The significance of customer-centric marketing in 2015 is undeniable, as marketing teams across industries are fixated on the goal of obtaining successful and measurable customer-centric strategies and programs. A whopping 80% of marketers have it as a primary focus according to a recent CMO Council report. There are two parts to focus on with customer-centric marketing: messaging and targeting.
Messaging
As discussed in a previous post on storytelling (found here: http://bit.ly/1ENCZn9), companies need to begin their quest at the heart of their firm. What is your business, what does it stand for and what can it do for your customers? Once a great story is created and refined, its message can be integrated throughout marketing materials, and spoken in the same voice around the company and across the world. This helps build a thorough, easily understood, consistent, and strong reputation and brand. What is of utmost value is the bridge that your team are then able to build between the company and customers, and through understanding positioning and messaging, help customers cross that bridge.
In the past, companies have been more “company-centric” in their campaigns, which does not optimize interactions with potential customers nor attract meaningful engagement. Focusing on what makes your company different from others is not the only key to bringing in consumers. Businesses (and sales) benefit by changing perspective and messaging around the customer’s wants and needs. So rather thanThese are the reasons we’re better than our competitors, think These are the reasons we best fulfill and fit your needs. This is the very of strategy that can accelerate growth when implementing in today’s very noisy media world.
Targeting
In today’s marketing world, data is increasingly accessible. In the past, marketing teams had been estimating, trying to utilize the limited data that they had been able to gain in-house. From those small data sets, they narrowed down their methods of audience outreach. Thankfully, data today is plentiful and understanding large data sets has become the new strategic advantage. These skills have not reached every firm as evidenced by the stats.
The MyCustomer Digital Marketing Insights Report 2014[1] expands on the issue of data targeting, showing that data quality (23%), and actionability (15%) are the largest obstacles for marketing.
Unfortunately, with the lack of exact data, and more importantly, the right analysis, targeting, messaging and positioning are easily lost. Without knowing the exact segments or having the ability to precision target, marketing remains no more than a “gut-driven” educated guess.
Marketing teams can acquire the right data and analysis and nuance messages for precision audiences. Marketing strategies and plans can be refocused to differentiate and highlight your firm’s core qualities that best address the needs and wants of each of your highly segmented target audiences. The customer acquisition experience can be provided at a more personal level, with nuanced targeting and messaging.
Customer-centric Marketing leads to Building Brand and Reputation, Clearer Customer Communications, Resulting in Stronger Revenue
Today, combining great creative messaging with precision targeting provides leverage. It accelerates revenue for all types of businesses. For those who have taken advantage and have updated their marketing strategies and technology, your new, deeper customer relationships are proof of its efficacy. For those that have not, there are firms such as ours that are here to help.
[1]http://assets.teradata.com/resourceCenter/downloads/Articles/Digital_Marketing_Insights_Report_2014_TeradataandCelebrus_FINAL.PDF?processed=1