There is a report which sheds insight into the “new rules” when it comes to engaging our customers. The report can be downloaded here. Below are some highlights from this important report.
Key Findings
To gain a deeper understanding of how marketers are defining and acting on customer engagement, Forbes Insights, in association with experience marketing agency George P. Johnson, surveyed more than 300 marketing leaders of large companies.
Key findings of the study include:
• As traditional “interrupt and repeat” advertising models are fading as brand-defining tools in favor of customer “conversations” and advocacy, engagement is becoming the way marketers are creating brand experiences worth discussing.
• CMOs are building their customer-facing programs with engagement in mind, and making it a KPI in their dialog with top corporate management.
• Coming up with a definition of customer engagement appropriate to their organization and brand-and the accompanying metrics to measure it-is a core responsibility of the CMO.
• In assessing engagement, experiential and digital opt-in methods are frequently rated as the methods that engage with customers most deeply. Yet CMOs aren’t necessarily aligning their marketing budgets to these priorities.
• Companies may be getting in their own way when it comes to drafting their engagement strategies. Among the top inhibitors: lack of a well defined approach to engagement, and poorly articulated benefits for loyal customers.
• Despite an understanding of the importance of engagement, more than a quarter of companies don’t have a specific engagement strategy in place. More than a third believe their companies are doing only a fair or poor job engaging their audiences.
• For most marketing executives, effective engagement translates into greater sales, higher margins, and repeat purchase behavior. Still, given the value they place on engagement, a high number are not measuring its impact.
• Employees are an important element of the engagement formula; inspiring employees and equipping them to over-deliver to customers is crucial to success.
• Marketing channels that emphasize engagement are increasingly favored by executive marketing decision makers.
We would be interested in your feedback on the report and how these findings will change your marketing efforts. Please leave a comment for us.
