Small Business
Success Center

During unprecedented and uncertain times, small businesses must keep their customers engaged. With the recent pandemic, many small business owners found themselves in unchartered waters. Their daily interactions with customers were challenged, and they had to reexamine their small business marketing practices. Although current events created obstacles for small businesses, the unprecedented times also opened doors to fresh ideas and pushed businesses to find better ways to engage with customers.

If you’re a small business owner struggling with customer engagement during these times, consider the following marketing ideas and reasons to push forward.

Social Media Customer Engagement Keeps Your Business Relevant

When people can’t physically be together, social media keeps people connected. Love it or hate it, but social media marketing is more important than ever to keep customers interested in your brand. To stay engaged with your customers on your social media platforms, do the following:

• Keep your profile relevant
• Update your profile with your business’s current hours
• Include links to your online shop
• Check your direct messages regularly and respond to your customers

One of the best pieces of advice business owners should listen to when using social media for marketing is to entertain, not sell. Social media is a tool for storytelling and entertaining first. Selling comes second. The more content you provide for your community, the more they’ll remember you and, eventually, when the world gets back to a normal state, the more likely they are to buy from you.

Engaged Customers View You as an Authority

Being an authority doesn’t mean that you have an advanced degree in string theory. Being an authority in business means you have credibility. Your customers react to this by coming to you when they have a specific need.

For example, let’s say you sell goat milk products. You keep your customers engaged by posting regularly about the happenings on your farm. You post stories about the benefits of goat milk. You answer questions from your community about the best goat milk products to use. Maybe you share funny pictures of your goats being, well, goats. By constantly engaging your audience, you’re developing credibility, and the next time someone needs goat milk products they know exactly who to call.

Engagement Keeps You in Your Customer’s Inboxes So They Remember You

Yes, believe it or not, some of your customers have never seen your Facebook page or Instagram feed. This doesn’t mean you should forget about these customers. In fact, they could be the most important for your business because they’re not being bombarded constantly with digital information and experiencing feed fatigue.

When considering online marketing beyond social media, many people think of targeted ads and search engine marketing. While these should be part of your overall marketing strategy to reach a broader audience, don’t forget about email marketing. Email is still one of the most widely viewed mediums by people of all ages.

Like customer engagement via social media, email engagement should focus on value and storytelling. Of course, you’ll include links to buy the products or services you’re selling, but keep the sales copy entertaining. This kind of engagement for small businesses is important. It means your emails will get opened more often and your customers remember you.

When times are uncertain, you must push forward and continue to stay engaged with your customers. If you don't have an online presence, learn more about marketing tools offered by AT&T Website Solutions to help you stay connected with your customer base.