Customer expectations are rising, and with consumer attention spans shrinking, many marketers are finding that conventional engagement strategies don’t deliver the results they used to. In 2025, the pressure to meet expectations is higher than ever, and business leaders are learning the tough truth—it’s time to reimagine how you connect with customers.
With mounting pressure to deliver personalized interactions across more channels in highly competitive environments (and often with fewer resources), it’s critical for marketers to stay on top of what’s working in their industries.
Keeping up with new trends and technologies is what will keep companies agile, working smarter, faster, and meeting growing customer demands more efficiently. Let’s look at a few of this year’s engagement trends to help reshape how you interact with your customers—plus some tips and best practices for success.
Note: The brands and examples discussed below were found during our online research for this article.
What is customer engagement?
Customer engagement is the ongoing interaction between a brand and its customers. Meaningful, personalized experiences drive customer engagement—not one-time connections. It’s about building a relationship that evolves over time across various channels and touchpoints.
In 2025, this means consistently showing up through mobile marketing, emails, QR Codes, and more, making every interaction feel seamless and relevant. When done right, customer engagement blends smart technology with real empathy, creating moments that go beyond transactions and foster lasting loyalty.
Why customer engagement matters
Economic pressures from higher tariffs on goods and cost-of-living increases are having a big impact on shoppers; rising prices are a significant concern for consumers. People want the most bang for their buck, leading to higher expectations across the board.
Customers expect brands to listen and respond, while also adapting in real time. AI helps make this possible, allowing businesses to deliver personalized experiences at scale. But with personalization comes a responsibility to be transparent and respect privacy..
It’s not enough to draw customers in, even if they do make a purchase. Brands need to work harder at earning their loyalty. Gaining trust via customer engagement gives you a competitive advantage in today’s market
2025 customer engagement trends
From planning your holiday marketing strategies to looking for better ways to connect with customers, it never hurts to revisit your customer engagement strategies, especially if you’ve been relying on the same methods for a while.
With the rapid advancements of digital tech, you risk being left behind if you don’t adapt. Let’s take a closer look at some of the top customer engagement trends to keep your eye on this year.
Personalization at scale with AI
A combination of AI tools and customer insights drives personalization these days. AI tools can analyze data from interactions across channels, like clicks and purchases, to help you understand customer preferences and behavior patterns, such as what customers are likely to want next.
And it’s an integral part of improving the customer experience, resulting in higher growth rates for businesses that focus on personalization.
Predictive analytics takes it further, anticipating what your customers may need next—before they even ask. For example, you can see how customers are engaging with links and QR Codes in your marketing campaigns via Bitly Analytics. You can then compare that data to historical data to inform timely offers or product recommendations.
Customer journey insights tie all of this together. Mapping out where someone is in their experience means your brand can tailor content and touchpoints that are relevant and valuable, not random.
A few examples of this include:
- AI-driven segmentation: Group your customers based on their behaviors, like one-time visitors or frequent shoppers, and send tailored messages.
- Dynamic content: Update landing page content based on a customer’s past clicks or location.
- Real-time offers: Trigger discount codes sent via text or email within a few minutes of a customer abandoning their cart.
With AI tools like predictive analytics and customer journey insights, your business can deliver timely, personalized experiences that smoothly guide customers from interest to purchase.
Real-time engagement and responsiveness
Timing is everything. Customers expect you to meet them where they are, with messages that feel timely and personal—no matter the channel. In fact, CMSWire cites growing expectations for personalized recommendations across channels and thoughtful responses from retailers among the top consumer trends of 2025.
Relevance in the moment brings results, allowing you to send consistent messaging across all channels, from text and email to ads and apps. Timely messages show customers that your brand understands them, encouraging engagement and leading to long-lasting customer loyalty.
If a customer leaves items in their cart without buying anything, for example, send a text or email with a friendly reminder or a link with a discount offer. If someone mentions your brand on social media, post a reply. Or if a customer scanned a QR Code, send a promotional offer.
Just make sure these are done within minutes for real-time engagement.
Omnichannel consistency
Omnichannel marketing isn’t just for retailers anymore. In 2025, it’s a key part of marketing and delivering great customer engagement in many industries. That means creating consistent and personalized experiences for customers across every channel—email, text, social media, and beyond.
The key to doing this successfully (and with less hassle) is using integrated platforms instead of separate, multiple point solutions. That gives you tools to streamline messaging, personalization, and analytics.
Integrated platforms make it easier to respond more quickly and stay consistent, boosting brand recognition, fostering trust, and winning customers’ loyalty.
With consumers rapidly switching between devices and channels—and 50% having more than four shopping apps on their phones—consistency across touchpoints isn’t just courteous; it’s expected. Brands must deliver a seamless, unified experience to stay relevant and competitive.
Ethical data use and privacy-first strategies
Customer engagement and trust go hand in hand these days, and that starts with privacy, ethics, and transparency. Evolving federal, state, and international regulations on data privacy mean that brands have to be clear about how they collect and use customer data.
That’s where zero-party data shines. Instead of relying on third-party sources, this involves having customers willingly and directly share their preferences and other data through short links, QR Code scans, or other sources. When doing this, customers expect value and honest communication in return.
Using data ethically means asking for consent and limiting what you collect. You also need to be transparent about how you use this data. It’s about respecting your customers and complying with regulations.
Making privacy a priority and offering real value in exchange for data helps your customers feel more comfortable and confident doing business with you.
Generative AI for content and campaigns
Generative AI is everywhere, from social media trends to marketing campaigns. It’s a type of artificial intelligence that generates content, like text or images, based on prompts provided by users. Using it helps brands produce more engaging campaigns in shorter amounts of time. From generating images to writing personalized messages, genAI helps brands to combine creativity with a personal touch that customers appreciate.
AI also powers smarter segmentation, analyzing patterns to group audiences and tailor content based on behaviors and preferences. It can even design campaign flows, recommending the best formats, channels, and timing for each segment.
To see what this looks like in practice, here are a few use cases for generative AI:
- Generating social media posts based on trending topics
- Creating dynamic email content
- Building localized campaigns in seconds
There are also ROI improvements, like reduced content costs, faster campaign creation times, and increased engagement rates. Retail marketers using AI-powered campaigns are seeing 10% to 25% higher returns on ad spending.
Using generative AI for customer engagement means you get to do more with less while delivering high-performing customer experiences across channels.
Transactional and critical messaging
Outage notifications. Shipping alerts. Purchase confirmations. These are some of the most trusted touchpoints between a brand and its customers. Optimizing these transactional and critical messages isn’t just helpful; it’s an essential part of keeping engagement going strong.
Clear, timely messages show customers that you value their time and experience. When messages are reliable (and arrive when expected), they reinforce trust and reduce confusion or frustration that could drive customers away.
What you use to deliver this messaging also matters. A unified messaging platform that handles all of your transactional and critical communications gives you the following advantages:
- Faster response times
- Enhanced customer support across channels
- Consistent brand voice
- More personalized interactions with customers
With a unified messaging platform, your brand can provide a smoother, more professional experience every time.
Community and brand-building
Today’s advertising industry is crowded. That makes genuine connection a must for your brand. Focusing on community and brand building helps build and boost customer engagement.
Customers lean toward brands that have an authentic feel, not just a polished one. Inviting them into the conversation through community spaces, events, or customer feedback loops helps you establish trust and encourage loyalty that goes beyond simple transactions.
User-generated content (UGC) plays a big role here. Customers sharing real experiences fuels organic marketing that’s more relatable than paid ads, building branding credibility.
A few other ways to build your brand through community include:
- Hosting interactive AMAs or events
- Creating niche communities online
- Inviting customers to participate in polls or beta programs for feedback
Strong communities turn followers into advocates. And when your audience feels like part of your story, they help tell it for you—amplifying your reach and resulting in deeper engagement.
Customer engagement best practices
It’s one thing to follow the trends, but another to capitalize on them. Here are some best practices to set your marketing efforts up for success.
1. Offer value at important milestones
Making a first purchase or renewing a membership are examples of key milestones to acknowledge and celebrate with your customers. That helps make your relationships with them stronger while also boosting loyalty.
How should you celebrate? Surprise them with a reward. Offer personalized content as guidance. You know your customers best, so think of special ways you can give them more added value when they reach these milestones.
- AI: Deliver hyper-personalized recommendations right after a key action, like signing up for your services or making a first purchase.
- Real-time engagement: Send an instant confirmation or offer when customers reach milestones to keep engagement momentum going.
- Omnichannel strategy: Consistently celebrate customer anniversaries and other milestones across all channels.
- Privacy: Respect customers’ consent and preferences when offering value, like opt-in rewards.
- Community building: Invite loyal customers to join exclusive events or groups when they hit certain milestones.
- Data-driven marketing: Use analytics and key metrics to identify when customers reach milestones, and tailor your response.
2. Treat your data as your top tool
Data is your key to driving smart, personalized customer engagement. In fact, you need it for most of these trends. Gathering data ethically helps you understand customer behaviors and anticipate their needs, allowing you to send the right message at the right time.
Data helps you learn which messages resonate the most with your customers. It also helps you better understand what works best for attracting new customers.
- AI: Use customer data to predict their needs and automate personalized messaging.
- Real-time engagement: Use live data to trigger timely responses or relevant offers.
- Omnichannel strategy: Sync customer data across channels for consistent customer experiences.
- Privacy: Use data transparently, and always respect customer consent to boost trust and customer satisfaction.
- Community building: Use engagement data to identify brand advocates and nurture deeper connections.
- Data-driven marketing: Turn insights into action to refine campaigns and content for more effective results, and track engagement after a product launch.
3. Get as close to customers’ problems as you can
Do customers enjoy doing business with you? Or do they have issues or concerns you should address promptly? With poor customer experience being a top reason for why retail stores are closing, it’s a good reminder to try to identify and handle customers’ problems.
Their issues may not always be obvious. But that’s what makes feedback so important. Give customers multiple ways to leave feedback or bring up concerns they, then get to work addressing those problems.
- AI: Use AI to analyze behavior, identify pain points, and predict customer needs.
- Real-time engagement: Respond immediately to customers’ questions or issues.
- Omnichannel strategy: Make sure your customers can reach support on any channel they prefer.
- Privacy: Practice ethical data gathering and usage to build trust, allowing customers to feel safe and comfortable sharing feedback or problems with you.
- Community building: Use shared experiences or peer discussions to uncover hidden challenges your customers are facing.
- Data-driven marketing: Use insights to identify common pain points and improve the customer experience.
4. Bridge the physical and digital experience
All of us navigate the physical and digital realms day in and day out. That means your marketing efforts should make it easy for your customers to bridge these experiences with your brand.
That can be as simple as offering a scannable QR Code at an event or providing smart receipts for purchases. With tech advancements and tools, connecting digital and physical customer experiences doesn’t have to be a complex process.
- AI: Personalize your in-store offers based on customers’ purchases or online browsing history.
- Real-time engagement: Send mobile notifications immediately during in-person interactions, like check-ins.
- Omnichannel strategy: Offer a seamless transition between physical locations and digital touchpoints.
- Privacy: Provide customers with options to better control how their online and offline data is connected.
- Community building: Offer livestreams of physical events featuring your brand, or encourage shared user content.
- Data-driven marketing: Connect offline actions with digital campaigns for improved targeting and stronger customer engagement.
5. Appeal to intrinsic motivation
All the rewards and other external goodies you offer customers will only go so far in keeping them engaged. The real trick is tapping into intrinsic motivation—getting customers to engage with your brand because they want to, based on their desires or motivations.
You might encourage them to visit your site daily to earn rewards. Or you might host interactive polls and quizzes to make learning about your brand more fun. Intrinsic motivation helps keep customers loyal to your brand while also helping you build strong relationships with them.
- AI: Personalize customer experiences and content based on what motivates them.
- Real-time engagement: Provide instant feedback or recognition that keeps customers motivated.
- Omnichannel strategy: Offer consistent motivational elements, like streaks or points, across all channels.
- Privacy: Protecting customer data and using it responsibly builds trust and encourages customers to stay engaged.
- Community building: Use peer recognition or group challenges to tap into a sense of shared purpose as a key intrinsic motivator.
- Data-driven marketing: Identify what motivates different customer groups or segments, and tailor engagement strategies to match their interests.
6. Create a sense of belonging
Speaking of intrinsic motivation, a sense of belonging is a big motivator. Fostering this sense of connection among your customers is a great way to drive engagement. Set up a loyalty program with branded swag, or host online forums or other online events and spaces that encourage your customers to interact.
This sense of belonging makes your customers feel valued and part of something bigger than transactions or purchases. It also helps them connect emotionally with your brand, making them more likely to remain loyal to it.
- AI: Generate personalized content or messaging to make each customer feel included and understood.
- Real-time engagement: Respond to interactions right away, so customers feel connected.
- Omnichannel strategy: Ensure that customers feel recognized and welcome, no matter which channels they use for engaging with your brand.
- Privacy: Treat customer data collection and utilization with respect to foster a sense of safety.
- Community building: Help customers connect based on shared interests and values or brand experiences.
- Data-driven marketing: Identify what resonates with each customer group to create more relevant messaging.
How Bitly can help you boost engagement
Customer engagement in 2025 is about personalization, speed, and trust. Bitly offers tools for marketers that help deliver tailored, effective interactions and collect meaningful data to power even better campaigns in the future.
- Bitly Links: Create customized, branded short links that your customers can trust, resulting in a higher chance of clicking on them.
- Bitly Codes: Generate branded, custom codes that direct customers to online content via URL, bridging the physical and digital worlds.
- Bitly Analytics: Gain insights that help inform future campaigns, like which links and codes get the most engagement, which devices customers use, and where people are engaging from.
Bitly helps you move faster and connect smarter, allowing you to engage confidently right when it matters most.
Connection leads to engaged customers
Customer engagement in 2025 is about being personal, fast, and consistent. Customers expect brands to meet them with the right message and on the right channel at just the right time. With AI, real-time insights, and smarter tools, brands can go beyond one-off interactions and build lasting relationships that actually matter.
Bitly makes it easy to show up where your customers are— with short links and QR Codes that feel personal and on-brand. And Bitly Analytics gives you real-time data on codes, landing pages, and links to see what’s working, so you can adjust your campaigns and keep engagement strong.
Stay on top of engagement trends with powerful tools that help you meet customers where they are. Get started with Bitly today.
