6 tips for the customer-centric marketer

New marketing technologies coupled with increasing buyer demands have placed a lot of pressure on marketers and CMOs. Changing buyer preferences dictate that marketers shift their strategies meaning that broadcast messages, batch-and-blast emails, and generic content are no longer viable ways to reach an audience. Buyers demand individualized attention across the growing number of platforms that they engage with, and its up to marketers to deliver.

Want to start implementing a customer-centric approach to marketing at your business? Take a look at a few of the suggestions below, and check out our full white paper, 20 Tips for the Customer-Centric Marketer, for even more ideas.

Engage on Your Social Media Channels.
Its not enough just to be present on social media. Your customers (and potential customers!) expect you to be active and engaging on your social media channels. This means responding to them in real-time, acknowledging comments (both positive and negative), and sharing relevant content that might be of interest to your audience. Invest in a social media monitoring tool, whether free or paid, to keep an eye on mentions of your brand and your competitors. This will help you stay on top of your social engagement, while also making it easier to schedule and plan out posts ahead of time.

Focus on the RIGHT Numbers.
Its important to grow your social following, but it shouldnt be the most important part of your social strategy. While you should keep an eye on your growth and measure the change over time, a customer-centric approach dictates focusing more on your engagement metrics. Measure the interactions that people are having with your brand by aggregating the number of ReTweets, comments, Likes, etc. that you received in a given period of time. Then, compare those numbers to the previous week, month, quarter, or year to see how your engagement levels vary over time, and which types of posts your customers enjoy.

Create a Community.
If youre following the suggestions in the tips above, youre already taking important steps toward creating a community around your brand. By actively engaging with your audience, focusing on increasing your engagement levels, and keeping an eye on conversations surrounding your brand, you can begin to cultivate an active community. Encourage your audience to share their thoughts, approach your company for feedback, and treat your social channels as a learning outlet. Keep in mind: creating a community is a two-way street. You should be sharing meaningful thoughts and opinions just as often as your customers, if not more.

Tell a Story.
Your marketing shouldnt read like sales propaganda and your customers wont tolerate it if it does. This presents a challenge for marketers: buyer preferences now dictate that content is tailored to their needs, yet marketers still need to convey a message. One of the most timeless and effective ways to create content that balances both of these needs is through the art of storytelling. Craft your marketing message in a way that does not push your product at people, but helps them to overcome a challenge instead. Make your customers the hero of your stories, and theyll be much more receptive to your marketing content.

Create Content for the Sales Funnel.
The harsh truth about todays buyers is this: theyre not interested in talking to a sales rep, at least not until theyve conducted enough research on their own. If marketers arent prepared for this growing trend and havent been producing enough readily-available content, their consumers are going to look elsewhere (i.e. your competitors). Fortunately, by catering your content to the stages of the sales funnel, you can ensure that your buyers are receiving the information they need, when they need it. This means creating educational resources for the top of the funnel, and more targeted, product-related information for the bottom of the funnel.

Personalize Your Messaging.
In the past, email personalization was all about variable tags, i.e. inserting your recipients first name and calling it a day. Todays buyers expect more theyre looking for timely, relevant, and valuable marketing that speaks to their specific needs, not just a broadcast message from your sales or marketing teams. Fortunately, using the marketing technologies that are now at your disposal, you can segment your database and target your communications based on criteria like product interest, location, and more. Not only that, but you can also personalize the web experience using dynamic content, which allows you to change call-outs, messages, emails, or other areas of your website based on prospect fields, like location or industry. Dynamic content ensures that your messages are always focused on whats relevant to your customers.

ARTICLE SOURCE: This factual content has not been modified from the source. This content is syndicated news that can be used for your research, and we hope that it can help your productivity. This content is strictly for educational purposes and is not made for any kind of commercial purposes of this blog.