With so many ways to improve customer engagement in the new year, there’s no excuse for lagging behind. From personalized communication to taking cues from your customers, a few fresh techniques may be all you need to show your customers how much you care.

But this leads to an important question: how often should you engage with your customers?

You understand the importance of engagement, but at the same rate you don’t want to go overboard.

The first thing you need to know is that there is no right or wrong answer. How often you engage is based on many factors, including but not limited to: your relationship with your customers, the type of communication, and your industry.

For many companies, the best approach is to start slow and closely track results as you ramp up.

For example, if you’re using email marketing to engage with your customers, you can start by sending one email per week.

What’s your open rate?

What’s your response rate?

What’s your unsubscribe rate?

How many sales and how much revenue can be attributed to your email?

If you’re happy with the results, consider experimenting with two emails per week in the near future. Measure the two sets of results for a clear idea of which approach generated the best response.

Signs You’re Overdoing It

There’s a fine line between engaging with your customers and overdoing it. Keep a close watch on every strategy you use – and the results – to ensure that you take a step back should you push too hard.

Here are some signs that you’re overdoing it:

• Your email unsubscribe rate is on the rise
• Your number of social media followers is declining
• Your social media engagement rate has fallen off
• Customers are telling you to stop contacting them so much

The second you recognize one or more of these signs is the second you should reassess your approach to customer engagement. The last thing you want to do is overstep, as this could drive away loyal customers.

Final Thoughts

In a perfect world, you would know exactly how often to engage with customers. For example, send one email per week, post on Twitter three times per day, and mail a postcard every quarter.

Unfortunately, this isn’t the way it works. It’s up to you to experiment with a variety of engagement techniques, track the results, and ensure that you’re engaging enough but not too much. Although it can be a lot of work, it’s rewarding in the end.

Of course, if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to get in touch!

For more insights on marketing strategy that actually works for small business, subscribe to the FreshLime Newsletter here. Connect with Jay Bean, Founder of FreshLime and Small Business Marketing Expert on LinkedIn and Twitter. And last of all, if any of these tips have helped you or if you have anything to add please comment below. We’d love to hear from you!