Customer engagement remains a primary measure of brand interactions across various channels and touchpoints. Ultimately, it is the superior engagement that translates into a stronger relationship and brand growth.
In today’s scenario, a marketer finds various avenues to build that relationship with customers. Be it around events like the Dubai Shopping Festival or beyond that, brands of today have the ability to tap into the existing database and use innovative and personalized ways to interact with them.
This trend has been clearly reiterated in the State of Insights-led Engagement Report, which highlights that in the Middle East Region, more than 70% of brands use a marketing tool to engage and interact with customers.
Additionally, 60% of marketers also agreed to upgrading their martech stack for a better personalized engagement. On one hand, the rise of digital adoption presents a perfect opportunity for consumer brands. But, the recent global economic slowdown can be a cause of concern for many. As consumer brands navigate their way during this time of crisis, a question that’s being commonly asked across all boardrooms is, “How do we achieve sustainable growth?”
The answer lies in doubling down on customer engagement and retention strategies. By focusing on building loyalty with existing customers, consumer brands can survive this economic downturn and more. Today, it’s not only about providing discounts but also focusing on maximizing the ROI.
Imagine a scenario where a customer interacts with your brand through an offline channel during a shopping festival. The next time they visit your mobile app or website during or after the festival, they would expect a connected experience in terms of products or discounts as seen in the store.
This small but impactful activity can enable you to provide that customer delight and lead the path to sustainable engagement.
Now that the customer has had multiple interactions, the brand can use the previous insights to understand the purchasing behavior, affinities, channel preference and accordingly send out personalized communications, forming an engagement loop. Interestingly, customers are 2.72x more likely to open a personalized email vs. a generic communication.
To form this sustained engagement loop, consumer brands in 2023 will look towards having an integrated martech stack consisting of a customer engagement platform (CEP). A CEP will enable the brands to engage, retain and build a loyal customer base.
Customer Engagement Platforms Ushers Sustainable Engagement
As per a report, currently, only 21% of marketers use a multichannel engagement platform. However, there is a scenario shift waiting to happen, as only 31% of marketers see the impact from their current marketing tool.
With CEPs, brands can form a holistic 360-degree view of the customer, and in turn, stitch the whole customer journey and draw campaigns that drive better engagement metrics.
For example, a CEP can make you understand the behavior of a customer at each touchpoint. This way, your brand can analyze the browsing/purchasing history or affinities to provide much more relevant and hyper-personalized offerings.
At the same time, AI-enabled capabilities can help your brand shift from reactive to predictive engagement. Using predictions, you can identify customers that are more likely to churn, become inactive, or convert and accordingly set up omnichannel campaigns to engage them proactively with the right message, recommendation, or offers.
As the world enters a phygital era, the key to driving sustainable customer engagement in 2023 and beyond will be having an integrated martech stack consisting of a CEP.
With the evolution of customer expectations and their demand for a curated experience, brands that leverage the capabilities of a CEP will take one step further from basic personalization and understand attributes like affinities, lifestyle choices, preferred channels, preferred time, and many other things.
