Marketers' view

We asked over 200 marketers from all industries and business sizes to tell us about their businesses' customer engagement strategies. We learned about the channels they use, where they are concentrating their marketing efforts and which brands deserve the 'customer engagement champion' label.

Komal Helyer, Marketing Director at Pure360, highlights "2018 was a challenging year for brands of all shapes and sizes. From large to small, high street to online, many have seen unsettled consumer confidence and dwindling loyalties translate to reduced revenues. As a result, getting customer engagement right has never been as great a priority as it is now - though while it's clear that marketers are aware of this, what's less clear is that they consistently know what the best way is of going about it."

The report focuses on the differences between acquisition and retention campaigns. Evidently, there is an urgent need for marketers to understand their customers and their unique brand journeys.

In general, we observed that loyalty programmes are not as common as we have thought. Indeed, only 49% of organisations currently offer loyalty programmes - despite 70% of marketers feeling customers enjoy and value rewards offered by such schemes.

Furthermore, marketers believe discounts and freebies are the top tactics for both acquisition and retention campaigns: on the contrary, consumers are open to a range of other ways to engage which are being largely overlooked by brands.

Another blur between what marketers believe and customers need sees brands concentrating their efforts and messages on features such as being "cool" and supporting customers' personal development. However, what actually really matters to consumers is a solid functionality of the product or service.

In conclusion, as Scott Logie, Chair of the DMA Customer Engagement Committee MD at REaD Group Insight, said: "Great customer engagement should result in loyalty. In turn, those returning customers want to be rewarded, and it's clear from the results that a surprising number of brands are ignoring loyalty programmes and the additional engagement on offer. Overall, our survey of marketers provides deep insight into the current state of customer engagement and the challenges facing brands that are intent on making their communications even more eye-catching and effective. We hope this report helps you assess your efforts today and reset your agenda for greater engagement tomorrow."

Read the full report to find out more about the dialogue between marketers and customers on engagement strategies.

Read the full report