How Do You Engage Consumers?

I recently attended a fair; the Mother Earth News Fair to be exact. There were more than 250 vendors. I walked around and looked at all the vendor products. I don’t need or want anything specifically, but enjoy touching and looking at new things. Many vendors are very excited the first day, maybe still the second day, but their energies are waning on the third. I get that, my energies were low as well.

The few items I did buy, were a result from one of three things:

1. The vendor was engaging and passionate about their product.
2. The product was unusual and I had to have it.
3. Crowd pressure-I bought several books at the bookstore, people were snatching them up quickly, so I didn’t want to miss out! ( Yes I could have ordered the book, but it is the have it in my hands satisfaction that I craved.)

I want to talk about the first reason. I don’t like to be pushed to buy; that is different than showing enthusiasm and passion for your product.  First, ask yourself honestly-Are you totally in love and believe in your product? If you answer no, then maybe you should rethink what you are doing. When you don’t believe in your product it comes through your body language and your voice. When you are passionate and believe in your product it comes through as well. The conversations with people are more engaging, they will ask questions, and talk or listen longer. 

If you are sitting in your booth looking bored, I will usually just walk by. If your product interests me, I may look for something to find more info-this is your cue to engage me!  Ask me a question. Don’t ask a yes or no question; hard to engage a person with such a short answer.  Be prepared ahead of time with questions to elicit more than a yes or no answer.

Don’t sit in your retail shop or a fair booth looking bored. Brainstorm activities for demonstration of your product or activities to engage a potential customer. Yes, as a consumer, I love some entertainment factor. It doesn’t have to be elaborate;  something simple will catch my attention. 

 
What are your strategies to engage consumers?