Customer-Centric Marketing - The New Norm
What exactly do your customers want? How do they connect with your business? Are they getting a value-rich experience every time they interact with your business?
As a business, you sell products and services. To whom? Customers. Duh. Well then, surely all your marketing and advertising focus more on customers and less on what you’re selling. Not quite, eh? Times have changed. Listing your product features with funky music and cool transitions is no longer enough. Far from it, actually. You need to be obsessing over your customers. Pampering them. Why? Because they are everything. They’re directly linked to your growth, progress, and profit. You put yourself in the customer’s shoes and you craft your company’s marketing strategy. This ladies and gentlemen, this is customer-centric marketing stripped down to its core.
Now that we’ve firmly established the why there comes the inevitable next question – How? First off, you need to be asking yourself a few questions. What exactly do your customers want? How do they connect with your business? Are they getting a value-rich experience every time they interact with your business? These questions help you design your products and the user experience. As marketing guru Seth Godin says, “Don’t find customers for your products, find products for your customers”.
This is easier said than done. Implementing a customer-centric marketing strategy requires a culture change. For decades, companies have been hung up on their products and sales. While these are by no means unimportant, they lose value without customer satisfaction. Remember, satisfaction brews loyalty. Loyal customers often advocate your products and become a part of your brand.
Don’t know where to start? Here’s what you can do.
1. Convince leadership
They pull the strings, so it’s important to get them on board. After all, it’s a pretty big change, and implementing it will require a collective effort. Make a presentation, host meetings, or give them booze. Your pick.
2. Stalk your prey (just kidding)
Knowledge is power. To know what exactly your customer expects, you need to do a little digging. Conduct surveys, use analytics tools, monitor social media and forums, read reviews, and read customer emails.
3. Enriching customer experience
Customers aren’t just buying good products, they’re seeking good experiences too. Every interaction the customer has with the company has to be helpful and smooth. Guiding them on product selection and payment, having good customer service, hosting fun events, the impact of these are astronomical.
4. Reaching out the right way
Imagine you’re having a peaceful nap. It was a tough day, and you’re exhausted. And then your phone goes off. You see a random number. You think it might be important and you take it, only to hear a droning voice asking if you would like a certain product/service. Now your sleep is ruined, and probably your phone too because you smashed it in a fit of rage. And you’re never going to buy anything from that company anymore.
See, this is why cold outreach never works. Your email is going straight to the spam folder. Your SMS is going to be deleted in a jiffy. Your call is most probably going to be rejected. You should be pushing out creative, engaging content that resonates with customers.
These are just a few things that can be implemented in your marketing strategy to make it more customer-centric. The more you interact with your customers, the more you grow. A purely professional relationship no longer works. Put your customers first. The rest will follow.
Also, we released a podcast episode yesterday about what it takes for international brands to succeed in India. We also talk about how India is a different market and even companies born in Tire One cities of India struggle to adapt to the rest of the country.
You can listen to it here!
Have a good day.