If your business is only focusing on bottom-line results, those figures are likely to be disappointing. Whether you like it or not, times have changed. Today, more than 4.62 billion people are active on social media, and some conversations might mention your business, its products, or services.
How you sell to and communicate with customers matters. A customer-centric approach to digital marketing will have you change the conversation from "you need to buy this item" to "how can we help you solve an issue?"
What Is Customer-centric Marketing?
Customer-centric marketing puts your customer's wants and needs first. That doesn't mean you're giving away the farm, but rather putting your customer's interests at the heart of your business decisions and aim at the way that you sell, promote, and advertise your business's products and services.
Historically, companies kept a close eye on meeting quotas or beating the past month's sales figures. While there's nothing wrong with producing awesome results, this can be a byproduct of giving your customers what they want and need.
The Benefits of Customer-centric Marketing
In the past, marketing was a way to get your product in front of the customer. The marketing mix of product, price, placement, and promotion were vital to convincing a customer to make a purchase. Now that people have become more connected, this cycle has changed.
Recommendations increasingly come from family and friends, search results, and online product reviews instead of traditional marketing methods. Customers are less likely to trust your sales pitch and more likely to put stock in what others have to say about your business through different online sources.
Much of the customer journey has become self-driven, but that doesn't mean you can't participate. By engaging customers along this journey, your company has a better chance of helping them solve their problems and form long-term relationships that will be profitable.
Speaking of profits, companies with customer-centric, data-driven sales and marketing platforms improve their marketing ROI by 5-8x their campaign spend. In short, focusing on your customer's needs can be a catalyst for growth.
How to Become a Better Customer-Centric Marketer
Prioritizing the needs and interests of your customers first requires a different approach from some traditional marketing methods. Here are some of the ways that you can integrate this into your digital marketing program.
1. Know Your Customers
You cannot give your customers what they want if you don't understand them. The days are long gone when you can lump all of your customers into the same big bucket. Customer-centric marketing should be personalized to be effective.
To achieve this, you'll need to create different buyer personas and segment your customers. Some segments might have a higher lifetime value (LTV) than others, and you can create different digital marketing programs for each segment with different priorities.
It's vital that you approach each segment from the customer's perspective instead of your own. Some ways to get a better handle on this include:
- Customer surveys - Use email or on-page feedback widgets to find out what your customers want and need.
- Customer interviews - Have members of your product or marketing team meet with different customer groups to get candid feedback.
- The five-second test - Use an online tool to see if your message is resonating with your audience as you had intended.
2. Have a Usable Website
Even if most customers now start research on social media or Google Business Profile listings, many will eventually make their way to your website before making a purchase decision. This is when you'll want to ask yourself some questions: Is the experience you're providing relevant, valuable, and safe? If not, you'll need to make some adjustments.
When a potential customer comes to your website, it should be instantly clear what your company does and how its products or services will help them. Going further, every website should be simple to navigate, mobile-friendly, and have the proper security measures in place to protect your visitor's privacy and personal data.
3. Deliver Helpful Content
A customer-centric business will create website and marketing materials in a specific way so that they are helpful to customers, even if they don't directly promote or sell the product. If you think about it, most consumers know that you're in business to make money. You don't need to tell them this.
When done right, content marketing is incredibly effective. According to the latest data, 72 percent of businesses say that content marketing has increased engagement with audiences and the same percentage report that it has increased leads.
Instead of pushing features and benefits of what you're selling, you can create useful and engaging blogs, images, videos, and podcasts for customers. For example, the team communication app Slack produces a podcast that features how different people find identity and meaning in work. It has millions of listeners. For example, another company that sells smart lighting might publish blog posts about smart homes and setting up different types of lighting systems.
4. Provide Customer Support
Customers might have questions before a sale or after it. In today's hyper-connected world, it pays to be responsive, and it can be a painful lesson to ignore this part of your business. Customer-centric service can reduce customer confusion and headaches as well as preserve your online reputation.
Part of the equation is to anticipate the needs of customers by reaching out before they have issues or questions. This consists of such things as following up on cart abandonment and engaging with customers through chat or email.
You can also show that you care by quickly responding to online reviews of your business, good or bad, and proactively providing answers to FAQs on your website or social media page.
The Takeaway
Bottom-line results are what will keep you in business, but they shouldn't be your primary focus. Having a customer-centric digital marketing strategy is what is going to attract and retain customers, as well as set you apart from your competitors. To learn more about how to use your website and social media strategy to achieve these goals, contact Connection Model today!
Written By: David Carpenter
