How To Drive Revenue With Customer-Centric Marketing

Customers are the lifeblood of any business!

Every company generates revenue from the wallets of its customers. Therefore, the primary goal of every business should be meeting the needs of a customer or solving a problem that makes them willing to spend more.

However, as businesses grow, they tend to lose sight of what’s truly important: the Customer.

A study by CallMiner shows that the US business sector loses 35.3 billion dollars each year in customer churn due to avoidable customer experience issues, like unfair treatment.

Another study revealed that 90% of consumers prefer personalized services and 80% are more likely to make a purchase when the company takes a customized approach.

Customer-Centricity is, therefore, a vital ingredient in brand marketing.

When customer-centric marketing is done correctly, both businesses and customers gain immensely, from exceptional experiences that develop loyalty and trust to eventually enhance conversions and maximize income.

However, what exactly is customer-centric marketing, why is it important and how can you implement it in your marketing strategy. We give you all the details in this guide.

What is Customer-Centric Marketing?

A customer-centric model places the individual consumer at the heart of marketing design and execution, according to Custora.

Being customer-centric means going beyond an “average” customer understanding, and finding ways to bring value to a one-to-one level.

Employees in a customer-centric organization carry out their daily duties so they can deliver maximum value to customers.

The goal in customer-centric marketing is to prioritize customers above all other considerations using a blend of customer behavior insights, rational thinking, and data.

This personalized approach involves developing specific messaging, branding, content, and products that are customizable.

It requires a comprehensive understanding of how customers interact with the company through different channels (online, in-store, and so on) and the need to optimize everything about the customer journey to create a superior consumer experience.

This valuable consumer insight will help your business develop by meeting the current needs of your target audience and building trust between your brand and customers.

By providing solutions to the inner needs of the customer, this theory helps companies gain a competitive advantage.

Why Adopt Customer-Centric Marketing?

Customer-Centric marketing can help a brand to achieve the following:

Customer Loyalty

Customers want to feel like they are part of something more than just the product. By putting them first, your audience will feel more engaged, create more loyalty, and build a long-lasting business.

When you enhance the value of their customer journey and show them you’re committed to their success, you’ll win the loyalty of your customers.

According to statistics, loyal customers are more likely to spend 67% more money on a brand.

Increased Brand Advocates

“There is proven ROI in doing anything you can to turn your consumers into ambassadors for your brand or business,” says best-selling author Gary Vaynerchuk in The Thank You Economy.

A study by Tempkin Group also revealed that:

• After a positive experience, those customers are five times more likely to suggest a company.
• Customers who have had a bad experience are 50% more likely to tell their friends about it.

When a consumer is pleased with a product or service, they want to tell their friends and family about it – and not only through word of mouth.

Customers that are pleased with your product or service will post about it on social media for their entire network to see. This quickly raises brand recognition and sales. The best part about it? It’s completely free.

An excellent customer-centric culture is the best method to generate advocates and gain recognition easily in the market.

Better Bottom Line

A McKinsey study found that companies that implement a customer-focused, data-driven marketing and sales platform achieve marketing ROI increases of 15-20%.

In a study conducted by Forbes Insight and Treasure Insight Data, two-fifths of the executives polled said their customer personalization efforts have resulted in increased sales, basket size, and profits in direct-to-consumer channels like e-commerce, while another third say a product or content recommendations have resulted in increased sales and customer lifetime value.

That’s because businesses that place the customer at the heart of their marketing initiatives gain a strategic competitive advantage that takes a good turn on their ROI.

Employee Satisfaction

What’s good for your consumers is good for your business: staff who feel empowered to provide excellent customer service have higher job satisfaction, so it’s a win-win situation.

Zappos for example utilizes a customer-centric approach that enables employees to build long-term relationships with customers by delivering wow moments. It also creates a sense of purpose which is crucial for employee happiness.

Check this tweet by one of Zappos Employees

Examples of Companies Excelling at Customer-Centricity

The following examples illustrate how some industry leaders have used customer-centric marketing strategies to increase their growth and dominance in their categories.

Amazon

Amazon customizes the products it recommends based on an individual’s shopping behaviors. Not only does this improve the shopping experience, but it also increased Amazon’s revenue by 29%, demonstrating how effective personalization can be at increasing sales.

Southwest Airlines

Southwest Airlines provides affordable fares, dependable customer service, limited luggage fees, and the flexibility to adjust trip dates. Southwest did nothing but listen to their customers.

What’s the result? Conversion rates are higher, the airline is rated as the best in the world, complaints have declined, profits have increased, and most importantly customers are satisfied.

Slack

Slack has also always relied on consumer feedback to improve its product and better satisfy its customers’ requirements. Slack utilized seven months only to gather input before releasing their preview in August 2013.

And the concept worked: by soliciting feedback from peers at other companies regularly and creating a feedback loop, the company built a trusted brand with millions of customers and accelerated growth, bringing in over $600 million in FY 2020.

Here is the takeaway: Pay attention to your data and find out what your customers want.

How to Implement A Customer-Centric Marketing Strategy

Get to Know Your Customers

At its most basic level, customer-centricity is prioritizing customers over all other considerations. To do so, you must first understand your customers.

One of the most important aspects of starting and running a business is developing a client persona.

Personas are a synthesis of your ideal buyer based on the observations of a large number of people. This will allow your staff to get to know the ideal consumer profile up close and personal.

Make a list of all of your typical customer’s interests, goals, personality traits, demographics, and needs.

However, if you truly want to put your consumers at the center of your marketing, you must go far further.

You must observe the behavior of your target audience to properly comprehend who they are. The simplest method is to use social media tracking analytics. Keep track of the content they interact with the most, when they comment on a post, and what they’re saying about your company or competitors.

This will assist you in determining who your customers are and what they truly need.

Marketers can utilize personas to target their keyword research efforts and to refer to while crafting marketing content. Personas also aid in the narrowing and prioritization of promotional efforts.

Work on your Social Interaction

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Communication with your followers is an important component of social media participation. Respond quickly to comments on your posts. When somebody asks you a question, give them a helpful response.

Actively monitoring inquiries, comments, and feedback can provide you with valuable information about your consumers and help you improve your customer service, resulting in increased trust and profit.

Don’t be hesitant to join in on conversations, ask questions, and follow users who you believe can assist you better understanding your target demographic.

Ask Your Customers What They Want

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Simply ask your target audience everything you want to know!

Surveys are an excellent way to get direct feedback or insights from your customers.

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube all allow you to poll your audience in some fashion.

If you’re going to use surveys to learn more about your target audience, you’ll want to make the process as simple as possible for them. Personalize and converse with your audience. Make your questions succinct and to the point.

Optimize Every Stage of your Customers’ Journey

It’s time to deepen your understanding of the audience’s interaction with your brand now that you’ve gotten a good understanding of your buyer profiles and their needs and goals.

You might be wondering why a customer spends so much time perusing your inventory and adding items to their cart only to dismiss the tab. The root reason is most certainly a lack of understanding of the customer’s path to purchasing your product or service.

Creating a customer journey map can help with this. Customer touchpoints are known as the stages that your customer go through whenever they interact with your brand.

A customer journey map entails drawing out and visualizing the customer’s experience at each touchpoint.

Customers will interact with your numerous touchpoints along the way, such as social media reviews, website experience, website content and resources, customer service team, follow-up customer feedback surveys, and advertisement.

Image Credit: Econsultancy

To appeal to various engagement stages, you can take a creative approach to the brand, such as providing vital industry content at the typically lower-funnel touchpoints and ensuring that product information and effective call-to-action is present at the upper-funnel engagements.

Each touchpoint is an opportunity to encourage discovery, contemplation, purchase and, loyalty by providing a positive experience.

In addition to polling your customer’s customers to gain a better understanding of their motivations, obstacles, and purchasing process, inquire with customer support representatives about the most frequently asked questions.

You should also monitor and review the customer journey after each major product release and allow cross-functional teams to review the customer journey map.

Hubspot has a free customizable customer journey template you can start with.

Reward Your Employees

When it comes to customer-centricity, your staff are your frontline, as they are the ones who interact with your customers the most.

Make a point of rewarding your team members for a job well done to keep them encouraged to put in their best. Your sales and marketing teams will provide you with data, and the more motivated they are, the better insights you will gain.

Establish KPIs to ensure a proper reward system. Giving presents and incentives to your staff can be one way to empower them, but it can also be as simple as congratulating them for a job well done.

Your employees are the ones who provide the most insights and implement your customer-centric strategy so make it a point of duty to motivate and reward them.

Conclusion

The key to customer-centricity is to design your universe around a thorough grasp of your customer’s requirements—and a commitment to meeting those needs.

Eden Content Hub can assist you in creating a create customized customer-centric content strategy that attends to your buyers’ needs. Reach out to us and let’s help you win your loyal customers.