We took the opportunity to pose a few questions to get their thoughts on several hot topics and industry tactics. Here’s what they had to say:

Today’s topic: What’s the best way to keep customers engaged with your brand all year round?

Nick Garland, Co-founder and Site Architect, The Black Shop

Being integrated with a television show that only runs once a year means our business is very seasonal. So we have to work very hard at engaging our customers all year round. Our strategy is based on three key tenets:

• Be true to our brand identity
• Tap into talent from previous shows and do a series of blogs and product ranges based on their latest projects.
• Continually roll out new products that we think our customers find special.

Sophia Jin, Marketing Manager, FSAstore.com/HSAstore.com

Successful engagement comes down to relevance and timing. You should equip yourself with three key consumer insights: 1) How often a customer prefers to receive notifications from your brand, 2) the type of content he or she is interested in, and 3) their shopping and browsing behavior. Once you are equipped with this data, you can effectively Whether this data is collected by asking a consumer directly or through shopping behavior, once obtained, you can effectively target customers at a pace they prefer with products of interest to them.

Mark DeCausmeaker, Director of Multi Channel Sales, REED Jewelers

We believe customer engagement flows from two types of interest – engagement with a product brand, such as Pandora, Alex & Ani or David Yurman, or a connection with the retailer. To engage customers through a product brand, we offer relevant emails, social posting and events that speak to the value proposition of the brands they’re interested in. This can be around sales, promotions, new product introductions or simply working to support the brand community. The goal is to migrate the customer from product engagement to retailer brand engagement, so we seek opportunities to tell our story and expose the customer to items in our product line that are outside of the entry product that brought them to REEDS in the first place. For us, personalisation, personal contact and excellence in customer service are the primary factors in creating loyal customers who will continue to shop and purchase all year round.

Dominique Perri, Director, Yoko

We rely heavily on social media to remain top of mind for our customers. Our Facebook page is filled with funny parenting memes to build trust and loyalty throughout the year.