Building relationships with customers online is essential to build a profitable web presence.  You can engage with customers using social media and on your website.  Building relationship with visitors is important for the formation of an online community and promoting brand loyalty.

There are many different ways and techniques to help your engage with your readers and form valuable long lasting relationships. Following are 10 easy and effective ways to achieve this.

Some of these will require some time and effort to implement but will be worth it in the end.

1. Use Social Networks to Offer Expert Advice

Use social networks to offer free advice or consulting to your targeted audience. E.G. if you run a financial business, you can set up a Twitter account to offer free advice. It is also important to promote this feature effectively on your website to encourage participation.

2. Use Social Plugins on Website

Use website plugins boost social media engagement.  Promoting social sharing on a website is common today. Put some thought into where they are placed on your website.

3. Use Comments

Let users comment on your content even if you don’t have a traditional blog. Most CMS platforms offer this facility. You can also take steps to get more comments and participation from readers.

4. Stay in Touch With Commenters

Communicating with user who comment on your site or on social media content is important and helps form a strong relationship with visitors.

• Respond to user comments. They will not only feel acknowledged but you will add to your content and keep your posts fresh.
• Email them (occasionally) for feedback or with valuable information.

Comments can also provide a source for new topics to address on your website. See what users are asking for or saying in through their comments and address any suggestions or ideas.

5. Follow Your Customers On Social Media

One of the best ways to build relationship with users who leave comments on website, share your content, follow or subscribe to you on social media, is to reciprocate. It will make them feel acknowledged whist expanding your own network.

Following are some ways to do this:

• Follow your followers on Twitter
• Like their page on Facebook
• Add users to your connections on LinkedIn.
• Retweet their posts
• Comment on their blog

6. Offer Incentives to Sign-up

Create a quality eBook and offer it for free to those who sign-up or subscribe to your site. You can take advantage of in-line popups to increase your conversion rates.

7. Reward Users For Participation

There are other ways to reward users for participation, both on your website as well as on social media e.g. making exclusive deals available only to those who follow you on Twitter, Like your page on Facebook, or for sharing your content with others.

See example below of how Intrepid Travel rewards users who like their Facebook page with access to exclusive content and experiences of other travelers.

8. Explore Guest Posting Opportunities

Many readers will have their own blog. Explore opportunities for guest posting. Write a guest post on their blog or invite them to write one on yours. It is also common to receive guest post requests on your comments.

9. Use Surveys and Polls

An increasing number of websites not jut blogs, use interactive features such as polls, feedback forms or surveys to capture opinions from your readers. Results provide an excellent opportunity to create a report or a post.

10. Hold contests or Give Always

Hold contests and give away. Reward winners with an opportunity, discount or product. Contests featured around posts or essays can add valuable content to your site whilst giving readers the opportunity to showcase their own work.

11. End Content With a Question or Call to Action

Whether it is a blog post or a page on your website promoting your services, ending content with a question or call to action is a simple yet effective technique to get reactions from website visitors or encourage another desired action. Bloggers have been using this method effectively for encouraging readers to comment or share the post with friends on social media.

12. Start a Q&A section on Your Website

Start a publicly accessible Q&A section on your site where users can post questions and you can answer. I have seen sites that have made great use of this, boosting reader engagement and adding great content to their site in the process.

13. Consider Creating a Forum

Forum may not be the best option on every website and it also requires constant moderation. However, it is a great way to boost visitor engagement on your website.

14. Start an E-Mail Tutorial Series

Set-up email series with the help of an auto-responder service. Make sure it is not promotional but a course, tutorial or something useful for your targeted audience.

15. Use a Good Feedback Form

A simple feedback form, placed prominently on your website can prove effective for building relationship with users. It encourages participation and adds interactivity to your website. The website scoop.it is a great example of an innovative feedback feature that can be accessed from any page of the website.

See image below.

Readers: What features do you offer on your website or blog to engage with readers. What methods do you use to build better relationships with customers online? Please share your ideas by leaving a comment below.