The internet is a powerful tool for marketing. But it is a double-edged sword because it also makes it easier for all your competition to reach your customers. Everyone is swamping the internet with content and trying to get their brand on top. So how are you, amid all the chaos, supposed to engage your customers?

Interact on social media

The number one way to get new customers and market your business is through social media. Everyone is on social media, whether that means being a part of one network or seven. Having your business on Facebook, for example, is like literally sitting in a mall with all your customers and having a booth open for them.

With that in mind, you will never sell anything if you booth isn’t noticed by passerbys. You have to interact with them and show them your product. The same applies to social media. If you want to get those users to become customers, you have to interact with them and show off your product a bit. Here are some ways to use social media to interact:

• Videos – Post videos to your page whether you created them or you are just reposting something else related to your business. Video content is getting extremely popular for people who don’t want to read a whole article but still want to know what is going on.
• Ask Questions – When you ask a question on social media, you are opening it up to all your customers and asking them for their opinion. You will actually have more success using yes or no questions because it encourages people to answer. Often, they will choose to elaborate themselves. It creates a discussion on your page.
• Giveaways – Customers are always excited to get free products, and they are much more likely to enter a giveaway that is easy. You can partner with other businesses to provide the giveaway and require everyone who enters to like all the pages. Or you can do your own giveaway and ask people to tag their friends to be entered. Even asking for a story and picking a winner will encourage a lot of interaction.
• Answer questions – If there are questions about your product or service on your page, answering them is important. But you can also choose to make a post yourself with the question and an answer on it, so all your customers can see. This is a good idea when you’ve been having confusion over a new promotion or if you just want to showcase something you thought might benefit your customers. Plus, it makes the customer who asked the question feel very important.
• Avoid clickbait –  Clickbait is basically anything that requires you to click it to get the full story. Saying things like “She had a flat tire, and you’ll never guess what happened next” as your lead is a way many companies get people to their websites, but it annoys social media users. It is much better to lead with the story, and then expand on it in the blog post.

Text Customer Service

Being able to communicate with your customers via text message is very important to your success. It means your customers can contact you in a way they are comfortable with using. Your customers can easily contact you, and you can send immediate responses back to them. It is useful for simple questions, such as asking what your store hours are for the day. But it is also very useful in customer service inquiries where a customer needs help with a problem but doesn’t have a bunch of extra time to sit and chat on the phone.