Eight strategies to engage with customers

Interesting report from Experian Cheetah Mail on successful marketing through the recession which emphasises the role of social media networks:

“As in the last recession in the early 1990’s, direct marketing is ideally positioned to play a major role. The difference now is that marketers must embrace the digital landscape and successfully integrate these channels with other media. If we have learnt anything from the proliferation of social media channels, it is that relevance is essential and engaging customers individually is a critical element in nurturing customer loyalty and creating brand advocacy.”

Their eight smart customer engagement strategies are:

– Utilise customer lifetime value to drive strategy
– Maximise your marketing mix
– Listen to your customers
– Re-engage lost customers
– Become more personalised, relevant and precise
– Use social networking techniques to inspire brand ambassadors
– Employ deeper customer segmentation techniques
– Measure, test and adjust your programmes for greater return

The report concludes:”Carefully and sincerely engage your customers so that they become strong ambassadors for your brand. Remember that customer engagement is essential, and building deep, lasting customer relationships is the key to ongoing marketing success.”

You can read the Experian report here.