Ronn Torossian, CEO, 5WPR

One of the most difficult things that marketers have to do is to keep customers engaged for a long enough time that they make a purchase. Although there are different factors involved with customers making a purchase, most of the time, when they don’t make one it’s because the company doesn’t have the right data. 

Web Form Conversion

One of the ways that companies can get consumers to be engaged for a long enough time is to optimize their web form conversion. The average conversion rate for web forms is about 2.5%, and one of the ways that companies can improve that rate is by shortening the number of fields that consumers are required to fill out on web forms. No one likes taking 20 minutes to fill out a form about themselves, because it wastes everyone’s time. Instead of using long forms, companies should opt to only capture the most valuable and relevant information about their consumers. That way, they’ll be able to reduce the number of form fields that consumers have to fill out, which will improve their web form conversion rates. 

Personalized Chats

As entrepreneur Marc Roberts of Miami notes, “Plenty of companies tend to avoid utilizing chat services for their customers because they believe that their target audience isn’t interested in that type of technology. However, research has shown different results, as many consumers find personalized chat experiences very valuable. This option is even more popular with consumers compared to social media interactions, emails, or phone calls from a business, as long as those chats are personalized.” 

Clean Data

At the core of consumer engagement  is data about those consumers.  However, if at any point the data becomes old and outdated, or even gets duplicated, it’s less valuable for companies. All data should be cleaned up enough so that it doesn’t skew any promotional efforts or results. There are  plenty of ways that the data that companies collect about their consumers can turn bad– from customers reaching out to a brand through two different channels, to giving outdated email addresses that are no longer in use. When data is cleaned up, it can help companies improve all personalization efforts for customers, as well as improve the overall experiences that customers get when engaging with a brand. 

Standardized Data

Another important point regarding data is implementing a standardization process once all data has been collected. Since every tool and employee tends to input campaign data in their own way, every company should have a process to standardize all the data, and should use those rules consistently. This will  ensure that data remains clean for a longer period of time. 

Data Verification

Finally, companies can’t expect that they’ll be able to connect with their consumers unless all data is verified. That means implementing a data verification process is another important step to clean up data and keep consumers engaged over a longer period of time. There are different types of verification that companies can utilize to make sure all consumer data is relevant– from checking emails to addresses. These verification methods  can help companies segment target audiences into different groups and further personalize their marketing efforts.

About the Author: Ronn Torossian is CEO of 5WPR, a leading PR agency.