Last week’s exclusives on CMO.com focused primarily on the subject of engagement for both employees and customers. Employee engagement is especially important when it comes to communicating important information from the top down in an organisation. Learning how to engage employees can help an organisation to move forward at a much faster pace because everyone is on the same page. The week’s contributors also provided many helpful strategies for increasing customer engagement, many from some unlikely places.
Katz Kiely, the Founder of Codis, began the week by discussing the need for companies to embrace a more genuine model of communication with their employees. This is especially true when it comes to driving change in an organisation. Most people are change-resistant, and an organisation made up of change-resistant people needs an approach to communicating that bypasses people’s resistance. An information-driven approach doesn’t take into account the way the human brain is wired. Stories engage more areas of the brain, which causes people to have an emotional response. Organisations that want to communicate change effectively and engage employee buy-in would do well to utilize storytelling in the communications.
CMO.com interviewed Tor-Arne Fosser, Vice President Head of Digital Marketing at Telenor, last week. The conversation revolved around Telenor’s continued pursuit of engaging consumers at the right times with the right digital channels offering personalised content. For Telenor, consumer engagement relies on identifying problems that real customers are dealing with and creating services and user experiences that solve these problems. Fosser also discussed the kind of company culture an organisation must develop to succeed in digital marketing.
What’s more engaging than themed entertainment? Klaus Sommer Paulsen, CEO & Founder of Adventurelab discussed the ways in which marketers can utilize the principles that theme parks and other attractions use to engage their customers. These are the same principles that have been used for decades to create something for people to experience. Paulsen gives several practical tips on how to apply these principles to turn your business into an attraction.
Another area of engagement that marketers may not be aware of as a venue for marketing potential is online gaming. The Adobe Digital Index (ADI) reported that the rise of gaming as a spectator event through live streaming of games and social engagement has grown most significantly in Europe. ADI spokesman Adam Lloyd gave the example of one player who live streams his playing of Minecraft and uploads his videos to YouTube, producing more than 150,000 social interactions a month. As online gaming continues to grow, Lloyd challenges marketers to utilize this space for more immersive customer engagement.
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The post CMO.com Highlights: Employee and Customer Engagement appeared first on Digital Marketing Blog.