Top Customer Engagement Strategies for 2025

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In a marketplace flooded with choices, failing to hold your audience’s interest means leaving revenue on the table. Customer engagement is all about building genuine, two-way relationships.

A recent study found that the rise of digital engagement had the most significant impact on customer expectations, with 68% of respondents expecting more relevant/tailored engagement in 2024.

Let’s explore the top customer engagement strategies for 2025, offering a roadmap for building meaningful relationships, standing out from competitors, and keeping customers coming back.

We’ll reveal brands’ core methods for forging deeper connections, covering everything from loyalty and retention tactics to personalized interactions that drive conversions. 

By the end, you’ll have an advanced playbook for creating experiences that resonate and foster long-term growth. Let’s get started.

Build an omnichannel marketing strategy that keeps customers coming back.

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How Customer Engagement Fuels Lasting Growth

Focusing on engaging customers effectively can provide numerous benefits that directly impact the bottom line. When customers feel valued and heard, they’re more likely to buy again—and spend more when they do. 

Engaging your customers also helps differentiate your brand, stand out from the competition, and establish a loyal customer base that will continue to support your business over time.

  • Recent studies and surveys reflect the numerous positive results, including:
  • Loyal customers are 64% more likely to purchase more frequently than non-loyal, non-engaged customers. [McKinsey]
  • Research by Bain & Company found that engaged customers spend between 20% and 40% more than other customers.
  • Extensive personalization using the best action increases average revenue per user by 166%. (IBM)
  • During a 2023 survey of the general population of selected countries worldwide, 78% of respondents believed that a lack of relevance is a leading factor in brands’ failure to engage with their consumer base, and 56% listed a lack of authenticity as another downfall.

Staying competitive in 2025 means focusing on these engagement-driven results. Below, you’ll see precisely how top brands are doing it.

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Real-World Customer Engagement Best Practices in Action

Grasping the basics of customer engagement strategies is crucial, and real-world examples can provide invaluable insights. Here are some best practices employed by industry leaders to enhance customer loyalty, retention, and overall engagement.

Criteo’s Take on Customer Centricity

Criteo is a global technology company that serves over 20,000 clients. They provide personalized advertising experiences across various devices and channels.

Criteo offers a great example of how to put customers first. 

  • Focus on real needs: “If you want to increase retention or improve engagement rates, customer centricity is key,” says Lucas Bergstroem, VP of ISV Partnerships at Emarsys. Rather than guessing or using generic approaches, Criteo helps brands build stronger, lasting connections by concentrating on real customer challenges.
  • Overcoming fragmented journeys: Today’s consumers hop across multiple channels before purchasing, so Criteo streamlines the experience using automation and machine learning. This ensures that each touchpoint feels consistent and relevant.
  • Seasonal shoppers: Criteo analyzes seasonal trends, noting shifts in buyer behavior throughout the year. “Be patient and persistent to maximize longer purchase paths,” advises Sophie Sui, Strategic Partner Manager from Criteo. Early, well-timed outreach can capture these shoppers and keep them engaged beyond a single holiday season.

Criteo’s success underscores the importance of advanced technology and personalization. By breaking down data silos and understanding what each customer truly wants, they power long-term loyalty and higher revenue.

Criteo and SAP Emarsys Partnership

By partnering with Criteo and SAP Emarsys, you can connect with the audiences that matter most to your business. With the power of first-party and commerce data at your fingertips, you can discover consumers ready to purchase and reach them with tailored campaigns that don’t depend on third-party cookies.

Criteo’s customer-centric approach lays a strong foundation—let’s also examine a brand that effectively uses data-driven strategies to improve customer connections.

BrandAlley's Predictive Marketing Success

BrandAlley, a leading online fashion retailer, has achieved remarkable success by adopting predictive marketing strategies. Alex Vancea, BrandAlley’s former Head of Marketing, shares insights into their journey from traditional marketing to AI-driven personalization.

  • Transition to predictive marketing: BrandAlley recognized the importance of placing customers at the center of their strategy and shifted from conventional marketing tactics to predictive personalization. 
“We always knew from top to bottom that to scale the business, we really had to start placing the customer at the center of everything we do.”
Alex Vancea
Former Head of Marketing
  • Personalization with advanced technology: By integrating machine learning algorithms and AI that analyze purchase history, browsing behavior, and real-time data, BrandAlley can deliver highly targeted product recommendations, BrandAlley reports a 10% jump in average basket value. 
“what has been really rewarding to see since starting using AI is that we saw an increase by 10% in our average basket value on a particular set of customer lifecycle. We also won back 24% of the customers likely to defect.”
Alex Vancea
Former Head of Marketing
  • Dynamic product recommendations: BrandAlley’s data-driven approach includes dynamic product recommendations. The company has seen increased engagement and sales by monitoring consumer trends and aligning its product offerings.
“After making all the changes to our website communications and coming together to ensure that our product reflects that in messaging, it was such an amazing project. What was great last year is that 30% of the total revenue the business saw was actually from home and garden and home and outdoor categories, which is a 130% increase compared to the previous year."
Alex Vancea
Former Head of Marketing

BrandAlley and SAP Emarsys Partnership

BrandAlley’s growth story goes beyond predictive marketing. In partnership with SAP Emarsys and Mention Me, BrandAlley uses an AI-driven advocacy intelligence platform to identify customers eager to recommend their brand. 

Prebuilt advocacy tactics within the SAP Emarsys Customer Engagement solution make it easy to launch personalized campaigns that motivate fans to share and recommend more often.

For more details on this collaboration, check out BrandAlley: The Power of Brand Advocacy. You can also learn how BrandAlley leveraged advocacy data to accelerate growth watching this webinar. Their combined use of predictive marketing and advocacy insights shows how effective a customer-centric strategy can be.

Essential Tactics for Superior Customer Engagement

Want to learn from these successes? Here are the key tactics shared by Criteo, BrandAlley, and other industry leaders:

  • Place the customer at the core
    • Gather feedback and data from every channel where customers interact (email, social, in-store, etc.).
    • Use those insights to shape content, offers, and next-step recommendations.
  • Leverage AI and automation
    • Automate repetitive tasks, so your team can focus on strategy.
    • Implement machine learning to deliver relevant messages at the perfect time.
  • Segment and personalize
    • Break your audience into groups based on behavior, demographics, and purchase history.
    • Tailor campaigns to address each group’s specific pain points and preferences.
  • Refine seasonal engagement
    • Look at how shopping patterns change during key seasons or holidays.
    • Reach out earlier and more strategically to capture new customers and encourage repeat business.
  • Adapt quickly to trends
    • Continuously monitor data to spot emerging customer needs.
    • When you see demand in a specific category, product line, or service, shift your focus or prioritize accordingly.

Bringing It All Together

A robust customer engagement strategy isn’t just a buzzword—it’s a proven path to higher loyalty, more significant revenue, and a brand people want to stick with. 

Leaders like Criteo and BrandAlley show that putting the customer at the center of every campaign pays off. You can build more affluent, profitable customer relationships by focusing on personalization, leveraging AI, and staying agile with seasonal shifts.

Build an omnichannel marketing strategy that keeps customers coming back.

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