Do you know your customers’ birthdays? Do you know if they go on your website? Do you know if they use social media? How much do you actually know about your customers? You’ll need to know as much as possible if you want to provide them with the best experience possible. Today our competitive landscape has been accelerated by the pandemic, so knowing exactly who your customers are has never been more crucial for your business success than now. Luckily, I can help by providing you with some surefire ways to understand your customers better.
Develop buyer personas
Marketing jargon aside, buyer personas can help guide you when making important business decisions. So what exactly is a buyer persona? Think of it as a mock customer you’ve envisioned based on information you know about your real customers. I recommend highlighting things like personal info (age, gender, location, income, etc.), professional info (job title, industry, media/social preferences, etc.), values (personal and professional), and goals and challenges. Whenever you make a key decision for your business that will impact your customers, I encourage you to reference your buyer personas. In doing so, you’ll ensure that you always consider their needs based on what you know about them and their pain points.
Leverage market research
One of the best and easiest ways to understand your customers better is by directly speaking with them. I’ve worked with many businesses over the years and there hasn’t been a single instance where one of my clients hasn’t learned something new about their customers after conducting market research. Market research can be done in many different ways, but I prefer qualitative research to really draw out the opinions of your customers. Additionally, when you hire CreativeWorks Marketing (or another marketing agency) to conduct your customer research, not only is it 100% confidential, but it allows your customer to be more open and honest and really have a dialogue about any concerns or challenges they have when working with your company. Once the research has been conducted and analyzed, the ways in which you use it to inform your business decisions are endless (i.e. changes to processes or communication methods, new products and service offerings, etc.).
Use business data
When’s the last time you took a good, hard look at your business data? And I’m not just talking about your sales for the last quarter. In addition to your sales, information collected from your web and social analytics, customer communications and inquiries, and CRM can tell you a lot about your customers. After analyzing this data, you’ll be able to make informed decisions for your business that can help improve your customer experience. For example, if you notice several customers continue to inquire about the same thing, be sure to make note of this information. It could be a potential opportunity to curate new content or new lines of business.
As we transition into another challenging year, you need to make strategic decisions for your business. This means understanding who your customers are and how you can help them moving forward. The customers you have now may not be the same customers you had five years ago. My agency, CreativeWorks Marketing, has been helping business owners understand who their customers are for almost 30 years. Contact us today to book a free chat with me to discuss how we can help you drive more potential customers to your company.