Last week’s post talked about what Digital Print Management do when it comes to delivering customer service. 
Knowing your customers well not only helps you deliver a personalised customer service but ensures they get personalised communications suited to their needs.
Most organisations think they know who their customers are but do you?
- Can everyone in your organisation define what your typical customer is, what do they look like? Where can you find them?
- How does you audience vary according to the services or solutions you offer?
- Which industry sectors do you work in and where have you had the most success?
- Which industry is most receptive to your business?
- Is your audience clearly defined by industry sector?
- What other products and services are your customers likely to be interested in?
Studying your current customer profile should be a good indicator of the audience you successfully engage with but it will also help you target other companies or sectors that may want your services.
The key to understanding your customers is being able to understand the data you have about them.
This in turn drives personalised communication.
One of the important things about managing your customers is segmenting your audience into specific products or services and establishing if a pattern emerges between the two.
Thereafter you can identify the audience that is most likely to be receptive to any future personalised communications by direct marketing campaigns keeping it targeted and specific.
By understanding and interpreting your existing customer data helps you identify the criteria on which your customers purchased your products and helps you define which prospects you can target in the future.
For B2B customers this could be region, industry type/sector, company size, contact types.
This is all well and groovy but how do you collect prospective customer data on your target market so you can define your content marketing specific to them?
The more information we have on customers the more personalised we can make our marketing efforts.
Who is your audience? Where can you find them? What do they want?
Personal details are crucial for marketing success and brand growth but how do you get customers to share more information when privacy and security are uppermost and trust is prevalent in most buyers minds.
No one wants to be inundated with salesy emails.
The more personal details we collect the better we can market our products and services and increase customer engagement with personalised communications.
Being able to market in a positive and meaningful way to your target customers builds up trust, expertise, knowledge and showcases your companies services and abilities.
How do we build up customer security and trust?
But how do we build up trust in an online world?
Unlike meeting someone face to face, building creditability in an online world takes time and determination. It is not about blasting out full on sales messages one after another.
Here are five points to consider for building customer brand, loyalty and engaging your audience.
Showcase positive customer experiences
Hi-light case studies where your services have really helped one of your customers.
Digital Print Management used a case study of a big higher education institution who outsourced their payroll processing and printing. This case study was so effective it helped us pick up two large customers.
The customers were so reassured in conversations about our expertise and knowledge and we were able to back it up with good references, they choose us as their main service provider.
This is a good example of a positive customer experience without a typical sales pitch.
Using effective marketing strategies reduces the worry over privacy and security but ultimately builds up trust.
Ensuring your content messages are consistent across all media channels builds up trust, loyalty and familiarity in your brand this helps customers to be more willing to share information across the various channels.
“People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.
The goal is not to do business with everybody who needs what you have.
The goal is to do business with people who believe what you believe”. (Anon)
I wish I could lay claim to the above statement but I think whoever thought it up nailed it.
Promote brand loyalty
Consumers are more willing to share personal data if they are loyal to a brand.
The more you promote your company beliefs, culture and its ethos the more you are likely to connect with a customers personal beliefs and principles at which point they have the confidence to share their personal details.
Your brand is representative of your company culture and what your company stands for and brand loyalty comes out of your audience getting to know, trust and respect your company culture and its beliefs.
Recommend new products, solutions and services
Customers know that by giving away information companies will showcase new products and services which customers are likely to be excited about because they know they will be the first to view or experience them.
This is where personalised print marketing used in conjunction with cross channel marketing can be a highly effective way of moving the customer’s buying decision along.
A highly personalised mailer with discounted vouchers or coupons is a great way to get customers involved.
Give incentives
Free postage, 10% off the next order, vouchers and limited time offers, free downloads are great ways to get customers to give over their information.
Customers realise they are getting something for free by giving over their data willingly.
Provide location specific offers
Amazon local is a great example of location offers.
They send you an email containing various offers at discounted rates on goods and services in relation to where you live and according to some of your recent purchases.
The increasing use of smartphones and mobile devices makes location based offers even more relevant for targeting your audience and persuading them to give personal details based on where they are or live in return for an offer.
The end goal is to connect with your customers on an emotional level so they are confident to give you the information you need to personalise your marketing content to suit your potential buying audience, which then enables you to start the sales cycle.