Barb Coté
In my first post I shared a video (view resources below) that illustrated a dramatic shift in today’s Marketing Reality, and the ensuing struggle that has erupted as a result of too many (indistinguishable) brands, plus the rapid rise of social media squarely hitting an impervious wall of mature and rather brand-skeptic consumers.
The challenge it posed was: “How can we find new ways to get people engaged again in products, advertising and in brands.”
Engagement Marketing is quickly evolving in response – and to make use of the new technology tools available to the marketer to “allow for two-way flows of information and communication…” — Alan Moore
But this brings us to our last question: How do you measure customer engagement in this new reality?
According to Brian Haven, senior analyst at Forrester Research, Engagement involves four components: involvement, interaction, intimacy, and influence, each built from data collected online and offline. “Using engagement, you get a more holistic appreciation of your customers’ actions, recognizing that value comes not just from transactions but also from actions people take to influence others…”
…“Marketers no longer dictate the path people take, nor do they lead the dialogue.” Haven says, “Our traditional means of capturing and measuring customer information no longer applies.”
In Forrester’s model, “involvement” looks at web site visits, time spent, pages viewed, etc. “Interaction” measures contributed comments to blogs, quantity/frequency of written reviews, and online comments. “Intimacy” is sentiment tracking on third-party sites including blogs and reviews, as well as opinions expressed in customer service calls, and “Influence” looks at things like likelihood to recommend, brand affinity, content forwarded to friends, etc.
Involvement + Interaction + Intimacy + Influence = Engagement.
Consumers spend as much as 80% of their day using applications that they have opted to belong and contribute to, and they leave streams of relevant information behind. Never has it been so easy to interact and reach consumers — and so hard to gauge the effectiveness of our efforts! True customer engagement aims at nurturing a relationship: encouraging long-term brand loyalty and advocacy.
As database marketers, we have spent 25 years trying to engage and nurture customer relationships. Consumers are migrating to new channels as they engage, but we will continue to adapt as we incorporate and measure these new types of data, while practicing the same principles — to turn customer knowledge into revenue opportunities, while expanding customer relationships and brand loyalty. To summarize, in the words of Kenyon Blunt, our CEO..
“Marketing is being shaped by ever-increasing streams of data about customers, produced by continuously evolving technologies. Today’s marketing programs are highly dependent on capturing and making that data work to the marketer’s advantage.
In the end, as in the beginning, it all comes back to the data — and leveraging it to build on the success of each marketing program.“
Resources:
About the Author:
Barb Cote serves as the Creative Director at SIGMA Marketing Group. Connect with Barb on or follow her on .
Related Articles:
Marketing Analytics for the New Marketing Reality. Part 1 of 3
Marketing Analytics for the New Marketing Reality. Part 2 of 3
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