How to build a winning customer engagement strategy

Last year, at Esendex, we polled 1,000 consumers to explore likely behaviours, especially during busy retail periods, with our research highlighting that as few as 41% of us stay close to between 1 and 3 brands. 

If consumer loyalty is so hard won – and there’s still so much more potential for businesses to attract a band of loyal followers – what can you do to make sure your engagement strategy puts you in the winner’s circle this year?

Manage for change

Global and economic instability is showing no sign of levelling off anytime soon. As consumers work to navigate it, their circumstances and priorities are shifting constantly as they re-evaluate what they want and need. 

Rather than expecting a straight-line customer journey, if businesses can move easily from one platform to another, they will add value to their relationships – and to their bottom line.

Simplify for speed

Today’s consumers value simplicity and speed above all else. To ensure retail readiness during peak trading season, businesses will need to cut through the ecommerce noise and it helps if you’ve already put in the hard work during the year to build an accurate picture of your customer’s preferences.

Think about using tried-and-tested triggers to engage at speed – notifications of a sale, one-time discount or a back in stock alert being some of the most successful  – and experiment with a number of communication platforms. More than three quarters of the consumers we polled (79%) said they’d consider purchasing a product from a company as a result of a marketing message received via text/SMS or WhatsApp.

The top three notifications that would encourage consumers to click on a link received via SMS (source)

Use personalised messaging

Every interaction can provide valuable data about the interests, values, and preferences of your customers. Personalised messaging via email, text/SMS and webchat makes it possible to build an accurate picture of each customer and forge an emotional connection that resonates and helps to maintain customer loyalty.

Analyse customer feedback

Doing the bare minimum to engage with your customers has real-world, real-money consequences including low visibility on social media, negative reviews, high bounce rates and below average customer loyalty.

A customer’s experience of your brand should keep them coming back for more. Your customers share valuable information with you at every touchpoint. This data can be analysed to better understand what triggers them to buy or to bounce, their impression of your website and their overall level of customer satisfaction.

Go multi-channel

Multi-channel functionality can offer every one of your customers a seamless brand experience across channels (think email, text/SMS, website chatbot or the WhatsApp Business Platform). Your customers are far more likely to maintain an ongoing relationship with you if you can make their interactions as simple and as effortless as possible

When businesses extend their methods of communication beyond the norm, there’s a real opportunity to engage in richer conversations –the WhatsApp Business Platform in particular, provides an opportunity for companies to engage on a platform that’s already used by more than two billion users worldwide.

The top five channels customers use to communicate with businesses (source)

Put customers at the heart of UI/UX

Building the best engagement strategy through customer-centred User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX) design supports a positive customer experience (CX), which contributes to improved customer retention and brand reputation. The more you understand the elements that contribute to a positive digital customer experience, the more you can deploy the most effective engagement tools and strategies.

Winning at customer engagement

Consumer needs are changing fast—and businesses need to evolve just as quickly if they want to stay relevant. At a time when consumer choice has never been higher—and the cost of switching to a new brand has never been lower – any customer engagement gap needs to be plugged.

Customers expect you to give them reasons to choose you again. By creating the best digital customer experience with your brand and taking a dynamic view of who your customers are and what motivates their behaviours, you can treat consumers as more than just buyers and deliver memorable customer experiences with real impact.

To find out more about customer engagement tactics and how to elevate your strategy, reach out to our team of experts today.