Customer engagement isn’t just about getting people to sign on the dotted line; in fact, that’s only the beginning of the story. And considering it can be 5 times more expensive to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one, the success of your ongoing engagement can significantly impact your bottom line. If you can reduce churn by just 5%, you can grow your profits by 60-80%.

In this blog, we'll delve into the essence of customer engagement, its importance for your business, and actionable strategies to enhance your B2B client engagement. As you’ll see, successful engagement with individual customers can produce a ripple effect that not only helps secure your existing book of business but can also open new opportunities.

What is customer engagement and why is it important?

Customer engagement encompasses the ongoing interaction between a business and its clients. The initial buying journey and closing of the deal is where the engagement starts, but the process of interaction continues as the customer is onboarded and settled into using your solution.

Sometimes the task of customer engagement will be passed from sellers (who closed the deal) to Customer Success Managers or Account Managers who will help the client unlock the full value of your product of service. It involves actively fostering relationships, providing value at every touchpoint, and ultimately, cultivating loyalty that lasts. 

But customer engagement is a two-way street: it isn’t just about adding value for the client. Your business also benefits by collecting data that can inform product development decisions, your go-to-market strategy, and help understand your brand’s perception.

Why you need a customer engagement strategy

Having a secure customer engagement strategy in place ensures consistency and value of interaction with each of your customers and reduces the risk of any clients being forgotten at any point in your funnel.

The benefits of having an engagement strategy include:

• Improved customer relationships: Regular communication and personalized interactions foster rapport, building stronger human connections with your clientele.
• Enhanced loyalty and retention: Engaged customers are more likely to remain loyal to your brand, which helps reduce your churn rates, increase your average customer lifetime metrics, and boost long-term profitability.
• Uncovering upsell opportunities: By understanding your customer's needs and preferences, you can identify opportunities to upsell additional features or services and increase your customer value metrics (customer value = average value of sale x average number of transactions).
• Streamlined purchase cycles: A well-crafted engagement strategy streamlines the buying process, guiding prospects seamlessly from awareness to conversion and renewal when the time is right.
• Increased user base: The more your customers actively engage with your brand, the more exposure your solution enjoys, and the more potential for new selling opportunities!
• Valuable customer insights: Every interaction - be it during the buying, onboarding, or renewal process - is a chance to glean valuable feedback that will help you refine your marketing strategies, optimize sales processes, and improve overall customer experience amongst your target audience.

What's the difference between customer engagement and customer satisfaction?

They might sound the same, but customer engagement and satisfaction are distinct concepts. 

Customer satisfaction measures how content a customer is with a specific product, service, or experience, while engagement involves ongoing interaction and relationship-building beyond individual transactions. 

While satisfaction reflects a customer's perception of your offering and the value they derive from it, engagement encompasses the depth and quality of interactions with your brand and team over time.

What's the difference between customer engagement and customer experience?

Again, it’s important to understand the difference between these ideas!

Customer experience (CX) describes the larger holistic journey customers undergo when interacting with your brand and encompasses every touchpoint from marketing to post-purchase support. That means it could include anything from targeted advertising to personalized outreach, tailored demos and onboarding to customizable user experience (UX) in your product, product usability and so on.

On the other hand, customer engagement refers more specifically to the level and nature of interaction and connection between a customer and your brand across various channels. 

For instance, engagement relates to whether a customer leaves your solution a G2 review, engages with your social media posts, consumes your content, or provides direct feedback on your solution.

Customer satisfaction and customer engagement are both elements of the broader CX picture, but none of the terms is quite interchangeable!

Examples of customer engagement in action

By now it should be obvious that customer engagement can - and should - be nurtured across multiple channels. This helps maximize the benefits for both your business and your client!

Here are some examples of what customer engagement could look like in practice:

• Participation in industry events: Hosting or attending conferences, webinars, or workshops allows customers to engage with your brand, learn about industry trends, and network with peers.
• Joining loyalty programs: Rewarding customers for their loyalty through exclusive offers, discounts, or rewards programs encourages continued engagement and repeat purchases.
• Providing feedback: Actively soliciting and responding to customer feedback demonstrates your commitment to meeting their needs and keeping communication open - and clients love to feel directly involved in the development of their favorite products.
• Referring your solution: When a customer goes out of their way to refer your solution to a similar prospect, they’re not only providing you with valuable business; they’re also showing the strength of their approval for your product.
• Interacting with content: Customers who regularly engage with your social content, company news, or blog posts are demonstrating a sense of affinity with your brand.
• Leaving third-party reviews: Keep tabs on G2, TrustPilot, Capterra, and other relevant industry review sites to see which of your customers are taking the time to review your solution.
• Reading your newsletter: If customers are opening and reading your product updates or marketing news, it’s a sign they’re happy to engage with your brand outside of your product or service.

7 strategies to enhance client engagement

With all that said, how do you go about developing an effective customer engagement strategy?

Here’s a 7-step framework to get you started:

1. Get to know your ideal customers: Understand your customer's preferences, needs, and pain points to tailor your engagement strategy effectively. You should start by looking at your Ideal Customer Profile and your top existing customers and then looking at what channels they like to engage on and what kind of support their industry would benefit from.
2. Craft targeted content: Focus on creating personalized content that resonates with your audience and addresses their specific challenges and interests. Track your content to see which content resonates with which personas in your audience and which channels provide the most engagement. You can then develop more and more segmented approaches to deliver hyper-relevant content to more specialized customer groups.
3. Build a customer-centric approach: Prioritize customer feedback, actively listen to their needs, and focus on delivering exceptional experiences at every touchpoint! It sounds obvious, but make sure customers feel they can engage with you at any time - for example, via live chat or a regular office hours webinar.
4. Choose robust tools: Leverage automation and communication tools to streamline engagement processes, track customer interactions, and deliver personalized experiences at scale.
5. Collect customer feedback data: Use surveys, reviews, and social listening to understand what customers really think about your product and identify areas for improvement. At an individual level, you can also use product activation and performance metrics to track each client’s progress with your solution and use this to personalize your engagement with them.
6. Refine your strategy: Continuously analyze engagement metrics, experiment with new tactics, and adapt your strategy based on evolving customer preferences and market trends. Remember that if you don’t listen to your customers, you’ll be left behind by a competitor who does!
7. Measure your engagement success: Use the key metrics listed below to gauge the effectiveness of your engagement efforts and quantify the value they are bringing to your business.

Customer engagement metrics to track

Here are some essential customer engagement metrics for you to consider:

• Net Promoter Score (NPS): NPS measures customer loyalty and satisfaction by asking customers how likely they are to recommend your company to others. A high NPS indicates strong customer advocacy and positive brand perception.
• Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT): CSAT measures the satisfaction level of customers based on their recent interactions with your brand. It typically involves post-interaction surveys to gather feedback and identify areas for improvement.
• Customer Effort Score (CES): CES assesses the ease of doing business with your company from the customer's perspective. It measures how much effort customers had to exert to resolve an issue or complete a transaction, with lower scores indicating a smoother experience.
• Customer Value: Average value of each individual transaction multiplied by the average number of transactions.
• Customer Lifetime Value (CLV): Customer value multiplied by the average customer lifespan.
• Churn rate: Churn rate measures the percentage of customers who stop using your product or service over a specific period. A high churn rate signals dissatisfaction or disengagement among your customer base and highlights the need for intervention to retain customers.
• Behavioral analytics: Behavioral analytics track customer actions and interactions with your brand across various touchpoints. This includes website visits, email opens, social media engagement, and more, providing valuable insights into customer preferences and engagement patterns.
• Qualitative feedback: In addition to quantitative metrics, qualitative feedback offers valuable insights into customer perceptions, preferences, and pain points. This includes customer reviews, comments, and direct feedback gathered through surveys or focus groups.

Better customer engagement, better business results

Customer engagement means deriving the maximum value - qualitatively and quantitively - from each customer relationship to drive loyalty, and ultimately, fuel your business growth. By implementing a consistent engagement strategy and leveraging proven tactics, you can enhance your overall customer experience, maximize customer lifetime value, and position your brand for long-term success.

Perfect customer relationships have to start somewhere! Request a demo to see how Amplemarket can help you find and close your next best customers in record time.