors into potential customers. To achieve this feat, your tech stack needs to be equipped with marketing automation tools like Arena Personas and live chat. Once your email systems and preferred marketing solution are ready, it’s time to engage your target audiences. 

1) Offer Online Experiences To Potential Customers

Using marketing campaigns to gather today from various customer segments is easier when there is a value exchange. Every single customer should get something out of interacting with your company like a community experience, pricing (e.g. discounts), early access to products or useful insights.

For example, you can use Arena live chat to deepen your customer relationships by running engaging online events. As you add more engaging experiences, customer acquisition cost may go up for a period of time. In the long term, providing customers live event experiences can raise customer retention.

Instead of attempting to understand the desires of anonymous segments, tracking user engagement in different types of online activity (e.g. chat and website use) leads to more actionable insights. Let’s break down how gathering first-party data with an online experience can help.

E-Commerce Business Use Case

For example, B2C customers may react with excitement in a chat session during a livestream event. To see how this information could be used, consider e-commerce brands. They may be considering launching 10 products over the next quarter but  can use this insight to improve the results of product launches. By observing the chat and related behavior patterns like website clicks, you can estimate demand for products (e.g. “Hey, we noticed over a hundred people wanted the new blue shirt!”). 

With this insight in mind, there are at least two ways you can get more business. First, you can run a targeted campaign to your current customers and reference your chat experience (e.g. “We saw that many of you are excited about our new linen blue shirts! Order by Friday and you’ll get 10% off!”). Second, you can then make changes on your advertising platform to emphasize the new shirt. 

2) Create Campaigns For Your Current Customers 

Marketing campaigns often focus on bringing in net new customers and prospects. In addition to that objective, it’s important to engage your current customers. In many respects, it’s easier to  execute data-driven personalization is to focus on customers. Unlike anonymous website visitors, customers have signaled what they value with their buying behavior including offline purchases. Let’s illustrate this use case for enterprise-level companies in the software industry. 

B2B Enterprise Use Case

Selling complex business software often feels like a Herculean task. Achieving business success often requires a full team of sales professionals like account executives, sales development representatives and others. Further, the marketing team is constantly working hard to collect customer stories, optimizing online advertising campaigns and more.

In this context, it’s vital to make the most of your customer base. For example, you might have a significant percentage of customers on a mid tier plan while your goal is to emphasize the top tier enterprise plan. In that case, you might offer online experiences showcasing the success of users in the top tier plan and encourage them to share their success stories. For instance, enterprises users might rave about the analytics capabilities and native integrations available in your top tier plan. Running a live event where customers have the opportunity to share their experiences with each other is powerful!

There are some downsides to this type of campaign. It requires significant insight into customer behavior. It’s vital to know your customer satisfaction levels so that you shine a spotlight on your most delighted customers. This type of campaign also requires significant collaboration between sales and marketing. Fortunately, solutions like Arena Personas make such marketing efforts easier to arrange. 

3) Get Better Lookalike Audiences

In Facebook advertising, it has been a common practice to create a lookalike audience by uploading your customer list. Facebook then uses its customer match capabilities to find more people who are similar to your current customers. This approach to Facebook advertising isn’t your only option. What if your target audience isn’t on Facebook or Facebook campaigns aren’t producing satisfactory results? The first party data you gather can help you to market more effectively.

The downside to relying entirely on an advertising platform for lookalike audiences is that you are dependent on their database. If some or many of your customers are not active users on Facebook, retargeting via the Facebook pixel may not work well.

The alternative is to build your own lookalike audiences. With a large enough audience, you may be able to pursue granular segmentation in a custom audience as shown in the following example.

Individual Audience Factors

Every purchase is ultimately made by an individual, whether they are buying as a consumer or at a company. Therefore, it is usually wise to start with these factors.

  • Age: understanding the typical age profile of your ideal audience helps you to decide which channels, creative and offers to use.
  • Gender: it is helpful to know if gender differences are relevant to your market.
  • Geography: contrast the geography of your website visitors to your ideal customer profile.
  • Interests: find out the topics, publications and media your audience likes. If you offer online event experiences like virtual conferences, look at registration records to see 

B2B Audience Factors

If you are focused on appealing to B2B audiences, the following customer attributes are important. 

  • Industry: to minimize confusion, use a standard industry classification like the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS).
  • Company Size: use number of employees or revenue as a filter. 
  • Technology Stack: If you offer technology products or services, knowing the customer’s tech stack is helpful. For example, does it matter if the customer uses Salesforce?

Is Your Audience Segment Too Large?

Audience segmentation can become less useful when the audience becomes too large. IF you end up with an audience segment with millions of individual customers, it may need to be narrowed down. Leverage feedback from the sales team and customer service to narrow the list. They may be able to help you identify the customer attributes associated with the most valuable customers (e.g. people who tend to move through the customer journey quickly).

4) Lapsed Customer Engagement

When a customer cancels their account or stops buying for a long period of time, all hope is not lost. In many cases, you have a good chance to reengaging lapsed customers with a retargeting campaign. To build this type of audience segment, it’s important to choose who to include and who to exclude.

Start by defining a lapsed customer. For simplicity, let’s define a lapsed customer as a prior customer whose last purchase was six to twelve months ago. Once you have that list, it’s vital to filter it further using your customer relationship management data. Specifically, you want to exclude customers who complained or experienced significant problems. Reengaging such former customers is much more challenging and may require more guidance from the sales team.

Now that you have your audience segment prepared, prepare a custom advertising campaign. B2C companies often find that a simple “we’ve missed you!” style message with an incentive (e.g. 10% off coupon) is an effective way to bring back customers. For B2B campaigns, communicating new features or capabilities can help. Even better, reengage lapsed customers by inviting them to an online event.

The Final Ingredient To Successful Retargeting: Leverage Market Awareness

Once you choose one of the ideas from above to execute, there is one more critical point to consider: market awareness. The three part market funnel – top of funnel, middle of the funnel and bottom of funnel – gives us a good framework. Let’s pair the market funnel concept with the audience segmentation we covered earlier.

1) Top of Funnel

In the top of the marketing funnel, most prospects have little to no understanding of your product and how it might help them. This is the marketing equivalent of cold calling. The advantage of top funnel marketing is that you have the greatest opportunity because this segment is always the biggest. The disadvantage is that you usually need to be more patient.

With a top of funnel focus, leveraging the “Offer Online Experiences To Potential Customers” strategy makes sense. In this case, your primary marketing campaign would focus on inviting prospects to an online event. After the event, you would follow up with retargeting campaigns to offer an event recording or other assets to give people a reason to opt in to your marketing.

If you use events, use our how to promote your virtual event guide to get more attendees.

2) Middle of Funnel

Also known as the evaluation stage, the middle of the funnel is an intermediate step in the customer journey. In this stage, the potential customer has some awareness of what you offer. It’s now up to you to nurture the prospect further. In contrast to top of funnel, you likely already have some prospect or customer data in place so you can start off with a retargeting campaign.

Consider adapting the “Create Campaigns For Your Current Customers” concept to middle of the funnel campaigns. Highlighting your current customers via an event, case study or interview is a powerful way to prove your credibility. Using your customer data platform, identify prospects who have interacted with your brand in the past 3 months (e.g. attended a webinar, participated in a live chat etc). Once you have identified this audience segment, create a marketing campaign to emphasize your case studies.

3) Bottom of Funnel

Converting leads at the bottom of the marketing funnel depends on your business model. If customers make an online purchase, a campaign offering a deadline and incentive is often a good bet. For B2B or enterprise sales, running marketing campaigns may not be your best best. Instead, it may be more effective to collaborate with the sales team to find out what type of campaigns they want. For example, highly customized and targeted direct mail campaigns may be the best way forward.

Use Arena Personas To Get More of The Right Data

Data driven personalization campaigns and advanced audience segmentation all depend on having high quality data. To help companies get more of the data they need to grow, use Arena Personas. It’s the fastest way to collect and import first-party data into your customer data platform. Then you’ll find it far easier to run retargeting campaigns across the marketing funnel.

CDP and the Metaverse: how to control your data

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Before you launch your first metaverse project, there is a critical question you need to answer. How will you control metaverse data?

3 Reasons Why To Control Your Metaverse Data

Controlling your data in a metaverse environment is vital for a few reasons.

It won’t be easy to get feedback to improve customer service and future metaverse projects without control over your data. By controlling your data in this new area, you can stay competitive with future expectations.

  • Data and Security Compliance. 

Your customers expect you to protect their data. At a minimum, you should fulfill local regulatory requirements like California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) or GDPR. Even if those laws do not directly apply to your company, it may be worth meeting those requirements to protect your requirements.

Finding success in marketing requires a commitment to testing and innovation. By tracking what works and what doesn’t in your metaverse, your continuous improvement efforts can continue.

Now let’s look at some of the data you might want to control in the metaverse.

Four Types of Metaverse Data Should You Protect

The specific kinds of data you put into the metaverse and get out of it will vary depending on your approach. A company that creates or uses a persistent virtual world such as Roblox will manage a significant volume of data. In contrast, a company offering a virtual metaverse event once or twice per year will have far fewer customer data profiles to manage.

Your metaverse experience will require a variety of types of content to engage customers. For example, you might create images and videos. For live virtual events in the metaverse, you may create a virtual event script. You might create metaverse content in-house, work with consultants or agencies. Before putting your content into a metaverse environment, get clarity on copyright and intellectual property first. For example, do you retain rights to the content, or are there any limitations to keep in mind?

  • Customer Data And User Data

You may welcome several kinds of users to your metaverse environments: customers, potential customers, and partners. Given the effort required to track users effectively, it is probably wise to focus on customers. The best approach is to use a platform like the Arena Personas. It makes it easy to track customer activity across multiple platforms, including website usage, interactions with sales, social media, and more.

Protecting analytics data related to your metaverse events and environments is essential. For example, you might offer a series of metaverse events aimed at different audiences like small business owners vs corporate executives. At a minimum, track time usage metrics like how long users stay in the metaverse environment. Further, track how many of your users interact with your metaverse offerings. Low usage rates may suggest that your approach to the metaverse may not be appealing.

Qualitative data is meant to capture any other kinds of feedback you may receive about your metaverse environment. For example, users may use Live Chat on your website to ask technical support questions. Keeping track of these questions and feedback is essential. If users struggle to access metaverse content, it is wise to respond to that feedback so you can keep improving. Further, you may also get comments on social media and email about your offering. These comments may give some valuable insights worth reviewing with your team.

How To Control Metaverse Data Step By Step

Use the process to control your metaverse data so that you achieve your business goals.

1. Create A Customer Data Inventory

While you may have multiple types of participants – customers, prospective customers, and influencers – in your events, it makes sense to focus mainly on customer data. The answer is simple. Ultimately, your business goals are likely mainly focused on customer loyalty, customer service, and revenue. Therefore, it makes sense to focus on controlling and managing customer data.

To build your customer data inventory, start with the following examples.

  • Customer Orders and Invoices.

Customer purchase activity gives you rich insights about which products are most popular with which customers. You can also use this data to identify your “VIP” customers by purchase activity.

  •  Customer Relationship Management.

Whether you use Salesforce or another CRM, these tools give valuable insights into customer interaction. For instance, a B2B company might want to identify and invite multiple stakeholders to a metaverse event (e.g., executives, technical experts, procurement, and more) to maximize engagement.

Track which customers are interacting with you on social media. If you are active on multiple platforms, consider focusing on the top 2 platforms with the most followers.

The questions customers ask during live chat sessions can offer valuable insight. This data should be collected and protected.

Website analytics and usage data can provide insights on which content and products customers are most interested in. Protecting this data is worthwhile because it helps you optimize your marketing efforts.

2. Classify Your Customer Data

It takes time and energy to protect customer data. Therefore, it makes sense to focus your effort on the customer data that is most valuable. At a minimum, verify that you meet legal standards applicable to your company and jurisdiction. Some industries like healthcare and financial services may have additional data privacy and security requirements to meet.

 After legal considerations are considered, look at the value of your customer data. You might emphasize live chat data logs from a marketing perspective because the questions help you create more effective marketing. When you first start customer data classification, it is best to keep your system simple with a few categories. You might use the following categories: Very Important, Important, and Minor Importance.

3. Identify Relevant Data For The Metaverse

In the previous steps, you created a company-wide inventory of your most significant customer data assets. As you develop your metaverse engagement, it is essential to identify which data will flow in and out of the metaverse. As a starting point, consider the following.

  • Customer Engagement Data
  • Questions
  • Product Data. Specifically which products generate the most interest in terms of purchases and inquiries.
  • Survey Data. Check if you have a recent customer satisfaction survey data set to reference.

In addition to the above data examples, it is vital to consider data flows. You will probably have data flow into the metaverse, and data flow out of the metaverse. An example of data outflow from the metaverse would be engagement data, such as which virtual experiences draw the most interest from your audience.

4. Test Your Data Tracking Capabilities With A Metaverse Sandbox

Testing your customer data with a metaverse sandbox is an excellent next step. A sandbox is a testing environment where you can see if your systems and processes are working effectively. You might ask a handful of employees to create dummy customer accounts and then interact with your company’s assets in the metaverse. Following the event, verify if your customer data platform was updated based on metaverse user activity (e.g., measure which users logged into the metaverse).

If data is not flowing out of the metaverse into your customer data platform, it is vital to quickly diagnose and fix that problem.

5. Update Your Privacy Policy and Procedures

Once you have a functioning link between your customer data platform and the metaverse, it is time to assess your approach to privacy. Your customers may ask how you will protect their data if they use your metaverse experience. Protect your company reputation by reviewing and updating your privacy policy to cover metaverse experiences.

In addition, discuss user privacy safeguards with any third parties you work with to create metaverse experiences. Once the privacy policy is updated, create training materials for your customer service support to address privacy questions if they come up.

6. Launch A Metaverse Experience

Your next step is to launch your first metaverse experience with live customers. When you first get started with new technology, plan for additional support. For example, you might want to add additional technical support staff to your live chat to help users. After your metaverse experience ends, send out a survey to users to gather their feedback.

7. Put Your New Metaverse Data To Use

Finally, evaluate the new data you have generated from your metaverse event. Start by checking the fundamentals like whether customer data profiles were updated to reflect participation in the metaverse. Second, look for additional insights like which aspects of the metaverse experience generated the most engagement. Based on these insights, you can make better decisions about your next marketing campaign.

The One Must-Have Technology For The Metaverse

You might think that virtual reality headsets are required to offer metaverse experiencers. Such hardware can help, but it is not required. The critical technology is a customer data platform! Without a CDP in place, evaluating whether your metaverse experiences are generating ROI will be very difficult. Click here to find out more about Arena Personas.