Customer Engagement Strategies for Businesses in the New Normal
As the world adjusts to the “new normal,” businesses worldwide are learning to deal with the pandemic’s impact and realigning their strategies to connect with their customers. The mobile app economy has been affected, with a significant impact on session duration, installs, and user activity.
Changes in Consumer Behavior
Although businesses are slowly reopening, consumers remain hesitant to step out and are uncertain. Industries such as travel & hospitality, mobility, and real estate were not so fortunate. At the same time, last-mile delivery, online grocery, video conferencing, and OTT platforms experienced unprecedented growth.
For instance, the lockdowns instated across various regions led to a significant increase in laptop consumption, with more people working from home/learning. Asus, a global brand in Laptops, noticed a 35% increase in laptop consumption during Q1 of 2020 compared to the same time last year. The brand launched MyASUS app, an exclusive app portal for ASUS laptop users, where they can get 1-on-1 support, update software, optimize PC performance, troubleshoot common problems, instead of visiting an offline store or service center.
Focus Areas for Affected Industries
For industries that have observed business growth during the crisis, it is vital to sustain the newfound growth. The focus should be on engaging the users and maintaining the engagement rates even when normalcy returns. Industries that have noticed a sharp decline in numbers need to focus on retaining the existing users and try to bounce-back.
For such industries, the focus should be both on engaging users and retaining them to accelerate the pace of their sluggish growth. To help businesses figure out what strategies to follow to bounce-back, sustain, or accelerate growth, MoEngage, in association with ASO platform AppFollow, has launched a customer engagement playbook. It includes a Path Assessment Checklist that helps business owners know their current path and what to adopt accordingly to bounce back.
Customer Engagement Framework
A customer engagement framework will build the foundation for a brand’s growth trajectory. Here are some of the key focus areas for the affected industries:
- Growth Sustaining (for verticals observing unprecedented growth during crisis, viz. Entertainment)
- Bounce-back (for verticals observing unexpected growth viz. Travel & Hospitality)
- Growth Accelerating (for verticals with neither surge in growth nor heavy decline viz. BFSI)
The playbook covers insights from marketing leaders across top brands spanning several verticals, including subscription-based language learning apps and India’s leading fitness & workout app CureFit.
Final Thoughts
Businesses need to focus on customer engagement and retention strategies while streamlining marketing spends to navigate through this pandemic. With the right approach and strategies in place, businesses can sustain and even accelerate their growth during and after the crisis.
