Beauty Industry Report, a leading industry publication, featured a guest column by Nick Conyngham, CPG’s Chief Performance Architect. Nick discussed the power of Engagement Marketing.
Enterprise engagement is the strategic process of achieving financial or other goals by focusing on building relationships with the key people in business—customers, distribution partners, employees and vendors. To get the best results, engagement is implemented across the entire organization, from customers and channel partners to salespeople and other employees.
Organizations that are able to engage their people do better than those who don’t—whether it’s the ability of a manufacturer to capture the mind share and passion of distributors and sales consultants, salon owners or stylists, to generate demand by engaging customers; or the ability of a salon owner to build a team of great stylists who know how to grow a following and yet remain loyal to the salon.
There are dozens of studies showing a definitive connection between the ability to engage the people in your business and achieve organizational goals. Studies from Towers Perrin, CLC-Genesee and Gallup have proven that companies grow, prosper and improve profitability through implementation of engagement strategies.
Twenty more or so years of research have identified a formal framework to achieve performance goals through people. No matter what the medium, the key to profiting from engagement is to have:
1. A clear vision of how to align your entire community of customers, distribution partners, employees, vendors and others in ways that can drive performance.
2. Clear, achievable goals—you need to determine one or two measurable goals and then the actions, values or behaviors that will help contribute to their accomplishment.
3. An assessment of the audiences who can help you achieve your goals. Are they engaged or disengaged and why?
4. A clear communications program appropriate to your audience.
5. Learning—Is your audience able to do what you ask of them?
6. Collaboration and innovation: How are you fostering information sharing and suggestions and creating a sense of shared interests?
7. Rewards and recognition: What is being done to make loyal customers, channel partners, employees and vendors feel great about their efforts?
8. Measurement: How are you connecting engagement with performance?
What is the only barrier to profiting from engagement? A plan to get started—which almost always requires the commitment of the CEO (salon owner, distributor president, etc.). That said, many of these principles can be applied to traditional incentive and promotional programs without requiring change in corporate policy or culture.
Nick Conyngham is Chief Performance Architect for Conyngham Performance Group (CPG), where he and his team provide strategic, business building ideas from incentive and recognition programs through customer loyalty programs and events across multiple disciplines. Prior to forming CPG, Nick spent 17 years with Carlson Marketing Group. Reach Nick at nconyngham@cperformancegroup.com. Sean Mannion