How do you get people to engage with you?

Are you the kind of person who presents so much better in person than online? You walk into a room full of customers and they eat up whatever you say. Or you’re at a networking event and feel like every conversation was meaningful.

I often feel like when I’m on, I mean really on, I can do so much better in person or on the phone than over chat. So I prefer to meet with folks in real life. It’s exhausting for me, but I always feel so energized afterward.

I suppose it’s also possible they left the conversation thinking I was a total nut job. I’m going to pretend that’s not the case.

How can you create this same impact online?

Do you find folks coming to your website or visiting your social media but nothing happens? You wonder what you did wrong and assume it must not be a real person visiting your site because that makes us feel better.

You then begin to question how on earth you could get folks to engage with you more.

Here’s the thing, people don’t care about you. They care about themselves. You could beg them to purchase something and they’ll ask “what’s in it for me?”

Getting people to engage with you online is similar to in-person. You need to tell them something they are interested in hearing more about and you need to do it fast before they go back to the snack table for another cookie.

A great example

I’ve been following Nora’s Kitchen Granola for about a year or so now and they do online engagement, especially on social media, really well.

What do they do?

Nora’s Kitchen Granola teams up with other local brands that fit their niche.

In this example, they partnered with 7 brands that together, created a women-focused giveaway package to wrap up the summer. People have to play along with 3 tasks to be entered to win:

1. Follow all 7 vendors,
2. Like all 7 posts, and
3. Tag 3 friends with a hashtag.

By working with their partners, Nora’s Kitchen Granola was able to increase engagement on their Instagram and Facebook pages all while also supporting 7 other really awesome brands.

Sure, they could give out a discount code if the customer provides a birthday or could just simply ask customers to like their status to be entered to win.

But why not help fellow brands out? Because they are also helping to promote you to their fan base.

Our instagram following grew 40% through giveaways collaborating with other brands. Anytime we increase engagement on our social media, our following grows as well.

Kelsey Woodward, Nora’s Kitchen Granola

And the cost to them is 2 bags of granola!

Kudos to Nora’s Kitchen Granola and team. I can’t wait to see them at the next VegFest.

We don’t all have a product to giveaway.

Find other ways to engage and get them talking with you.

Set up a coupon code if they sign up for your email, though I don’t always recommend this. Some join only to unsubscribe moments later once they received a discount. They were never going to be your customer anyways.

Once they’re on your email list, create a welcome email that introduces them to your company with the coupon, something about what makes your company so amazing (a differentiator), and product recommendations.

These are simple ways that every e-commerce store can increase engagement. If you could use help in this area, you might consider buying my Website Rescues. I’ll brainstorm ideas that work for you and fix a few dozen other problems that impact Shopify stores.