Five Customer Engagement Ideas from Top Businesses

When it comes to finding new marketing and engagement ideas for your business, what better way to learn than from the pros?

After all, customer engagement isn’t always easy - with so much competition both online and offline, it can be difficult to launch a campaign that strikes a chord.

Still, customer engagement is incredibly important when it comes to customer retention; the more a customer interacts with your brand, the more likely they are to use your services or buy your products.

In this article, we’ve gathered five examples from leading brands on creating a winning customer engagement campaign - so you can find inspiration for your next big project. Let’s take a look!

Spotify, Spotify Wrapped

When it’s nearing the end of the year, your social media feeds are most likely filled with friends and peers sharing their end-of-year “Spotify Wrapped” playlists. For the unaware, Spotify Wrapped is a personalized compilation of music data, which details a Spotify user’s listening habits from the past year.

Users can see everything from their top-played artists to their most frequently played songs; you can even see if you’re in the top 1% of an artist’s listeners, making it a great way for online fanbases to compete playfully with each other.

Not only does Spotify Wrapped create a fun, personalized experience for its users, but the viral nature of the campaign allows Spotify free advertising across all social media during the month of December.

And with competitors such as Apple Music failing to generate the same engagement for their own version (known as ‘Replay’), Spotify further reinforces its monopoly when it comes to online music streaming. First launched in 2016, Spotify Wrapped has now become a beloved end-of-year tradition, right up there with the Christmas pantomime and the advent calendar.

Apple, #ShotOnIphone

Apple is always looking for new ways to create engaging, innovative marketing campaigns, and their #ShotOniPhone campaign first harnessed the power of social media back in 2015.

The campaign invited people from all over the world to share their best photos taken on an iPhone, and the most impressive photos would go on to be featured on Apple’s website, Apple’s billboard advertising, and in other various print and digital media.

Not only did this celebrate the creativity of amateur photographers, but it also engaged Apple's loyal customer base in what is now an 8-year-long campaign.

Nike, Run Club App

Nike’s Run Club app is another example of a successful customer engagement campaign. The app, which launched in 2010, allows users to track their running progress, while competing with other runners in various fitness challenges.

The app also gives users access to personalized training plans, custom-made workouts, real-time stats and in-app rewards - all of which helps to keep people motivated while building Nike's brand engagement.

Like Spotify Wrapped, Nike’s Run Club offers its customers a valuable service - and this is what all the best customer engagement tactics share. Brand loyalty and engagement can often be driven simply by providing something of interest to your users or customers, whether it be fitness tracking or music compilations.

Uber Rewards

Reward programs are commonly used by big businesses to help them retain customers, but Uber's "Uber Rewards" program is the perfect example of how to use a reward scheme to increase customer engagement.

Launched back in 2018, Uber Rewards offers customers cash incentives and points every time they use an Uber service, with incentives driving both brand loyalty and continued engagement. The more someone uses the Uber app - whether it be to order an UberEats delivery or an Uber ride - the more points they accumulate.

Customers are even able to unlock higher levels of rewards by reaching certain point milestones - this motivates users to remain loyal to the Uber brand, even when competitors such as Lyft offer competitive pricing.

McDonalds, McDonald's Monopoly

McDonald’s Monopoly has been an annual promotion for the fast food chain since 2005, and is one of the most successful customer engagement campaigns in McDonalds' history.

Like the real game, McDonalds Monopoly works by allowing customers to collect game pieces, which can then be exchanged for free food items and even cash prizes.

Not only are customers motivated to spend more at McDonalds during Monopoly season (Monopoly-labeled products tend to be the more expensive items on the menu, and usually only come with medium or large meals), but it also engages customers by encouraging return visits.

With big prizes such as holidays or cars up for grabs, the promise of rewards keeps customers engaged over an extended period.

Key takeaways

Overall, the best way to boost engagement with your business is to provide something of value to your customer base. Whether it be reward points, a personalized service, or a free hamburger, customers are more likely to interact with your brand when you incentivise engagement.

While the above ideas are listed purely for inspirational purposes, you too can create an innovative campaign that drives up both customer loyalty and your profits. Don’t be afraid to be creative - that’s where the winning ideas are!