Have you heard of the "engagement economy"? It’s the idea that engaging a customer, rather than just selling products, has become more critical for large brands as was well as small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs).

The term, widely pushed (if not coined) by marketing automation firm Marketo, describes an economy and business atmosphere in which organizations and individuals coexist in a "digital future where everyone and everything is connected". Moreover, the firm says that the emergence of "The Engagement Economy embodies the fundamental shift in relationships between buyers and sellers" in just about every industry.

But has doing business with customers really changed in the engagement economy? Maybe and maybe not!

Marketing and technology blog MarTech Today writes that, in 2017 consumers and B2B customers are more savvy and informed than in prior decades. Thus, they can be much more selective about what they buy. For that reason, price and value are important. But engaging them in the ways they want is as important as is initially establishing relationships.

"Winning the heart and mind of your customer today requires consistently delivering authentic and personalized experiences," writes MarTech Today. "This includes listening to them across every channel to understand their preferences and desires, then creating experiences based on this understanding."

Another interesting point about the business-customer relationship MarTech Today reports is that "only 13 percent of marketing leaders are working to retain and grow customer relationships through improved customer experiences." In such a competitive globalized market, however, "keeping a customer becomes more important than acquiring them."

Dare to be Different

So how do distributors of marketing solutions help their SMBs to engage customers and ultimately build brand loyalty?

Back in mid-January a handful of ideas were exchanged among speakers and attendees at PPAI's Expo 2017 held in Las Vegas. Sarah Radin, a writer for trade publication promo marketing summarized some of these ideas.

Radin writes about is the concept that customers are shopping and looking for experiences, more than products. She talks about a t-shirt maker called Johnny Cupcakes with a creative spin on printing wearables.

Radin describes the small company's owner as a "creative prankster," who dreamt up what he calls “the world’s first T-shirt bakery,” a fake bakery that sells T-shirts. Rather than just billing himself as a standard t-shirt print shop, Radin says that the brand he built has fans "lining up for days around the Boston storefront", as well as checking his online stores for special edition prints and ideas.”

Certainly some types of businesses, t-shirts shops being one, might have more latitude to get creative or quirky with their brands and product offerings. You probably won't see law firms, accountants, or heavy equipment rental companies bill themselves as anything akin to "fake bakeries".

That said, SMBs have to convey how they are different than the competition and they offer something more than just quality products or services at good prices.

Helping SMBs Show Personality

One way SMBs can better engage their ideal customers is to as the question, "What is the personality of my business?"

Ask the SMBs you serve about that: are their companies the most knowledgeable firms in their sectors? Are they fun and quirky? Are they "kings of customer service"?

In order to understand your SMB customers a little more, you may want to have them identify their best traits as businesses — maybe the best two or three. More specifically, ask them what makes their companies better than the big brands in their particular sectors.

There are no right or wrong answers but, whatever personalities businesses have, they will succeed in engaging customers when they communicate effectively who they are.

When it’s time to step up their marketing efforts, Idea Custom Solutions knows that promotional products work and are possibly the most cost-effective way for SMBs to brand. No matter what the product or decorating approach, we can provide the vector artwork and embroidery digitizing. You can also tap our Custom Creative service to make sure the businesses you serve engage their customers with great custom logos, t-shirt designs and more.