Customer engagement is the key to unlocking business success, and it's not just a nice-to-have, it's a must-have. Businesses that prioritize customer engagement see a significant boost in revenue, with a study showing that engaged customers bring in 23% more revenue.
Engagement is about creating a two-way conversation with customers, not just a one-way broadcast of marketing messages. By actively listening to customers and responding to their needs, businesses can build trust and loyalty that keeps customers coming back.
What is Customer Engagement?
Customer engagement is a crucial aspect of any business, and it's essential to understand what it entails. Customer engagement is often confused with customer satisfaction and customer experience (CX), but they're not the same thing.
Customer satisfaction is about meeting a customer's expectations, but it's not necessarily about building a relationship with them. Customer experience, on the other hand, is a broader concept that includes every interaction a customer has with a company.
To truly understand customer engagement, we need to focus on the specific actions and interactions that customers have with a business. It's about building a connection with customers and encouraging them to participate in the business's activities.
Importance of Customer Engagement
Customer engagement is key to building strong relationships with your customers. It's not just about making a sale, but about creating a connection that keeps customers coming back.
According to Wyzowl's State of Video Marketing Survey 2021, 84% of video marketers say visual customer engagement marketing has helped them generate leads. This shows just how effective customer engagement can be in driving results.
Delivering personalized customer experiences is crucial for customer engagement. Sixty-five percent of customers expect companies to adapt to their changing needs and preferences. This means tailoring your approach to each individual customer.
Customer satisfaction is closely tied to customer engagement. The more satisfied your customers are, the more likely they are to purchase from you again and become loyal customers. In fact, 61% of customers feel they're treated as a number, not a person.
Engaging customers in real-time is a marketer's top priority. Forty-eight percent of marketers track lifetime customer value, the ultimate measure of whether they're effectively engaging customers and providing the experiences they expect. This shows just how important it is to focus on customer engagement.
By creating a personal relationship with your customers, you can increase their satisfaction and trust in your brand. This can lead to higher customer retention and loyalty, with customers sticking with your brand for a long time.
Types of Customer Engagement
Customer engagement is a two-way conversation, not a one-way broadcast. A loyal customer can contribute ideas, suggestions, and requests to a brand's social spaces, like commenting on an Instagram post asking if and when a product will be restocked.
Engagement can also be measured by analyzing business outcomes such as sales, NPS, CSAT, and customer effort scores. This analysis helps relate engagement to actual business results.
A customer might comment on a social media post asking for a specific product variation, like "would love to see this in green!" or "can we please have a gift set with this, the purple, and the blue?". This kind of engagement shows customers are invested in the brand and want to see more from them.
Benefits of Customer Engagement
Investing time and effort in customer engagement can bring many benefits to your marketing, driving growth and improving customers’ relationships with your brand.
By prioritizing customer engagement, you can drive growth and improve customers’ relationships with your brand.
Customer engagement can bring many benefits, including driving growth and improving customers’ relationships with your brand.
Investing in customer engagement can drive growth and improve customer relationships, which can lead to long-term loyalty and retention.
Improving customers’ relationships with your brand is a key advantage of prioritizing customer engagement.
By engaging with your customers, you can build trust and credibility, which can lead to increased loyalty and retention.
Driving growth is just one of the many benefits of prioritizing customer engagement, making it a crucial part of your marketing strategy.
Strategies
A customer engagement strategy is not a one-size-fits-all approach, but rather a tailored framework that depends on your research findings, resources, and industry. It's essential to consider how to improve customer engagement on a channel-by-channel basis, as there's a big difference between online and offline engagement.
To boost engagement, you can try visually engaging video marketing campaigns, such as explainer videos and social media videos, which have been found to generate leads and attract customers. In fact, 84% of video marketers say that visual customer engagement marketing has helped them generate leads.
Using customer engagement metrics is crucial to improve your strategy, as it provides tangible evidence of what's working and what's not. Industry-standard metrics can help you compare with your competitors, but the most important use for metrics is to continually adapt and tailor your customer engagement strategy for better customer satisfaction.
An effective customer engagement strategy varies depending on the nature of the business and its target audience, but a combination of strategies tends to be highly effective. For instance, a combination of personalized discounts and offerings, funny and responsive social media agents, and loyalty programs can inspire loyalty and affection in customers.
Major brands like Google have found that video marketing is key for attracting and retaining their target audience. In fact, Google has discovered that 63% of YouTube viewers have bought from a brand because they had seen it on YouTube, making it a powerful tool for customer engagement.
Customers have so much power now, with every single person having a voice on social platforms. Knowing your customers and understanding their needs has become critical to success, no matter what industry you're in.
Measuring Customer Engagement
To measure customer engagement, you need to collect data that shows how customers interact with your business. This includes operational data like loyalty program numbers, social shares, likes, comments, and support cases.
You should also explore the context of engagement from your customer's perspective by collecting experience data through surveys, intercepts, and other feedback channels. This will help you understand what motivates customers to engage with you.
Relating engagement data to business outcomes like sales, NPS, CSAT, and customer effort scores will give you a clear picture of how customer engagement is impacting your business.
Measuring Marketing, Sales, and Service
Measuring customer engagement isn't always easy, as it can vary depending on individual business goals. Success looks different for everyone.
A customer who visited your website 10 times last week may not be more engaged than one who spent 15 minutes talking to a sales rep on the phone. Measuring engagement requires considering various factors.
Businesses should monitor key metrics for different departments, such as marketing, sales, and service. Here are some key metrics to consider:
- Customer effort scores
- NPS (Net Promoter Score)
- CSAT (Customer Satisfaction) scores
- Sales
Measuring customer engagement involves relating it to business outcomes, such as sales and customer satisfaction. By analyzing these metrics, businesses can understand what drives customer engagement and make informed decisions.
Average Order Value (AOV)
The average order value (AOV) is a crucial metric that tells you how much customers generally spend when shopping on your website. It's a key indicator of customer engagement and loyalty.
Repeat customers tend to spend about 7x times more than one-time or new shoppers, which shows that retaining customers is a clear indication that your engagement efforts are working.
Improving Customer Engagement
Customer engagement is key to a successful business, and it's not just about collecting data or metrics. You need to showcase existing engagements with customers to inspire new relationships.
Modeling engaged behaviors is crucial, and you can do this by sharing case studies and storytelling to illustrate how other customers have contributed and participated. For example, you can highlight customer feedback, omni-channel customer feedback, and ways to boost customer survey response.
Visual customer engagement marketing is also essential, and video marketing campaigns can be a game-changer. According to Wyzowl's State of Video Marketing Survey 2021, 84% of video marketers have generated leads using visual media, with explainer videos and social media videos being the most effective tools.
To measure the success of your customer engagement strategy, you need to use metrics such as customer satisfaction, customer effort scores, and net promoter score (NPS). These metrics can help you adapt and tailor your strategy for better customer satisfaction and higher levels of interaction.
Here are some key metrics to track:
- Customer satisfaction (CSAT)
- Net promoter score (NPS)
- Customer effort scores
- Sales
By tracking these metrics and using them to inform your strategy, you can improve customer retention and loyalty. In fact, when customers are engaged, they tend to stick with your brand for a long time, reducing the number of customers who leave and increasing the lifetime value of each customer.
Steps to Improve Customer Engagement
To improve customer engagement, you need to understand the difference between related concepts like customer satisfaction and customer experience (CX). Customer engagement is a crucial aspect of building strong relationships with your customers.
Modeling engaged behaviors is key to inspiring customer relationships. Showcase existing engagements with customers in your marketing, using storytelling and case studies to illustrate how other customers have contributed and participated. This can be done by highlighting customer feedback, case studies, and proof points to convince new customers of your high quality.
Here are some specific ways to model engaged behaviors:
- Customer Feedback – What to Collect and When
- Omni Channel Customer Feedback
- 7 Ways to Boost Customer Survey Response
Using customer engagement metrics can also help you improve your strategy. These metrics can provide tangible evidence of what's working and what's not, and can be used to adapt and tailor your customer engagement strategy for better customer satisfaction, higher levels of interaction, and more sales.
Tactics for Customer Engagement
Visual customer engagement marketing is key for attracting and retaining your target audience. 84% of video marketers say this visual medium has helped them generate leads.
Explainer videos and social media videos are the most useful tools for engaging customers. They're a great way to break down complex information into bite-sized, easily digestible chunks.
Google found that 63% of YouTube viewers have bought from a brand because they had seen it on YouTube. This is a powerful way to build trust and credibility with potential customers.
Video is the new shop window, and it's one that is always open. This means you can showcase your products or services 24/7, without the need for physical storefronts.
To get the most out of video marketing, try creating visually engaging video campaigns that capture your audience's attention.
Metrics for Customer Engagement
Metrics for Customer Engagement are key to understanding which strategies are working and which aren't. You can use several metrics to measure customer engagement, such as customer satisfaction, customer retention, and customer acquisition.
Evaluating social media engagement metrics can help you judge which approaches are best to engage customers in the future. This includes metrics like regular customer engagement on social media channels.
Using industry-standard metrics is helpful to know how you compare to your competitors, but the most important use for metrics is to continually adapt and tailor your customer engagement strategy. This can lead to better customer satisfaction, higher levels of interaction, and more sales.
Many of these metrics are simple to implement through UX or CX design and can form a cohesive part of your customer journey. This can help you find tangible evidence of what's working and what's not.
Benefits of Customer Engagement
Customer engagement is a game-changer for your marketing strategy. Investing time and effort in customer engagement can drive growth and improve customers' relationships with your brand.
By prioritizing customer engagement, you can bring many benefits to your marketing. This includes driving growth and improving customers' relationships with your brand.
Customer engagement can lead to increased customer loyalty. This is because customers feel valued and appreciated when brands take the time to engage with them.
Regular communication with customers can also help to build trust. Trust is a crucial element in any successful business relationship.
Investing in customer engagement can also lead to increased customer retention. When customers feel valued, they are more likely to stick with your brand.
Ultimately, customer engagement is key to building a strong and loyal customer base.
Creating an Effective Customer Engagement Strategy
A customer engagement strategy is essential for building a loyal customer base. It provides a solid framework for customer retention that your team and the wider business can get behind.
Customer engagement strategies vary depending on research findings, resources, and industry. Consider how to improve engagement on a channel-by-channel basis, taking into account the difference between online and offline engagement.
An effective customer engagement strategy combines various approaches, including empathy, clarity, and simplicity. Major brands use methods like funny, responsive social media agents, personalized discounts, and brand ambassadorship programs to inspire loyalty and affection in their customers.
To create a customer engagement strategy, model engaged behaviors by showcasing existing engagements with customers through storytelling and case studies. This can help convince new customers of your high quality and inspire customer relationships to form.
Some key strategies for boosting engagement include:
- Customer Feedback – What to Collect and When
- Omni Channel Customer Feedback
- 7 Ways to Boost Customer Survey Response
Using customer engagement metrics is crucial for improving your strategy. Industry-standard metrics can help you compare to competitors, but the most important use for metrics is to continually adapt and tailor your customer engagement strategy for better customer satisfaction, higher levels of interaction, and more sales.
To build an effective customer engagement strategy, consider the following:
- Build engagement opportunities into your UX and CX
- Use UX metrics as well as customer engagement metrics to provide a smooth experience
- Update your design following feedback to meet customers' needs
Measuring Customer Engagement Success
Measuring customer engagement success can be tricky, as it looks different for everyone depending on their business goals. One example that illustrates this point is a customer who visited your website 10 times last week versus one who spent 15 minutes talking to a sales rep on the phone.
Success metrics vary across departments, but some key ones to monitor include website visits, phone call duration, and purchase frequency. A new customer who made five recent purchases may seem more engaged than a long-time customer who only buys once a year.
However, it's essential to consider the context of each customer's behavior. For instance, a long-time customer who only buys once a year may still be a valuable customer, especially if they complete an online survey or recommend your brand to others.
Here are some key metrics to monitor across different departments:
Ultimately, the key is to find the metrics that work best for your business and customers. By doing so, you'll be able to measure customer engagement success in a way that's meaningful and actionable.
Best Practices for Customer Engagement
Modeling engaged behaviors is crucial for customer engagement. Showcasing existing engagements with customers in your marketing can inspire new customers to form relationships with your brand.
Customer feedback is essential for this, and it's best to collect feedback at the right time. You should collect feedback after a purchase, after a service has been completed, or even after a customer has contacted your support team.
Omni-channel customer feedback is also important, as it allows you to gather feedback from various touchpoints. This can include in-person interactions, phone calls, emails, and social media.
Here are some key takeaways for boosting customer survey response:
- Keep surveys short and to the point.
- Make sure to ask for feedback at the right time.
- Offer incentives for completing surveys, such as discounts or free products.
- Follow up with customers after they've completed a survey to show you value their feedback.
Sources
- https://www.qualtrics.com/experience-management/customer/customer-engagement/
- https://vwo.com/customer-engagement/why-is-customer-engagement-important/
- https://www.salesforce.com/service/digital-customer-engagement-platform/what-is-customer-engagement/
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/micahsolomon/2015/12/24/customer-engagement-is-everything/
- https://dotdigital.com/blog/what-is-customer-engagement-and-why-is-it-important/
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