Customer engagement has been proven to increase loyalty and boost profits for countless brands. But it doesn’t happen overnight. The best customer engagement campaigns are planned to perfection, creating meaningful two-way communication between customers and brands.
They come in various shapes and sizes, from loyalty programs to unique personalization campaigns. Here, we’re taking a look at five tried-and-tested ways to improve customer engagement, along with what we think are among the best customer engagement campaigns to show exactly how it’s done.
- Starbucks Rewards
It’s commonly cited that retaining existing customers is much cheaper than acquiring new ones. That’s exactly why loyalty programs are so popular. In short, they aim to reward existing customers for their loyalty, in turn making them more loyal! Nowhere is this better achieved than with Starbucks Rewards.
With the tagline ‘make every sip more rewarding’, the program uses an app to track customers’ orders and reward them with stars. While it sounds like something straight from the early years of school, it’s surprisingly effective.
In the UK, for example, every £1 spent is rewarded with three stars. At 150 stars, customers are rewarded with a free drink. By the time they hit 450 stars (£150 spent in total), they gain access to Gold Level membership. That means extra shots of espresso, whipped cream, and syrups on the house. Gold members even get a free drink on their birthday. Not a bad way to say thanks, right?
Best of all, it’s really easy to use. Customers can pay for coffee through the app, with stars automatically added to their account. Or they can pay in store and scan their Starbucks Reward card to make sure they don’t miss out on those all-important stars. Just in case anyone struggles, Starbucks has even made a selection of helpful videos to help users get to grips with it all.
Part of what makes Starbucks Rewards so successful is its use of gamification. While customers become players, making purchases for stars which unlock levels and rewards, they also incorporate multiple interactive gamified experiences throughout the calendar year, all encouraging further engagement with their audience.
- NikeFuel
While gamification is used to encourage customers to buy products they like, a more challenging task would be motivating them to do something we all put off. Yes, we’re talking about exercise. NikeFuel is a fitness app from Nike which does exactly that.
Applying gamification to health and fitness, users are encouraged to share their workouts and fitness achievements with their friends or on social media. Even the smallest gains are rewarded with messages of congratulations and encouragement.
Over time, users can unlock new badges and trophies – from adding 5 friends to running 50 miles in a month. There are even themed achievements, such as the ‘Chocolate Heart’ badge for running on Valentine’s Day!
The end result is an engaged brand community. Nike doesn’t profit directly from its free app. But the long-term benefits of brand loyalty engagement are huge, with potential customers using the app every day of their lives.
- My Disney Experience
The best customer engagement examples don’t just occur in one place. They’re omnichannel experiences which engage customers across the board. From social media and email marketing to your website and live chat, there are a variety of channels within which customers can be engaged. Not to mention the in-person experience or the use of your products and services.
We feel Disney is leading the way in this respect. Head to their website and it’s completely responsive to any device. After booking, customers can log into My Disney Experience – their purpose-built mobile app – to familiarize themselves with the attractions and plan their trip. Once they’re actually at Disney, they can even use the app to find each attraction, complete with estimated waiting times, based on real-time data.
It gets better. Disney’s MagicBand has added to their omnichannel experience. With a colourful wristband, customers can do almost anything they need to during their Disney stay. Linking effortlessly with My Disney Experience, the wristband allows users to unlock their hotel room door, charge food and merchandise to their room, and enter theme parks, water parks and FastPass entrances they’ve booked through the app.
- Share A Coke
When it comes to customer engagement campaigns, it’s hard to find a more relatable technique than personalization. It’s the difference between visiting an unfamiliar shop for the first time and popping into a local store where everybody knows your name.
Coca Cola’s “Share a Coke” campaign is a stand-out example. Originally conceived by Ogilvy in Australia, the campaign involved printing popular names on Coke bottles and cans, inviting customers to ‘share a coke’ with that person. In other words, buy this drink because your friend or relative’s name is on it.
For this customer engagement campaign, the results speak for themselves. Eventually expanding to over 80 markets across seven years, Share a Coke boosted engagement with Coca Cola products across the world. That included reversing an 11-year decline in consumption in the US.
While Share a Coke was offline, and a rare instance of personalization without specific customer data, it shows the impact personalization can have on customer engagement. That can be amplified with ‘earned’ first-party data, which helps businesses tailor the experience to individual customers – based on more than just popular names in each country!
- 3radical – and you!
Our final example is the best customer engagement campaign that’s yet to be made. 3radical’s innovative audience engagement software allows companies to create compelling experiences for their own customers, which encourage engagement, build loyalty, and grow revenue.The best way to get a feel for the platform is to try it for yourself. But if you would like to discuss ideas for your own customer engagement campaign in more depth, our team is ready and waiting. Contact us today to find out how 3radical can improve customer engagement for you!