Is customer-centric marketing the way forward?

Seemingly, there’s a consistent increase in marketing efforts targeted specifically for customer attraction and retention.

Customers of today are looking for transparency and personalization all of the time. They’ll go elsewhere if not delivered, but how are these needs met without compromising your brand’s message?

Customer-centric marketing

What exactly does customer-centric mean?

“Creating a positive consumer experience at the point of sale and post-sale. A customer-centric approach can add value to a company by enabling it to differentiate itself from competitors who do not offer the same experience.” (Business Directory)

Interesting definition. I think we can all agree that in years gone by the ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach has been the commonplace, and still is in many cases. For decades businesses have attempted to tailor marketing efforts to specific channels, products or events. Typically a target demographic came first, not the customer.

The problem with taking an isolated approach such as this leads to missed opportunities. While a customer-centric approach may not have been feasible in the past, it’s now very much a possibility. 

“Customer centricity empowers the marketing team to target the right customer with the right channel and right message — at the right time,” Custora points out. “It also helps teams align around a strategy that will drive long-term value to the business: acquiring high-value customers, and keeping them coming back.”(Custora)

How can you move towards a customer-centric marketing strategy?

The most powerful marketing strategy you can implement is one in which you establish an actual connection with your customers – not as a single aggregate but the individuals within the group. The best way to do this? 

A Marketing Automation Platform.

Here’s five ways how a Marketing Automation platform can help you deliver a customer-centric marketing strategy:

Understanding their interests. From which emails a person opens, to the content pieces they request, to where they go when they visit your website, the platform tracks that activity and paints a picture of your prospect based upon their behaviour.

Remembering their interests. A marketing automation tool records every action a prospect takes, so that their portrait (and your marketing outreach) is continually enhanced and refined.

Tailoring content to their interests. You’ll notice a trend here with “their interests,” because that’s what customer-centric marketing is all about! Providing prospects with content they will find interesting and useful—and NOT sending them content that will bore or irritate them—is the key to establishing a strong connection. "Smart content" allows you to tailor the message or CTA to better fit the expressed interests of the prospect or other criteria like country, device type, or lifecycle stage.

Connecting on the right channels. The platform can be used to measure and analyse the activity on each of the inbound marketing channels you use to generate traffic and obtain leads. When a prospect’s preference or preferences are identified, or you identify the need to uniquely make a content connection to a particular referral source, you can skew your outreach in that direction.

Responding to updates in their interests. People change. The woman who was on your website shopping for a sporty two-seater last year may be in the market for a minivan when the twins arrive next year. The platform allows you to detect and respect that change, and effortlessly move her into a new process flow.

Customer-centric companies are 60% more profitable compared to companies that are not focused on the customer.

It’s time to shift your focus if you’re not already doing so.

peppymarketing.co.uk