In marketing, there’s a world full of strategies allowing you to reach a high ROI (return on investment). One of these approaches is a customer-centric marketing strategy.
Customers are the center of every organization. And this strategy is all about going beyond getting to know your customers. It’s also about finding what’s best for your customers, too.
What Is Customer-Centric Marketing?
Customer-centric marketing is a strategic approach centered on customers’ needs and interests. This method considers the shopper when making decisions regarding advertising, selling, services, and product promotions.
While creating a marketing plan, businesses focus on customers by combining intuitive thinking and data insights of consumer behavior.
Customer-centric marketing strategies require a deeper understanding of why customers need your products or services. The objective isn’t only about business growth, but also about showing customers how your products or services improve their way of life.
Why Customer-Centric Businesses Are Winning
Many businesses are seeing success because they use customer-centric marketing in their strategies. In fact, customer-centric brands saw an 80% increase in revenue when improving their customer experience.
Warby Parker fosters a customer-centric approach with its mobile app strategy. The Warby Parker app features an augmented reality user experience allowing customers to try on frames virtually. Warby Parker’s app has over 55,000 five-star reviews and creates seamless payment options with Apple Pay integration.
Customer-centric brands like Warby Parker are carving out territory for themselves in the retail sector. Their approach uses a unique point of sale system that weaves into every customer interaction throughout the buyer journey.
Four Ways to Tell You’re Using a Customer-Centric Marketing Strategy
Below is an excellent overview of how you can take a customer-centric approach in business.
1. Website Optimization
Is your website user-friendly? Does it provide value and resolve customer concerns? A disorganized site can lead to frustration and cause customers to go to your competitors.
One way of knowing if your website is optimized for customer experience is if it’s generating any sales. Most of the time, users will abandon their carts because there are too many steps to process the payment. Or they go in to change their account information but are unsure of where to find it.
When customers have to figure things out, they get easily frustrated. Unfortunately, this can build up a negative reputation.
That’s why it’s important to understand your customers. You can measure their happiness by collecting internal data and using a heatmap tool to capture further insights. A heatmap will help you learn about your customers’ needs and where they’re going – which turns out to be an invaluable tool.
Either way, delivering a seamless online experience is the best way to lead you to customer devotion.
2. Personalized Experience
Personalization is one of the most strategic and effective ways of becoming customer-centric. Consumers crave brands that serve them in the best way possible. That’s why it’s highly unlikely they’ll purchase from you if you’re not developing a connection with them.
To improve customer personalization, take advantage of your website’s cookies to remember visitors. When you store a user’s history, you can gain insights into product preferences, page views, and visiting time. In turn, this will open you up to catering new opportunities to individual user needs.
Consider adding a chatbot option to your website. Building a chatbot through a third-party platform is simple. After that, it can carry on personalized conversations to solve problems and answer customer questions. Having a feature like this can significantly and positively impact your business and its profitability.
3. Multichannel Marketing
When customers can reach you in more places, you create more engagement opportunities. Multichannel marketing fosters engagement by working on different mediums through social media, email, phone, and more. If you’re not utilizing this technique, you’re missing out on connecting with your customers.
Social media is one of the top effective strategies because it allows you to respond to customer service issues. Furthermore, you have the opportunity to conduct customer research and increase brand awareness.
Facebook Messenger is a practical way of engaging with customers offsite. You can also integrate it onto your website, so you never miss a beat. By setting it up on your website, customers can return orders, request refunds, and report order issues without having to leave Facebook.
4. Content Marketing
Customers today are seeking knowledge and going on their own to find solutions. The only problem for businesses is that customers are ignoring cold outreach and traditional marketing.
Traditional tactics are no longer relevant because customers have the power to skip the middleman. They’re quick to find answers through search engines and social media through digital content.
Content that aligns with different stages of the buying process is important. However, creating content focused on specific buyer personas is engaging and incentivizing.
Most of all, you should create content that shares stories in various ways. This could be a video, podcast, e-book, webinar, or something else. Whichever format you choose will depend entirely on the buyer persona.
It’s also important to share relevant third-party content. While this helps to engage in the space your target audience exists, it’s fundamental for building relationships with influencers.
Likewise, content that provides value compels your audience to share it. That’s why content marketing is a key component of social selling. Consumers are much more likely to consume content from peers rather than brands.
Putting Customers at the Heart of Your Small Business
Using a customer-centric marketing strategy can be the foundation of your business’s success. Your customers should be at the center of everything you do and what your small business stands for. Without it, you’re losing buyers to competitors.
Consider taking this powerful approach to provide true value each time a customer interacts with your brand.