What are the 7 Best Audience Engagement Tools?
Dec 2, 2024
Audience engagement has become a critical factor for success in any online endeavor. As businesses and content creators strive to capture and maintain the attention of their target audience, the right tools can make all the difference. In this blog, we will divide the best audience engagement tools into two groups. The ones that are beneficial for visual content creators and those that boost interaction for written content creators.
A. Best Audience Engagement Tools for Visual Content Creators
1. Sprout Social
Sprout Social stands out as a comprehensive social media management platform that excels among audience engagement tools. This is one of the best audience engagement tools for social media bloggers. It offers features to help social media content creators forge deeper relationships with their audience.
Key features:
Social media listening: Monitor conversations and trends relevant to your brand
Smart automation: Set up automated responses to common queries, ensuring timely engagement
Audience engagement metrics: Track and analyze how your audience interacts with your content
Content scheduling and publishing: Plan and distribute your content across multiple platforms
Pricing:
Sprout Social does not have a free plan.
The standard plan starts from a monthly $249 for each user. This package includes five social profiles, a social content calendar, review management, tasking and social CRM tools, and basic analytics.
Sprout Social's strength lies in its ability to provide a holistic view of your social media presence, allowing you to tailor your engagement strategies based on data-driven insights.
In case you prefer to have a document for your audience engagement activities, you can get my template and use it as a guide for yourself:
2. Vidyard
In an era where video content reigns supreme, Vidyard emerges as a cost-effective and user-friendly video marketing platform to enhance audience engagement. Vidyard can be one of the best audience engagement tools YouTubers use. This tool enables businesses to create, host, and track video performance with ease.
Vidyard's standout features include:
Video hosting and management: Centralize your video content in one platform
Interactive video elements: Add clickable calls-to-action and personalized elements to your videos
Video analytics: Measure viewer engagement and track performance metrics
Integration capabilities: Connect with CRM and marketing automation tools for a seamless workflow
Pricing:
Free plan: Provides video hosting, up to 5 videos, basic analytics, and sharing capabilities.
Pro: All Free features plus up to 20 videos, custom branding, CTAs (Calls to Action), video creation tools, and enhanced analytics for a monthly $19
Vidyard's innovative approach to video marketing makes it an excellent choice for businesses looking to leverage the power of video in their audience engagement strategies.
3. Streamlabs
Streamlabs is a comprehensive suite of tools designed specifically for live streamers to enhance their streaming experience and boost audience engagement. It offers various features that cater to different aspects of live streaming, making it easier for streamers to manage their streams, interact with their audience, and monetize their content.
Key Features
Streamlabs OBS (Open Broadcaster Software): Customizable alerts for followers, subscribers, and donations keep viewers engaged by recognizing their support in real time.
Donation Management: Tools to facilitate and manage viewer donations, making it easy for streamers to receive financial support.
Widgets: Interactive widgets like chat boxes and donation goals create a dynamic viewing experience, encouraging viewers to participate.
Merch Store Integration: Allows streamers to create and sell custom merchandise directly from their Streamlabs account.
Cloudbot: Engages viewers with chat games, loyalty points, and automated moderation, creating a more interactive and fun environment. Rewards regular viewers with points and perks, incentivizing them to return and stay engaged.
Pricing
Streamlabs operates on a freemium model, offering both free and premium services:
Free Plan: Access to basic tools and functionalities, including Streamlabs OBS, customizable alerts, widgets, and the dashboard.
Limitations: It offers limited access to premium themes, overlays, and some advanced features.
Streamlabs Prime: Access to premium features such as exclusive themes and overlays, advanced analytics, enhanced customer support, multi-streaming capabilities, and more. It costs $19 per month.
Streamlabs provides a robust set of tools that cater to both novice and professional streamers, helping them create high-quality streams, engage with their audience, and grow their channel effectively.
B. Best Audience Engagement Tools for Written Content Creators
1. Elevista.ai
Elevista.ai is one of the best audience engagement tools dedicated to increasing shareability for content creators. Elevista.ai is an AI-driven platform that transforms long-form content into powerful bite-sized pieces that are easily shareable across digital channels with a single click. It enables content creators to reach new audiences and grow, helping them become financially independent.
Key Features:
AI Content Transformer: Use AI to convert long-form content into engaging, shareable pieces with ease.
AI Distribution Tools: Easily share transformed content across multiple digital channels.
Audience Expansion: Reach new audiences with minimal effort.
Growth: Help content creators grow by increasing engagement and shareability.
Pricing:
Free plan: Enjoy unlimited text summarization, basic analytics, and integration with one platform.
Standard: Provides advanced analytics and allows for two platforms to integrate. It costs $15 per month.
Elevista.ai is a game-changer for content creators, which provides a suite of world-class tools to help users transform, share, and scale their content. Elevista.ai is perfect for content creators looking to streamline their content transformation process and expand their reach through highly shareable, bite-sized content.
2. Disqus
Disqus is a commenting system that can be integrated into blogs and websites to facilitate discussions and engagement. It encourages readers to leave comments, share their thoughts, and engage with the content and other readers.
Features:
Easy integration with most blogging platforms
Moderation tools to manage comments and spam which fosters community building and reader interaction on blog posts and website content.
Social media integration for broader discussions which brings more interaction on blog posts
Analytics to track engagement
Pricing:
Free plan: Basic commenting system, essential moderation tools, and ads displayed.
Plus: No ads, enhanced moderation tools, analytics, and email support for $12 per month
3. Substack
Substack is a popular platform for writers and creators to publish newsletters and build a direct relationship with their audience. It enables writers to monetize their content through subscription-based services. Substack combines the simplicity of blogging with the power of email newsletters, making it an ideal choice for independent writers, journalists, and creators.
Features:
Monetization: Built-in payment processing for handling subscriptions. Ability to offer tiered subscription plans and paid memberships.
Analytics and Insights: Detailed metrics on open rates, click-through rates, and subscriber growth. Insights into audience engagement and behavior.
Community Features: The commenting system allows for direct interaction between writers and readers, fostering a sense of community and encouraging engagement.
Integration with social media: It facilitates sharing content on social media platforms.
Pricing:
Free Plan: Writers can start a newsletter for free. Substack takes a 10% fee on any paid subscriptions.
Paid Subscription Fees: Writers set their own subscription prices. Standard payment processing fee of 2.9% + 30 cents per transaction (handled by Stripe).
4. Medium
Medium is an online publishing platform that allows writers to share their stories, ideas, and articles with a broad audience. It focuses on high-quality content and community engagement, providing a clean and simple interface for both writers and readers.
Key Features
Highlighting and Responses: Readers can highlight specific sections of an article and leave responses at the end, encouraging interaction and feedback.
Claps: Instead of traditional likes, Medium uses claps. Readers can clap up to 50 times for an article to show their appreciation.
Medium Partner Program: This program allows writers to earn money based on the engagement their stories receive from Medium members.
Email Newsletters
Medium sends regular email digests to users, featuring recommended stories and new content from followed writers and publications, driving traffic and engagement.
SEO and Social Sharing
Medium’s platform is optimized for search engines, and it encourages social sharing through integrated sharing buttons, helping writers reach a broader audience.
Pricing
Free Plan: It offers basic access to the platform, the ability to read a limited number of stories per month, and write and publish stories.
Medium Membership: Unlimited access to all stories, ad-free experience, and direct support for writers through the Medium Partner Program. It costs $5 per month or $50 per year.
Conclusion
In conclusion, these seven audience engagement tools offer a range of features to help content creators connect with their audience in meaningful ways. From social media management and email marketing to video content and website optimization, each tool brings unique capabilities. By leveraging these audience engagement tools, businesses can create more personalized, data-driven strategies that resonate with their target audience and drive long-term success.