6 cloud-based tools to help drive engagement

Tuesday, January 31, 2017

A lot of online marketers say things like “content is king” and “if you build it, they will come”. Sure, content is the main building block of modern online marketing – whether you’re broadcasting newsletters or building traffic through your blog. However, having thorough and in-depth content is meaningless if your audience isn’t engaged enough to absorb your message.

Remember that audience engagement is affected by a lot of things other than content quality. To make them listen more, you must first connect with them, win their trust, and get them more involved with your online presence.

Below are six tools that will help you accomplish this:

1. 123ContactForm

A website is essentially a communication medium that connects brands with their target audience. If you want to have the other party more involved, you need to establish a two-way communication and give your audience a voice.

As the name suggests, 123ContactForm allows you to create functional contact forms using a visual interface. By offering contact forms, you encourage your visitors to engage with your brand either by asking questions or sharing their thoughts. You can also use 123ContactForm to create surveys, quizzes, and polls so you can quickly extract their insights on issues regarding your company.

2. Tawk.to

Implementing live chat on your website has numerous benefits that affect audience engagement. Not only does it improve customer satisfaction, 63% of customers are more likely to return to websites that offer live chat.

The good news is, it doesn’t take any technical knowledge to integrate a live chat feature to your website. With Tawk.co, all you need to do is to copy and paste a bit of code within your website’s <body> and wait for your audience to engage. Don’t forget to enable desktop notifications from the settings menu so you can respond to messages as soon as possible.

3. MooSocial

Another way to have people talk about your brand and build your authority is to let them participate in your own social network. For this, you can use MooSocial to build and launch your own network without writing a single line of code.

MooSocial works similarly with content management systems like WordPress. From the main dashboard, you can access a number of features such as user accounts, themes, and menus. The social networks you can create with MooSocial are also mobile-ready to cater to smartphone and tablet users.

4. Muut

If you’d rather keep discussions within your website, you can easily integrate a forums section using a tool like Muut. It also comes with commenting and private messaging features to improve the community aspect in your website.

Upon registering, Muut will walk you through the essential steps of getting your community ready. This includes creating your welcome post, specifying a reply email, uploading a custom banner, and generating the codes you need on your site. You can also customize your forums even further by picking a theme, assigning moderators, and adding third-party integrations.

5. Yotpo

Statistics show that 92% of consumers trust peer recommendations for their online purchasing decisions. The only challenge now is getting your customers to vouch for your brand by leaving reviews and ratings. This is where Yotpo steps in.

With Yotpo, you don’t only encourage customers to rate your products, you also aggregate their feedback and make it easier for you to convince other potential buyers. Its key feature is the Mail After Purchase, which automates an email that requests for customer reviews after purchases.

6. MyRealKarma

If you’re running an e-commerce business, showing off customer reviews and testimonials is a great way to boost potential buyers’ confidence. The best way to do this is to use MyRealKarma to collect reviews from eCommerce platforms like eBay and Etsy. You can also specify your own website as the source of reviews if applicable.

MyRealKarma works by adding a badge to your site, which will lead customers to your seller profile. Here, they’ll be able to see customer feedback from other marketplaces and verify the credibility of your business.

Other Tools for User Engagement

Getting your audience more involved with your brand is a puzzle – and the tools above might be the missing pieces you’re looking for. If not, here’s a big list of online marketing tools you should check out.
 
Courtesy of B2C