Customer-centric marketing: Strategies to boost engagement and loyalty
Consumers today have more choices than ever. Running ads for a great product or service isn’t enough to capture their attention. To truly stand out, you must forge deep connections with customer-centric marketing.
– 10 mins
This means truly getting to know your customers and tailoring experiences that feel personal and relevant to them. Ready to make that happen? Let’s explore how to make your customers the stars of your business.
Conduct in-depth customer research
Getting to know your customers is the secret to making them happy. You cannot just guess what they want. You must research to get the inside scoop, starting with talking to your customers directly.
Set up casual chats or focus groups where you can ask questions and, more importantly, listen to what your customers say. You might be surprised by what you learn when you let people talk freely about their preferred shopping experiences and needs.
Then, review insights from your own data and social media analytics tools. See what people are buying when they’re shopping, and what they’re saying about your brand online. This can help you spot trends and better understand your customers’ preferences.
The goal of all this research is to truly understand your customers and build detailed buyer personas. These personas should represent your ideal customer by showing their basic demographics, challenges, and aspirations.
Offer an omnichannel experience
Most people interact with brands on multiple online and offline touchpoints before purchasing any kind. They might spot your product on Instagram, explore it on your website, and ultimately buy it in your physical store.
To support this modern shopping journey, you need to provide a frictionless brand experience on every channel, including those who use a VPN. This practice, known as omnichannel marketing, ensures customers have a smooth experience no matter how they shop.
Here’s how to do it:
- Make everything match: Your website, app, social media, and physical store should all look and feel the same. Use the same color scheme, style, and tone everywhere.
- Offer choices: Let people shop how they want. Allow them to buy your items online and pick them up in your store or purchase something in-store and get it sent home.
- Be helpful everywhere: Ensure that customers get the same high level of customer service whether they contact you through social media, email, or by phone.
By doing this, you make shopping easy and fun for your customers. They’ll feel like your brand knows and values them, whether they’re shopping online, through your app, or at your store location.
Personalize your marketing efforts
Personalization is all about making your marketing feel like it’s made just for each customer. Instead of sending the same message to everyone, you tailor what you say to fit each person.
A big part of this is sending personalized recommendations. It’s like when a friend says, “Hey, I saw this and thought of you.” You can suggest products or services based on what a customer has previously bought or what they’ve been looking at on your website. For example, if someone just bought a camera, you might tell them about camera bags or lenses they might like.
You can also personalize things like email subject lines, the products you show on your website, or even the special offers you send. You could give a discount on winter coats to people who live in areas with heavy snow. Or you might send a special birthday offer to customers on their birthday month.
Create valuable content
Content is the cornerstone of customer-centric marketing. It’s way more than the promotion of your products or services. Instead, it’s how to establish your brand as a trusted resource and partner in your customers’ shopping journey.
To provide real value, focus on creating content that helps people solve problems or learn new things. For example, if your site focuses on selling arts and crafts supplies, write articles on how to make DIY home decor or create videos on beginner-friendly craft projects.
Always create well-researched, accurate, and easy-to-read content. Naturally include keywords for better visibility and promote your content using a social suite to drive meaningful engagement. Remember to regularly update your resources so your audience can always come to you for the latest information.
Set up customer feedback systems
Getting feedback from your customers helps you know what you’re doing right and where you can do better. So, it’s important to provide easy ways for your customers to share their thoughts, such as:
- Ask for reviews: After someone buys from you, send them a quick message asking how it went. Good reviews are the social proof needed to help new customers trust you and less positive ones show you where to improve.
- Use surveys: Now and then, send out short customer surveys. Ask questions like “What do you like about our products?” or “How can we serve you better,” to gain truly valuable information.
- Check social media: Listen to what people say in your posts. Respond to all good and bad comments to show that you’re listening and care about what customers think.
- Targeting: workflow Automation, WhatsApp Automation, Interactive Message Temples features to make marketing efforts based on specific conditions, events, and time
- Personalized Data-Driven Decision: Track features that capture users’ data directly into CRM, Later you can use this data to make data-driven decisions and personalized marketing efforts. Also, CRM supports an advanced email marketing dashboard that gives insights like open rate, CTR, etc, based on which you can take calls.
- Omnichannel Marketing: Find tools that support integrations with WhatsApp, Facebook, Telegram, Instagram, Gmail, and SMTP, and Voice and video calling facilities through integration such as Aircall, KrispCall, and Zoom. Providing seamless interactions across multiple touchpoints.
Use these feedback collection techniques often. These regular check-ins will help you see how people’s needs and opinions change over time. This way, you can keep improving your approach to match what your customers want.
Develop a customer loyalty program
A good loyalty program makes regular customers feel special and rewarded for choosing your business over others. This helps drive repeat purchases, but only if you create a program that’s user-friendly and offers valuable rewards.
To do this, keep your program simple. Set up an app or digital card where people can track their points and claim their rewards. Then, personalize the program by using what you know about your customers to offer rewards they’ll like. This could be discounts, free products, or early access to new items.
Don’t make people wait too long for their first reward. Give them something small early on to keep them interested. Make it easy for customers to earn points, not just for buying things, but also for other actions like leaving reviews or sharing on social media.
Get ready for customer-centric marketing success
Customer-centric marketing is a powerful way to grow your business. By focusing on what your customers want and need, you go beyond selling products to build relationships that last. It takes work, but the rewards are worth it. When you put your customers first, everyone wins. Your customers get what they need, and your business grows stronger.
Surrinder Pandita is a content writer at RankHandy. He has more than 6 years of experience writing for the marketing, HR, and business sectors and aims to provide high-quality content.
