All about engagement marketing

It’s a familiar story. The marketing environment has become increasingly complex. Consumers are behaving differently. Marketers must navigate an increasingly confusing mix of channels and platforms. Online engagement and digital content is near ubiquitous, or soon will be.

Whilst marketing often appears to be an idea, platform or device away from its next evolution, I strongly believe that the fundamentals of our business remain consistent.

Despite disruption and the proliferation of media channels and touch points, the basic principles of marketing have not really changed. Consumers continue their pursuit of better, newer products, services and brand experiences.

And successful brand marketers are those who can find new ways to tell a compelling, engaging story over any platform.

The challenge is how to connect brands with people in an authentic, personal and relevant manner. Marketing remains a magic mix of creative, content, community, story-telling and platform – be it visual or physical – and most importantly, experience. But it can be tough to execute in an integrated, cohesive way.

I believe that the answer is to focus on establishing an engagement culture around a brand. Creating an engagement culture allows us to manage complexity and address business challenges – structured around ideas that come to life across multiple channels - in a strategic way.

An engagement culture is expressed through engagement marketing – a simple strategy that embraces core marketing principles and which is aligned to business outcomes.

So what is engagement marketing?

Here are five principles to live – and market – by, designed for the brand builders of today and tomorrow:

Engagement marketing is best defined by the outcomes it generates; the number of consumers who engage with a brand experience in an immersive context.

It is about imagining your desired brand experience and to work backwards from that point; weaving together digital, social and traditional media elements to create a holistic brand experience; a series of moments that create an emotional connection with consumers.

o Creating a brand experience sits at the core of this approach. Successful engagement marketing establishes an emotional connection with consumers and a brand.

It is about creating an experience that carries the flavour or essence, personality and emotion of a brand in a way that is relevant to people’s lives. And it’s about the quality and consistency of these experiences.

o Engagement marketing is about content, community, device-driven storytelling and immersive physical environments. While the live experience sits at its core, engagement marketing is also about generating content for multiple media platforms, leveraging the power of digital storytelling tools and platforms.

o Engagement marketing can exploit the full spectrum of marketing platform and tools to effectively engage with consumers at different levels, including digital, mobile, events and sponsorship and advertising, not simply interact. One-off, one-dimensional communication does not drive results.

o In engagement marketing, social is not the same as digital. Social is an enabler for digital content – the avenue to the consumer. Digital content is the substance of engagement; social media makes it possible.