Fewer than half of companies have a defined customer engagement strategy in place, despite acknowledging its importance to the business, according to research from E-consultancy released today.

The e-commerce consultancy's Online Customer Engagement Report 2009, produced with digital agency cScape, surveyed 1,300 organisations, highlighting areas of increased investment next year, and examining strategies which have helped to deepen relationships with customers.

Companies that place an emphasis on customer engagement are spending increasing sums on email newsletters, user ratings and feedback, user-generated content and blogging, the report found.

"It is clear that organisations are now setting aside budget for Web 2.0-type activities because they have garnered tangible benefits, rather than because they simply want to be on the cutting edge for the sake of it," said Linus Gregoriadis, head of research at E-consultancy.

"More companies are viewing tactics such as blogging, user reviews and on-site video in the context of a broader customer engagement strategy, and pulling only those levers which are most appropriate for their business model and customers."

The report concluded that organisations need to be aware of how customers change their behaviour, and how this could impact the business. Yet only half of respondents said that the current downturn has led them to place more emphasis on online customer engagement.

"Those organisations able to grasp the changes in customer behaviour and psychology, while placing an emphasis on delivering increased value, will reap the rewards of customer engagement and will be best placed to emerge as winners from the current economic situation," said Richard Sedley, customer engagement director at cScape. "Those that cannot have a lot to lose."