But what exactly does digital customer engagement mean? Let’s break it down in plain and simple terms. 

What is digital customer engagement?

Digital customer engagement is connecting with your customers in the digital space using various internet tools. It involves building relationships, creating customer loyalty, and providing a memorable experience for your customers. 

As a customer, you must have received a personalized birthday wish via email or a website must have prompted you with a live chat for immediate assistance. That’s all part of digital engagement. 

In today’s fast-paced digital landscape, where competition is fierce and attention spans are shorter than ever, mastering digital consumer engagement is crucial. It is the key to standing out, staying relevant, building long-term customer relationships, and thriving in the online marketplace.

Now, we move forward to understand why it is important to prioritize digital engagement.

Benefits of digital customer engagement

In today’s age, digital customer engagement is not just a buzzword; it’s the lifeblood of your online business. If you want to thrive in the competitive digital marketplace, engaging with your customers on a personal level is not an option but a necessity. 

Let’s dive deeper into the benefits of digital customer engagement and answer the question: Why is digital customer engagement important?

Builds strong customer relationships

In the digital world, customer engagement is like a secret ingredient that makes your brand unforgettable. 

When you engage with your customers in a meaningful way, you become a trusted friend they turn to again and again. Think about your favorite local coffee shop. The barista knows your order by heart and greets you with a warm smile. That’s not just great coffee; it’s exceptional customer engagement. In the digital world, it’s about knowing your customers’ preferences, addressing their needs, and making them feel valued and heard. That’s the kind of connection that keeps customers coming back to your website or app for more. 

Boosts customer loyalty

Customer loyalty is the holy grail of business, and digital customer engagement is your treasure map. Engaged customers are not just one-time buyers; they’re your brand advocates. They’re the ones who sing your praises to their friends and followers on social media and keep coming back to choose you over the competition. They’re not just promoting a new product; they’re sharing valuable tips, responding to comments, and creating a community around their brand. 

Drives growth

Digital customer engagement isn’t just about warm and fuzzy feelings; it’s a growth engine. Engaged customers are more likely to convert, spend more, and stick around. When you engage with your customers effectively, you’re not just boosting sales; you’re increasing the lifetime value of each customer. 

For instance, imagine you run an online store, and a customer visits your website. They have a question about a product, so they click on the live chat option. Within seconds, they’re chatting with a friendly and knowledgeable support agent who answers their questions. That seamless experience not only clinches the sale but also creates a loyal customer who’s likely to return for future purchases. 

Enables the business to adapt and thrive

In the fast-paced world of the internet, change is the only constant. Customer preferences evolve, new technologies emerge, and competitors are always one click away. That’s where digital customer engagement shines. 

Imagine you notice a sudden drop in website traffic, and you’re not sure why. With the right digital engagement tools and analytics, you can quickly identify the issue, address it, and get back on track. It’s like having a GPS for your online business, helping you stay on course even when the road takes unexpected turns.

Digital customer engagement strategy

Having a well-thought-out digital customer engagement strategy sets the direction for all your digital channels and online presence. It ensures that you are not only connected with your audience but also leave a lasting impression.

We will look into some of the key strategies and tactics that can spearhead your digital customer engagement:

a. Web experimentation

You must constantly experiment with your website to enhance digital customer experience and engagement. By analyzing user behavior, you can identify pain points, areas of improvement, and new opportunities. Web experimentation involves making data-driven changes to your website to optimize its performance. 

A key web experimentation method is A/B testing. It can help you compare two versions of a webpage to see which one performs better. Such experiments can lead to substantial improvements in conversion rates, user engagement, and overall customer satisfaction. For example, the following image showcases two variations and control (original version) of the product page that are A/B tested to improve conversion.

b. Customer experience personalization

Customer experience personalization is like having a digital concierge that tailors every interaction to the individual customer. It’s about using data and insights to create a personalized experience that resonates with each customer. 

For example, if a customer frequently shops for running shoes, your e-commerce website can showcase the latest running shoe arrivals the next time they visit. These personalized touches go a long way in keeping customers engaged and coming back for more.

c. Content marketing

Content is the lifeblood of your digital engagement strategy. It’s the bridge that connects you with your audience, providing valuable information, entertainment, and solutions. Various forms of content, from whitepapers to webinars, play a pivotal role in creating digital customer engagement:

Whitepapers, reports, and ebooks

These in-depth pieces of content demonstrate your expertise and thought leadership. They offer valuable insights and solutions to your audience’s pain points. By providing free access to well-researched whitepapers, reports, or ebooks, you not only educate your audience but also establish trust and credibility. For example, VWO provides an in-depth A/B testing report that helps marketers get valuable insights about experimentation.

Online courses and webinars

Hosting online courses and webinars showcases your commitment to helping your audience grow and learn. These interactive formats allow for real-time engagement, enabling you to answer customer queries, address concerns, and build relationships. By consistently producing high-quality content that aligns with your audience’s interests and needs, you become a go-to resource. This keeps your audience engaged and encourages them to stay connected with your brand throughout their customer journey. For instance, Bain & Company conducts regular webinars on important business topics to regularly engage with their clients.

d. Integrated customer support

Exceptional customer support is the cornerstone of any successful digital engagement strategy. In the digital age, customers expect quick and convenient ways to get their questions answered and issues resolved. A robust contact center, equipped with knowledgeable contact center agents, is essential for delivering top-notch support. These agents are the human touchpoints in your digital space, available through multiple channels like chat, email, or phone. They play a crucial role in providing real-time assistance and creating positive customer experiences.

Moreover, a well-integrated contact center can also collect valuable data on customer interactions, allowing you to better understand customer pain points, preferences, and behaviors. This data can inform future engagement strategies, helping you continually improve customer relationships and build a base of loyal customers.

e. Multi-channel engagement

In today’s interconnected world, your audience engages with you through multiple channels. An effective digital engagement strategy embraces this multi-channel reality. By being present and responsive across all these channels, you create a seamless and consistent customer experience. Whether a customer reaches out via Facebook Messenger or your website’s live chat, they should receive the relevant experience as per the funnel stage.

f. Mining data-driven insights

Data provides valuable insights into customer behavior, preferences, and pain points. By continuously analyzing this data, you can refine your strategies, uncover new opportunities, and improve customer relationships by using a digital customer engagement platform.

For example, an educational portal is striving to create a vibrant online learning community. It uses a customer engagement platform to collect and analyze customer data from multiple sources and derive valuable insights. By tracking student behavior, preferences, and learning patterns, they tailor content and resources to individual needs, ensuring a personalized educational journey. This data-driven approach not only fosters greater student engagement but also boosts overall satisfaction, making the educational portal a trusted and preferred destination for eager learners

Digital customer engagement examples

Top-performing companies in the world utilize digital engagement strategies to keep delivering the best customer experience. Here are three examples to inspire you.

Nike

With thousands of product offerings in its arsenal, Nike understands the importance of tailoring the customer experience. They’ve built a digital engagement strategy that’s akin to having a personal shopping assistant right at your fingertips.

Here’s how it works: When you visit Nike’s website, they invite you to choose your interest. Whether it’s a specific sport, product category, or athlete, you’re in the driver’s seat. 

Once you’ve made your selection, the magic happens. Nike’s platform serves up a curated selection of products that match your chosen interest. It’s like having a virtual shopping aisle customized just for you. This approach makes the browsing experience not only convenient but also highly engaging.

Customers can explore products that align with their passions and preferences, creating a sense of connection with the brand that goes beyond just making a purchase.

IMB Bank

One of the best banks in the world, IMB Bank, wanted to improve customer engagement on its digital platform. Recognizing the need to enhance its digital customer engagement, this global banking giant utilized VWO.

IMB Bank began its journey by analyzing the user journey on its digital platform. Through funnel analysis, they uncovered a significant bottleneck – approximately 37% of users were dropping off at the first page of their personal loan application form. Armed with this insight, they decided to roll up their sleeves and launch an A/B test using VWO.

The existing personal loan application form page (control) was tested against a variation. The variation introduced several strategic elements, including highlighting unique selling propositions (USPs), showcasing awards, mentioning the time taken to complete the steps, enhancing the overall form design for easier navigation, and providing clear instructions at each step to enhance user clarity.

The results? A 9% increase in users completing the form.

IMB Bank’s success story with VWO is a shining example of how leveraging digital engagement strategies can yield not only higher engagement but also impressive conversions. 

Spotify

In the ever-evolving world of digital music streaming, Spotify orchestrated a brilliant strategy known as “Spotify Wrapped” back in 2016 that has become music to its users’ ears. This annual campaign is a testament to the power of personalized engagement. 

Spotify Wrapped offers users a delightful recap of their year in music and podcasts, presenting a customized list of their top tunes and most-played podcasts. It’s like a musical journey down memory lane, perfectly tailored for each user. Also, users can easily share this recap on their social media platforms, igniting discussions and fostering connections with friends.

This campaign isn’t just about celebrating the music; it’s a digital engagement masterpiece. By curating a unique experience for every user and encouraging them to share their musical journey, Spotify not only engages its audience but also creates a sense of community. 

Spotify Wrapped has become a yearly tradition that users eagerly anticipate, strengthening their bond with the platform. It’s a shining example of how personalization, user-generated content, and social sharing can drive digital customer engagement.

Digital customer engagement trends in 2023

After 2020, brands are finding new ways and deploying new technologies to acquire, engage, and retain customers. Here are three major digital engagement trends to watch in 2023.

Generative AI

In 2023, companies will be using Generative AI to transform digital customer engagement. From personalized content and recommendations to innovative chatbots and product design, Generative AI is redefining the rules of engagement.

Thanks to Generative AI, companies can analyze data streams such as purchase history, browsing behavior, and social media activity to curate content and recommendations that cater to individual interests and preferences. For example, Netflix uses generative AI to recommend new movies and TV shows, and Amazon uses it to generate personalized product recommendations for its customers.

Moreover, conversational AI and chatbots powered by Generative AI provide 24/7 customer support, answering inquiries and collecting feedback naturally and engagingly. These AI-driven interactions create a seamless and personalized customer journey.

Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR)

AR and VR technology create immersive experiences that blend the digital and real worlds. AR adds digital elements to our physical surroundings, while VR transports users to entirely virtual environments. Businesses are using this technology in innovative ways. For instance, furniture companies are allowing customers to virtually place new furniture in their homes using AR. Clothing brands are enabling customers to try on outfits in a digital mirror. 

AR/VR is also revolutionizing customer support. For example, a car company can use AR to allow a customer service representative to see what a driver is experiencing through their windshield, providing real-time instructions to troubleshoot an issue. These technologies offer a unique way to visualize products, fostering a deeper connection between customers and brands.

Hyper-personalization

Hyper-personalization is all about delivering unique, tailored experiences to individual customers by leveraging data, analytics, AI, and machine learning. It helps redefine digital customer engagement and keeps customers coming back for more.

Businesses collect a wealth of data, including demographics, purchase history, browsing behavior, and social media activity, to fuel hyper-personalization. This approach serves as a dynamic catalyst for digital customer engagement by delivering relevant, captivating content. For instance, retailers can send personalized emails suggesting products based on past purchases, while streaming services recommend content aligned with viewing habits and preferences.

Hyper-personalization nurtures stronger, more personal relationships by demonstrating a profound understanding of individual needs. It’s a game-changer for businesses looking to stand out in a crowded market and build loyal customer bases.

Watch the webinar to learn more about personalization:

Conclusion

In the fierce competition to stay at the top of the business, the ability to establish personal, timely, and relevant interactions with your customers is essential for distinguishing your brand. It requires demonstrating not only a deep understanding of your customer’s unique needs but also having the right products and services to meet those needs.

Digital customer engagement is not simply a technological undertaking to experiment with; it is something that enables you to develop strong relationships with your customers, foster meaningful engagement, enhance your cross-channel marketing efforts, and maximize your return on investment to unprecedented levels.

FAQs

This is quite concerning, given the time, effort, and budget required to acquire new users. While there are quite a few reasons behind why a user uninstalls an app, bad UX sits right at the top of the list.

Most apps today struggle with retention issues mainly because users cannot accomplish their goals. From high loading times and constant crashes to unresponsive elements and confusing layouts, users continue to face UX problems while using apps. 

This is extremely challenging for product managers as these UX issues impact crucial product KPIs like user engagement, retention, conversions, referrals, and so on.

But, a major cause for concern is that most of the time businesses are unaware of these problems. This is why you need a strategy that not only helps you discover crucial UX issues but also enables you to optimize mobile app UX. 

In this blog, you’ll learn exactly how to do that with a specially curated 5-step framework that covers the entire cycle of mobile app UX optimization. 

Step 1: Identify where users are facing problems in your app

Before you go about optimizing your app and fixing UX issues, you first need to find out where exactly your users are facing these problems.

Are they leaving your app during the signup flow, or is an unknown crash occurring on another screen? 

While there are quite a few ways to identify problem areas, let’s look at some strategies commonly used.

App store reviews

The most obvious way to get feedback about your app is through reviews left by users on platforms like Apple’s App Store or Google Play Store.

By tracking these reviews consistently, you can identify common issues in your app or even discover problem areas that were previously unknown. 

However, since writing a review requires additional effort, a lot of users tend to skip it entirely. Also, most of these reviews are shared by users who either had an amazing or terrible experience. 

This could prevent you from gaining any honest, nuanced feedback from these reviews. 

Support emails

Another commonly used method brands rely on to discover issues within their apps is support emails. 

Users generally send these messages to your customer support team when they require some kind of help or encounter a problem in the app.

However, users only opt for this option when they encounter a problem. Also, not every user would take the time or effort to raise an issue or write an email about it. This again limits your visibility of user experience. 

In-app surveys

Using surveys is a great way to establish two-way communication with your customers. It also allows you to collect crucial feedback that can be leveraged to optimize user experience.

For example, when users complete a purchase, you can prompt a survey to know more about their experience or you can use it to get feedback about new updates or features. 

However, a common issue with this method is the number of people who fill up a survey. Since surveys tend to interrupt the user journey, people might either not take them or rush through their responses. In this case, the data might not capture the pulse of visitors. 

Also, there could be a gap in the data collected about user behavior as surveys fail to capture the voice of the silent audience. 

Quantitative analysis

In addition to previous methods, you can use analytics tools like Google Analytics, CleverTap, Moengage, or Mixpanel for deeper insights into user interactions with your app. 

These tools offer data on user demographics, actions, and engagement. They provide user data like time spent on a screen, number of user sign-ups, location of users, etc.

However, these tools primarily answer the ‘where’ of user behavior. For example, Google Analytics tracks user drop-offs from the sign-up screen of your app. But this information still does not tell you why this happened. 

This limitation leaves you making assumptions about user actions, rather than having concrete reasons for decision-making.

Qualitative analysis

Why do you need mobile app session recordings?

The best way to overcome the app optimization challenge is to opt for tools that enable you to conduct qualitative analysis. Through this analysis, you notice certain patterns or nuances in user behavior that are not clearly evident with quantitative metrics like session duration or bounce rate.

For example, let’s say you manage an e-commerce app. A user is exploring your collection of t-shirts and tries to choose a different size. However, the button to change the size is non-responsive. After a couple of attempts, the user quits the app. 

In this scenario, a tool like Google Analytics or CleverTap will show an increase in the number of people who left this screen and quit the app. However, this information does not reveal the reason behind this action. 

On the other hand, using mobile app session recordings, you will be able to watch this user event in real-time.

This means you no longer have to wait for users to report an issue within your app. You can review these recordings to discover these issues and fix them proactively before they cause major damage.

Tools like VWO Insights for Mobile Apps help you do this by offering deeper insights into customer behavior with powerful features like mobile session recordings and mobile heatmaps.

Secondly, when you release a new app version, you may want to know how new users interact with it compared to returning users. Or, maybe you want to study specific scenarios where the app crashed and failed to respond.     

This type of analysis provides some much-needed context to user behavior and allows you to make data-driven decisions to optimize the app. Depending on your tool, segmentation of recordings can be done in different ways.

For example, with VWO Insights for Mobile Apps, you can filter all recordings based on various factors like device type, location, android version, iOS version, screen viewed, app crashed, app not responding, etc. 

Why do you need mobile app heatmaps?

A heatmap is a visual representation of data that shows how users interact with your app. 

Color overlay is used to visualize where exactly users are tapping on a particular screen within your app. This is a crucial feature as it gives you a clear idea of how users are interacting with important sections of your app.

Let’s say you added a new section called ‘What’s Trending’ on the home screen of your news app. Since it’s an important section, you can use heatmaps to study the taps it receives and guide improvements based on this data.    

As another example, say your gaming app has a section where users can buy new gear and accessories. When you check the heatmap of this section, you notice that a very small number of users are clicking on the ‘View More’ button even though the product screen is receiving a lot of clicks.

Based on these insights, you can either change the placement of the ‘View More’ button or you can add a new ‘Infinite scroll’ feature that allows users to see more products without clicking anywhere.

How can your business benefit from qualitative analysis?

No matter what industry you belong to, qualitative analysis will give you deeper insights into user behavior and help you understand the factors that influence their actions. 

Let’s look closely at how businesses across industries can benefit from this qualitative analysis.

1. Shopping apps

Qualitative analysis is extremely crucial for e-commerce apps. It can help you to understand why users abandon the purchase journey. 

E-commerce apps often run flash sales or special offers to attract more customers. Since the traffic is relatively higher during this period, you may want to study user behavior and identify key areas that should be improved.

For example, your checkout screen has a section called ‘You Might Also Like’ just before the ‘Buy Now’ CTA button. The section recommends relevant products to the users based on what they are purchasing, making it an important part of your cross-sell or up-sell campaign.

However, during one of the flash sales, you observe the heatmap of this screen and notice that the ‘You Might Also Like’ section is receiving much fewer clicks. To understand this issue better, you watch session recordings of users who reach the checkout screen.

Surprisingly, you see that the product images in this section are taking almost 8-10 seconds to load, which is why users are skipping it altogether. 

Based on these observations, you can optimize the product images in this section and ensure that they load along with other elements on the screen.

This will result in faster loading times and will also increase cross-sell purchases from the checkout screen.

2. Finance apps

Industries from the financial sector can also use session recordings to analyze critical screens such as a loan application form or new account opening form. 

For example, consider you have an ’Insurance’ section in your app where users can buy a health insurance plan. 

Here, when users want to compare different plans, they can select their desired options and click on ‘Compare’, which takes them to a new screen where an in-depth comparison table is displayed.    

To optimize this comparison section, you want to study user behavior and identify possible friction points. Let’s say, you use the session recordings feature to know how users interact with the screen. 

Here, you see that users have no issues while comparing the two insurance plans. However, since there is no option to add another plan, users have to go back to the ‘Insurance’ screen. This action resets their choices and they are again asked to select their previous options along with the new plan.  

This issue complicates the entire comparison process and causes users to abandon the screen altogether. 

Now that you’ve identified a critical pain point, you can improve the flow of this process by adding a new button that allows users to choose a new plan directly from the comparison screen.

Also, you can use these insights to further optimize the ‘Insurance ’ section and guide improvements to the design or layout of the screen.

3. Food & drink apps

Apps that deliver food and groceries deal with a large number of users on a daily basis, which is why it is critical to observe behavioral patterns.   

For example, let’s you want to simplify the checkout process in your app. To know what changes are required and get a better understanding of user behavior, you analyze the heatmap of the checkout screen. 

Here, you notice that even though users are interacting with important elements like adding an address or choosing the payment method, the ‘Apply Promo Code’ section is not receiving a lot of clicks. 

To further understand this behavior, you looked at session recordings of this screen and saw that users are scrolling down without noticing the ‘Apply Promo Code’ section, hence you got a hypothesis that it might not be really visible.

Based on these key insights, you can make certain changes to ensure that the section receives good visibility so that users can easily benefit from it.  

4. Travel & local apps

Another industry that can greatly benefit from qualitative analysis is travel or hotel booking. Let’s say, your app allows users to book tickets for inter-city buses. 

You notice that users are spending a lot of time on the ‘Bus Listings’ screen, but very few are proceeding to the ‘Booking Confirmation’ screen. To understand why this is happening, you watch recordings and analyze user behavior.

Here, you observe that users are scrolling through a long list of buses and they are even struggling to find the right one. While analyzing the heatmap for this section, you also notice that the ‘Sort & Filter’ option is receiving very few clicks. 

This suggests that users are not using this feature effectively to narrow down their choices. 

To overcome this issue, you can improve the visibility of the ‘Sort & Filter’ feature or you can also recommend commonly used filters at the top of search results. 

5. Gaming apps

When dealing with gaming apps, session recordings can reveal glitches or bugs during gameplay and can also show how new versions or updates are affecting user engagement. 

For example, you want to know how users play through a challenging level in the game and whether they encounter any difficulties. To do so, you analyze the session recordings and notice that a lot of users are quitting the app after repeatedly failing at a series of tricky jumps.

You observe that users are struggling with the timing of these jumps. A possible reason might be the lack of pop-up tutorials at this particular level, which means users are unaware of the advanced controls required to clear the jump.

To solve this problem, you can introduce a couple of tutorials or demos just before users start this level. By doing so, you can help them understand the controls and also avoid interrupting their experience. 

Step 2: Decide which issues should be tackled first

Identifying user issues in your app is crucial, but what you do next matters most.

For example, let’s say you have a travel booking app where users can search and book flights, hotels, trains, etc. Since a major source of your revenue comes from users who book international flights, you want to optimize their experience. 

To achieve this goal, you check the recordings of users who dropped off while booking an international flight. Here, you notice that when users try to add coupon codes on the final checkout screen, the app stops responding and crashes.

On the other hand, a few users have also reported issues with the filter option on the screen that displays all available international flights.

While both these issues are affecting user experience, the one on the checkout screen should be high priority as it directly results in abandoned bookings and loss of revenue. 

An optimization framework thrives when you prioritize critical app sections, allowing efficient resource allocation and addressing key user experience issues.

Step 3: Share data-backed insights with your stakeholders

To create optimized experiences, avoid relying solely on intuition. Instead, continually track and share data-driven insights with all stakeholders involved in the optimization process.

For example, suppose you are studying the heatmap for an e-commerce home screen and notice a lot of clicks on one of the image banners. But, since the banner is non-interactive, it results in dead clicks and creates frustration among users. 

Use a tool like Insights for Mobile Apps to share findings. Backed by data, these observations facilitate discussions with stakeholders to find efficient solutions and enhance user experience.

This approach ensures everyone is informed about user interactions, streamlining decision-making for future changes.

Step 4: Turn insights into hypotheses for your tests

After identifying critical issues, gathering data, and sharing insights, it’s time to optimize your app. However, implementing changes directly from observations might involve risk and create new problems.

To avoid this, convert your insights into hypotheses and conduct A/B tests. A/B testing involves showing different app screen versions to user groups and analyzing data to determine which performs better in terms of app UX and engagement.

Follow these key A/B testing best practices for optimal results.

1. Define your hypothesis and identify a goal

Before you start with mobile app A/B testing, it is important to have a well-defined hypothesis. 

For example, while analyzing the heatmap of your home screen, you notice that the CTA button is not getting enough clicks. You also observe that the button is placed a little lower on the screen which is why users are probably unaware of it.

Based on this, you create a hypothesis that bringing the CTA button to the top of the home screen will result in more clicks. Using this hypothesis, you create a variant of the screen where the button is placed higher on the screen. The metric you are tracking for this A/B test here is now clear: The number of clicks on the CTA. Your goal is to increase the same.

2. Test small before you go big

Making any kind of change to your app is bound to impact performance and UX. 

However, if you start your optimization journey by testing big changes like a complete app redesign, you face a higher risk of impact on revenue and sales.

To avoid this challenge, you should start testing small, incremental changes and focus on building a culture of experimentation within your organization. 

With this approach, you not only prevent any large-scale impact on the app or business, but you also gain the trust of other stakeholders by sharing consistent results and insights. 

So, when you do come around to run complex tests, it would be easier to get approval and support from the rest of the organization.   

3. Choose the right A/B testing tool for your mobile app

Once you are prepared to begin your optimization journey, you will need an A/B testing tool to get started. 

While there are a lot of mobile app A/B testing tools available today, you should choose one that matches your requirements and business goals. 

You must also ensure that the A/B testing tool has minimal impact on your app’s performance.

VWO empowers you to launch your experiments effortlessly and allows you to test a wide range of features such as in-app messaging, app layout, UI copy, and much more.

Step 5: Monitor behavior after the UX is modified

Once you start running experiments and implement certain changes to the app, it will gradually have some kind of impact on the overall UX and user engagement.

This is where you double down on your efforts and closely analyze how users are interacting with all the changes and tweaks.

Again, you can use the mobile heatmaps or session recordings feature with Insights for Mobile Apps to study user behavior after the changes have been implemented. 

Track the impact of your optimization efforts and look for ideas or opportunities to further improve app UX. 

By combining your testing efforts with advanced behavior analysis, you create an optimization cycle that will not only improve in-app user engagement but will also drive business growth in the long run.   

Register now for a product tour of VWO Insights for Mobile Apps and enjoy free 90-day access to discover real-time insights and drive app conversions. 

This blog explores customer engagement examples from leading brands and the strategies they employ for success. We are sure that learning from their stories will inspire you to create winning customer engagement strategies for your brand as well. 

So, let’s start. 

Spotify

Spotify, with customized playlists created for every listener based on their listening preferences, aces customer engagement like no other! From mood-based collections to regional and occasion-based playlists, Spotify’s recommendations are a musical marvel. As it replaces your need to curate playlists manually, you can simply sit back and enjoy your favorite songs wherever and whenever. 

Have you heard about Spotify Wrapped? It is a popular online customer engagement campaign where you can see a roundup of all your most-played and cherished songs from a particular year. It was first launched in 2016 and is still going strong. In fact, it is such a hit with users and this campaign has become a part of Spotify’s brand identity. 

But it doesn’t stop at playlists. Spotify’s commitment to user satisfaction extends to its pricing plans as well. They offer a wide range of pricing plans catering to individuals, duos, families, and even students. This inclusive approach ensures Spotify meets the diverse needs of its audience, making it a top choice for those craving personalized listening experiences at flexible pricing. 

Mailchimp

Mailchimp is one of those B2B companies whose customer engagement marketing strategies are always on point. Since creating an account with Mailchimp, I’ve received some compelling newsletters from the company. Recently, I received an email revolving around promoting their upcoming virtual conference. 

What stood out to me was the detailed information about the conference’s savings, giving a clear picture of what attendees can expect. This provides value to their audiences more than promoting their own product. 

This strategy may not lead to immediate revenue boosts, but it reinforces Mailchimp’s reputation as a valuable resource. It is a good move, as it can contribute to long-term revenue goals by re-engaging users who may have been dormant for a while and enticing them to explore Mailchimp’s tools once more. 

Sephora

There is no beauty enthusiast who has not heard of Sephora. This French multinational retailer is at the top of its game because it has put customer engagement at the heart of what it’s been doing. Its personalization strategy is top-class without a doubt. But what is specifically more commendable is its loyalty program – Beauty Insider. 

This program operates on a points-based system, where customers earn points with each purchase, which they can later redeem for beauty products, samples, or exclusive experiences. This incentivizes frequent shopping, instilling a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction among customers.

Beauty Insider members enjoy exclusive access to sales, discounts, and promotional events. With this excellent customer engagement example, Sephora shows how to make your existing customers feel valued. 

Sephora also extends thoughtful birthday gifts to its members, fostering a sense of appreciation and potentially encouraging purchases around their special day.

Further, Sephora’s online platform fosters customer engagement among Beauty Insider members, enabling them to share reviews, ask questions, and participate in beauty forums, solidifying a sense of belonging and loyalty among customers. 

Uber

Uber’s consistent drive to innovate, adapting and enhancing experiences to align with evolving customer behaviors, positions the company as a leader in the industry. However, recently the issue of trip cancellations and offline driving left many Uber passengers in India dissatisfied.

In response, Uber India promptly launched a customer engagement campaign named ‘If you’re off the app, then you’re off the map’. This was aimed at re-engaging its customers and winning back their trust. 

This initiative not only discourages offline trips but also places a strong emphasis on transparency and passengers’ safety. By doing so, it reassures the passengers that their well-being is Uber’s top priority. This also simplifies the process for passengers to report any instances of offline trips. 

Reducing offline trips and trip cancellations directly impacted Uber’s revenue. When rides are completed off the app, Uber loses out on commission and fees. By curbing these practices, the company protects its revenue stream and works toward profitability.

Regaining the trust of passengers will likely encourage them to choose Uber for their rides. This customer engagement example is expected to boost revenue and foster enhanced loyalty among its customer base.

IKEA

In today’s world of marketing where companies often go to great lengths to prove why they’re the best, IKEA has taken a different approach with its latest customer engagement campaign – Proudly Second Best.

Instead of focusing on their products, they’re highlighting the special bond between parents and children. A lot of their customers are parents who shop for cribs, stools, and high chairs. 

IKEA highlights the subtle truth that no piece of furniture, even if it’s their product, can be as important as a parent. Their products can help improve family lives but can’t be a substitute for parent-child bonds. 

This furniture brand taps into a universally emotional theme in this campaign, which is poised to significantly increase customer engagement. The campaign positions the brand as one that cares about family dynamics and relationships, leading to a more positive brand perception and increased customer loyalty.

The messaging clearly showcases IKEA’s commitment to understanding, valuing its customers, and fostering trust and authenticity. Now, this is an excellent customer engagement example all brands must learn from.

Liked the examples so far? We’ve got some more for you. Below, you’ll find some more case studies showcasing how brands made the best use of visitor behavioral analysis and A/B testing to improve customer engagement on their digital properties. 

Bizztravel

Goal

The Bizz Travel Group is a popular name in the Dutch online travel business. They are experts at making their leisure products and selling them on their websites. The company wanted to conduct an A/B test to identify the best way to arrange navigation on their website to improve visitor engagement with the information available and nudge them ahead in their booking process. 

Quantitative analysis showed that many visitors used site searches to look for ski villages like Gerlos and Val Thorens.

Some 23% of visitors landed on the homepage, while the majority entered the site at deeper levels. On average, visitors click about 5 times before finding a link to a ski village. This led the team to conclude that almost 75% of visitors never see the homepage of the website. 

Test

Based on these observations, the Bizztravel team decided to streamline the website navigation to ensure visitors could easily locate the desired content and engage with it to make selections.

They introduced a revamped page header, designed to make navigating to specific pages effortless from any part of the website. This was expected to reduce the likelihood of them leaving the site due to frustration and cognitive load.

Qualitative tools like heatmaps were used to analyze user behavior, revealing which areas of the website attracted the most attention and guiding the selection of key offerings for the header. Therefore, this is a great example of customer engagement that has made effective use of both quantitative and qualitative analytics. 

Changes like including direct links to ski villages, special marketing theme pages, and the top 10 ski village getaways by Bizztravel were made in the variation. It featured a menu that made it easier for visitors to find what they needed without searching through a messy page. Consequently, this was expected to improve customer engagement.

Result

The primary goal of this A/B test was to track visits to the thank you page. As expected, the redesigned navigation showed a 21.34% improvement in the conversion metric. 

Hyundai

Goal

Technology companies provide us with good examples of customer engagement. Hyundai (Netherlands) aimed to improve conversions from the lead-generation page on its website with the help of Traffic4U, an international online marketing agency. 

Hyundai had individual landing pages dedicated to each of its car models, offering visitors the opportunity to request a test drive or download a brochure. While these landing pages primarily receive traffic from paid ads, they also attract some direct and SEO-driven traffic.

To tap into the potential of this incoming traffic, they set some objectives.

Firstly, they aimed to boost the volume of brochure requests and test drive inquiries, optimizing their conversion rates. Secondly, the company sought to increase the click-through rates from the landing pages of each specific car model as the initial step of the customer conversion process.

Lastly, Hyundai intended to gauge user engagement levels, effectively measuring the opposite of the bounce rate. This was to ensure that visitors were actively interacting with the landing pages.

Test

Traffic4U opted to conduct a multivariate test for each individual car page on Hyundai.nl. This was because Hyundai’s car-specific landing pages featured several components, including car headlines, visuals, descriptions, testimonials, and more.

A multivariate test could help gain insights into which of these elements influenced a visitor’s choice to request a test drive or download a brochure. For example, the hypothesis was that large car images, rather than thumbnail images, would be more effective in capturing users’ attention and engaging them on the page.

Similarly, an extra CTA button was expected to better highlight the desired action and nudge visitors toward it. Further, SEO-friendly text was implemented in place of non-SEO text for long-term SEO benefits. 

Result

The test results were phenomenal with the click-through rates increasing by 208%! This test is regarded as one of the best customer engagement examples because it won silver in the annual WhichTestWon awards. 

Hubstaff

Goal

Established in 2012, Hubstaff provides software solutions for time tracking and project management and is a big believer in experimentation for customer engagement. So much so that it has up to 5 experiments running on its website at any time. 

Previously, Hubstaff’s homepage had only small modifications. However, the team wanted to overhaul it completely for better results. Visitors to Hubstaff’s homepage were immediately directed toward trial and paid plans. It was crucial for the team to prioritize SEO best practices to attract the right organic traffic. 

Test

The homepage revamp aimed to achieve an optimal conversion rate by strategically arranging content and visuals to effectively showcase the key product features. 

If this test turned out to be a success, the team would proceed to implement the new design across the rest of the website as a part of their customer engagement strategies. 

The team planned to conduct a split URL test and established some key metrics to test its effectiveness – visitor-to-trial conversion, on-page customer engagement, hero form submission (create account), pricing page views, and full-funnel user journey. 

Result

After running the test for three months, the variation emerged as a winner with a 49% increase in visitor-to-trial conversion. Although the number of clicks decreased, the sign-up data showed that the new page actually generated more sign-ups, leading to a decrease in the number of clicks. 

Medienreich

Goal

A German-based company called Medienreich Training specialized in software training and offered its services to participants from the same organization or across different companies. Its objective was to boost conversions, with a primary focus on improving customer engagement with the offerings on its website. 

Medienreich presented its training services categorized into three sections – Open training, Individual in-house training, and Individual company training. To improve user engagement with the training they offered, the company decided to run an A/B test as a part of their customer engagement program.

Test

Medienreich’s online marketing team decided to swap the three categories with its top-selling courses like Photoshop, AutoCAD, InDesign Excel, PowerPoint, and more.

The team realized that structuring the information in the right sequence is essential for creating the right kind of impact on users. For example, visitors would first like to know the types of courses offered by Medienreich and not the details from the outset.

The homepage should feature content that is valuable and relevant to visitors and should be easy for them to access. Hence, they wanted to avoid cluttering the homepage with information that may seem important to them but not necessarily to potential visitors.

Result

They tracked ‘engagement’ as the primary metric and ran this test for 20 days. And the variation indeed improved user engagement by an impressive 40.87%. Due to this change, the year-on-year value of the homepage improved by a massive 106.42%. 

Details only become important once you have correctly presented the names of available courses first. This is what helped grab the attention of users and engage them, pushing them further down the conversion funnel. 

Overall, what we learned from this customer engagement example is that your homepage serves as the gateway to your website, so it must contain details to entice prospects and not turn them away. 

Get inspired to build your customer engagement strategy

Enjoyed reading the customer engagement examples we shared? Enhancing customer engagement should be seamlessly integrated into your digital strategy because if you overlook engaging with your audience, your competitors will seize the opportunity and win them over.

To harness the power of behavioral analytics and experimentation for an enhanced customer engagement strategy, consider taking a free trial of VWO today. 

Frequently asked questions

Time for a reality check! 

According to research on worldwide retention rates, the churn rate for mobile apps starts at 74.7% on Day 1 and gradually increases to 94.3% by Day 30. In other words, the retention rate across 31 mobile app categories is 25.3% on Day 1 but drops to 5.7% by Day 30. 

If you are running a gaming app or a publishing app, losing users means they’re disengaged. For eCommerce or delivering apps, it can seriously impact your revenue goals. 

So, what is the solution to reverse this churn trend? In this blog, we will tell you how to tackle the problem at its core using the power of experience analytics. 

To understand where to start, you first need to calculate the churn rate for your app. 

How to calculate churn for your app

The lower your churn rate, the better. A higher churn rate means more effort is required to improve user engagement and retention. 

Imagine you run a subscription-based streaming service. You want to calculate churn for your app to understand user engagement and make strategic decisions to improve retention if needed. 

Let’s say your app has 40,000 active users at the beginning of a month, and by the end of the month, 28,500 have stopped using your app. You can calculate the churn rate of the month, using the formula below.  

In this hypothetical scenario, your churn rate stands at 71. 25% and needs immediate fixing. To do so, understanding the reasons behind the churn becomes essential.

Why do app users churn?

According to a survey of 2,000 users, the primary reasons for app uninstallation are as follows: not using the app (39.9%, limited storage (18.7%), and excessive advertisements (16.2%). 

It is evident that non-usage commands the lion’s share as the primary driver of app churn. To uncover what drives users away, there are some key questions you must find answers to. 

Why did users drop off from the app and never come back?

Take an objective look at your app. Is its navigation cumbersome? Imagine using a different app with such difficulties – would you stick around? Challenging navigation increases the cognitive load on users, which can drive them to abandon your app. 

Further, intrusive ads alone can drive away 16.2% of users, making them one of the top reasons why users drop off from an app. 

Users constantly crave novelty. If your app stagnates, lacking updates or new features that align with users’ preferences, their interest will wane. 

Additionally, if your app lacks security features, privacy concerns can lead users to drop off and seek more secure alternatives that better cater to their needs.

Why do users sign up but are not active?

Generic content or offers blow out users’ interests faster than you think. 63% of smartphone users are more likely to purchase from companies whose mobile apps offer them relevant product recommendations. So, it’s worth checking if your app is missing that personalization angle.

Now, think about users who signed up but aren’t doing much. Could it be because your app is like a maze, making it tough for them to derive the right value from your app? Users do not have the time or patience to embark on a treasure hunt in your app. 

Your app should be seamless enough to enable users to achieve their goals efficiently, providing the expedition they need. 

Why do some users come back to your app? And how is their experience different from the ones dropping off?

At times, users simply choose to disengage. This change of heart has become increasingly common in today’s digital world, with several options available online. However, if you still see users returning to your app, it shows that your app offers something valuable that resonates with your audience. Some of these returning users may be your loyal customers who trust your brand and your app. 

On the other hand, certain segments of users who drop off to the point of never returning may be seeking more personalized experiences. This trend is especially noticeable among Gen Z, where over 60% of them explore alternative options even if they have a preferred brand. 

For them, a poor user experience, intrusive ads, or generic offers are the least accepted elements to be found on mobile apps today. To re-engage users who may be losing interest, optimize your app to leave a positive impression and foster trust. 

We have touched upon the reasons why users may not be engaging with apps. But remember, user behavior can vary significantly from one app to another. To have users keep coming back to your app, you need to figure out the exact reasons behind their disengagement and fix them. How to do so? We discuss that in the following section. 

What is user experience analytics all about?

When digging into the problems behind app churns, you will encounter two types of analytics offering a solution – quantitative and qualitative. 

As the name implies, quantitative analytics deals with the numbers, and the measurable aspects of the issue at hand. Some of the key performance indicators (KPIs) we can measure using quantitative analytics include:

• Monthly active users: This tells us how many unique users engage with our app in a given month. 
• In-app purchases: It measures the percentage of users who make in-app purchases. 
• Average revenue per user: By calculating the average revenue generated per user, we can assess the financial impact of churn. 
• Notification engagement: This metric informs us about the number of users responding to in-app or push notifications. 
• Feature usage rate: It helps us gauge the adoption and usage of specific features within our app. 

While these numbers provide valuable insights into user behavior and app performance, they don’t tell us the ‘why’ behind the numbers. 

For instance, if we observe a consistent drop in monthly active users, it signals that users are disengaging with the app, but it does not explain why they are engaging in the first place. 

This is where qualitative analytics becomes invaluable. 

It goes beyond just the numbers, uncovering the reasons behind user behavior. Qualitative analytics reveals the friction points users encounter on our app, how they interact with various elements, and what drives them to churn. 

Without these insights, numbers remain mere data points without direction. 

However, when we combine quantitative and qualitative analytics, they provide a comprehensive understanding of why users are churning and how we can address these issues effectively. 

Therefore, user experience analytics involves delving into behavioral analysis and comprises the following:

Watch the user journey with recordings

Session recordings are qualitative tools that capture real-time browsing sessions of app users, allowing you to review the recordings later to extract valuable insights into visitor behavior. 

Visualize user engagement with heatmaps

Heatmaps provide colorful visual representations of user interactions with different elements on your app. By using a color spectrum ranging from red to blue, heatmaps illustrate which elements on your app page are the most popular (hot) and least popular (cold). 

Study-specific user cohorts

In experience analysis, you can study how users from different cohorts behave on your app. For example, you can observe the behavior of users from specific locations. New users and returning users are also two distinct cohorts that you can delve into to gain a deeper understanding of their specific behaviors. App version, device type, Android version, and iOS version are other user cohorts that can further be analyzed to examine user behavior deeply on the shared characteristics. 

Our platform, VWO Insights for Mobile Apps, supports all these segmentation options and also allows you to create custom events specific to your app as filters. 

Understand funnel drop-offs

Funnels help you figure out where your users are losing interest and dropping off from your app. Funnel reports can also be filtered using different segments to deep-dive into user behavior across their journey on your app. 

How to use user experience analytics to reduce your app’s churn

Regardless of the mobile app, resorting to user experience analytics allows you to zero in on user behavior and use the collected insights to improve the app even further. These enhancements directly contribute to higher user engagement and reduced churn rates, ensuring people stick around and enjoy the app longer. 

Here are some use cases of leveraging user experience analytics from different industries. 

Shopping apps

When it comes to a shopping app, session recordings can provide insights into user struggles or obstacles that lead to cart abandonment. For instance, you can determine if users drop off after trying and failing to access coupon code links on your app. 

Heatmaps offer valuable information by highlighting which elements within your app receive the most user interaction. 

For instance, if users are not scrolling down to view reviews, as indicated by the cooler blue areas on the heatmap, you may consider relocating them to a more prominent position at the top. 

This approach enables you to design your app layout and arrange elements based on your users’ mental model. 

How do they help reduce churn?

Let’s say quantitative analysis has shown that users are churning from your shopping app. You believe that adding items to their wishlist will encourage users to return to the app and reduce churn. Therefore, your goal is to improve wishlist additions to tackle the problem of churn. 

But before you work on improving the feature, you want to understand users’ current level of interaction with it. So, you analyze recordings to see differences in behavior between users who add products to their wishlist and users who don’t. Interestingly, you see many users refrain from using the feature. 

These observations will lead you to make UI changes and optimize the wishlist icon, making it easily accessible and shareable for users. This, in turn, will increase wishlist additions, providing an effective solution to reduce churn. 

Food & drink apps

Food and drink ordering apps heavily rely on user experience analytics. Session recordings provide insights into how users browse menus and make selections, revealing any difficulties they may encounter in finding what they want. 

This information enables you to make improvements in the menu design for enhanced user navigation. 

Analyzing user behavior with specific dietary preferences or interacting with such filters can help you refine personalized recommendations. Filtering and watching user sessions by different times of the day can offer valuable insights into user behavior during peak ordering periods. 

Similarly, heatmaps can highlight areas of increased user interaction, such as ratings or images, helping you plan their design and placement effectively. 

How do they help reduce churn?

Consider you have added a new feature named “Nutritional intake” in your food app for every user. You have noticed that users who used this feature often returned to the app to see their accumulated nutrition/calorie data, which often led them to place orders from the app.

As the next step, you turn to session recordings to observe the behavior of users who are not using the feature and identify ways to encourage its adoption. For instance, placing the nutritional count on screens could attract users’ attention and drive more engagement. 

Therefore, this UI change (or any other) guided by qualitative analysis can improve the feature adoption rate, drive more orders, and reduce churn from the app. But before you implement any change, be sure to run a test and confirm its effectiveness. 

Finance apps

Session recordings help identify any difficulties users may have encountered while filling out loan forms, such as missing fields or incomplete information at certain steps. They provide a detailed view of user interactions leading to contact with customer support, allowing you to pinpoint areas where in-app guidance can reduce support inquiries. 

If you are interested in assessing how users respond to newly added investment charts or graphs in your app, heatmaps can reveal their interactions, enabling you to optimize the layout and information presentation for better clarity. 

You can also gain insights into user behavior when they make changes to their investment portfolios, identifying opportunities to offer guidance and support. 

Finally, filter recordings by the hour of the day will help you understand how users react to market fluctuations of any kind. 

How do they help reduce churn?

Let us say, you have observed a high churn rate on the ‘Add/Manage your payees’ screen of your banking mobile app. 

To understand why users are dropping off, you have analyzed their behavior through session recordings and noticed that they tend to scan only halfway through the form and drop off without completing the necessary details. 

Further, heatmaps show that users are attempting to click on the ‘Help’ button at the top, but it is inaccessible. Based on these insights, you can streamline the UI of the screen by retaining only essential form fields and making the ‘Help’ button accessible.

Finally, these changes will encourage users to fill out the form, complete the details, and seek help (if needed) with just one click of a button. Simplifying these actions will reduce churn and enhance user engagement with the app. 

Travel & local apps

Travel & local apps can also benefit from the capabilities of user experience analytics. Session recordings reveal booking abandonment patterns and provide insights into user behavior and preferences when making last-minute travel bookings, allowing customized offers and support. 

Further, filtering recordings by date will help you gain a better understanding of user behavior and preferences during peak travel seasons while filtering by screen resolution ensures a seamless mobile experience across different devices. 

Heatmaps offer insights into user interactions with map views, guiding improvements in functionality and design. Further, you can track events of saving favorite destinations, thereby identifying ways to improve this feature. 

How do they help reduce churn?

Imagine you have a brand-new travel and hotel booking app, and you have recently noticed a significant churn from the home screen of the app.

After investigating session recordings of the home screen, you discovered that a segment of users opening the app on older Android versions experienced app crashes when trying to make bookings. 

Subsequently, you shared the recording with the development team, who promptly resolved the issue. As a result, the booking process became as easy as a breeze for users. And what’s more? The reduction in user frustration led to less churn, increased bookings, and improved user satisfaction. 

Gaming apps

Gaming apps can also be improved with the use of these analytics. Session recordings highlight areas where users encounter challenges with controls or levels, providing insights for enhancing game design. 

Session recordings also uncover user interactions with tutorials and guides, offering guidance for improving instructional content and overall design. Further, filtering the recordings by game version will tell you how updates or feature introduction impacts user engagement.

Heatmaps too can help you gauge which areas of your app users interact with the most and ensure optimal placement of offers, purchase prompts, and other elements. 

How do they help reduce churn?

Suppose you have recently introduced a daily login reward system in your gaming app, offering users access to new content and in-game currency, all in an effort to reduce churn rates. 

To gain insights into user reactions, you have analyzed both recordings and heatmaps. What you have discovered is a mixed response – while some users are actively engaging with the reward system, others are barely interacting with it. 

You can conduct an experiment to enhance the placement and messaging of the feature, making it more prominent for users to engage with. This test can determine whether these changes will reduce churn rates and improve user experience. 

Reduce app churn with user experience analytics starting today

Before you jump right into reducing churn, understand what is causing users to leave. Doing this will give your churn-controlling strategies the right direction. 

VWO Insights for Mobile Apps is a robust user experience analytics tool that helps you pinpoint the root causes of your app’s churn. By leveraging insights from Session Recordings and Heatmaps, you can generate test ideas and optimize your app to boost retention and revenue growth. 

Sign up for a product tour now and gain a 90-day free access to uncover the reasons behind churn in your mobile app. 

Table of Contents

• What are customer engagement platforms?
• Importance of customer engagement platforms
• What are the 5 stages of customer engagement? How do customer engagement tools help in each of them?
  • 1. Awareness
  • 2. Interest
  • 3. Consideration
  • 4. Purchase
  • 5. Retention and advocacy
• Top 10 customer engagement tools to try
• Measuring customer engagement using a customer engagement platform
• The synergy of customer engagement software and marketing
• Final thoughts
• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What are customer engagement platforms?

A customer engagement solution consists of a suite of tools and technologies designed to facilitate interactions between businesses and their customers across various touchpoints. These platforms streamline and enhance the customer journey by providing personalized, relevant, and consistent experiences. Whether it’s through social media, email, in-app messaging, or other channels, these customer communications platforms enable businesses to connect with their audience in a meaningful way and increase customer engagement.

These platforms offer a range of functionalities, including:

• Personalized communication: Effective customer engagement tools empower businesses to tailor their interactions based on user preferences, behavior, and demographics.
• Multichannel reach: Whether it’s through social media, email, web chat, or SMS, customer engagement software enables brands to connect with customers through their preferred channels.
• Data-driven insights: These tools provide valuable analytics that help companies understand customer behavior, preferences, and engagement patterns.
• Automated campaigns: Automation features allow businesses to schedule and deploy targeted campaigns, saving time and ensuring timely interactions.

Importance of customer engagement platforms

Why is customer engagement software essential in today’s business landscape? Let’s explore a few key reasons:

• Enhanced customer experience: Customer engagement software enables businesses to deliver personalized experiences, enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty.
• Data-driven decisions: By collecting and analyzing customer data, these platforms empower companies to make informed decisions and create more effective marketing strategies.
• Brand loyalty: Regular interactions foster a sense of loyalty among customers, making them more likely to stick with your brand in the long run.
• Increased conversions: Personalized and relevant interactions can lead to higher conversion rates as customers feel understood and valued.
• Improved customer feedback: These platforms facilitate the collection of feedback, enabling businesses to address concerns and continuously improve their offerings.

What are the 5 stages of customer engagement? How do customer engagement tools help in each of them?

To improve customer satisfaction, you need a process. This process involves several stages, each representing a different level of interaction and relationship-building between a brand and its customers. Customer engagement tools play a crucial role in facilitating and enhancing these stages. Here are the five stages of customer engagement and how customer engagement tools help in each of them:

1. Awareness

This is the initial stage of customer conversations where potential customers become aware of your brand’s existence. Customer engagement tools contribute to awareness by:

• Social media management: Tools like Hootsuite or Buffer help schedule and manage social media posts across multiple platforms, increasing brand visibility.
• Content creation: Tools like Canva or Adobe Spark assist in creating visually appealing content that grabs attention and communicates your brand’s message effectively.

2. Interest

 At this stage, customers show an interest in your brand and begin exploring your products or services. Customer engagement tools help by:

• Email marketing: Tools like Mailchimp or Sendinblue allow you to send targeted emails to your leads, providing them with valuable information and updates.
• Web analytics: Tools like Google Analytics help you track user behavior on your website, providing insights into what interests them the most.

3. Consideration

During the consideration stage, customers evaluate whether your offerings meet their needs. Customer engagement tools assist by:

• Live chat: Tools like Intercom or LiveChat enable real-time conversations with potential customers, addressing their questions and concerns.
• Personalization: CRM platforms like HubSpot or Salesforce offer personalized content recommendations based on customer preferences and behavior.

4. Purchase

This is when customers make a purchase or decide to avail of your services. Customer engagement tools support customer success at this stage by:

• eCommerce solutions: Tools like Shopify or WooCommerce provide a seamless purchasing experience, from cart management to secure transactions.
• Retargeting: Tools like AdRoll or Facebook Pixel help you show targeted ads to customers who have shown interest but haven’t completed a purchase.

5. Retention and advocacy

After the purchase, the goal is to retain loyal customers and turn them into advocates for your brand. Customer engagement tools contribute by:

• Customer support platforms: Tools like Zendesk or Freshdesk enable efficient handling of customer inquiries and complaints, enhancing post-purchase experience.
• Surveys and feedback: Tools like SurveyMonkey or Typeform help gather feedback, allowing you to make improvements based on customer suggestions.
• Loyalty programs: Tools like Smile.io or LoyaltyLion help you set up and manage loyalty programs to reward and retain existing customers and boost customer loyalty.
• Social media listening: Tools like Mention or Brandwatch monitor social media for mentions of your brand, allowing you to engage with customers and address their feedback.

In each stage, customer engagement tools play a role in nurturing the relationship between the brand and the customer. They enable personalized interactions, streamline communication, gather valuable insights, and enhance the overall customer experience. By leveraging these tools strategically at each stage, businesses can effectively guide customers through the engagement process, ultimately leading to increased customer loyalty, advocacy, and business growth.

Top 10 customer engagement tools to try

Here are 10 customer engagement tools that deserve a spot in your arsenal:

• VWO: VWO offers A/B testing and personalization capabilities, allowing you to optimize website experiences for different customer segments.
• Amazon AWS (Amazon Web Services): AWS provides a scalable and reliable cloud infrastructure that can power your customer engagement applications and services.
• Netcore: Netcore offers a comprehensive customer engagement suite, including email marketing, AI-driven personalization, and multi-channel communication.
• Moengage: Moengage specializes in mobile engagement, providing personalized messaging, push notifications, and in-app messaging to engage users.
• Twilio: Twilio’s communication APIs enable businesses to integrate messaging, voice, and video capabilities into their customer engagement strategies.
• Zendesk: Zendesk offers customer support solutions that enhance engagement through ticketing systems, live chat, and self-service portals.
• Intercom: Intercom focuses on real-time customer communication, offering solutions for chat, email, and customer feedback management.
• HubSpot: HubSpot provides a holistic platform for inbound marketing, sales, and customer service, facilitating seamless engagement across the customer journey.
• Salesforce Service Cloud: Salesforce’s Service Cloud offers tools for customer support, case management, and omnichannel engagement.
• Freshdesk: Freshdesk is a user-friendly helpdesk software that streamlines customer support, enabling efficient issue resolution and engagement.

Measuring customer engagement using a customer engagement platform

To ensure the effectiveness of your customer engagement strategies, it’s essential to measure and analyze their impact. Here are some key metrics to consider:

• Click-through rates (CTR): Measure the percentage of recipients who clicked on a link within your communication.
• Conversion rates: Track the percentage of engaged customers who completed a desired action, such as making a purchase.
• Customer feedback: Gather qualitative insights through surveys and feedback forms to understand customer sentiment.
• Time spent on site/app: Monitor the duration customers spend interacting with your website or app.
• Social media engagement: Analyze likes, shares, comments, and overall engagement on social media platforms.

By regularly monitoring these metrics, you can refine your strategies, gauge customer satisfaction, and optimize your customer engagement efforts for better results.

The synergy of customer engagement software and marketing

Customer engagement and marketing are inseparable partners in today’s business landscape. Marketing efforts are driven by customer engagement, and effective marketing strategies contribute to enhanced customer engagement solutions well. This symbiotic relationship creates a cycle of value creation, where engaged customers become brand advocates, further driving business growth.

Final thoughts

In the digital age, customer engagement is more critical than ever before. It’s not just about selling a product; it’s about building lasting relationships and providing memorable experiences. Customer engagement software offers the tools you need to connect with your audience, understand their needs, and tailor your interactions accordingly. By exploring options like VWO, Amazon AWS, Netcore, Moengage, and Twilio, you can take your customer engagement strategies to new heights, fostering brand loyalty and driving business success. Remember, the key lies in personalized interactions and meaningful connections.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

At least not in the current times.

Customer engagement, in its truest sense, is more about anticipating the needs of your customers and encouraging two-way interactions throughout their journey with you.

This is what people expect, especially in the B2B world. Today, companies are not looking for one-time transactions but are more interested in building long-lasting relationships that are not just healthy but also mutually beneficial.   

Why is customer engagement important to B2B companies?

Over the years, we’ve witnessed a tremendous shift in the way companies, especially the B2B ones, communicate with their audience. 

But, despite all the changes and trends, customer engagement remains a crucial factor that can make or break a company’s success. 

In this section, we’ll take a closer look at why customer engagement is important and why B2B companies need to focus on creating better customer engagement strategies.

Establish a stronger connection

Unlike most B2C transactions, where customer relationships are relatively short-lived, B2B relationships tend to be long-term and multi-dimensional. 

Here, the idea of customer engagement is more about building strong, deeper connections with the customers.

Having a robust customer engagement process is key if you wish to build trust, loyalty, and a long-lasting relationship with the customer.

Boost customer retention

It’s more cost-effective to keep existing clients than to acquire new customers. 

Therefore, a B2B enterprise is always focused on customer retention. And one of the best ways to do this is through effective engagement and communication.

When you continue to engage and build meaningful interactions with customers, you make it easier for them to choose your brand over any competitor. 

Understand customer needs

Active customer engagement gives you a chance to gain deeper insights into your customers’ needs, pain points, and preferences. 

Having this kind of information gives you a better understanding of your customers, thus enabling you to tailor your products or services to meet their specific requirements. 

Moreover, implementing this approach also allows you to deliver value to your customers consistently. 

Increase cross-sell or upsell opportunities

While long-term relationships and brand loyalty are key benefits of effective customer engagement, some B2B brands often ignore another crucial benefit of this marketing strategy – cross-selling and upselling their products.  

When your customers feel engaged, they are more receptive to upselling and cross-selling efforts. This strengthens customer relationships and also improves overall customer retention. 

By cross-selling or upselling, you not only increase revenue but also get an opportunity to demonstrate the true value of your offerings. 

Maximize customer lifetime value (CLV)

A large majority of your customers are probably not looking for a single transaction. Instead, they want smart solutions that can help them and offer multiple benefits for a long time.

So, to ensure that their lifetime value to your organization increases steadily, you need to build engagement and interactions across multiple touchpoints. 

Additionally, these customer engagement strategies also mean that your customers will most likely refer new customers and provide genuine feedback for your overall improvement. 

Top 5 B2B customer engagement ideas

Now that we’ve understood the importance of B2B customer engagement, let’s have a look at some innovative strategies that can set your business apart from the competition and help you create lasting relationships with your clients. 

1. Personalized content and communication

Personalization is king in the B2B world. Tailoring your content and messaging to match the specific needs and preferences of your users is the best way to grab their attention and build stronger connections. 

2. Interactive webinars and workshops

One of the most widely practiced customer engagement strategies is webinars and workshops. These events are a great way for brands to build a community and establish their presence among their target audience. 

While webinars provide valuable insights, they also allow brands to interact with users and build strong customer relationships. 

3. Seamless omnichannel experiences

Your B2B customers don’t engage with your brand in isolation. They interact with you across various touchpoints—website, social media, email, and more. 

Therefore, you need to build a seamless customer engagement plan that covers multiple channels without compromising on customer experience. Content mapping is an excellent way to do this as it involves building experiences for different stages of the customer’s journey.

This helps you to create personalized experiences that are meaningful and relevant for the visitor at every touchpoint. 

4. Proactive customer support

The cornerstone of any B2B customer engagement strategy is having a robust customer support team. This does not just mean that you solve queries or problems, but it is more about offering constant support at every stage of the user’s journey. 

For example, with a behavior analytics tool like VWO Insights, you can track and analyze visitor behavior across multiple touchpoints. This gives you a deeper understanding of your users and helps you understand their preferences, pain points, and suggestions. 

Based on these insights and reports, you can then fine-tune your engagement strategy and focus on solving problems before your customers even point them out. 

5. Thought leadership and educational content

Using educational content is a great way to position your brand as a thought leader. This is a powerful engagement strategy as users are always on the lookout for solutions to their specific challenges. 

By creating a section on your website for educational and thought leadership content, you can attract potential customers and start providing value even before they turn into customers. 

Some examples of educational content are whitepapers, ebooks, case studies, and articles that give the user a deeper understanding of industry trends, best practices, and innovative solutions.

While there are many more B2B customer engagement ideas, these five ideas will help you prepare a roadmap according to your overall business goals. 

6. Use a customer engagement model

A customer engagement model provides a structured framework and strategy for consistently and effectively interacting with customers.

These engagement models are mainly designed with the customer in mind. They prioritize understanding customer needs, preferences, and pain points, which allows for more personalized and customer-focused interactions.

Moreover, engagement models help you to provide a seamless and positive customer experience, leading to high customer satisfaction.

As the needs of customers evolve, you must choose the right engagement model to adapt and remain relevant. This flexibility helps businesses stay responsive to evolving customer expectations.

B2B customer engagement best practices

Once you implement these B2B customer engagement ideas, you will notice a shift in how customers interact with your brand. However, to truly, take your customer engagement strategies to the next level, there are some effective best practices that you must follow. 

Understand your audience inside out

To engage effectively with your customers, you must first try and understand their preferences, challenges, pain points, behaviors, etc. 

Creating buyer personas for different segments of your visitors is crucial. These personas should outline the key attributes, challenges, and motivations of your target audience. 

This allows you to tailor your customer engagement strategies to match each persona’s specific needs, giving you a better chance of connecting with them and creating memorable experiences.  

Also, regularly collect customer feedback through surveys, forms, and data analysis. You can use these valuable insights to shape your products, services, and engagement strategies to better align with customer expectations.

Deliver value at every touchpoint

Every interaction that a customer has with your brand should provide value. Whether it’s a blog post, email, landing page, or webinar, your customers should walk away with valuable insights or solutions. Effective content marketing is a great way to do this, especially for B2B brands, as it gives you a chance to address your audience’s challenges and interests.

Moreover, it also helps you to establish your expertise and position your brand as a leader in the industry. Ebooks, webinars, detailed guides, and in-depth blogs can empower your customers to overcome unique challenges.

Establish trust and credibility

Trust is the cornerstone of any relationship, including the one you share with your customers. Building and maintaining this trust requires consistent and transparent communication.

No matter what customer engagement strategy you implement, ensure that you are building trust and maintaining transparency about your products and services. 

A great way to build trust among your customers is through testimonials and case studies. These real-life examples go a long way in building confidence and showing how you helped customers achieve their goals.

Implement a multichannel approach

As mentioned before, a multichannel approach is important for any customer success strategy. 

Instead of relying on a single channel, you can diversify your approach across email, social media, website, and even offline channels, without compromising on the messaging and experience.

Additionally, you should also focus on personalizing your content and messages according to the channel. Tools like VWO Personalize collect customer data from various sources to help you understand and deliver personalized experiences at each stage of the buyer’s journey. 

Choose the right customer engagement model

Having an effective customer engagement model is a great idea as it provides a strategic approach to engaging with customers. But, choosing the right customer engagement model is key to delivering consistent, personalized interactions.

There are several types of engagement models such as retention models, high-touch models, low-touch engagement models, etc. You can either pick one or choose a combination of different models based on your customers and business goals.

Foster customer loyalty

Customer retention is the backbone of any business. There’s nothing better than customers who provide repeat business and also refer you to others. 

Prioritizing customer loyalty is key to the long-term growth and success of any brand. You can do this by implementing different programs that focus on the ongoing value you provide, not just the initial sale. 

These programs ensure your customers are satisfied and help in building a loyal customer base. You should also work on creating a customer feedback loop to actively seek input from your customers and use it to enhance your services regularly.

B2B customer engagement examples

Let’s take a look at some interesting examples of B2B companies successfully implementing different customer engagement strategies.

Human Interest improves conversions on lead forms

Human Interest is a San Francisco-based company that aims to solve America’s retirement crisis. The company helps small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) offer affordable and high-quality 401(k) plans to their employees.

The company had a few landing pages where visitors were asked to fill out forms to contact the sales team. They wanted to increase the number of calls scheduled via the contact form. 

The team at Human Interest wanted to run server-side experiments to test changes to their landing pages. For this, they chose VWO since it is known for its server-side capabilities, native integrations, and low latency experience.

The original landing page (control) had a simple headline, a short description of the product, and a CTA button. The team created another version of the page (variation) where the description was replaced with a contact form. 

The test results showed that the variation had an expected conversion rate of 3.77%, a huge jump of 75.84% from the control’s conversion rate.

Thus, Human Interest was able to increase conversions by engaging with its customers at the right place and at the right time.

EZ Texting boosts sign-ups with a chat widget

EZ Texting is a B2B brand that helps businesses execute marketing campaigns, promote events, and provide customer service. 

The company wanted to introduce a new chat widget on their sign-up page. The idea was that the widget would offer instant support and guidance to users who were about to make a successful sign-up.

EZ Texting ran an A/B test with VWO to test the impact of the new chat widget. You can see the original page (control) below. 

The new version of the page (variation) had the same form and layout along with the new addition of a live chat widget.

After the conclusion of this test, EZ Texting saw a 31% increase in sign-ups. The chat widget was placed strategically on the page so that users could get instant solutions to their queries.

Hubstaff increased visitor-to-trial conversions with a homepage redesign

Hubstaff is a popular workforce management platform that provides time tracking and project management software for different companies. 

They wanted to redesign their homepage to showcase the company’s growth and drive attention towards their relevant features. The team spent a considerable amount of time creating and redesigning the new homepage.

Once the designs were ready, Hubstaff launched a Split URL test. One section of visitors was shown the original homepage (control), while the other section was shown the new version (variation).

After running the test for three months, the variation launched by Hubstaff witnessed a 49% increase in visitor-to-trial conversions along with a 34% increase in visitors sharing their emails. 

Hubstaff was able to effectively engage with their customers and even optimized their website experience with the help of experimentation.

Conclusion

As we saw in the B2B customer engagement examples above, brands need to focus on the preferences, challenges, and behaviors of their customers. By doing so, they can improve their strategies and build long-term relationships with their customers.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Table of Contents

• 1. Analyze the performance of your current forms 
• 2. Beware of what you’re asking for
• 3. Mandatory fields and form validation
• 4. Clear and attention-grabbing CTAs
• 5. Testimonials and social proof 
• 6. Form placement 
• 7. Concise and convincing copy
• 8. Personalize your messaging
• Keep leads coming in with simple form fills! 

In the world of B2B SaaS, free trials and demo request forms are more than shooting just a list of questions to prospects. In your pursuit to humanize B2B marketing, you should focus on building connections with your audiences, generating trust among them, and convincing them to try what we offer. And the starting point for all of this is having them sign up for a trial or request for demos. 

It may seem like a lot of work, but it’s worth the effort.

Of course, your forms need the right ingredients to achieve their objectives. But to tap into their true potential, turn your focus on A/B testing. This strategy not only allows you to test one experience against another but also to understand what works and what doesn’t at that point for your website.

So, let’s begin discussing how to approach revamping forms and utilizing A/B testing to increase lead generation in this blog post.

1. Analyze the performance of your current forms

Before you give your web forms a makeover, make sure to diagnose the pain points.

By examining user behavior and identifying where they’re getting stuck or abandoning your form, you can make targeted improvements that will increase your conversion rates and drive more leads.

And that’s where VWO Form Analytics tool comes in. It can track and analyze user behavior to give you all the juicy deets on what’s working and what’s not. From drop-off points to time spent filling out each field, our form analytics tool helps you delve into macro-level as well as field-level statistics. Once you’ve gotten your hands on these data, you can work towards building high-converting forms by testing and incorporating the right elements.

2. Beware of what you’re asking for

Less is often more, and in the world of forms, this couldn’t be truer! Ever found yourself abandoning a form because it was long and you did not have the time to fill it out? But your audiences don’t have to go through the same. Make this process easy for visitors by reducing the number of questions you ask them to answer. This way, they can focus on the most important ones and save a lot of time. They’ll appreciate that you’re not too curious to collect too much personal information and therefore trust you enough to try your offering. 

Suppose you’ve asked users to enter both personal and official email addresses in a free trial form. But for this purpose, entering just one email address could work. Some forms ask a ton of questions like,  “How many employees do you have?”, “What industry is your company in?” and “How long have you been in business?” which are often not important to be answered at the outset. Let’s stop overwhelming users with so many questions from the get-go. If your product is solid, they’ll stick around. 

Having said that, we also believe that asking questions can sometimes help a brand evaluate the potential fit between the product and the customer.  At VWO, filling out our free trial and request demo forms is a breeze. However, to ensure we connect with prospects who are truly invested, we’re ramping things up by scheduling one-on-one meetings with our team immediately after they submit their basic information on the request demo form. The winning experience saw an increase in clicks on the request demo CTA button by 35.32% and demo page visits by 3.01%. 

3. Mandatory fields and form validation

Imagine you spend time filling out a form but all your efforts go in vain as you see an error message telling you that you entered the wrong information after you’ve filled out most of the fields. This is where form validation comes in. Form validation helps users ensure that they are filling out all the fields correctly on the go, which reduces the chances of making errors and speeds up the submission process. 

Highlighting mandatory fields is also crucial in helping users save time. Imagine your prospects are to fill out your request demo form which is quite lengthy because you need to ensure the product-customer fit. But the form doesn’t clearly indicate which fields are required. When mandatory fields are highlighted, users can identify which fields should be filled in and focus on them, resulting in a faster form submission rate. 

4. Clear and attention-grabbing CTAs

CTA buttons can make a big impact on your leads and bookings. They are the ones that seal the deal and get those leads coming in. But if they are not attention-grabbing, they are highly likely to be overlooked by users. 

Suppose your free trial form features a “Try now” CTA button, but it’s barely getting any clicks. A CTA like this one might fail to motivate visitors to take action. What you can do now is run a test by creating a variation featuring a far more interesting CTA copy – “Start your 30-day free trial now” This specific CTA gives visitors a clear picture of what they’ll get by clicking it. With years of experience helping brands, we’re confident that this variation will be a winner. But we still suggest you study visitor behavior on your website and then decide if you’d like to run this test or not. 

5. Testimonials and social proof

Testimonials and social proof are like stamps of approval from your existing customers. They show that these customers have already taken the plunge and had a great experience using your product. As a result, prospective clients can also take the leap following their footsteps. 

If your form ticks most of the boxes of best practices yet doesn’t bring in any leads, try adding testimonials and see how that performs. Below is how Chargebee encourages users to sign up for a free trial by displaying a testimonial on the left side of the form. 

Using VWO Visual Editor, you can add any type of form modal or widget to pop up on your website. You can also edit and customize them to suit your brand guidelines and improve request demo/free trial conversion rates. It’s also possible to preview the changes on both desktop and mobile before the test starts. Sounds fascinating? Try it out to fully understand its capability.

6. Form placement

If your forms are not easily noticeable, visitors are less likely to take the pain to find them all by themselves. So, keep them in a prominent position, making it easier for visitors to engage with it and use it to submit their information. 

To determine the right placement of your form, you can A/B test different form placements. At VWO, we ourselves champion the use of pop-up forms on our website. Our pop-ups are not at all intrusive in nature as they show up only when users click the CTA button. 

Why not give your website visitors a hassle-free experience by embedding your form above the fold? This smart placement eliminates the need for scrolling and allows them to fill out the form with ease. 

Human Interest, a US-based SaaS company, opted for VWO FullStack to integrate with Contentful and improve lead generation on its landing page. By showing the contact form above the fold, the number of form submissions increased by 3.77% and the number of calls scheduled with prospective customers increased by 75.84%. To know the details of this case study, read here. 

Alternatively, you can also place the CTA of the form in a sticky header that remains at the top of the page as visitors scroll down. Clicking the CTA button can open either a separate landing page or display a web pop-up. 

The age-old question, pop-ups or landing pages, which is the better form submission tool? We say, test them and see which one of them brings the maximum conversions for you.

Pop-ups ask for minimal information, such as an email address, to sign up for a free trial. Landing pages, on the other hand, show detailed information about your product or service and may ask for more information to be submitted, such as name, company, or phone number. 

If you go for landing pages, make a statement with head-turning information and take advantage of all that extra space. Give your landing page the attention it deserves by including SEO keywords, showcasing your success with testimonials, and adding reviews or security badges. Plus, you can add a compelling video that showcases what your product can do for your prospects. 

Does VWO help you test landing pages? Oh sure, it does! You can use VWO to test either individual elements of your landing page or conduct split-URL tests to validate complete overhauls. Request a demo and have our experts explain this in detail. 

7. Concise and convincing copy

One of my favorite sayings on LinkedIn these days is ‘Sell benefits, not features”. And that’s what I’m suggesting you do in your free trial or request demo forms. Users want to know how your product helps them solve their problems. If you’re not getting that part right, they can switch to brands that do that better. 

Tell your users what they can expect by signing up. Apart from a catchy headline, you must also list the benefits awaiting them after they are up for request demos. Think your current copy is not performing well? Our Visual Editor can come to your rescue. Its AI-powered copy generator can suggest great copies that resonate with your prospective customers. A/B test and see if the improved copy helps drive more conversions or not. The results will impress you, we’re sure. 

8. Personalize your messaging

Personalizing your forms can increase the likelihood of conversions. Here’s an example to help you understand how.

Let’s say yours is a customer relationship management platform. You’ve observed that most new visitors are starting to fill up the free trial form but not completing the signing process, based on the insights uncovered from segmented visitor groups on VWO Form Analytics. To push them down the lead conversion funnel, you can personalize your form and test it against the non-personalized generic form for this audience group. 

Suppose the control has something like “Unlock a 15-day free trial to start building better business relationships.” To appeal to this segment of the audience specifically, you can now tweak your offer to “Unlock a 30-day free trial to start building better business relationships”. The duration of the free trial can make a big difference in driving responses from visitors. 

Similarly, for a request demo form, you can offer 3 days of free inbound marketing consultation with one of your in-house experts who can customize a plan in the areas of marketing and sales for a prospect’s business. Run this test against the regular request demo form without a consultation offer. Roll out the experience that drives maximum demo bookings to all new customers. 

Keep leads coming in with simple form fills!

Free trial forms and request demo forms are the gateways to your SaaS products that spark user interest and guide them towards exploring what you have to offer. Whatever we discussed in this blog are the basic components of a good free trial form. But remember, with user experience being unique to each website, A/B testing is key to finding your perfect fit.

Whether you’re analyzing current form performance or testing out new optimization ideas, VWO has got your back. From form analysis to a range of testing options, it’s the ultimate tool for boosting your leads and taking your business to the next level. So, don’t settle for mediocre results. Let your free trial and demo forms soar with VWO!

You must have started with lots of questions (related to the use case, budget, impact, etc.). Then, there is a very high probability that at each stage of the buying process, you must have come across some content that answered a doubt and let you move forward. In the end, you must have chosen the tool that resolved all your doubts.

Content is like a signpost that leads you to the destination while moving on an unknown path. On that unknown path, you followed the signpost that made things clear for you. Similarly, your potential client is also moving on that unknown path. So, do you want to build signposts that will appeal to them? 

If you’re interested in building content that will brighten your potential client’s path to the destination, we have six B2B content ideas for you. Each idea includes examples that have leveraged these formats to increase engagement and conversions. 

1. Pillar pages

In any successful content marketing plan, pillar pages play an integral role. Essentially, a pillar page refers to an extensive and detailed content piece that delves into a broad topic within your industry or business. It functions as a central hub that connects all the relevant subtopics and content on your website, providing links to and from other pages and content.

Pillar pages should give a comprehensive and captivating perspective on a subject matter. Additionally, they should be visually appealing, user-friendly and incorporate a variety of multimedia elements, including images and text. 

Pillar pages work best in improving conversion at the top of the funnel (ToFu). A pillar page can attract more traffic to your site as it showcases expertise, authority, and trustworthiness, which makes content rank higher in SERPs. 

Take the example of the pillar page created by VWO on A/B testing. 

It touches on the broad topic of A/B testing and explains all the related subtopics to make it exhaustive and compelling simultaneously. The guide page showcases a table of contents that makes visitors aware of the content and jumps to a section of interest. 

The guide has images and actionable tips, making it visually appealing and easy to digest. Also, a call-to-action to email the guide allows for achieving the objective of generating a lead. 

The landing page has achieved a top-five ranking in the SERPS for keywords such as A/B testing, with a monthly search volume of over 10,000 in countries like the USA. This has resulted in a substantial influx of traffic to the page. Additionally, it projects VWO as a thought leader in online experimentation. 

That’s the power of pillar pages. Though it takes significant time and effort to create these, the rewards are worthy of all the input. 

2. Visual-based storytelling

In the age of information overload, the human attention span is fleeting, and your content strategy must include modern content delivery mediums based on visual storytelling. Content formats like Google Web Stories, short videos, and video series are becoming popular as they are visually appealing and quick to consume. 

Visual-based storytelling does not aim to replace long-form content formats such as pillar pages, guides, landing pages, and blog posts. Instead, it offers a distinct approach to engaging with audiences by conveying content concisely and narratively. This unique mode of storytelling can be highly effective in enhancing brand awareness and expanding the reach to a broader audience, which in turn increases the conversion at the ToFu.

Mailchimp is one of the leading players in the email marketing and marketing automation space that incorporated visual base storytelling with its Mailchimp Presents initiative.

Mailchimp Presents shares content related to entrepreneurial spirit via video and audio-based content. The video series and films engage the audience with stories and motivate them to be entrepreneurial. The subtle CTAs to Mailchimp offerings promote the brand and how it can help businesses scale up.

Such initiatives bring a fresh perspective to the brand’s outreach initiatives rather than just promoting links to new blog posts. Though such initiatives require significant capital and human resources investment, a small business can start with other visual-based mediums like Google Web Stories, YouTube Shorts, etc.  

3. Webinars

A webinar is an incredibly engaging and powerful way to communicate ideas, share knowledge, and build connections with your audience. A survey in 2021 that included 115 marketing practitioners concluded webinars as the most effective ToFu demand generation tactic.

Additionally, webinars are one of the few strategies where there is two-way communication between you and your audience. Many companies conduct ask-me-anything (AMA) webinars to resolve doubts and questions related to the product, which helps increase the conversion rate at the middle of the funnel (MoFu).

By bringing in guest speakers and thought leaders from your domain, you can capture your listeners’ attention and draw them in, helping them to connect with your content on a deeper level. Also, by incorporating personal anecdotes, case studies, and examples from your own or other brands’ experiences, you can bring your content to life and inspire your listeners to take action.

For example, CNBC organized a @work Spotlight Series event in 2020 for CXOs on changing business scenarios and leveraging technologies at work. 

The virtual event series featured esteemed guest speakers from Fortune 500 companies, offering invaluable insights to participants. With an intuitive and engaging experience, including targeted breakout rooms, the event fostered dynamic two-way conversations between attendees and guests. 

The results were remarkable, with over 20,000 average views on weekly live streams and a staggering 1 million unique visitors to CNBC’s Digital Events Hub, showcasing the event’s widespread success.

4. Case studies

In the B2B realm, case studies serve as a powerful medium to highlight the positive impact your product has brought to your clients. They also serve as compelling evidence for potential clients to evaluate your product based on the tangible results achieved by competitors or players within the same industry. 

Case studies are a collaborative effort between your company and your clients, and the data presented in them must be accurate and genuine. Exaggeration or understatement can lead to legal implications, which is why case studies are considered a highly reliable source of information for companies to assess the effectiveness of a product.

Take the example of VWO’s Success Stories. 

The success story landing page indicates the brand name, industry, utilized VWO product, and improvement in the conversion metric. 

It allows a potential customer to easily skim through the numerous success stories, identify their industry, and report uplift before delving deep to get more information. Additionally, it enables the sales team to share relevant case studies while they are conversing with a potential client to finalize a deal. 

Thus, case studies aid in giving a final nudge to a client to buy the product, as they showcase the product’s potential and answer doubts related to the product’s performance. Which helps in converting leads from the bottom of the funnel (BoFu) into clients.

5. Online courses

Online courses have become increasingly popular over the years and for good reasons. Many companies offer paid and free courses to increase brand affinity, revenue, customer retention rate, and project domain expertise.  

A good online course targets a specific topic catering to a specific user segment. It enables learners to delve deep into the topic and equips them with valuable knowledge. An online course should clearly outline its duration, prerequisites, a comprehensive table of contents, and expected learning outcomes. 

Online courses are efficient in converting leads at the ToFu by providing domain-specific courses and at the BoFu by providing product-related courses. 

Take the example of HubSpot to understand the power of utilizing online courses as part of the content strategy.

HubSpot offers a wide range of online courses that include certification programs related to marketing/sales and training programs on the HubSpot Product stack. Here is how it has helped Hubspot:

• Established HubSpot as a thought leader in the marketing and sales space. Which in turn, enhanced brand reputation and credibility.
• Lead to higher customer satisfaction and retention rates because training courses offered on HubSpot Academy have helped customers achieve their marketing and sales goals using HubSpot’s products. 
• Enabled a partner ecosystem, which includes agencies, resellers, and integrators, by offering partner-specific training and certifications. It has helped partners gain expertise in using HubSpot’s software and services, enabling them to deliver better results to their clients and drive business growth. 

The utilization of online courses has been instrumental in creating an ecosystem where HubSpot clients and partners receive comprehensive training to maximize their return on investment (ROI). 

As a potent medium for delivering valuable content, online courses have played a pivotal role in building a loyal customer base, fostering customer success, and enabling partners to deliver exceptional results using HubSpot’s offerings.

6. Whitepapers

A whitepaper is a detailed and comprehensive report that focuses on a particular topic. It aims to present a problem and its solution in an unbiased and convincing manner. Unlike promotional materials, a whitepaper does not endorse or criticize any company. Its main purpose is to educate rather than sell products or services. Normally, whitepapers are around 10 to 15 pages long and offer an authoritative perspective on the subject.

The structure of a whitepaper comprises several sections, including a title, an extensive summary, a table of contents, an introduction, an overview of challenges, proposed solutions, recommendations, a concluding statement, a brief company background, and a call-to-action (CTA).

A whitepaper by The OpenGroup on cloud computing can serve as a great guide to understanding how a whitepaper is written and structured. This whitepaper focuses on building Return on Investment (ROI) in cloud computing. It begins with an executive summary and an introduction that outlines the context and existing challenges. The subsequent sections delve into specifics, including financial value and ROI models. These insights are designed to assist you in maximizing ROI from cloud computing. The whitepaper concludes with a summary, references, and acknowledgments. 

Notably, it incorporates factual information and statistical data to establish credibility and underscore the expertise of The OpenGroup. The entire whitepaper educates you and elevates your knowledge about the topic without being promotional, which is the purpose of this content format.

Whitepapers are created to establish expertise and cultivate trust within the industry. Positioned at the initial stages of customer engagement, they provide valuable insights and help generate potential leads. Importantly, whitepapers offer informative solutions without directly promoting a product or service. 

Boost content performance with VWO

It’s not enough to just create content and never look back. In order to truly optimize your content and improve engagement, you need to take a data-driven approach. 

It means understanding how visitors interact with your content, identifying areas for improvement, and A/B testing to ensure that your content is not only high-quality but also effective in achieving your goals.

VWO enables you to enhance conversion rates by monitoring and optimizing your content. One common use case is to utilize VWO Insights to analyze the scroll depth at which the majority of users exit high-traffic content formats such as pillar pages and blog posts.

A scrollmap looks like this:

Once you know the scroll depth where most users are leaving, you can utilize VWO Testing to test how adding an image or interactive element can improve the conversion. Additionally, you can move important elements like newsletter sign-up above the point. 

Furthermore, VWO Insights provides access to useful data like heatmaps, session recordings, and survey responses, which can aid in understanding visitor engagement with your content, enabling you to generate data-driven hypotheses. You can then optimize your content by conducting experiments with VWO Testing.

Grab a free trial of VWO and learn how to improve important media conversions like social media shares, email-ups, user duration, etc.

Tying it all together

To conclude, these six content ideas can play a significant role in improving conversion rates at different stages of the sales funnel.

The pillar pages provide comprehensive information on broad topics and bring traffic from organic sources, while visual-based storytelling engages audiences and increases brand awareness. 

Webinars build connections and offer a two-way communication platform, case studies highlight a product’s positive impact, and online courses foster an ecosystem of thought leadership along with a loyal consumer base. While whitepapers help you build trust, showcase authority, and generate leads at the top of the funnel.  

Although it requires significant resources and effort, the results are undoubtedly worth it in the long run.

In a world where competition is intense and customers have it all figured out, it’s easy to focus on what’s trending and achieve short-term success through it.

But, if you look at the bigger picture, gaining trust and building a long-term relationship with your customers is what really matters. 

It’s the most basic aspect of any business, yet a lot of brands are struggling to achieve it. 

Why?

Because, they fail to focus on the three key pillars of long-term success: customer engagement, customer experience, and customer satisfaction. 

Without proper strategies for each of these pillars, you will find it tough to grow your business and build brand loyalty. So, let’s take a closer look at what these aspects entail and how you can ensure long-term growth and success by implementing them.

What is customer engagement? Why is it important?

Just like the name suggests, the concept of customer engagement is all about building a relationship with your customers. It refers to the interactions and experiences a customer has with a brand across various touchpoints. 

Customer engagement is a measure of how well your business can capture and maintain a customer’s interest, attention, and involvement over time. 

For example, let’s say you manage an e-commerce brand and want to improve customer engagement. 

One of the things that you can do is send a personalized email to the customer as soon as they purchase a product. Apart from thanking them for making a purchase, your email can also include helpful information about the product like how it can be used, tips for maintenance, instructions for claiming a warranty, and so on. 

Post the purchase, you can follow up with the customer regularly to share updates, exclusive offers, and customer feedback requests while also sharing relevant, helpful content on your social media pages. 

By doing so, you are creating a positive customer experience that involves personalized interactions, continuous support, and a sense of community, ensuring that your customer feels valued and supported. 

As a result, customers are more likely to stay loyal to your brand, share positive experiences with others, and they will also consider you for their future needs. Moreover, they will also be willing to provide valuable customer feedback and suggestions to improve the business.

In other words, an effective customer engagement strategy involves nurturing relationships, showing genuine care, and providing value beyond the initial sale. 

It’s a two-way street that benefits the customer and the business too.

What is customer experience? Why is it important?

Customer experience refers to the overall journey and interaction that a customer has with a brand, product, or service. It covers every touchpoint and interaction a customer has, right from awareness to post-purchase.

While customer engagement & customer experience are similar concepts, they focus on different aspects of the relationship between brands & customers. 

Let’s consider the previous example of managing an e-commerce brand. 

To increase customer engagement, you sent personalized emails, shared helpful content on social media, and ensured healthy interactions with the customer.

Now, to improve customer experience, you can start by building a user-friendly website experience. Every product on your website will include high-quality images, detailed descriptions, customer reviews, etc.

Additionally, you can ensure that the entire checkout process is simple and hassle-free. Post the purchase, you can also provide prompt customer support, timely order fulfillment, and an easy return/refund process. 

By doing so, you are building a holistic experience for the customer that includes improved website usability, high-quality customer support, a smooth checkout process, and post-purchase assistance as well.

In short, customer experience is all about how you make your customers feel across their entire journey with you. A positive customer experience will help you to build a strong, loyal customer base and can improve your brand reputation too.

What is customer satisfaction? Why is it important?

Customer satisfaction refers to the extent to which customers are happy and content with their interactions and experiences, with a product, service, or brand.

It reflects how well a company meets or exceeds customer expectations. 

High customer satisfaction indicates that customers are happy with their overall experience, while low customer satisfaction suggests areas of improvement.

Let’s understand customer satisfaction with the same e-commerce brand example. Your customers will feel happy and satisfied when the products they receive match the images and descriptions available on your website.

Another way to improve customer satisfaction is to ensure that the products are delivered on time and the quality of the products also match their expectations. 

You can build on this by offering prompt assistance and asking for customer feedback. By doing so, you can focus on meeting and exceeding the expectations of your customers, which is what customer satisfaction is all about. 

How are customer engagement, customer experience, and customer satisfaction related?

As we saw before, regular interactions with your customers along with strategies to improve experience, will eventually contribute to high levels of customer satisfaction.

These three pillars – customer engagement, customer experience, and customer satisfaction – complement each other while also helping you build customer loyalty and achieve long-term success.

While these three concepts are quite distinct, they are also interconnected and often influence one another. Let’s have a closer look at how each pillar is related to each other. 

Customer engagement vs. customer experience:

As we know, customer engagement is all about having healthy and personalized interactions at every touchpoint. By doing so, you build a connection with the customer which again contributes to building a positive customer experience.

When customers are actively engaged through personalized interactions, relevant content, and meaningful connections, their overall ‘experience’ with the brand becomes more positive and memorable.

Thus, engaged customers will more likely have a better experience because they are actively involved in their interactions with the brand. 

When you engage in these interactions across various touch points such as email recommendations, helpful content, and social media interactions, it enhances the customer experience, making it more dynamic and layered. 

Customer experience vs. customer satisfaction:

As we noticed in our previous examples of managing an e-commerce brand, creating a positive customer experience plays a huge role in improving customer satisfaction. 

When you provide a seamless experience throughout the customer journey with a brand, it eventually leads to higher satisfaction levels, as customers feel their needs and expectations have been met or exceeded.

This creates a positive perception of the brand in the minds of the customers, resulting in improved customer satisfaction.

Customer satisfaction vs. customer engagement:

Customer satisfaction is known to be the foundation for customer engagement.

When customers feel satisfied with your brand, they are more likely to engage with you further, either through more purchases, referrals, or even participating in activities that you organize.

High customer satisfaction also means that customers are more likely to stick with your brand since their positive experiences have laid the groundwork for trust and loyalty.

So, when you successfully engage customers, provide memorable experiences, and ensure their satisfaction, you create a positive cycle that results in increased loyalty, repeat business, positive word-of-mouth, and sustainable long-term growth.

In other words, customer engagement, customer experience, and customer satisfaction are all connected elements that hold the key to the relationship you have with your customers.

Which is more important: customer engagement, customer experience, or customer satisfaction?

If your goal is to build a successful, customer-centric business while also achieving loyalty and long-term growth, you need all three – customer engagement, customer experience, and customer satisfaction.  

This is because these three pillars are interconnected. They can only deliver results when you implement them together to create a positive and lasting relationship with your customers. 

As we know, customer engagement is a crucial component for building a relationship and promoting brand loyalty. When customers feel engaged, they are more likely to interact with you, share their experiences, and provide valuable feedback.

Customer experience, on the other hand, is a ‘must-have’ at every touchpoint. It ensures that every aspect of the customer journey is designed to provide a positive experience.

Without this, you will find it challenging to engage customers effectively. 

Thus, customer experience is considered to be the foundation upon which both customer engagement and customer satisfaction are built. 

Customer satisfaction reflects how well your brand meets or exceeds customer expectations. High customer satisfaction leads to customer loyalty, positive word-of-mouth, and repeat business. 

So, rather than trying to figure out what’s more important, you should develop a culture where these elements work together to provide customers with high levels of satisfaction, memorable experiences, and genuine engagement.

Examples of good customer engagement, customer experience, and customer satisfaction

Having a balanced approach toward each of these ideas is crucial for the long-term growth and success of any company. Let’s have a look at some real-life examples of brands that have successfully incorporated each of them.

Customer engagement example

UK Tool Centre, an e-commerce platform that offers a huge range of over 42,000 products, wanted to improve engagement on one of its product pages. 

The page offered a brand of woodcare products called Cuprinol and had a filter menu right at the top. It was theorized that this filter menu was distracting users from exploring the products. 

So, the company ran a test where they compared the original product page (control) with another version of the page (variation). 

In the original version of the page, the filter menu was placed just above the Cuprinol listing.

In the variation, the filter menu was completely removed from the page, making it easier for the users to explore all the products. 

Once the test was conducted, the variation saw a 27% increase in engagement on the product page. 

This was possible because the company identified the needs of its customers and removed distractions from the page. Users were now able to have a better look at the products, which again increased engagement on the page.  

Through this simple customer engagement strategy, UK Tool Centre was able to encourage healthy interactions with its audience. 

Customer experience example

Buyakilt.com, an online Kilt and Scottish Highland Dress retailer, had multiple category pages along with many more subcategory pages.

The company wanted to test whether a new product filter would make it easier for customers to find what they were looking for. 

With the help of VWO, they ran a test to confirm whether this change would improve customer experience, and in turn, increase conversions. 

The new variation included a product filter, which allowed users to shop by kilt type, kilt pattern, and so on.

After the test was completed, Buyakilt.com registered a whopping 76.1% increase in revenue. Moreover, they also saw a 26% increase in conversions along with a 19.76% increase in shopping cart visits. 

One of the main reasons for this success was that a simple feature offered an easier way to take action, thus improving the overall customer experience. 

Customer satisfaction example

Archive Social is a US-based brand that helps organizations fulfill their legal requirements and avoid lawsuits on social media. 

The company wanted to improve lead generation through its pricing page and also increase conversions from a banner form on its home page.

Working with the VWO team, Archive Social made some observations about areas that needed improvement. These areas were affecting conversions and were also preventing the company from satisfying customer expectations. 

To begin with, they noticed that the email form field was shown at the very button of their home page banner. This made it difficult for users to differentiate the field from the rest of the page.

They ran a test with a new variation where the email field had better placement and visibility. After running the campaign for 27 days, the variation saw a massive increase of 101.68% in terms of clicks on the email field. 

Next, Archive Social ran a test on their pricing page. Here, the variation included a completely revamped page where the primary CTA button was highlighted and the pricing options & features displayed were extremely simple.

After running the test for seven weeks, the variation saw a huge jump of 64.76% in conversions and visits to the ‘Thank you’ page.

In their final campaign, the company wanted to increase traffic to the gated content on their ‘Resources’ page. To do so, they created a new variation by adding the ‘Resources’ category to the top navigation bar.

They ran this campaign for 10 days and registered a 73.30% uplift in traffic for the new variation. Thus, Archive Social understood the needs of their audience and the results clearly show that they also satisfied customer expectations. 

The above examples prove that no matter the industry, you can always achieve long-term growth by focusing on three basic aspects of any successful business – customer engagement, customer experience, and customer satisfaction.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs):