Your customers are at the center of your business. They’re the ones you create solutions and products for.
So, shouldn’t they be at the heart of your marketing process too?
It is very easy to be carried away by trends and flashy campaigns when it comes to marketing. Sometimes, when you take a step back and look at the grand scheme of things – you may realize that your customers aren’t at the center anymore.
In the past, product-centric marketing worked because those were simpler times – there were fewer options and the buyer’s journey was more straightforward. Today, customers have access to more options, their preferences are constantly evolving, they can engage with brands, and their buying decisions can change with one bad review!
Making your marketing customer-centric – it’s not just about your offering anymore
Having a consumer-centric approach means that your marketing activities are based on the inputs from your customers.
These inputs can be both qualitative and quantitative:
- You can carry out a sentiment analysis to understand the emotions and opinions of your current and prospective customers. This can be done by analyzing product reviews, social media posts, and social listening. This can not only help you understand the current sentiment but also find ways to be more inclusive with your language and imagery.
- You can also use data analysis on historical information to understand the customers’ buying patterns and other behaviours.
These insights can help you with marketing strategy development and enable you to meet your customers’ expectations.
The power of customer advocacy
In addition to using insights from customers to enhance your marketing activities, you can also invite your customers to advocate for your brand.
Word-of-Mouth has been one of the most effective marketing tools and with the proliferation of social media, it is more important than ever.
There are a number of ways you can invite your customers to recommend your brand. Some of these include:
- Case-studies are probably the most compelling way of sharing customer success stories. B2B organizations, in particular, can benefit significantly by sharing stories of how their solutions enabled their customers gain financial and competitive advantage.
- Testimonials are also a great way to enable your customers to share their experiences. Positive online reviews and testimonials show the confidence your customers have in your brand and that can translate into higher conversions and sales.
- Guest blogging is another effective way of involving your customers in the marketing process. Whether you’re in the food industry, a beauty brand, or a technology firm, guest blogging can be incredibly useful for building a strong online community. Adding in thought-leadership and trend analysis blogs from your customers can make your editorial calendar diverse and interesting!
- Webinars can be a great place to include your customers too. Your customers can speak to market trends, share industry insights, and help you connect to a wider audience.
Working closely with customer service
Your customer service team is an important touchpoint.
Most of your customer communications go through your customer service team. Hence, there is a wealth of data that is probably sitting within your servers.
These valuable customer insights can help you with brand management and marketing, especially during these unprecedented times.
Creating a process to document customer feedback, concerns, questions, and suggestions is essential. When the marketing team has a process in place, where they get insights from the customer service team, they’re able to identify and resolve issues faster.
In today’s fast-evolving world, listening to customers and adapting swiftly to meet their requirements is critical for success.
At Pulsion Marketing, our brand consultants help you use your social channels and online platforms to gather insights and put your customers back at the center of your marketing process.
Discover all of our marketing solutions today. Call 1-888-701-4441 or visit www.digiforcemarketing.ca.