This is how to create unrivaled client engagement strategies

This article is based on a keynote presentation given by Eileen at Customer Marketing Summit Las Vegas 2023.

You've heard it time and time again – client, or customer, engagement is the key ingredient to successful customer marketing programs.

Whether you're running an advocacy program, customer advisory board, user community, or reference efforts, crafting an effective client engagement strategy is what brings all those tactics to life.

At ICE Mortgage Technology, in the highly regulated real estate industry, we have the slightly unfair advantage of knowing exactly who our customers are.

But this reality has shaped my philosophy that customer engagement, much like cooking, allows for flexibility and creativity based on what "ingredients" you have available.

In this article, I explore:

What is a client engagement strategy?

Okay first up – let's talk about what we, as customer marketers, are here for: advocacy. Advocacy truly is the real deal, and client engagement strategy is your one-way ticket to that customer marketing dream.

A sustained, well-optimized client engagement strategy that punctuates the client's journey way beyond the point of purchase is key. I like to think of it as nurturing a good relationship – it takes consistent effort and a genuine vested interest in their success.

In simple terms, client engagement is really just about keeping in touch with your customers and making sure they're happy and are using your product. It all ties into turning one-time buyers into loyal brand advocates who love your product so much they want to shout it from the rooftops.

My client engagement philosophy

When it comes to customer engagement strategies, I like to compare them to the difference between cooking and baking.

Baking requires strict adherence to recipes and measurements – too much or too little of an ingredient can ruin the final product.

Cooking, on the other hand, is more of an art, allowing you to be flexible based on your personal tastes and what's in your refrigerator.

The same principles apply to customer marketing programs centered around engagement. We're all limited by different constraints - team resources, budget, executive buy-in, and more.

Trying to force a rigid, one-size-fits-all recipe will likely fall flat.

Instead, I encourage customer marketers to take a more flexible "cooking" approach. Get creative based on the ingredients (i.e. resources, customers, goals) that you have access to.

With the right techniques and mindset, you can cook up an effective engagement strategy no matter how big or small your kitchen.

How to lay the foundation for successful client engagement

Of course, even the most free-flowing cooking requires some basic foundation work. The first step is getting organizational alignment and support for your customer engagement efforts.

At my company, we use slides mapping out how engagement impacts each stage of the buying cycle and showing its influence across our various marketing pillars.

Having these visuals helps explain why customer engagement matters to the entire revenue team.

We also have a customer marketing "demand approach" that lays out the role of engagement alongside other core areas like awareness, industry leadership, and growth marketing.

Documenting the objectives and past or future plans for our major engagement programs gives stakeholders a clear bird's eye view.

If you're struggling to capture leadership's attention, remember to always tie customer engagement back to hard metrics that matter to them – sales impact, ROI, or retention rates.

Sharing stats on the benefits of engagement can go a long way in unlocking resources, and having an internal foundation paves the way for adding customized programs and engagement "flavors."

By grounding client engagement in these broader business goals, it's easier to align resources and support for tailored B2B client engagement strategies.

Your client engagement "ingredient list"

We're all familiar with the typical customer engagement program options - advisory boards, user groups, online communities, references, and more.

But the real work lies in selecting the engagement strategies that best align with your organizational goals and client demographics.

Here we evaluate potential programs across a few criteria:

Level of marketing team effort required
Degree of customer involvement and work
Reach or amplification potential of the program

Your client engagement strategy template should guide the selection of engagement programs based on team resources, client involvement, and potential reach.

For example, an advisory board requires high team effort (coordination, travel, etc.) and customer involvement but has relatively low reach beyond the participants themselves.

Whereas something like customer awards could have medium-to-high effort levels depending on the program structure, but offer high potential reach if you maximize the promotion of the winners.

How to maximize your client voices

Once you have your foundational engagement programs in place, it's time to kick things up a notch. But what does true customer engagement look like? It goes far beyond just participating in a survey or webinar.

Here are a couple of examples of highly engaged customers for us include:

Patrick:

⭐️ Attended our annual user conference
⭐️ He referred five peers to attend
⭐️ Participated in a regional user group
⭐️ Donated to a fundraiser we promoted
⭐️ Is an active community member.

Laura:

⭐️ Serves on our executive advisory board
⭐️ Brings 10+ teammates to our conference yearly
⭐️ Participates in our reference program
⭐️ Speaks at our events
⭐️ Appears on our podcasts.

These examples illustrate the full spectrum of engagement - with the customer advocating for your brand, providing input and direction, and helping generate content that attracts new buyers.

When we have customers willing to go the extra mile, we make sure to milk every opportunity for their involvement. For instance, if a customer agrees to participate in an award process, we'll pursue:

🎥 Video testimonials at the award ceremony

🎤 Podcasts or webinar speaking opportunities

📝 Case study or blog content

📱 Social media video snippets and quotes

📣 Including their story in nurture email campaigns

The key is leveraging that single engagement for as many potential marketing and sales assets as possible. That's why having a talented content crew is so valuable - they can repackage the raw customer interactions into fresh deliverables.

Why repurposing is your secret sauce

This brings me to the real secret sauce of my customer engagement efforts - ruthlessly repurposing and amplifying every asset developed from customer interactions.

We never just let a single webinar recording, testimonial quote, or case study go uncelebrated

Take our customer, Margie, for instance. A regional award winner, we maximized her participation by:

Creating website testimonial banners and in-product ads with her story
Turning her award submission into a blog post celebrating mortgage professionals
Having her speak in a webinar on industry trends
Featuring video snippets of her insights on social media

At the end of the day, we're relentlessly squeezing every drop of value out of each piece of engaged customer content.

The same video clips get spliced for websites, campaigns, event promotions, and more, and customers' written submissions get repurposed into blogs, ebooks, and sales materials.

It's an intense juggling act, but one that pays off immensely in stretching our overall content capabilities while showing customers their voices truly matter.

How to measure the success of your client engagement strategy

Of course, no recipe is complete without assessing whether your creation is a delicious success. For client engagement, we use a few different criteria to measure the temperature:

Monitor which specific customer accounts are demonstrating the greatest, most consistent engagement across our programs and content development.
Track the "shelf life" and freshness of customer-powered content and assets. We have a simple SharePoint database that logs the creation date of each piece and automatically flags anything older than 2 years for archival or updates.
Keep an eye on the "ripple effects" of engaged customers, which often extend far beyond our wildest ambitions. Many customers view working closely with us as an opportunity to elevate their personal and professional brand.

While these endeavors are first and foremost about their own growth, we at ICE Mortgage Technology also benefit by associating with such respected voices.

In the end, effectively measuring client engagement isn't just about hard metrics or filled campaign slots. It's about recognizing the multi-faceted ripples engaged customers send across your company, the industry sphere, and their own professional journeys.

Final thoughts

As I've laid out, there is no one-size-fits-all blueprint for creating powerful client engagement strategies.

Each organization needs to thoughtfully design a unique blend of programs, customers, and promotion tactics based on their specific goals, resources, and customer relationships.

Most importantly, remember that customer engagement is more art than science. As marketers, we must constantly evaluate, experiment, and evolve our approaches to develop resonant experiences.

Don't be afraid to roll up your sleeves and initiate fresh, innovative customer engagement tactics. With the right combination of strategies, you’ll have everything needed to build engagement campaigns that resonate deeply with clients and drive measurable results.