Demystifying User Engagement – The Why, What, and How

Why does YouTube invest so much in user engagement, and are there any benefits?

Have you ever planned to watch a youtube video but ended up viewing five more?

I bet you have…it happens to the best of us, even the prudent ones 🥸

What makes YouTube unique in this regard? Why do we tend to stay hooked so easily? 

Thinkwithgoogle reports that the reason for Youtube’s addictiveness is YouTube’s very high user engagement culture! 

In this article, We plan to:

• Uncover what user engagement is, 
• State the importance of user engagement,
• And outline various user engagement strategies you can leverage for higher returns on marketing investment.

Sounds interesting?…

Let’s dive right in!

What Is User Engagement? 

Different authorities tend to define this concept in different ways. 

Wikipedia defines user engagement as the “ interaction  between an external customer and an organization, through various online and offline channels.” 

An article on  Researchgate  referred to user engagement as “the emotional attachment that a customer experiences during the repeated and ongoing  interaction  with a product or service.”

Did you notice that the recurring theme here is  interaction ?

As a result, we can conclude that user engagement is more than just how the user views your product. 

It’s about building a relationship, creating that deep connection with the user, and influencing not just their purchasing decision but also their participation and commitment to your brand.

Why take User Engagement seriously?

The question should be, why not?

Understanding that the power lies with the customer and crafting your engagement strategy around that is the key.

Implementing a good user engagement strategy can:

1. Improve the overall user experience of your customers: This is important for your brand as a good user experience often translates to a loyal customer base.
2. Help you align business objectives to the priorities of the customer: With understanding the best way to engage your users, you can spend your resources on providing real value to your users.
3. Gives you an edge over your competitors: You build strong relationships with your user base with a good user engagement strategy. Relationships foster trust, which means the user will tend to choose you over your competitors.
4. Up your chances of getting referred by users: Leverage user engagement and increase customer success metrics such as your net promoter score.

User Engagement strategies you should know and how to use them.

Are you wondering how you can join the train? 

Would you like to up your user engagement game?

 Here are six surefire user engagement strategies you can leverage for high returns :

1. Humanize your products; Everyone loves a good story, so tell the story and vision of your company. Interact with users on a personal level while offering helpful content.
2. Incentivize your customers: offer freebies, e.g., a demo version of your product, coupons, discount prices, etc.
3. Break-down barriers: eliminate all barriers and make your product or its features easily accessible. For example, Google made all its apps and services accessible by implementing single sign-in. This has made for a pleasant and seamless user experience.
4. We are timing it right: telling the correct stories at the right time. We see Youtube do that a lot; for example, they leverage machine learning and predictive algorithms to tailor video recommendations to users.
5. Listen to your user: Carry out Surveys, do not ignore their responses but take action based on their feedback. Always inform them that you are committed to improving. The mobility company Uber mails their customers a little while after ending their ride, asking them to rate their experience. This offers an opportunity for complaint, making the customer feel heard and treasured.
6. Please explain why you are making changes to a product before making them. At the heart of this is that these changes will affect not just the brand but the users. So informing them will facilitate more compliance.

The key is to take note of your engagement  metrics.

These are pageviews, product reviews, detail views, add-to-cart, wishlist inquiries, clicks on offers, searches, daily views, time spent on a page, comments, signups, shares, etc. 

These metrics are excellent  indicators  of your customer engagement.

Since a single product can have multiple metrics, there is a need for a scalable means to collect and analyze these metrics.

With scalable warehouses like Snowflake and tools like Datameer, we can consolidate, wrangle and analyze our data in real-time and within one landscape.

With Datameer’s intuitive interface, marketing team members, both technical and non-technical, can carry out complex data transformations without needing to write a single line of code.

Don’t believe me?

Try out Datameer… take our trial for a spin today!