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):

There’s no harm in seeking more information. But actionable tips are more helpful for starting to learn something new. 

The same principle applies to customer engagement in marketing. Consuming theories and data around the concept can enrich your knowledge and enhance your awareness. But it is practical tips that will actually fuel your customer engagement engine. 

If you are reading this blog, it means you’re here for actionable customer engagement tips. You’re in the right place!

We are about to discuss proven tips that can help you win customer trust, encourage brand loyalty, and ultimately boost revenue growth for your business. 

Keep reading…

Idea 1: Craft a customer-focused content marketing strategy

With online customers being more aware today, content forms the bedrock of your creative customer engagement ideas. However, mere content creation will not garner attention, let alone foster the desired engagement. To attain your engagement objectives, you must center your content around the customers. 

Begin by sketching a typical buyer persona and leveraging data to understand customer requirements, interests, motivations, and aspirations, constructing a good customer engagement strategy. Moreover, try different content formats for various channels and touchpoints: 

Interactive content

Quizzes, polls, surveys, and interactive videos encourage active participation, keeping customers engaged while collecting valuable insights.

Visual content

Infographics, images, and videos are more appealing and shareable, grabbing attention and conveying information quickly.

User-generated content

Sharing content created by customers, such as reviews, testimonials, and social media posts is a part of successful brand engagement activities.

Educational content

How-to guides, tutorials, and informative articles position your brand as an industry expert and provide value to your audience.

Storytelling

Current digital engagement ideas center on content that connects emotionally with customers, making them more invested in your brand.

Live streaming

Live videos on platforms like social media offer real-time interaction with customers, thereby forming an integral part of your good customer engagement strategies.

In addition to determining the type of content you create, make decisions about posting frequency, distribution strategy, and performance measurement. Also, don’t confuse personalized content with your content marketing strategy. While personalized content is crucial for delivering tailored experiences to your audience, your overarching content marketing strategy should exude empathy through compelling storytelling and reflect the personality of your brand. 

Idea 2: Gamify customer experiences 

Gamification is one of the innovative customer engagement ideas gaining momentum among many businesses. If you have not tried it yet, here are a few ways you can use gamification to engage customers:

• Run social media contests where you challenge followers to share product unboxing videos to win free tickets to your company’s meet-and-greet or virtual events. 
• Add treasure hunts during special events like sales or anniversaries and offer personalized rewards to the winners.
• Organize quizzes to test visitors’ knowledge about your brand and offer special discounts based on their scores. 

If you want to make gamification an integral part of customer experience on your digital property like your app, consider launching it as a feature. Suppose you run an online newspaper website where you want to introduce badges for readers using the app. These badges might include titles like ‘Engaged Reader,’ ‘Category Expert,’ and ‘Social Sharer,’ rewarding users who actively participate in discussions, specialize in specific categories, and share articles on social media.

Readers can see their badge collection on their profiles and compare them with others in a friendly competition. Additionally, you could create a leaderboard to showcase the top badge earners. 

However, these ideas to engage customers can’t be shipped hastily. They must be tested and iterated upon to achieve the desired outcome. Using server-side testing on VWO, you can not only create features like this but also improve its development through incremental releases, feedback collection, and continuous iteration. To know how it works, request a demo now. 

Idea 3: Constantly gather customer feedback

A robust customer feedback loop is indispensable for your consumer engagement strategies to show the desired result. Encouraging customers (especially existing customers) to share their opinions and actively listening to their feedback demonstrates that their voices matter, thereby improving customer satisfaction.

Implementing changes or enhancements based on their suggestions not only addresses their needs but also showcases your brand’s commitment to continuous improvement. This collaborative approach will help you win loyal customers and increase customer engagement.

Deploying tools like exit pop-ups for departing visitors, incentivizing customer surveys, utilizing live chat for real-time insights, or sending regular feedback forms via email are effective feedback collection methods. These brand engagement ideas help uncover valuable customer perspectives that can be used to refine your customer engagement strategies effectively. 

If you want to get started, you can consider creating an on-page survey where you ask visitors what they liked about your website, if they faced any problems trying to look for something, and what they think can be improved. This feedback is your treasure trove of insights to guide your website optimization efforts. Fresh out of the experience of navigating your website, visitors will remember the details and share their honest opinions. Check out more about on-page surveys now. 

Idea 4: Humanize your brand communication

Whether you are in B2B or B2C, maintaining detached and emotionless communication won’t cultivate valuable customer relationships. Instead, humanizing your communication builds a brand personality that resonates on a personal level, transcending mere product or service associations to cultivate customer engagement.

Begin by strategically infusing a human voice into your content. For your blog, establish a distinctive storytelling style that connects uniquely with your target audience. Infusing empathy into your blog posts strikes an emotional chord, moving beyond mere facts.

On social media, establish exclusive online communities, such as dedicated forums or groups on social media platforms. These spaces not only provide customers with a platform to connect with each other but also foster a deeper connection with your brand. Hosting interactive webinars or Q&A sessions within these communities can further enhance customer engagement and foster a sense of brand belonging. Transparency is key; being authentic resonates with customers who seek genuine interactions when shaping effective customer engagement strategies.

Creating videos and podcasts ranks among the proven user engagement ideas today. Just scroll through your feeds on various social media platforms to see. They lend a human face and voice to your message, fostering a sense of familiarity similar to interactions with friends and family.  These are some good examples of customer engagement that can make your communication more relatable and impactful.

Even if you are in B2B, an empathetic and human-like brand voice is crucial. People don’t suddenly change upon entering the office. Major corporations are shifting away from traditional client communication due to the evolving B2B marketing landscape. So, why not join in? Experiment with creative client management activities that resonate with your audience, building loyalty in the process. 

Idea 5: Personalize customer experiences 

Now we come to the sensational part of online marketing today – personalization of customer experiences. Starting from the relevant content users read on social media to the offers they receive in emails and products they are recommended when checking out from a website- these are all due to personalization of their experiences at every touch point of their online journey with a brand. 

Thanks to robust database software like Customer Data Platforms that make customer engagement possible by gathering user data from various sources, segmenting them, and creating Single Customer Views (SCVs). For example, you can transfer these customer profiles to your Data Management Platform (DMP) and launch targeted ads for specific user segments. Similarly, these SCVs can be exported to email automation platforms to launch personalized email newsletters for different segments of customers. 

On our VWO platform, you can leverage all three capabilities, VWO Data360 (CDP), VWO Personalize, and VWO Testing. Taking customer profiles from the CDP, you can launch personalization campaigns and even run A/B testing campaigns. 

Here is an example of customer engagement. Let’s say you own a holiday booking site. Using data from the CDP, you want to display curated travel packages – hiking and safaris, romantic honeymoon getaways, and family travel vacations – to specific audience segments. In this scenario, VWO Personalize can help you launch these targeted segment-specific marketing campaigns.

On the other hand, suppose you want to test whether offering discounts to a segment of your customers can boost sales of your adventure vacation packages. In that case, you can use VWO Testing to run a test and determine if showing a discount in the variation improves your metrics. Take a free trial today.

Idea 6: Create loyal advocates

If you have customers who really like your brand, make sure to nurture those relationships and make them stronger. Keep in touch with them, get their feedback on your latest product launches, and give them special attention, so they know you appreciate them. This will help you convert your existing customers into brand advocates who will support you every step of the way. Here are some great consumer engagement activities to make them feel super special:

Exclusive previews

Offer them exclusive access to new products, services, or features before they’re available to the general public. This makes them feel valued and appreciated.

Surprise gifts

Occasionally send them small surprises like personalized thank-you notes, phone calls, gifts, or samples. These unexpected gestures can go a long way in winning loyal customers.

Customer appreciation events

Organize special events or webinars exclusively for your dedicated existing customers, where they can interact with your sales team and learn more about your products or services.

Seek their input

Involve your long-term existing customers in decisions like product names, features, or future offerings. This gives them a sense of ownership and importance.

Referral program

In addition to these loyalty programs, you can launch referral programs that encourage existing customers to refer new customers to try your brand’s products or services by offering rewards and incentives.

Conclusion 

A popular saying goes, “The best time to start is now”. Taking a cue from this, you should not delay launching or improving your customer engagement plans any further. Start moving before your customers consider switching to your competitors due to not getting what they need from your brand. And if you think VWO can help you in executing your customer engagement activity, consider taking a free trial. Explore all its features and decide if it’s a great fit for your business. 

Frequently asked questions

In a city dominated by competitive shops that are all about selling, this bookstore thrives by offering more than just books. They host book clubs where readers can engage in lively discussions, invite local authors for talks, and organize contests and quizzes.

In short, they create a literary heaven for customers. They believe exceeding customer expectations matters, and the rest will follow. 

As brands compete neck-to-neck increasingly every day, how do the winners set themselves apart? By placing customers at the center of their business. Building a solid customer engagement strategy is the key to fostering a sense of belonging among your audiences and transcending competition. 

In this blog, we explain overarching strategies on how to increase customer engagement and help your brand become a favorite among customers.

Top 5 strategies to increase customer engagement

Leverage user behavior analytics

The foundation of any successful customer engagement strategy lies in understanding your audience. Research your target demographic’s preferences, behaviors, and pain points. This knowledge will help you tailor your customer engagement plan and establish meaningful customer relationships.

Utilize visitor behavioral analytics to comprehend how visitors behave on your digital properties, what prompts increased interaction, and where they encounter friction. By delving deep into visitors’ behavior, you will gain insights into the improvement needed to enrich their online journey with your brand. 

Bear Mattress, a New Jersey-based online mattress-selling company, uncovered interesting visitor behavior on its website with the help of VWO Insights. They observed reduced user interaction with the cross-sell section, ineffective product-centric copy, and reduced engagement due to missing product images in key sections on the product page. These observations led to a solid hypothesis that resulted in an A/B test generating a 16% increase in revenue. 

While heatmaps illustrate various levels of visitor interaction through colors, session recordings allow you to observe users engaging with your website elements. This is just the beginning; VWO Insights offers an array of other features for user research on both website and mobile. To explore them all, start a free trial today! 

Set clear and practical objectives

Set specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely (SMART) goals for every customer engagement campaign. For instance, while offering frequent discounts and cheap deals might appear conducive to quick revenue growth, it could negatively impact your brand reputation and profitability. Instead of solely concentrating on metrics tied to your paid advertising, set objectives that provide a more comprehensive view of whether your customers are truly committed to your brand or not. 

Further, defining the corresponding metrics becomes important to get better results from your consumer engagement strategy. Regularly evaluating and adjusting these metrics may be necessary to ensure they are in line with the most recent advancements in your business and industry innovations. Read this blog to learn which customer engagement metrics are worth monitoring. 

Map customer journeys

Plot out your customers’ journeys from discovery to post-purchase. Identify touchpoints where customer engagement can make a difference and create strategies tailored to each stage. Let’s understand with an example. 

Samantha is a 30-year-old marketing professional looking for stylish workwear to buy online. This is how her journey from decision-making to purchase and post-purchase might look like and how brands can improve her experience across touchpoints. 

Awareness:

• Touchpoint: Instagram sponsored post
• Action: Sarah sees a post showcasing trendy workwear styles from the retailer.
• Improve customer experience: Craft visually appealing and informative posts that showcase various workwear styles, highlighting the unique features and quality of the products.
• Offer: Include a special offer or promotion code for first-time visitors who come from the Instagram post.

Interest and evaluation:

• Touchpoint: Visits the retailer’s website
• Action: Browses through the “Workwear Collection” section, looks at product images, reads descriptions, and checks prices.
• Improve customer experience: Enhance the website’s user interface for easy navigation. Implement high-quality product images, detailed descriptions, and a clear sizing guide.
• Offer: Provide a virtual try-on feature that allows customers to see how the workwear items would look on them.

Purchase:

• Touchpoint: Adds a tailored blazer and trousers to the cart
• Action: Proceeds to checkout, enters payment details, and confirms the purchase.
• Improve customer experience: Streamline the checkout process by minimizing steps and offering multiple payment options. Include a progress indicator to show customers where they are in the process.
• Offer: Offer an option for expedited shipping for those who need their workwear items quickly

Post-purchase:

• Touchpoint: Order confirmation email
• Action: Receives an email with order details, expected delivery date, and a discount code for her next purchase.
• Improve customer experience: Personalize the order confirmation email with the customer’s name and ordered items. Include a link to track the order’s delivery status.
• Offer: Suggest related products that complement the purchased items, encouraging cross-selling.

Engagement and loyalty:

• Touchpoint: Follows the retailer on Instagram and subscribes to their newsletter.
• Action: Receives personalized product recommendations based on her purchase history.
• Improve customer experience: Send personalized newsletters with relevant content, such as styling tips, outfit inspiration, and exclusive offers for loyal customers.
• Offer: Provide early access to new collections and special events for newsletter subscribers.
  

Advocacy:

• Touchpoint: Receives her order, which includes a thank-you note and a referral discount.
• Action: Shares a photo of her new outfit on social media, praising the retailer’s quality and service.
• Improve customer experience: Include a handwritten thank-you note in the package, expressing gratitude for the customer’s purchase. Personalize the note by referring to the specific items bought.
• Offer: Provide a referral discount not only for the advocate but also for the referred friend, encouraging them to share their experience with others.
  

Now let’s say you own a SaaS company and you want to lay out a highly effective client engagement strategy. You can map any customer journey like this to tailor experiences at each stage of their journey with your brand. The crux is that no matter which industry you operate in, with the right customer engagement strategy, you can boost brand trust and encourage loyal customers to advocate for you. 

Create segments for tailored experiences 

You have performed user research and mapped the customer journey. Now you must be wondering how to drive customer engagement. The answer is segmentation. It’s only once you segment your visitors into different cohorts (based on similar preferences, attributes, and more) that you can deliver tailored experiences to them. This is one of the most effective customer engagement strategies that align your campaigns and communications with customers’ requirements, behavior, and purchase history. 

Imagine owning an OTT platform. You would want to personalize every piece of content, starting from the homepage to cater to each viewer’s preferences. If you identify a segment of viewers as a fan of romantic comedies (from their watch history), consider showing more of such recommendations. Utilizing their location data, you can also suggest trending movies or web series from their country, such as France. 

Now, suppose you’re interested in running a personalization campaign that offers a 10% discount on subscription plans for viewers from a new market in the Nordic countries like Norway. This can be accomplished through personalization. Even better, if you’re utilizing a customer data platform, you can leverage single customer views (SCVs) to create more intricate segments based on the extensive data you have about your new and existing customers. 

Building upon the same example, you could decide to target this discount offer specifically to individuals aged 25-45 in Oslo, Norway, who access content via mobile devices.

This data-driven approach to increase customer engagement can set you apart from the competitors. From collecting and segmenting data to launching personalization campaigns, VWO Data360 and VWO Personalize can work together to elevate your customer engagement marketing strategy. Explore how it works by taking a free trial now. 

Craft a definitive omnichannel strategy

Once you have implemented all of the above steps, it’s time to create an omnichannel customer engagement strategy. This strategy should clearly outline:

1. The main and secondary (if applicable) buyer personas, along with their behaviors and interests.
2. How you’ll engage these personas at different touch points throughout their purchasing journey and beyond across devices.
3. Methods to seamlessly connect interactions across multiple channels, ensuring a flawless and delightful experience.
4. The different opportunities you’ll harness, like product launches, relevant events, retargeting, etc., to enhance consumer engagement.
5. An actionable plan for customer engagement that you can put into action right away.

And while you are trying your best to increase engagement with customers, bear in mind the power of A/B testing across your digital properties. 

A/B testing deciphers the preferences and behaviors that truly resonate with the audience. This empirical approach sidesteps guesswork, infusing data-driven precision into customer engagement marketing strategies. In the long term, the insights gained from A/B testing cultivate a culture of continuous improvement, aligning optimization ideas with evolving customer preferences. As a result, businesses fine-tune user experiences and improve conversion rates, all while ensuring high customer engagement.

Mediereich, a German eLearning company, conducted a split URL test on its homepage which increased visitor engagement by 40%. That’s not all. Due to this change, the home page’s year-on-year value skyrocketed by an incredible 106.42%, going up from $2,149.72 to $4,436.41. This underscores how enhancing engagement will directly influence your revenue metrics. And it is experimentation that makes it possible. 

Three steps to build a customer engagement strategy 

We have shared overarching strategies on how to create online customer engagement. Now we quickly tell you three key steps you must take to build a robust customer engagement strategy.

Conduct in-depth behavioral research

Gather critical visitor data tailored to your business. In addition to customary metrics from customer loyalty programs, social media interactions, and customer support, focus on the aspects shaping customer-brand engagement. Survey responses, heatmap analysis of website behavior, and funnel analysis help uncover user preferences and identify any friction they encounter.

Link insights with metrics

Convert insights from observed visitor behavior into defined objectives with corresponding metrics. For instance, if funnel analysis reveals that existing customers are dropping off from the product page prematurely, your objective should be to retain customers on the page and reverse the drop-off. As a result, you can run a test with an optimized product page and set ‘increase in Average Order Value (AOV)’ as a metric to measure the change in visitor behavior.

Analyze and refine continuously

Once you have run an experiment, uncover loopholes and areas for improvement. Through iterative cycles, refine your ideas and devise improved strategies to optimize conversions. This ongoing process ensures that your engagement strategies remain dynamic, effective, and aligned with ever-evolving customer behavior.

Customer engagement strategy examples

Optimizing your website/app 

Whether focusing on messaging, UI, or UX, every aspect of your website or app contributes to shaping customer perceptions. To optimize engagement, the aim is to enhance these components, streamlining the customer journey for ease and providing immersive experiences that retain their interest. 

For improved engagement and delightful experiences, consider targeting the following opportunities:

1. Provide relevant, valuable content across blogs and resources to captivate customers and provide value. 
2. Personalize customer touchpoints based on individual needs, devices, locations, and industries to deliver context-rich communication. 
3. Employ incentives throughout touchpoints, such as freebies, exclusive coupon codes, expert consultations, and referral rewards, to entice prolonged interaction with your digital platforms. 

Incorporating these tactics into your engagement strategy ensures extended customer stay time on your site/app, resulting in improved engagement metrics. 

Emails 

Despite being a conventional method of customer communication, emails remain a remarkably relevant example of customer engagement strategies. Marketers and customer-facing representatives heavily rely on emails for communication. These customer emails can generally be categorized into:

• Newsletters
• Welcome/Signup Emails
• Thank You Emails
• Abandonment/Recovery Emails
• New Product/Service Launch Emails
• Feedback/Survey Emails
• Transactional Emails

To maximize engagement through the email channel, remember these guidelines:

1. Craft compelling subject lines for higher open rates.
2. Optimize emails for mobile viewing, as over 50% are accessed on mobile devices.
3. Stand out in crowded inboxes by providing value and utility—keep content informative, interactive, and non-promotional.
4. Utilize customer stories and social proof to build trust.
5. Personalize emails based on interests and behavior for enhanced relevance and engagement.

Chatbots 

Given the trust and preference it has earned from customers, incorporating live chat for improved engagement is a clear decision for businesses.

Apart from immediate issue resolution, companies can elevate user engagement through strategic retargeting of returning visitors, providing personalized recommendations, sharing valuable resource links, and guiding traffic to essential site pages.

Social media 

In today’s social media-driven world, a big part of how companies engage with users happens on these platforms. This affects how customers interact with brands overall. In this noisy environment, it’s really important for businesses to regularly and meaningfully connect with their followers.

Though there’s no surefire method for getting lots of engagement on social media, these tips are a good starting point for building strong interactions, engaging customers, and keeping people interested:

1. Stay responsive to mentions so you know what your audience is saying and can interact with them.
2. Use trending topics to talk about things that matter to your audience and industry.
3. Be consistent in posting, so your audience remembers you.
4. Address customer complaints in the comments, showing you’re listening and caring.
5. Share stories about your customers and employees to make your brand more relatable.
6. Make your posts interactive with polls, quizzes, and contests to show you value your audience’s opinions.

Videos 

Videos, the most preferred content by consumers, now make a conspicuous part of the customer engagement strategy framework. Brands increasingly invest in video marketing for higher engagement. Whether on your website, app, or social media, videos excel due to their captivating, shareable, and on-the-go nature. 

To harness this growing engagement avenue, constant innovation is key. Alongside product and educational videos, consider interactive formats like Q&A sessions or ‘Ask Me Anything’ with experts. Experiment with user-generated content (UGC) videos, inviting followers for short video contests.

Video testimonials shared on social media are highly effective, showcasing happy and loyal customers for greater engagement compared to text-based testimonials. Depending on your business, explore vlogs and webinars, offering in-depth content that retains audience attention better than lengthy blog posts.

Way forward

Customer engagement programs are the key elements that can help a business improve its bottom line. When companies focus on their customers rather than getting caught up in competitor comparisons, they thrive on unparalleled customer satisfaction. This approach leads to relevant interactions and long-lasting customer relationships. Having seen how VWO can increase your customer engagement, you will only benefit from making it a part of your business strategy. Start a free trial today to take the next step.

Frequently asked questions

If yes, then you will agree that training is a very important component of outdoor sports. The training simulates the real scenarios of the game to identify shortcomings and make improvements. Yet, its benefits extend beyond mere performance enhancement, as it also facilitates learning in areas such as nutrition and psychology, ultimately leading to an overall improvement in one’s sportsmanship.

Similarly, conducting online experiments is like training your digital property. It not only enhances your conversion rate but also provides valuable opportunities to gain insights into various facets of the digital landscape, resulting in the overall growth and development of your company.

Don’t believe it? 

In this blog, we have aggregated five real-life examples to showcase how experimentation induces learning related to various aspects impacting your visitors’ digital experience like content, conversion funnels, experimentation approach, and design. 

Let’s begin.

1. Dell Technologies

Dell Technologies, a technology giant, places significant emphasis on experimentation. The company’s commitment to this practice is exemplified by CEO Michael Dell’s occasional communication with the Digital Analytics team regarding ongoing tests. Experimentation has not only made a positive contribution to the multi-billion dollar revenue, but it also has induced some learnings for the company. 

In one of the fireside chats with VWO, Narayan Keshavan, Head of the Design Analytics Team, shared his insights. The following learnings helped them improve their whole experimentation cycle and approach.

a. Don’t follow experimentation trends blindly

In one of their experiments for the website in China, the team at Dell tried to add a promo banner in the Navigation bar, a trend followed by a leading eCommerce website in China. But for Dell, the conversion rates dropped by adding a banner.

They learned that a trend should be followed carefully as every website is unique, and the user experience analysis should preside over each experiment.

b. Keep a neutral eye on an experimentation idea

The Dell Technologies team found that it’s natural to expect a lift in conversion rate from variations. But, the foundation of the whole effort is to run an experiment and not prove something. Thus, the optimization team must have a neutral approach toward each idea. It helps negate biases while running the experiment and post-analysis of the data.

c. Don’t fall for testing myopia

Testing myopia is a term used by the Dell Technologies team, which means you are so focused on improving a metric that you forget the effect on other metrics. 

Let’s say you aim to enhance the Click-Through Rate (CTR) of the primary Call-To-Action (CTA) button on one of your landing pages. You conduct tests using captivating banners and observe a surge in the CTR of the primary CTA. While this experiment may seem successful based on this one metric alone, a deeper analysis reveals that the bounce rate has increased due to a decrease in website speed caused by the banner’s size. As a result, even though the conversion rate has improved from people who engage, many visitors are leaving the site without engaging because the page takes too long to load.

Therefore, it’s crucial to take a holistic approach to experimentation and analysis instead of obsessing over a single metric.

Watch the complete webinar:

2. Uber Eats

Uber Eats started its operation in South Africa as an online food delivery service. But can you imagine that it is now a virtual mall that sells jewelry, clothing, and other accessories? Here is the screenshot of its product page:

Starting with the food delivery and diversifying to become a virtual mall happened because of experimentation. Uber Eats in South Africa has ingrained a culture of experimentation, where they depend less on market research and more on experimentation in the real world. Experimentation has allowed Uber Eats South Africa to grow 149% month-on-month in its non-restaurant vertices. 

Here is what the experimentation taught them and facilitated expansion outside food delivery.

a. A tool with an easy setup and automation enhances the experimentation culture

Uber Eats’ team recognized that a simplified experimentation setup means less dependency on development and fewer entry barriers, which motivates team members to partake more in experimentation. Also, by automating post-analysis and deploying the winning variation, the workload on the team is reduced, which speeds up the experimentation rate. It collectively promotes a culture of experimentation within the company. 

b. It’s important to take time while creating a hypothesis

The hypothesis is the foundation of the experimentation, and even simple-looking tests might turn complicated if there is a fault in the hypothesis. A hypothesis must be based on data insights and behavioral analysis. Also, the hypothesis must specifically mention the website element that needs to be tested and the expected improvement that you expect at the end.

For instance, if a CTA button on a landing page with a low conversion rate is identified through heatmap analysis to have fewer clicks and less attention, changing the button color to make it more prominent could be a potential solution. In this case, the hypothesis could be: “Changing the color of the CTA button to X color will result in a Z% increase in conversion.”

In addition, the team at Uber Eats advocates for testing one hypothesis at a time with various methods like A/B testing and Multivariate testing rather than testing multiple hypotheses with the same method to achieve better results.

3. MakeMyTrip.com

MakeMyTrip.com is an online travel aggregator in India that gets 44 million visitors per month. The two-decade-old company has first-hand experience with digital transformation and changing user demands. The experimentation culture has positively contributed to the 64.1% Y-O-Y growth that the company saw in 2022.

In one of VWO’s webinars, Aakash Kumar, head of the user experience at Makemytrip.com, revealed some critical experimentation-induced learnings. 

a. Fewer purchase cycle stages don’t necessarily mean more conversion

It’s a general notion that a few stages between awareness and purchase will lead to more conversion. However, the design team at MakeMyTrip.com found something interesting.

Their typical hotel search user flow started with searching for destinations on the homepage, which led to a page with a list of hotels. On clicking a hotel tab, a page opens with a hotel description followed by offered accommodation types. The team noticed that many mobile users who ended up converting were choosing the cheapest room option and there was a low conversion rate for premium rooms. 

After conducting a thorough analysis of user behavior and data collection, the team found that the hotel details page’s description was causing users to scroll excessively, leading them to select the first room type they saw after scrolling. To address this issue, the design team introduced an additional step that allowed users to select the room type before completing the transaction.

The whole optimization effort led to an increase in the booking rate for premium room types. 

b. Design changes should be gradual and not drastic

Drawing on their decades of experience in experimentation, the design team has discovered that design changes aligned with user needs should be gradual rather than drastic. Following the ideate-experiment-learn cycle during website design experimentation is crucial. Subsequent design changes can be based on the team’s previous experimentation and learnings, which helps to minimize risks and reduce negative impacts on the conversion rate.

Watch the complete webinar:

4. Netflix

Netflix has a culture of experimentation and learning, which helped it transform from a DVD mailing service to a streaming service giant with 230+ million paid subscribers worldwide. Here is what Netflix has learned about experimentation from decades of experience.

a. A successful idea can come from an unlikely source

Netflix has an open culture where anybody can see the running tests and associated results. The naturally low win rate of experiments brings humility and humbleness to the team. It opens up doors for every team member to share ideas and experiment with user experience. There are instances at the company where ideas from experts have failed, but ideas from executives and engineers have brought unexpected wins. The democratization has enabled them to get massive revenue-generating ideas from unlikely resources. 

b. A failed experiment in the past can achieve success in the present

Customer behavior and preferences are evolving, and at Netflix, they have found that revisiting past failed ideas and deploying them at present can find success. Sometimes, the analysis of the failed ideas suggests that they may achieve success in the present or the new user group. So creating a repository of each experiment along with its analysis is beneficial to redeploy and find success in the future.  

5. Frictionless Commerce

Frictionless Commerce is a 13-year-old digital marketing agency with a focus on enhancing the sales of Shopify websites by utilizing buyer psychology techniques to influence and convert new buyers. The agency has helped 118+ DTC brands and carried out A/B tests for them to improve conversion rates. Here is what the people at Frictionless Commerce have learned about buyer’s psychology due to these experimentations, which can help create copies and headings for landing pages.

a. Showcasing expertise and brand story create a sense of connection

People like to associate with brands who are experts in their domain and specialize in crafting the product or service. Additionally, a brand’s narrative, detailing its origins and the obstacles it overcame, can foster a sense of connection with the visitor and drive them further down the path to purchase.

b. Adding surprising facts can negate the midway quitting

Behavior analysis can help you understand the scroll depth at which most visitors leave. The team at Frictionless Commerce has found that adding a surprising fact at such points can reduce the midway quitting as it gives a burst of energy to a visitor to know more. 

c. If doubts are not solved, then the visitor will leave

If a landing page fails to address a visitor’s specific query, they may feel hesitant to trust the product or service being offered. The team discovered that four particular factors – the absence of features, unclear pricing, subpar features, and confusing design elements – can all contribute to a negative perception and generate doubts in the visitor’s mind.

To avoid these pitfalls, marketers should aim to view the landing page from the visitor’s perspective and ensure that any potential doubts or concerns about features, pricing, or design are addressed and resolved through testing.

This learning, along with other insights, helped the company in shaping A/B testing campaigns for their clients. 

One of their clients is into selling shampoo bars. The team at Frictionless Commerce carried out an A/B test which was influenced by the above learnings. Here are the controls and variations of the test created with VWO. You can see that the variation is trying to solve a doubt that will come naturally to a visitor’s mind. 

The test resulted in a 5.97% increase in the number of orders. 

Begin your experimentation journey with VWO

The five examples show that experimentation not only enhances the conversion rate but also generates valuable insights that can lead to new user experiences, business ventures, and cultural shifts, ultimately propelling the company to greater heights.

Also, we saw in the case of Uber Eats, one of the key contributors to success is the availability of a user-friendly experimentation tool that enables the rapid scaling of experimentation efforts. 

However, choosing an experimentation tool is not an instant decision. You have to evaluate the compatibility with your business and get hands-on experience with the tool before spending a buck. 

To facilitate this process, we have created a 30-day free trial that provides full access to all the offered capabilities without any financial obligations.

So, If you are new to experimentation or considering a switch from your current setup, we recommend reading our detailed guide on VWO’s free trial, which provides complete information about working with the world’s leading experimentation platform.

The key is to strategically spend on marketing to maximize your return on investment during these challenging times. 

If your next plan is to audit your marketing strategy to adjust spending, ensure experimentation sits at the top of your list of priorities. Anyone who says you can forsake experimentation is probably taking you for a ride. 

In fact, experimentation is hands down the best way to convert all that traffic into customers by allowing you to ship the best-performing experiences to audiences. Instead of spending on acquiring new customers right now, it makes a lot more sense to focus on converting what is already on your website.

But yes, experimentation during a recession might require you to pivot your strategy. So, if you’ve been wondering how to harness the power of experimentation during testing times like this, we’ve got some tips to share with you. 

Get the right team by your side

If you decide to start with experimentation now, building an exclusive team for this exercise will consume a lot of your resources in an already cash-strapped market. At the same time, without skilled people by your side, you’ll be remote from getting the best result out of the testing platform. 

This is where the VWO customer success team can lend you a hand! Our dedicated success managers plan and support your journey with VWO, training your team to get the best out of our product. Throughout your optimization process, they are your true friend, guiding you to early successes and monitoring your progress. Further, they keep you informed about the latest developments in VWO and the industry, all while helping you achieve the highest possible ROI from using VWO.

Accelerate the testing speed 

During an economic downturn, businesses shift into high gear and take all the necessary steps to keep their business surviving and even thriving. The approach should remain the same when it comes to your experimentation. The faster you test, the quicker you will know what can work and what cannot to protect your business from the effects of the recession. If you have an experimentation program laid down already, audit it and see if it’s possible to increase the velocity of testing with high-impact tests first.

For example, Dorado Fashion, a US-based fashion website, added a bundle offer in the mini-cart on all devices to improve the Average Order Value (AOV). An A/B test was run only for 26 days where the variation emerged as the winner with a 14.14% increase in clicks to the Thank You page. Explore other small tests that led to impressive results in our Small Tests. Big Wins. eBook. 

Further, VWO’s A/B Test Duration Calculator can be of great help in this regard. Enter details like existing conversion rate, minimum improvement expected, number of variations, average visitors every day, and percentage of visitors included in the test – and you will get the duration for which you must run the test to achieve a statistically significant result. Prioritize tests that can be run quickly and contribute to conversion uplift. 

The more you reduce your dependencies on the developing and engineering team, the faster you can set experiments and get results. Not only can you make all types of changes to your web pages through VWO’s Visual Editor, but you can also make these changes go live without involving the IT team with VWO Deploy. Plus, you can release a change only to a particular set of visitors, whom you can segment in more than 1000 ways. 

So, let’s understand with an example. Consider you want to show a 10% discount to new visitors on your hotel booking website against the control without a discount offer. Using the VWO editor, you can add a standard widget template to let’s say the homepage of your website. Next, you decide that you want to direct this offer to new visitors using mobile and in the age group of 25-40 from Connecticut, where you’ve just started your operations. You then combine multiple parameters together to target a very specific segment for this test. This is just one example; you can target visitors in various ways using custom segments on VWO. Run the test for a set time and see if the variation wins. If successful, launch it with VWO Deploy. 

Set your focus on lifetime value 

Acquiring new customers is 5 to 25 times more expensive than retaining existing ones. This makes maximizing the Lifetime Value (LTV) of existing customers all the more crucial, especially in a tight financial market.

Of course, you should test every piece of content on your website before shipping them, but prioritize the ones that may have a greater impact on your LTV. For example, changing the color of a CTA button may increase the click-through rate but there is no guarantee that it would contribute to the business metric. 

Test loyalty programs, up-selling/cross-selling, free shipping, or any idea that delights your customers and encourages them to continue purchasing from you. Remember, there is no one test against another. It all comes down to prioritizing when times are tough. 

Let’s see how Bear Mattress, a bed mattress-selling brand, increased the number of purchases by improving cross-sell flow on its mattress product page. They partnered with the VWO team who observed that user interaction with cross-sell items was minimal, images for cross-sell products were not present, and the copy was not customer-friendly on the product page.

For the variation, they implemented a number of changes, including making the copy more customer-centric and adding thumbnail images if cross-selling items. 

This test was run for 19 days and led to a 16% increase in revenue. Drawing inspiration from this case study, you can run cross-sell tests on your website, provided your research shows the scope of implementation of such a test.

What we must mention here is that VWO Data360, our customer data platform, lets you create and track complex business metrics like LTV by considering customers’ page-level engagement. Using this capability, you can roll out an experience that can help you retain customers, repeat purchases, and drive revenue. Want to discover what this experimentation platform can do to sharpen customer experience other than this? Sign up for a free trial today! 

Inform experiments with user research 

Don’t sacrifice research at the altar of faster implementation. When we suggest that you should increase the velocity of the test, we don’t mean you can pick any random tests that you ‘think’ can improve conversions. Rely less on your convictions and more on how visitors behave on your website. 

For example, if you see users dropping off from the checkout, you can implement a guest checkout hoping to increase revenue through this test. This is where VWO Insights helps you big time with its user behavior analytical prowess. While heatmaps show you the visual representation of users’ activities on your website, session recordings give you a walk-through of their journey on your website from landing on the website to exiting or converting. 

When you plan experiments that are in line with what users expect to experience on your website, they are more likely to emerge as winners and impact conversions positively. Hence, combining the power of VWO Insights and VWO Testing empowers you to turn user insights into data-focused testing strategies.

The Australia-based IMB bank has been using our experimentation platform since 2017 to optimize its website. Funnel analysis using VWO Insights showed that users dropped off from the first page of the loan application form. For the first campaign, the team introduced a number of elements like awards, USPs, and total time to complete the steps in the hope of arresting drop-offs from the page. 

For the second one, an exit pop-up was added that asked visitors to save the application form and continue according to their convenience. The two campaigns saw an increase of 52% in form completion and 85% in completed saved form respectively. To know more, read the case study. 

Make the most of user segmentation 

Running tests that are targeted to specific user segments gives you more impactful results. Loyalty programs work great during economic tough times. They helped several businesses entice returning customers during the recessions of the 1990s, 2008, and COVID-19 times. Taking inspiration from this, you can segment returning customers and run a personalized campaign where you show a loyalty program sign-up option in a website pop-up. 

Since you’re targeting this campaign to returning customers, the chances are high that your variation will outperform the control. On the other hand, had you run this test without segmentation, everyone, including new visitors, would have become a part of this campaign. Because new visitors are less likely to sign up for a loyalty program as they haven’t tried your products/services yet, including them would have skewed the result of this campaign.

Now let’s say you sell luxury cosmetics online. To attract new customers, you can offer 15% off on the first purchase and build a test based on it. Along the same lines, you can create tests by segmenting users based on shared geographies, age, gender, and so on. But that said, remember, over-segmentation can reduce the sample size you need to divert to your variations and prevent you from arriving at a statistically significant result. So, create segments based on the traffic your website gets and the number of variants you’re testing in an experiment. 

Here’s a case study proving how businesses can pull off a test using custom segmentation – OneClick is a US-based eyewear retailer that has been using VWO Testing and Insights for conversion optimization on their website. 

One of their experiments using VWO aimed to increase conversions by personalizing the checkout page for One Click’s customers based on their country. The hypothesis was that, as a global brand, tailoring the experience to each user’s location would make it more engaging and relevant. 

The personalization was achieved using VWO’s custom segmentation, which dynamically altered the content on the checkout page to include localized information such as shipping rates, delivery time, and currency. This was done in order to enhance the customer’s shopping experience. For example, customers visiting the website from Canada would see relevant information such as Canadian shipping rates, estimated delivery time, and Canadian currency on the checkout page. 

The variation outperformed the control and increased the conversion rate by 30%. You can read here how VWO helped One Click conduct other winning tests. 

Recession-proof your business with experimentation

Experimentation allows businesses to make data-driven decisions, rather than relying on intuition and assumptions. This is especially important during a recession when resources are limited and every dollar counts. 

And to come through all of these challenges with flying colors, arm yourself with VWO. From user behavioral analytics and testing to personalization and customer data platform – VWO will help you navigate the woes of recession with its multifarious capabilities. 

To use all of its capabilities to your advantage, sign up for a free trial now. Don’t let the recession hold you back, start experimenting with VWO and see the difference it can make for your business.

Customer engagement metrics and analytics play a pivotal role in measuring and optimizing the effectiveness of marketing strategies. A range of consumer engagement metrics, such as customer engagement success metrics and brand engagement metrics, help businesses gauge the level of interaction and interest their customers have with their brand across various touchpoints. 

To leverage these insights effectively, companies rely on customer engagement analytics to analyze vast amounts of data. Understanding customer engagement analytics and how to analyze engagement data allows businesses to uncover patterns, preferences, and pain points within the customer journey. Armed with such knowledge, marketers can fine-tune their campaigns to create personalized experiences that resonate with customers, resulting in higher brand loyalty, increased retention rates, and improved overall business performance.

In this article, we will explore the significance of customer engagement, delve into the key metrics used to measure it and understand how analytics can unveil valuable insights to drive growth and improve customer engagement.

Understanding customer engagement

Customer engagement refers to a customer’s emotional connection with a brand, product, or service. It goes beyond just purchases and involves interactions across various touchpoints of online business, such as social media, email, website, and customer support. Engaged customers tend to be more often loyal customers, spend more, and are more likely to recommend the brand to others. It is, therefore, essential for businesses to quantify and measure customer engagement effectively with the right KPIs.

The power of customer engagement metrics

Client engagement metrics are quantifiable data points that indicate the level of involvement and interactions between customers and a brand. These metrics provide a comprehensive view of how customers interact with a brand and help in evaluating the success of customer engagement analysis strategies. Let’s delve into some of the key consumer engagement metrics with examples.

Customer retention rate

This metric calculates the percentage of customers who continue to do business with a company over a specific period. A high retention rate implies that existing customers still find value in the brand, products, or services, and are likely to remain loyal.

Let’s consider a fictional online streaming platform that offers video-on-demand services through monthly subscriptions. To calculate the customer retention rate and to measure customer loyalty and engagement, we’ll look at a specific time period (e.g., one year) and compare the number of customers at the beginning and end of that period.

Example data:

• At the beginning of the year (January 1st), the company had 10,000 subscribers.
• During the year, it acquired 5,000 new subscribers.
• At the end of the year (December 31st), it had 12,000 subscribers.

Calculating customer retention rate:

Step 1: Find the total number of customers at the beginning of the year. Initial customers (January 1st) = 10,000

Step 2: Find the number of customers at the end of the year. Final customers (December 31st) = 12,000

Step 3: Calculate the number of customers gained during the year. Customers gained = Final Customers – Initial Customers Customers Gained = 12,000 – 10,000 = 2,000

Step 4: Calculate the customer retention rate. Customer retention rate = (Customers gained / Initial customers) * 100 

Customer retention rate = (2,000 / 10,000) * 100 = 20%

Interpreting customer retention rate

In this example, the streaming platform’s customer retention rate is 20%. This means that, over the course of the year, the company was able to retain 20% of its initial customers, while 80% of its original customers did not continue their subscriptions.

Significance of customer retention rate in measuring customer loyalty and engagement

The retention rate is a customer engagement tracker for measuring customer experience, satisfaction, and loyalty because it indicates how well a company can retain its existing customer base over time. A higher retention rate signifies a more engaged and satisfied customer base, while a lower rate may indicate issues with customer experience or dissatisfaction.

Actionable insights from customer retention rate

A high customer retention rate (e.g., 70% or above) suggests that the platform is doing an excellent job of engaging its customers, providing compelling content, and offering a seamless user experience. In contrast, a low retention rate (e.g., below 50%) may raise concerns about the quality of service, user engagement, or content, leading to customers seeking alternatives elsewhere.

Customer churn rate

The churn rate is the opposite of retention rate. It measures the percentage of customers who stop engaging with the brand or cancel their subscriptions over a given period. A high churn rate signifies a lack of engagement from the monthly active users.

Let’s consider a software-as-a-service (SaaS) company that offers a subscription-based project management tool. At the beginning of the month, the company had 1,000 active subscribers. By the end of the month, 100 of these subscribers canceled their subscriptions or stopped using the service.

In this example, the churn rate for the project management tool is 10% for the month. This means that 10% of the customers who were either daily active users at the beginning of the month discontinued their subscriptions or stopped engaging with the service.

A high churn rate can be a red flag for the business as it suggests that customers are not finding enough value in the product or service, leading them to leave. To address this issue, the company needs to focus on improving brand engagement, providing better customer support, and enhancing the product to retain existing customers and attract new ones. Lowering the churn rate is vital for sustained business growth and profitability.

Customer lifetime value (CLV)

CLV is the projected revenue a customer is expected to generate over their lifetime as a customer. It takes into account factors such as average purchase value, purchase frequency, and customer retention. A high CLV indicates a strong customer engagement strategy and profitability.

Let’s illustrate this concept with an example:

Imagine a subscription-based meal kit delivery service. For simplicity, let’s assume the average customer pays $100 per month for their subscription, and the average customer remains subscribed for 12 months.

CLV = Average Purchase Value x Purchase Frequency x Customer Lifespan

CLV = $100 (average purchase value) x 12 (purchase frequency) x 1 (customer lifespan)

CLV = $1,200

In this example, the CLV of a customer for this meal kit delivery service is $1,200. This means that, on average, each customer is expected to generate $1,200 in revenue over the course of their subscription.

A high CLV suggests that the company has a strong customer engagement strategy and is doing well in terms of customer retention. This indicates that customers are satisfied with the service, making repeat purchases, and staying loyal over an extended period. It also implies that the company is likely to be profitable since the revenue generated from each customer exceeds the cost of acquiring and serving them.

Businesses can use CLV as a crucial metric to guide their marketing efforts and increase customer loyalty through relationship management. By focusing on increasing CLV through better engagement, customer satisfaction, and retention strategies, companies can enhance their long-term profitability and build a loyal customer base.

Net Promoter Score (NPS)

Net Promoter Score is a popular metric that measures customer feedback, brand loyalty, and advocacy. It involves asking customers how likely they are to recommend the brand to others on a scale of 0 to 10. Customers are categorized as promoters, passives, or detractors based on their responses. A higher NPS indicates better customer engagement and satisfaction.

Let’s consider an example of a software company that provides project management tools. They conducted an NPS survey and received responses from 500 customers.

• Number of Promoters (score 9-10): 300
• Number of Passives (score 7-8): 100
• Number of Detractors (score 0-6): 100

To calculate the Net Promoter Score, use the following formula:

NPS = (% Promoters – % Detractors)

In this example: NPS = (300/500*100) – (100/500*100) = 60 – 20 = 40

The higher the NPS, the more engaged and satisfied customers are, which bodes well for the company’s growth and excellent customer service success too.

Once the Net Promoter Score is calculated, the next crucial step is to analyze the results and take appropriate actions. Here’s how the software company can interpret and act on the NPS results:

• Identify areas of improvement: The company should pay attention to the feedback provided by detractors and passives to identify pain points and areas that need improvement. This feedback can help the company address issues, enhance the customer experience, and boost engagement.
• Nurture promoters: Promoters are the company’s most valuable assets. The company should engage with them, leverage their positive sentiments, and encourage them to spread positive word-of-mouth. Building a community of brand advocates can significantly impact customer acquisition and retention.
• Follow-up surveys: Following up with customers who provided low NPS scores can help the company understand their concerns better. A well-handled follow-up can turn a detractor into a promoter, showcasing the company’s commitment to customer satisfaction.
• Benchmarking and tracking: The company should regularly track NPS over time to monitor changes in customer sentiment. This allows it to assess the effectiveness of improvement initiatives and measure the impact of engagement strategies.
• Aligning NPS with business goals: Integrating NPS into the company’s overall business goals ensures that customer engagement is given due importance in decision-making and resource allocation.

Customer satisfaction score (CSAT)

CSAT gauges the satisfaction level of customers engaged with a specific product, service, or interaction. It typically involves a post-purchase survey where customers rate their experience on a scale. High CSAT scores imply positive engagement experiences.

Time spent on platform

This metric measures the average session duration of time customers spend on a website, app, or other platforms. Usually, it is assumed that the longer the time spent, the more engaged and interested the customers are in the brand’s offerings.

Let’s consider an online news website. By analyzing user behavior, the website tracks the time users spend on the site during their visits. If the average session duration is found to be 5 minutes, it suggests that, on average, visitors spend 5 minutes browsing through articles and content on the website during each visit.

A longer average session duration in this case indicates that users are actively engaging with the news articles, reading in-depth content, and potentially exploring multiple pages on the site. This suggests a higher level of interest and engagement with the website’s news content.

On the other hand, a lower average session duration may indicate that visitors are not finding the content compelling enough to stay on the site for an extended period. This could be a sign that the website needs to improve its content quality, user experience, or navigation to keep visitors engaged for longer durations.

By monitoring and analyzing the average session duration of active users, businesses can gain insights into how engaging their website or app is for users. They can then use this information to optimize the user experience, improve content relevance, and enhance engagement, ultimately leading to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Click-through rate (CTR)

CTR measures the percentage of customers who click on a specific link or call-to-action in an email, advertisement, or website. A higher CTR indicates higher engagement with the content.

Let’s say a company runs an email marketing campaign to promote a new product. It sends the email to 1,000 subscribers, and within that email, there is a link to the product page. After analyzing the campaign, it finds that 100 subscribers clicked on the link.

CTR = (Number of Clicks / Number of Impressions) x 100 CTR = (100 / 1,000) x 100 = 10%

In this example, the CTR for the email campaign is 10%. This means that 10% of the recipients who received the email clicked on the link to visit the product page.

A higher CTR is generally considered a positive sign, as it indicates that the content or offer resonates well with the audience and encourages engagement. A lower CTR, on the other hand, may suggest that the content needs improvement or that the target audience is not finding the content relevant or compelling.

By tracking customer engagement via CTR, businesses can assess the effectiveness of their marketing efforts and make data-driven decisions to optimize their campaigns for a better conversion rate.

ArchiveSocial is a SaaS-based social media archiving solution, headquartered in the USA. The company more than doubled its CTR and streamlined user experience on its website using VWO’s testing capabilities. You can read more about this here. 

Social media engagement

This metric measures the level of interaction (likes, shares, comments) that a brand’s social media posts receive. It reflects how well the content resonates with the target audience.

Let’s consider a fashion brand that posts a picture of a newly launched dress on Instagram. After 24 hours, the post receives 500 likes, 200 shares, and 50 comments. In this case, the engagement rate can be calculated by adding up all the interactions (likes, shares, comments) and dividing that by the number of followers.

Total Interactions = 500 (likes) + 200 (shares) + 50 (comments) = 750

Assuming the brand has 10,000 followers on Instagram:

Engagement Rate = (Total Interactions / Number of Followers) x 100 Engagement Rate = (750 / 10,000) x 100 ≈ 7.5%

In this example, the engagement rate for the fashion brand’s post is approximately 7.5%. This metric provides insights into how well the dress resonates with the brand’s audience. Higher engagement rates indicate that the content is compelling and captures the audience’s interest, potentially leading to increased brand awareness and customer loyalty.

Customer engagement analytics: Measure customer engagement with the power of data

While customer engagement metrics provide valuable insights into customer interactions, customer engagement analytics takes this further by leveraging data to uncover trends, patterns, and predictive insights into customer health. Here’s how customer engagement analytics can enhance the understanding of customer engagement:

Identifying customer segments

Analytics can help businesses identify different customer segments based on their engagement behavior. This customer segmentation also allows companies to tailor their marketing efforts to meet the specific needs and preferences of each group.

For example, let’s consider an eCommerce company that sells various products online. Through analytics, it discovers that it has two main customer segments: tech-savvy millennials who prefer trendy gadgets and accessories, and budget-conscious families who primarily shop for home essentials and discounted items.

With this customer segmentation insight, the company can now tailor their marketing efforts accordingly. It might create personalized email campaigns for tech-savvy millennials featuring the latest gadgets and promotional offers. Simultaneously, it can run social media advertisements and discounts targeting the family segment for home essentials.

By customizing marketing strategies for each customer segment, the company can effectively reach the right audience with the most relevant messaging, increasing the chances of higher customer engagement scores, conversion rates, and overall, customer satisfaction scores.

Personalization

By analyzing customer data, businesses can gain insights into individual preferences, purchase and feature usage history user behavior, and interactions. Armed with this information, companies can offer personalized recommendations and experiences that enhance engagement.

Say an online streaming platform collects customer data, including the genres of movies and TV shows users watch, their viewing history, and favorite actors. By analyzing this data, the platform identifies that a particular user enjoys action and comedy genres, frequently watches movies on weekends, and follows a specific actor.

Armed with these insights, the streaming platform can offer personalized recommendations to this user. For instance, the platform may suggest newly released action-comedy movies starring the user’s favorite actor, or curate a playlist of weekend binge-worthy content in these genres. As a result, the user is more likely to find content that aligns with their interests, enhancing their overall engagement with the platform.

By leveraging customer data to deliver tailored experiences, businesses can build stronger connections with their customers, increase customer satisfaction scores, and foster loyalty. Personalization can lead to higher retention rates, increased conversion rates, and ultimately, improved business performance.

Predictive analytics

Customer engagement analytics can predict future customer behavior based on historical data. For instance, it can help identify customers who are at risk of churning or those likely to become high-value customers, enabling proactive measures.

Let’s continue our previous example of the streaming platform. By analyzing customer engagement data, the company identifies a group of customers who have shown a decline in their usage patterns, have stopped engaging with new content, and have not renewed their subscriptions in the past. Based on this data, the analytics model predicts that these customers are at risk of churning.

With this insight, the streaming service can take proactive measures to retain these customers. It might send targeted email offers with personalized recommendations, inviting them to explore new content that aligns with their previous interests. It could also offer active users a special discount or extend their subscription for a limited time to entice them back.

Similarly, customer engagement analytics can also identify customers who exhibit vital engagement behaviors, such as high usage frequency, active participation in loyalty programs, and positive feedback. The analytics model predicts that these customers are likely to become high-value customers who are more likely to upgrade their subscriptions, make repeat purchases, or refer others.

Recognizing the potential of these customers, the streaming service may choose to offer them exclusive rewards, early access to new content, or premium features to further enhance their loyalty and encourage them to continue their engagement.

In both cases, customer engagement analytics provides valuable insights that enable the business to take targeted and proactive actions to reduce churn and maximize the value of customer loyalty, ultimately leading to improved customer retention and increased revenue.

Optimize marketing efforts

Analyzing online engagement metrics can reveal the effectiveness of marketing campaigns, allowing businesses to optimize their marketing strategies, for better engagement and higher returns on investment.

For example, let’s consider an eCommerce company running a digital marketing campaign to promote a new product line. By analyzing user engagement metrics such as click-through rates (CTR), conversion rates, and time spent on the campaign landing pages, it can gauge how well the campaign resonates with the target audience.

If the CTR is low and users are not spending much time on the landing pages, it indicates that the marketing message might not be compelling enough or that the targeting is off. In response, the company can make adjustments to the campaign, such as refining the ad copy or targeting a different audience segment. They can A/B test these changes to validate their effectiveness.

On the other hand, if the conversion rates are high, indicating that many users who clicked on the ad actually made a purchase, the company can deduce that the campaign is effective in driving sales. In this case, they might consider increasing the budget for the campaign or extending its duration to capitalize on its success.

Furthermore, user engagement metrics can help identify which marketing channels or platforms are performing well and which ones need improvement. For instance, if the company finds that its social media ads are driving significant engagement and sales compared to its email marketing efforts, it might allocate more resources to social media advertising.

By continuously analyzing user engagement metrics and making data-driven decisions, the eCommerce company can fine-tune its marketing strategies over time, leading to better engagement rates, increased customer acquisition, gaining more loyal customers, and ultimately, a higher ROI on their marketing investments.

Measure customer journey

Analytics can provide a comprehensive view of the customer journey, from initial awareness to post-purchase support. Understanding this journey helps identify pain points and opportunities for improvement.

Let’s consider an online electronics retailer. By utilizing analytics, the retailer tracks customer interactions at various stages of the journey. It monitors website visits, product views, cart additions, and completed purchases. Additionally, it analyzes customer service interactions after the purchase, such as inquiries and support requests.

Through analytics, the retailer discovers that many customers abandon their shopping carts just before making a purchase due to unexpected shipping costs. This is a pain point in the customer journey as it hinders conversions.

Armed with this insight, the retailer decides to offer free shipping on orders above a certain value. As a result, cart abandonment rates decrease, and more customers complete their purchases.

Furthermore, the analytics reveal that customers who engage with the retailer’s post-purchase support team are more likely to become repeat customers. Recognizing this opportunity, the retailer invests in enhancing its customer support services, leading to improved customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Contorion improved the product detailed pages on its website based on insights from VWO’s session recordings. It ran A/B tests which led to an increase in the add-to-cart click rate. You can read the full story here.

Customer engagement is a vital aspect of any successful business, and understanding its impact is crucial for growth and sustainability. By leveraging customer engagement metrics and customer engagement analytics, businesses can track customer engagement and gain valuable insights into customer behavior, preferences, and sentiments. 

Armed with this data, companies can make informed decisions, optimize marketing efforts, create personalized marketing messages, and deliver personalized experiences, ultimately fostering stronger relationships with customers and driving long-term success. Remember, the key to thriving in a competitive market lies in listening to your customers; you can get the most valuable customer engagement indicators from these conversations to improve customer experiences.

FAQs

What is a value center?

A value center is a crucial component of a business. It is a function, a team, or a department that plays a vital role in boosting the company’s profit. A value center brings tangible benefits to the organization by optimizing costs, generating revenue, or even doing both at the same time. Moreover, a value center identifies new revenue-generating prospects by exploring new markets, and innovating products and services. 

Is CRO a value center?

A cost center refers to a department or unit that does not directly contribute to the company’s profit. In some cases, Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) is perceived as a cost center since its outcomes may not always yield tangible results in a short period and give occasional failures.

While CRO initiatives can encounter challenges, it is crucial to recognize the long-term value they bring to the organization. CRO can be turned into a value center by leveraging continuous experimenting and optimization of strategies to improve conversion rates and enhance overall organizational performance. Even failures in CRO experiments can serve as a valuable foundation for future success, as they provide invaluable insights and learnings that contribute to creating an experimentation loop.

Moreover, CRO acts as an enabler of efficiency within the business. By testing and refining different elements of a customer’s journey, CRO helps identify and eliminate bottlenecks, streamline processes, and enhance the overall user experience. This, in turn, accelerates growth by maximizing the conversion of visitors into customers and maximizing the value derived from each interaction.

How to make CRO a value center

Let’s understand how to make conversion rate optimization (CRO) a profitable investment (value center) with some real-life examples. 

a. Create a CRO cycle to increase revenue

Revenue is the fruit of an optimized visitor journey that starts via landing pages on different devices. Many organizations need to avoid expecting results with few tests. CRO is not a magic wand that will uplift revenue in a single campaign or a few days. It requires constant efforts to optimize each stage of the visitor journey, from the landing page to the checkout page. 

For instance, GRENE, an agriculture wholesaler, utilized VWO to optimize the conversion funnel. The company ran a series of experiments for the 2018-19 financial year. The experiments included the A/B testing homepage, checkout page, product section, etc. This whole optimization exercise resulted in a whopping 59.9% increase in revenue. Such a staggering growth in revenue makes CRO the value center of GRENE. 

CRO can become a value center when you create a strong hypothesis and identify revenue-affecting elements at each conversion funnel stage. Then, with a constant CRO cycle of testing-learning-optimizing, you craft an optimized conversion funnel that increases revenue. CRO reaps rewards with consistency and not with one-time initiatives. 

b. Turn failures into information goldmines

Many companies give up on CRO because of failing to achieve desired goals. However, a failure in CRO is a goldmine of information that can be a foundation for future optimization. Here is one great example of the same.

Uncommon Knowledge, an online education portal, tested its lead generation page to see an uplift in leads. The team at the company created a variation of the lead generation page with new design trends, while the original version had a traditional magazine layout.

At the end of the test, the team found that the old page beat the new one by a 19.55% conversion rate. The optimization efforts were unsuccessful, but the insight from it was a goldmine for the team. It came to their notice that the majority of their target audience is aged 45+. 

The new design trend was not relevant to the target group, and the failed test validated that relevance is the key to conversion, not the trend. Thus, even a failed experiment can become a foundation for the next optimization effort. So, CRO is a value center, even if you face failures.

c. Run experiments to retain customers

You can increase your website value by constantly acquiring new visitors or retaining returning visitors. But, it’s always easy and more affordable to retain a returning visitor than a new one. That’s why every business is in a race to increase the visitor’s lifetime value, which is the monetary benefit that a single visitor delivers to a company. CRO is a value center because it increases the visitor’s lifetime value.  

One example of this is Tele2, a leading Dutch mobile subscription service. They were facing a decreasing subscription rate and wanted to make necessary amendments to uplift it. The team at Tele2 did a detailed analysis and found that adding a filter of mobile brands in the product section can create convenience in the visitor flow. Thus, they ran an A/B with the original page without the filter and variations with it. Here is how it looked:

The test ran for 28 days and registered a 27% increase in subscriptions from existing customers. For Tele2, CRO campaigns ensured a positive cash flow from the existing customers. What is more important is that they didn’t stop after one campaign and kept analyzing behavior and experimentation to engage their customers.

In addition, you can run CRO campaigns such as personalized experiences based on past behavior and experiment with cross-selling and upselling tactics to better customer retention rates. Improved retention rates, in turn, result in increased revenue while keeping customer acquisition costs low since fewer resources are needed to onboard new visitors to maintain revenue.

d. Aggregate customer data for hyper-personalized experiences

CRO is now moving towards unifying data from various sources and profiling customers based on it through customer data platforms (CDP). The customer profile can be segmented and targeted for a hyper-personalized experience.

One real-life case study is of Yves Rocher, a global cosmetic brand. Yves Rocher wanted to personalized product recommendations section. The team utilized a CDP to recommend personalized products to new and existing customers. The existing customer got recommendations based on past behavior data, and for new customers, the recommendation algorithm worked on the recent activity. 

The optimization efforts led to a 17.5x increase in clicks on the recommendation section and an 11x increase in the purchase rate. Thus, CRO efforts get a boost from technological advancement like CDP and become a value center for an organization. So you must leverage this advancement in your favor and move towards creating hyper-personalized experiences to drive more revenue. 

Conversion rate optimization with VWO

Over a decade, 2500+ customers have found their value center with VWO.

VWO allows you to understand visitor behavior, experiment with user experience for multiple devices, personalize experiences, and aggregate visitor data for segmentation and targeting. As per G2 Summer 2022 reports, VWO has been named a leader across five categories winning 20 badges.

Once you partner with VWO, you don’t have to go anywhere else for your optimization needs. Here is what one of our clients says:

VWO has been the most comprehensive testing tool I’ve used, and they have the support and services to back it up.

Product manager, Micro Focus

So, multiply your gains with VWO. Get a comprehensive VWO free trial of its complete range of features. VWO also offers a free starter pack for web testing that supports 50,000 monthly traffic. Visit VWO’s plans and pricing to find more information.

Conclusion

CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization) is a value center because it benefits an organization in terms of revenue and directly affects its growth and cash flow. 

CRO increases revenue by optimizing each stage of the visitor journey, from the landing page to the checkout page. It also turns failures into information that can be used to improve future optimization efforts. With constant CRO efforts, an organization can increase its revenue, keep customer acquisition costs low, and create a positive cash flow from its existing customers. 

Therefore, CRO should be considered an essential investment, and organizations should engage in constant CRO efforts to reap long-term benefits.

A good search function can make or break a customer’s shopping experience. If it’s fast, accurate, and intuitive, it can turn a browsing session into a purchase. On the other hand, a slow and clunky search experience can drive customers away in frustration.

For this reason, A/B testing your website search is super important. The more you test, the faster you understand what your customers want and the more conversions you can drive.

But where do you start and what do you test? Making the search bar more noticeable is just the beginning of improving your website’s search function. You’ll still have to do a lot of other things but don’t worry, we can help. So, in the second blog of the series ‘A/B testing ideas for eCommerce,’ we share the top testing ideas to enhance your site’s search experience. Let’s begin!

1. Image search results

Just imagine you have to enter the whole search query every time and you’re not even sure if it is right because there’s no correction prompt. That would be frustrating for sure! Autocorrect makes sure that typos and misspellings don’t impede the process of finding the products you want. Autocomplete helps you find what you’re looking for even faster by suggesting search terms and phrases as you type. These two search features have proven to be so effective that they’re now accepted as the standard in UX design. 

Safety Gear Pro has been collaborating with VWO for quite some time now and has run a number of tests, one of which was improving the search box design on the former’s website. The variation where the size of the search bar was increased emerged as a winner, but the team didn’t stop there and ran an iteration. 

Unlike the control that only displayed suggestions once the visitor began typing, the variation showed top searches and categories as soon as the visitor tapped on the search bar. The suggestions were based on keywords frequently used by users on the website through the site search, as well as the categories with the highest traffic and page value. The variation increased the number of transactions, resulting in a 20.40% increase in Thank You page visits.

Test idea 1 – Replace text-based suggestions with image search results 

Users who search on websites are 2-3 times more likely to convert. It’s really smart to capitalize on this user behavior. How? Here’s a simple solution to try: replace text-based search suggestions with image-based results. Let’s say a visitor has searched for an ‘iPhone cover’ in the search box. Instead of showing text suggestions, show different product images (iPhone covers) so users can get a quick idea of the product they want to purchase and click through to the page from the search result itself. 

While you can test the UI elements of your search bar using VWO Testing, experimenting with search engine algorithms falls under the purview of our power-packed VWO FullStack. With some help from your developers, you can have these interesting ideas implemented and tested on your website. Roll out the version that improves user engagement on your website. This will give you an edge over competitors and tempt your visitors to come back for a seamless experience.

2. Filter options 

Visitors who search on your website are in a purchasing mindset and eventually end up converting. But just because they know what they want to buy doesn’t mean they don’t need a bit of hand-holding. They are meticulous about what they want and want to reduce the clutter of items they are not looking for. 

For example, I was looking for wedges on a shoe-selling website some days back. The search results were overwhelming, with so many options! I was trying to find something casual, not fancy party shoes. Did I go back to the search box to try again? Nah, the search results page had a filter on the side that let me narrow down my choices based on what I was looking for, like casual wear, color, and foot shape.

Test idea 2 – Side or horizontal filtering bar

Usually, the product filtering bar is seen on the left side of the website. But if you see many visitors dropping off after interacting with filtering options, you can create a variation with a horizontal filter bar featuring major product categories and see if it helps arrest the problem. This will bring every category within the sight of visitors without them having to scroll down and look for filtering options.

Test idea 3 – Add more filter options 

A mere 16% of eCommerce sites have effective product filtering. You too can belong to that 16% by boosting your filter options and gauging its impact on user engagement. If visitors are grumbling about too many “out of stock” items in search results, consider adding an availability filter where they can easily exclude those items and only see what’s available now.

To implement any sort of client-side tests including this one, VWO Visual Editor is the best thing that there can be to help you through this. Whether you want to rearrange, move, replace, or copy-paste any element, all of that can be easily done using this editor. Plus, you can use the code editor if you have to make any changes to the HTML code of your website. 

Here’s how Eastpak, one of the leading backpacking companies in the world utilized VWO to improve product filtering. First, by using VWO Heatmaps, they noticed that only a few mobile customers interacted with the filter bar on their product category page. So, they ran a test where they redesigned the mobile filter bar with clear and consistent labeling and made it stay at the top of the screen which would lead to enhanced filter usage and conversions.

And as expected, the interaction with filters improved by 106% compared to the Control. There was a 7% increase in the click-through rate because customers were now able to find relevant products more easily. Want to replicate these wins on your website? Sign up for a free trial with VWO and get a reliable tool by your side on your experimentation adventure. 

3. Sorting

Don’t assume that optimizing product filtering means you’re all set – optimizing sort options is crucial too. Both serve different purposes and optimizing one doesn’t excuse neglecting the other. 

By arranging products based on important factors like price, popularity, or customer ratings, shoppers can compare and simplify their choices by saving time and enhancing their shopping experience.

Additionally, well-designed sorting features can also help eCommerce websites improve their search engine optimization, as they can use sorting options to create a more organized and user-friendly website structure.

Test idea 4 – Display more sorting options 

Going with the same old sorting options of price low to high, price high to low, and A to Z is a common sight in most eCommerce stores.  If you find that visitors are using the sorting options but not getting the best out of them, try experimenting with adding more relevant options, like sorting by highest ratings, review count, and in-stock items. 

When you’re using VWO Visual Editor, you can not only make changes to the element but also add a goal which can be “click on element’ in this case. Consider making it available to all visitors if heatmaps and other qualitative analysis tools show that users are using the sorting options more. Catch a glimpse of these features in action by signing up for VWO free trial. 

4. Product information

How product information is displayed on the search results page will decide if users click through and visit product pages as the next step. First thing first, product images should be high-quality because this is what visitors rely on entirely since they can’t touch and feel the product they want to buy. Next comes important product information that can sway audiences to make a purchase. 

Test idea 5 – Enable quick view of product images 

Run a test where you create a variation that allows visitors to click ‘Quick view’ and see the product picture in full-screen length. Clicking outside the picture can bring it back to the default size. Have this variation compete against the control and see which one helps improve user engagement.

Here’s another inspiration for you. So, Optimics, a conversion rate optimization agency, used VWO to run tests for one of its retail clients called Mall.cz. In one of the tests, the agency wanted to see if showing larger product images would have a favorable impact on revenue. Two variations were created: the first showed larger product images with a text description, while the second had larger images with a description viewable upon mouse-over.  The second variation was a winner with an increase in revenue by 9.46%. 

Test idea 6 – Show ratings and review 

One piece of information that can totally make visitors flock to your product is a rating or review. Instead of just keeping them on the product page, display them on the search result page as well. This will catch visitors’ eyeballs when looking for a product they wish to buy. Plus, you can show not only the ratings of the product but also the number of reviews those ratings are based on. A rating of 5 stars and just 3 reviews is not as reliable as a rating of 4.5 with over 60 reviews. Run an experiment to determine if this change leads to increased user interaction and directs more visits to product pages.

5. More product recommendations 

Having organic search results appear in response to visitors’ search queries is considered sufficient to meet their needs. But why not provide them with even more options? So, here’s what you can do –

Test idea 7 – Display a section highlighting top choices or expert recommendations 

Create a variation that showcases a carousel, banner, or recommendation tile featuring top choices or expert-recommended products related to a visitor’s search. Compare this to the control and observe its performance. If it helps increase transactions for your brand, implement the change right away. Look at how Target showed me a tile of recommended products along with hundreds of products in organic search results as I searched for kitchen rugs. 

6. Pagination/scrolling/load more button

Pagination works great for users who want to have control over the number of items they see on each page and then jump to specific pages. This is especially beneficial for websites having a large product inventory, as it helps reduce loading time and simplifies navigation. 

On the other hand, infinite scrolling offers a seamless browsing experience by automatically loading more items when visitors scroll down the page. This is a good option for websites with a smaller number of products and for those that want visitors to browse more items. An amazing cross between the two results is restricted scrolling with a “load more” button. It allows users to see a limited number of items at first and then choose to see more items if they want by clicking on “load more”. It provides visitors with control over the amount of content they see while still allowing for an easy browsing experience.

Test idea 8 – Pagination/infinite scrolling vs restricted scrolling with load more option

Based on the visitor behavior on your website, you can create a new variation of restricted scrolling with a load more button and run it against your control, be it pagination or infinite scrolling. Next, you can see which one is keeping visitors for a longer period on your website. 

7. Breadcrumb navigation 

Breadcrumb navigation gives a proper understanding of where users are on your website and how they got there. It also makes it easy for users to return to a previous page without using the back button or go to the homepage.

Further, breadcrumb navigation can improve a website’s SEO by ensuring a proper organization of the website architecture. This helps search engines crawl and index pages and rank them more effectively – all of which leads to increased online visibility. 

Test idea 9 – Incorporate breadcrumb navigation 

As a business grows and expands its product offerings, it’s important to keep the website user experience up to pace. One way to do this is by incorporating breadcrumb navigation. This navigation is crucial for larger websites with many pages, but may not be necessary for smaller sites with fewer pages. Based on all these factors, you can run a test with a variation showing breadcrumb navigation. If it’s helping improve user engagement, click-throughs, or cart value, you can roll this out to all visitors. 

Let’s clarify something for you. Some may question the best placement for breadcrumb navigation. Unlike most eCommerce sites, Apple’s website has placed this navigation towards the bottom of the page. Therefore, decide its placement based on how visitors behave on your website and what they expect from it. 

Breadcrumb navigation is at the top for Lenovo, while it is at the bottom on Apple’s website.

8. Call-to-action buttons 

CTA buttons nudge customers in the right direction to make a purchase. Don’t underestimate the importance of CTA buttons by assuming that customers already know to click a product image to access the product page. Panduro, a Swedish jewelry store, found this to be true after conducting a CTA test.

In collaboration with VWO experts, they found that in the control the call to action (CTA) button was labeled “KÖP” (Buy), which confused users as to whether it would take them to the product page or add the product to their cart. It was, therefore, hypothesized that renaming the CTA copy to “Snabbköp” (Quick Buy) in variation 1 and “Lägg i varukorgen” (Add to Cart) in variation 2 would provide a clearer indication of the intended action when clicked. Adding a secondary “View Product” button below the main CTA would also serve as a visual cue for users who wish to navigate to the product description page.

And yes indeed, variation 2 saw a 6% improvement in the conversion rate for clicks on the main call to action (CTA) button. This was accompanied by a 10% increase in visits to the revenue page.

Test idea 10 – Show CTA buttons on the category page 

Some eCommerce websites don’t show CTA buttons on search results/product category pages at all, thinking they take up a lot of space and users already know where they have to go from here. If your website belongs to this category, we say that you take the middle road – create a variation where you show CTA buttons only when users hover over the product image on the desktop. If it shows an improvement in click-through for products, go ahead and roll it out for all visitors. But remember, CTA buttons should be all-time visible for mobile visitors on your website because hover doesn’t work on small devices. 

Wondering if you can create variations for both mobile and desktop using VWO Testing? Stay assured that there’s nothing to worry about. The Visual Editor doesn’t just let you create or edit but preview variations on different screens in different resolutions before shipping them. Sounds great? It’s time that you tried the feature out. 

The way forward 

To summarize, A/B testing is crucial for providing your customers with the best search experience and making their shopping journey super easy. The ideas we discussed here will give you a solid foundation to start from. Taking a cue from this, you can further tailor your experimentation program based on your visitor behavior and business needs to achieve search success on your eCommerce store.

VWO can be a valuable ally in your optimization journey. Its extensive capabilities, from testing and analytical tools to a customer data platform and personalization, make it an exceptional optimization platform. Sign up, try it out, and see for yourself why it’s a game-changer. You won’t regret it. Good luck!