Businesses should stay in touch with customer preferences

Research shows that measures like loyalty programs, gifts of promotional products and solicitations of feedback keep customers engaged, but are businesses making enough of an effort to build these relationships? New data shows that they may need to try harder.

Agency Targetbase Claydon Heeley based a study on extensive conversations with more than 90 senior marketers, Marketing Week reported. Though 82 percent claimed their companies had customer engagement strategies in place, and 78 percent believed they were effective, an earlier TBCH survey found that 77 percent of 1,200 consumers disagreed.

"Increasing customer engagement by just 1 percent generates an almost 3 percent increase in the positive effect on the value that customers deliver to that brand," TBCH CEO Steve Grout told Marketing Week.

Grout cautioned that marketers should not view engagement as an email-oriented concept, adding that "true engagement is the customer feeling that the brand is reaching out to them with a relevant message and relevant offer."

Though the recession has caused cuts to many marketing budgets, Marketing Week cited Grout's recommendation that they instead invest in engagement strategies that last. One way to keep customers aware of a brand is with useful items they can take home - the Advertising Specialty Institute reported that nearly eight out of ten recipients of promotional products keep them for longer than 6 months.