What is Digital Engagement?

So what’s the difference between digital delivery and digital engagement?  It’s huge!

I sat in a conference several months back with some leading organizations sharing their digital strategy.  The ideas were great but it continues to be impressed upon me that there is a critical difference between delivery and engagement.  And from all of those presentations… I heard 100% delivery in the world of digital.  

Okay, so partially, that’s to be expected.  The digital space is largely a place to “delivery” or pushes the content/resources you have available.  And we most commonly think of engagement as being more in person and not in the digital space.  

I would offer the foundation that digital should always lead to interpersonal in-person connections… but we’ll save that for another discussion.

Most organizations have a digital strategy that’s 100% delivery.  

Most digital strategies look like this:

• Blog postings

• Facebook postings

• Instagram postings

• Twitter postings

• LinkedIn postings

• Webinars

• Virtual events

• Websites

Most digital strategies do NOT look like:

• Conversations

• Guiding people down a path

• Connecting people with each other

• Being responsive to the needs of others

• Making great connections

• People forming groups

• People moving from digital to interpersonal in-person connections

So this is where you have a choice.  Do you want to be all about running a digital delivery strategy or a digital engagement strategy.  And yes, it’s a choice.  Digital engagement is going to take more work but you’re also going to see greater results.  Here are some building blocks to help you start down this path.

• Define your Difference - start by defining what you mean by both digital delivery and digital engagement.  It’s good to have both and even if you’re great at engagement, you still need the delivery part.  Just don’t leave off the engagement!  

• Build a Path - create a path for where you are leading people and how you are guiding them there.  The path will help you (and your community) to see the direction forward. 

• Drive to Connections - the best way to wrap your mind around digital engagement is to think about personal connections.  What connections would you like to see people make and then reverse engineer how to get there.  

• Try Things - there’s no silver bullet for what digital engagement looks like and it’s often very different per each organization.  Dream up a few things and give them a try.  

I’ll close with this.  I truly believe you have a duty, stewardship, and responsibility to help nurture and engage your audience (with you and with each other).  May I challenge you to think well beyond the realm of just digital delivery.  It’s work but the rewards are amazing.

Cause Machine Solutions

The Cause Machine platform is built on a philosophy of digital engagement and a drive to see each community moving members from online connections to in-person connections.  While we love the benefits of what technology can bring to our lives… we believe nothing can bring more life to us as humans than connecting with each other.  That’s why we’ve built every piece of this platform with that goal in mind.  Schedule a demo today!

Remember the age-old adage "The customer is always right?" Well, it's still true.

If you want your business to survive in a challenging, competitive environment, the customer experience is essential. You need a clear vision and strategy for solving customer needs and leaving them satisfied, so they will come back and engage again. 

Enter The Customer Journey Map.

In one 2022 report about customer journey mapping from Hanover Research, 94 percent of businesses using customer journey maps said they help develop new products and services to match customer needs. Seventy-nine percent said customer journey maps helped make them more customer-centric. And 91 percent said maps drove sales. 

But only 47 percent of companies use them.

It's no longer enough to present your product or service and "wing it" on the customer experience end. You have to anticipate what potential clients will do, how they think, and what they will feel about each step of interacting with your business. That's what a customer journey map can do.

What is a Customer Journey Map?

A customer journey map is a diagram that shows the process your customers go through when interacting with your business. It's a flow chart – a visual representation of a customer's experience with your brand. It could track an experience with your website, visiting a physical store, ordering a service, or any other interaction, and you can make one for each type of transaction. About 55 percent of companies using customer journey maps have between three and five versions.

Importantly, a customer journey map is data-driven. It should include "touchpoints" where a customer does something, plus the team members involved, the feelings customers experience, and whatever action you want them to take.

They often look like detailed timelines. Customer Journeys can ultimately help you refine the product or service you offer to better serve the customer and your overall community. You are ultimately leading to more revenue and better community engagement.

5 Steps to Building a Customer Journey Map
 

1. Set Your Goals

First, imagine a fictitious (but realistic) ideal customer. Imagine them interacting with your business as realistically as possible. Think about what you want this person to come away with after interacting with your business. Determine what the big picture and fundamental goals of your customer experience should be.

2. Conduct Market Research

Next, build up some data. You could interview actual customers and look through online reviews to see what the people using your business are really like. Talk with your team members as well. Find out how easy or hard it is to interact with your business and what customers are likely to do and feel about it.

3. Define Customer Touchpoints

Touchpoints are the moments customers interact with your business and how they experience your brand. The number and scope of touchpoints will depend on the business. A car repair garage is different from a coffee shop, after all. 

A customer might need to find you through a web search – how hard is it to reach your website? They might walk up to the counter and look over your menu – what kind of feelings does that elicit?

List every interaction from the initial idea to interact with your business, through finding you, making a purchase, using the product or service, and the resulting impact. Include information in each touchpoint, like what the customer does, how they feel, and any challenges they face.

4. Map Current States

Now organize your info on a graphic flow chart. Start with a timeline, placing touchpoints in order along it with employees/teams involved in each one. There's no "right" way to make it look, just as long as each step of a customer experience is accounted for. You should include how the customer feels and be as truthful as possible.

This is the current state of the customer journey, and it should help show where things are working well and where they could be improved. If you have team members, make sure they share input on the steps of the process they are included in.

5. Map Future States

Using your customer journey map, we now know how good the customer experience is – and where it could be better. It's time to start taking action. Referring back to the goals you initially established, determine where and how you could make the customer experience better. 

Maybe the transition between one touchpoint and the next could be smoother or require less of the customer's time. Maybe that coffee shop menu could be bigger and easier to read. Maybe getting in contact with customer service about an issue after the purchase could be more pleasant and easier to access.

Remember, a customer journey map is just a tool. It's not about playing the blame game but working together to create the best customer experience possible.

Learn how Cause Machine can help take your vision of a better customer experience and make it a reality.

Schedule your free demo.
 

Here’s a surprising fact – one which anyone in today’s highly competitive, globally-connected economy should know:

80% of customers believe the experience provided by a company is just as important as its products and services.

That’s an eye-opening statement. It’s no longer enough to have the item someone needs and sell it at a reasonable price. These days, people prefer businesses that make them feel good, and this often comes down to customer engagement.

Customer Engagement Revolves Around Your Brand

Customer engagement is created by the connection between a customer and a brand. It’s the relationship a customer has that keeps them coming back. In order to maximize an organization’s results, maximizing this relationship is key to sustained growth.

There are customer engagement best practices related to marketing, sales, and service, with plenty of nuance in each segment. But in a nutshell, the whole idea is to improve a customer’s experience through positive interactions. 

In the old days, this was mostly done at the point of purchase. But now customer engagement also happens digitally with advertising, social media, blogs, surveys, and more. Remember, you are up against sellers on the other side of the planet, so a great experience can separate your business/non-profit from the pack.

Take a look at these two figures for more insight into why this matters:

• 86% of buyers are willing to pay more for a better customer experience.
• 95% of customers say trust in a company makes them more likely to remain loyal to that brand (OutGrow).
   

The truth is that engaged customers are more valuable, so customer engagement is a powerful business driver which should be a priority. But maintaining this great experience is an ongoing process. It begins long before the first purchase and continues long after. 

Today we’ll present eight tips to help improve customer satisfaction and loyalty–if you’re a small business operator or a super-sized organization. Remember: Great customer engagement doesn’t happen by accident, after all.

8 Best Tips to Increase Customer Engagement 
 

1. Know Who You Are, Know Who Your Customers Are

The best customer experiences start with a clear message. Build a strong brand voice for your organization, and strive to maintain it at all times. If you know who you are, customers will know, too. And when you feel like you know someone, it’s possible to build trust. For your customers, start with a Customer Journey map to clarify the steps customers take when engaging with your business or organization. Build your service and product to serve their realized needs.

2. Stay In Front

Once people know who you are, it’s important to stay in front of them. Make the customer life cycle as long as possible – and you can do that with follow-up on social media, online ads, blogs, great email marketing for returning customers, and much more. Figure out where your customers are, and go to them. 

3. Track Preferences

In today’s hyper-connected world, it’s easier than ever to collect useful data that can help with decision-making later on. Things like Google Analytics, Facebook Analytics, or even surveys are invaluable tools for learning what customers prefer. But even so, 39% of companies don’t regularly ask for feedback!

4. Trigger Warning

Another powerful use of data is to determine the “trigger” that convinced a customer to engage with your organization or buy that product. There’s often a reason, whether it was an advertisement, a social media post, or even word of mouth. Try to identify these triggers and put them into practice when possible.

5. Be Personal

Despite the power of data, there’s still no replacement for a personal touch. Almost 40% of customer interactions will be automated through AI and machine learning by 2023. But, 49% say that after getting a more personalized experience, they have splurged on an impulse buy.

6. Be Honest

No one is perfect – and even though businesses try hard to make themselves seem that way, they aren’t either. A big part of customer engagement is owning up to mistakes and making things right, with personal communications when possible. This is often easier for a small business, so take advantage!

7. Use Everything You Know

Just like navigating the news, it’s best to never rely solely on one source of information. Be flexible in where and how you get customer engagement details, and then try hard not to cherry-pick data points that confirm what you already thought. Learn to be ok with learning.

8. Punch Above Your Weight

Finally, outstanding customer engagement will often mean your little operation seems like a much bigger one. Using a combination of data, flexibility, and a personal touch, it’s possible to make decisions like a big business – and tailor the experience like a mom-and-pop shop.

Grow Customer Engagement With Cause Machine

Starting with a community engagement strategy is the secret to building a successful platform in the long term. Cause Machine helps customers build the plan of engaging a community well and then begin mapping out the technology to help support that strategy. We’re certain that you’ll find some great resources and powerful tools in Cause Machine to better engage your customers. Learn how it can work for you here.

So you’ve built a thriving community around a bold cause or brilliant product. Great work! But you’re not done yet.

As your project scales up, one of the most powerful tools you can implement is a membership site, turning “users” into members, driving engagement to your cause… and even monetizing your work.

With the creator economy growing, all sorts of businesses use membership sites – which is really just website that features some sort of “gate,” beyond which only members can pass. 

Artists and influencers, nonprofit organizations, social clubs, associations, even retail businesses use these since they all need to present content that only members have access to. That could be special sales and exclusive products, digital classes, or even just a newsletter, and these memberships don’t even have to be paid – they could just involve opting in. But the point is this: Being a member comes with special privileges… and added consumer value.

From your perspective, this added value is the key. It can lead to more revenue for your business, repeat visitors to your site, longer session times, and greater sales numbers – and plus, you could even add a revenue stream if the memberships are paid. But like anything, there are different methods to building a great membership site for your community, and different strengths to each approach. 

3 popular membership site approaches:

1. WPQuickStart

WPQuickStart for Membership Sites is a plug-in service designed especially for WordPress – the website builder used by almost half of all websites worldwide. If you already have a website, and it’s running on WordPress, this offers a way to add membership functionality.

Key Features 

• Fast and easy set-up
• Multi-level subscription packages
• Built-in tools for payment, marketing, and analytics
• WordPress Security

2. CMS Hub from Hubspot

On the other hand, creating a membership site using CMS Hub from Hubspot can help you create a customized experience. More than a plug-in that works with your WordPress website, this standalone content management system is fully hosted by Hubspot (and fully integrated with its marketing, sales, and service tools). The possibilities are endless. You can create multiple membership tiers, with unique perks included in each. But the downside is higher cost – and the fact that one-of-a-kind creations take time and expertise. 

Key Features 

• Hubspot hosting and systems integration
• Full design flexibility
• No plug-ins necessary
• Personalize membership experience

3. WildApricot

Creating a connected membership site usually comes down to whether or not the platform can truly meet your needs. Another solution that has membership capability is WildApricot. WildApricot has a variety of ways to build and run your community. One is a built-in member database that allows you to manage how members interact with one another, share exclusive member-only content and more. You can create multiple tiers of membership and encourage users to join up with membership applications. WildApricot is a solid option for launching a membership site.

Key Features 

• Member database
• Event management
• Mobile app
• Online store

Transitioning from casual users into highly-engaged members is crucial to growth and monetization, and so is using the right platform to do it. Ideally, you’d keep everything from website building to e-learning and membership controls in one place (with a little marketing prowess and analytics thrown in), so you don’t have to piece your digital footprint together. 

Get Started With Cause Machine

Starting with a community engagement strategy is the secret to building a successful platform in the long term. Cause Machine helps customers build the plan of engaging a community well and then begin mapping out the technology to help support that strategy. We’re certain that you’ll find some great resources and powerful tools in Cause Machine to better engage your community. Learn how it can work for you here.

By 2030, the online education industry is expected to be worth almost $200 billion*. But in this growing field, many entrepreneurs make a crucial (and understandable) mistake. They focus too much on the coursework itself.

It makes sense. Even with a great idea and the necessary expertise, educators know presentation is key – but it’s not enough. These days, knowing how to market online courses is integral, too. Each year, thousands of new online courses are created. In order to stand out from the pack, creators need to present their products well and capture attention. 

10 Methods on How to Market Online Courses
 

1. Know Your Audience

Even before you create your online course, there are some marketing rules you should keep in mind. The first is to know who you’re talking to. Imagine a person who is likely to take your course – this is your ideal user. Along each step of the way, you will make decisions with this ideal user in mind. From the way you write instructions to the color scheme and pricing, it should all be designed to appeal to them.

2. Identify Your Lane

The biggest question any brand faces is “Who am I?” so lock that answer down before moving forward. It should be crystal clear what problem your course solves or what need it fulfills. Make sure your course offers something of unique value with a unique voice, and remain laser focused on that identity. This goes hand in hand with knowing your audience. It may be tempting to try appealing to everyone, but you’ll end up appealing to no one.

3. Get Social

Now it’s time to start spreading the word, and the most powerful tool in your arsenal is social media. You should create accounts on major platforms like Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, but don’t count out the smaller/newer ones. Ramp up to your course’s launch date by teasing small bits of valuable content, and then after the course is live, maintain a consistent posting schedule with quality content that drives conversation and engagement. 

4. SEO Is King

SEO stands for “search engine optimization,” and it’s the mantra digital marketers live by. Almost all of the internet’s search traffic (about 90 percent) goes through Google, so you should try to work within Google’s algorithm to become the top result for a given search term. There are lots of best practices for this, but the biggies include researching keywords and using those keywords in context on your online course platform. This will help push it toward the top of Google’s search results.

5. Targeted Ads

Once you know what keywords you’re targeting, you can use Google ads to create an advertisement that will appear when someone searches for those keywords. These can be incredibly effective since they only show up for people who are already interested in the topic. You can also use Facebook to advertise, using that ideal user you came up with to target specific demographic features like age, occupation, and interest. Another idea is to buy some influence. Use a site like Fiverr to pay social media users for tweets promoting your course, just like big brands use celebrities to endorse their products.

6. Check the Reviews

In today’s digital marketplace, consumers are understandably wary of getting ripped off by a fake product, so they often look for user reviews when deciding whether or not to buy. You can use this to your advantage by asking students to leave reviews of your course. Feature those positive reviews and testimonials front and center so potential customers know they’re getting the real thing.

7. Podcasting

Podcasting has quickly become one of the fastest growing media segments, and it can be a great option when deciding how to market online courses. Set up a show that revolves around the topic you are teaching, and host a conversational discussion about that topic each week. You could also seek out other podcasts on the same topic and appear as a guest. But no matter what, make sure to include a shout out to your online course at the end. You’ll soon be building an audience who may also become students.

8. Create Mini Courses

Once your online course is live, you might want to add a few smaller follow up courses, diving deeper into a related topic or something students expressed interest in. These add value to your brand and can also be promoted in the same ways we’ve discussed above. Tease them on social media before they launch, create a targeted ad to hook potential students, and talk them up on your podcast. It’s a great way to keep your content fresh and keep people coming back for more.

9. Sales and Bundle Deals

Everyone likes a good sale, so be sure to consider them on a strategic basis. You could go the traditional route, offering new students a discount for signing up. Or, you could bundle services together. If you’ve got multiple standalone courses, why not sell them as a package deal (for a limited time? Or throw in access to those new mini courses you developed—anything to give people a little added value.

10. Live Events

Finally, it may seem counterintuitive for a digital business, but getting in front of real people can still be a useful tool in how to market online courses. Seek out local events that are related to your course’s topic, and ask if you can give a presentation. You could preview part of your course for the audience and slide in a pitch to check out the rest at the end of your time. You can even consider hosting virtual events to drive even more course sales. Make sure you choose the right event management software to make your life easy. Some platforms even have event management and online course features already built in.  

There's a ton of interest in the online course business: 

In today’s online learning market, there is still plenty of opportunity for an expert with a great idea to start a thriving business. But in order to reach your full potential – and to maximize your return on your effort – you need to stand out. If you use these tips on how to market online courses, you’ll be on your way.

Get Started With Cause Machine

Starting with a community engagement strategy is the secret to building a successful platform in the long term. Cause Machine helps customers build the plan of engaging a community well and then begin mapping out the technology to help support that strategy. We’re certain that you’ll find some great resources and powerful tools in Cause Machine to better engage your community. Learn how it can work for you here.