The digital world is a place where consumer engagement is thriving. Digitalization makes consumers live much easier and more efficient. Having the ability to buy nearly everything online and using personalization tools and tech from forward-thinking companies foster customer loyalty and engagement. Massive corporations like Amazon and Google have fine-tuned their skills in the customer engagement sector so much and small independent companies are proving such unique products and services, they have taken over much of the market. CGPs are struggling to find their footing, voice, and personality in this ever-changing digital world.
The Consumer Packaged Goods industry (CPG) has struggled to keep up with the digital demand and has taken a hit for their lack of tech-savvy innovations and ability to connect with the customers in a digital way. Therefore, CPGs use technology and find other ways to foster a strong sense of loyalty, excitement, and engagement with their customers.
Creating Great Digital Content
The customer wants content they can read, like, and engage with online and across all forms of social media. This is where a large portion of the population spends their free time and CPGs must tap into the expansive market. Creating fun social media posts, funny videos, informational content, polls, and talking directly to consumers is one of the first steps to improve customer engagement and help build up customer interest and loyalty.
Communicating through social media, message boards, and niche sites is an ideal way for CPGs to learn about the customers, what they like, what they don’t like, and what they want from brands and products in the future. This form of communication generates useful web traffic so CPGs can gather information about their end customer so they can tailor their marketing and products to more specific communities of people. This is important because CPGs can market their products and brand as much as they want, but if they are not marketing to the right audience or not promoting the right points of their product, customers are going to lack interest.
E-commerce and Geographic Targeting
Although e-commerce is important for CPGs to tap into, physical stores are still integral to their success. People still like to shop in actual stores or go to real events to see and use products before they purchase them. Therefore, CPGs can use geographic targeting to help create and entice customers’ use their products and gain interest in their brand. Instead of a CPG targeting mass amounts of people with little direction, they can tap into a smaller more specific group and location of people.
For example, if a large beer company is hosting an event in a city for the day the beer company can begin their marketing campaign to target people within a 30-mile radius of the event. When the day of the event is taking place, they can reduce that radius and only focus on targeting people who are a mile or less away from the event. The goal is to target a precise audience because you are more likely to get people who are only one mile away from the event to attend than people who would have to drive thirty minutes to an event happening the same day. CPGs can use social media posting, location tagging, and mobile data location information to target people who are closest to their event.
Buying Products Online Quickly and Easily
People today are all about ease and convenience. If you are scrolling through Facebook or Instagram and come across a product you love and it peaks your interest, having the ability to click on a button and be taken to a buy page for that product, means the customer is more likely to buy the item right then and there than if they had to open up an internet browser page and search for the product on their own. Most customers would put it off, thinking they would remember to search for the product later, and then forget about it in the end. Similarly, they are even less likely to remember to look for it in a store when they are out shopping.
Therefore, utilizing the web and making purchasing a digital process can create better customer engagement with the CPG. If a CPG makes is easy enough for an online shopper to buy their product, they will have to worry much less about a consumer forgetting about the brand and their product. That is why big social media outlets have made it possible for companies to sell their products right from the social media platform. Instagram now has an option for companies to make their post and picture shoppable. All the brand has to do is tag and link back to their product page on their website and customers can ship right from their social media account.
This does not only lead to more sales for the CPG company, but it also provides the company with insightful user data as well. For instance, they can see what products sell the best on certain social media outlets so they can do similar posts in the future. They are also able to see what people tend to buy these items, where those people are located, and much more.
Personalization
People love it when brands allow them to customize their favorite products or when companies send them a personalized recommendation based on their specific needs. It is more fun, more engaging, and keeps consumers interested. If CPGs want to stay ahead of their competition, implementing these tools will increase customer engagement and loyalty.
One of the most popular ways customers seek personalization is through customization options for their favorite products. For instance, the granola brand, Bare Naked, allows their customers to completely made their own granola flavor on their website with thousands of combinations and ingredients to choose from. Makeup brands are also letting their customers mix their own foundation colors to match their skin perfectly or mix their perfect shade of pink lipstick.
