Here’s what a recent Blueshift survey of 300+ U.S. marketers revealed: 90% of marketers say consistent messaging across all channels is critical to driving engagement, yet only 34% feel confident they’re delivering on that promise.
If you’re a marketer trying to meet customers where they are, you’re probably feeling the pressure. Like the 66% of marketers who say their campaigns are blocked by fragmented systems and data, you might be feeling like trying to engage customers consistently across channels is a losing battle.
What are those 34% of marketers doing that the rest aren’t? How are they cutting through the noise and actually delivering consistent messaging across channels? This blog sheds light on key customer engagement trends that just might reveal the secret sauce behind smarter cross-channel customer engagement.
Why Customer Engagement Fails in Retail, Finance, and Other B2C Industries
Nobody is safe from the Engagement Reaper. It creeps in wherever disconnected tech and siloed data slow marketers down. And some industries are feeling the squeeze more than others.
Finance, insurance, retail, healthcare, and credit unions are among the B2C sectors struggling most with overly complex cross-channel tech stacks. Their martech is bloated. Their data is all over the place. And their teams are too bogged down in manual work to move fast.
It’s no surprise then that these same industries are also seeing missed revenue targets. The root causes?
- Inadequate market research
- Ineffective messaging
- Insufficient marketing budgets
- Weak value propositions
- Poor audience targeting
Here’s your silver lining: brands that are winning at engagement aren’t doing more, they’re doing it differently. And it all begins with rethinking how they orchestrate the entire customer journey.
How Real-Time Personalization Is Reshaping Customer Engagement
The way brands engage customers is undergoing a major transformation, and it’s being powered by real-time personalization. In fact, Adobe’s 2025 Digital Trends Report found that 87% of organizations leveraging AI-driven personalization have already seen boosts in customer engagement. That tracks with our data too:
- 89% of marketers say real-time customer profiles are essential for personalized engagement.
- 87% report higher retention after using AI to power their customer journey strategies.
What does that look like in action? Instead of relying on batch campaigns or generic audience segments, marketers are tapping into dynamic customer profiles that update in real time. They’re using automation and predictive analytics to respond to behavior as it happens, not after it’s too late.
From re-engagement campaigns triggered by a cart abandonment to personalized product recommendations delivered mid-scroll, it’s all about catching the customer in the moment. These real-time customer engagement strategies are enabling brands to stay relevant, timely, and miles ahead of competitors still stuck in static engagement loops.
Why B2C Brands Are Choosing Customer Engagement Platforms Over Point Solutions
B2C brands are increasingly parting ways with disconnected tools and turning to platforms that unify customer engagement across every channel.
- 86% of marketing leaders say they plan to prioritize Customer Engagement Platforms (CEPs) instead of stacking more point solutions.
- 91% agree that being able to recognize customer preferences across multiple touchpoints leads to higher satisfaction.
It’s true, CEPs are the answer. And the reason is pretty straightforward: when brands centralize their data, content, and decision-making within one platform, they’re able to move faster, personalize better, and perform stronger across every channel.
Learn more about how a Customer Engagement Platform can enable cross-channel customer engagement at scale.
What Today’s Customer Engagement Trends Reveal About the Future of B2C Marketing
The trends speak for themselves:
- AI is becoming foundational to journey orchestration
- Marketers are shifting from reactive campaigns to proactive, moment-based engagement
- CEPs are the go-to for brands done duct-taping their martech stack together
These customer engagement trends make one thing clear: fragmented systems are out, and intelligent orchestration is in.
But knowing what’s happening isn’t the same as knowing what to do.
Our latest report, From Fragmentation to Focus, goes beyond trends and into the tactics. Based on a survey of 300+ U.S. marketers, it reveals:
- Discover the biggest engagement pitfalls that hold teams back, and how top marketers sidestep them with smarter tactics
- Get an inside look at the retention strategies actually delivering results
- Find out how AI is redefining modern customer acquisition strategies
- Uncover sharp, industry-specific insights from sectors like retail, finance, and healthcare that you won’t want to miss
Download the full report and see what the future of engagement really looks like.
