We all know by now that today’s customers value their experience with your brand over the sheer quality of your product or service: Studies show that 86% of buyers are willing to pay more for a great customer experience (PWC).
Your brand marketing is an integral part of creating that positive customer experience. A customer-driven marketing strategy builds strong customer relationships, which helps drive brand loyalty and ultimately powers brand growth.
Even if you think your marketing strategy is already customer-driven, it can’t hurt to reevaluate. Why?
Customer-focused companies are 60% more profitable than companies that don’t put their customers first.
What is customer-driven marketing?
The essence of a customer-driven approach is seeking first to understand your customer and then using that feedback or data to drive your marketing strategy. Rather than focusing on how you’re going to sell your product, get to know your customers first. Understanding their wants and needs and then thinking about how you and your business can solve their problems or provide value lays the foundation for successful marketing.
Here’s how to implement a customer-driven marketing approach.
Identify your target customer.
It may sound obvious, but it’s often overlooked: Before you can market your product, you need to know your audience—their needs, lifestyle and social media habits, interests, and a lot more. Start by building customer personas to create a clear profile of your target customer(s).
Segment your marketing.
After you know who you’re targeting, articulate your brand value in a way that resonates with your customers—it’s not a one-size-fits-all scenario. One brand message might not necessarily apply to all customers. Create specific messaging that speaks to the needs or pain points of each audience segment or persona—and that’s relevant to the different stages of the customer journey—to drive engagement and make stronger connections.
Use an omnichannel approach.
Make it easy for your customers to engage with your content by using multiple channels. Meeting them where they are most comfortable creates a more authentic brand connection. This from Fast Company: “Over the past few years the customer has evolved with an expectation to engage in a very different way, a much more personalized end-to-end experience, where the agent on the other end of the phone, chat, or email anticipates why they have been contacted and proactively and efficiently addresses all of their concerns or wishes.”
Invest in the customer experience.
Creating a customer service-oriented culture means focusing on your customers and their requirements and needs, valuing them over anything else, and responding to them quickly and efficiently. This mindset applies not only to your support team but to every department or team throughout your business.
Ask for customer feedback.
By having a dialogue with your customers, you can ask them what they want—and give it to them. Start by talking with a few of your best customers. Ask them what challenges or needs brought them to your company, how your product meets their needs, and why they chose you over competitors. If you can’t speak directly with your customers, engage with them on social media or use a chat feature. Compile their answers and use them for testimonials on social media, blog posts, and other marketing content for different buying journeys.
The biggest mistake you can make in marketing is focusing on what you have to sell. Lead with your customer first, and you’re off to a great start.
