Know your target audience
Posted: Mon Dec 23, 2024 5:40 am
Where marketers were in charge for decades , the customer is now in power.
From push to pull
The role of the marketer has changed drastically in this new power play. Instead of pushing products, the modern marketer now focuses much more on creating a pull from the market. A smooth customer journey, across the various touchpoints, is essential here. The marketer has the pleasant task of working together with all other internal and external links on the perfect customer journey. Perfect? Well, almost perfect. Since customer journeys are so individual and dynamic that the 'ideal' customer journey will not be achieved quickly.
The question is, how do you do that, designing a (nearly) perfect customer journey? Strategist and research consultant Rob Luif describes a number of indispensable steps in his book 'Customer Journey Optimization'.
'Know your customer' is pretty much the oldest marketing law that exists. Yet few organisations comply with it. Companies with a limited number of relationships can in some cases rightly say that they really know their (potential) customers. The greengrocer on the corner will be able to address and advise his regular customer in the hong kong mobile number search right way ('Cauliflower again this week?'). With many thousands, sometimes millions of customers, this will no longer be possible. Yet larger companies will also have to build up knowledge of their target group, by answering how and why questions.
Why does the consumer buy a particular product?
How does he use this product? In what situation?
How satisfied is he with the product?
Based on such insights, an organization can work on a relevant segmentation of its primary target groups. This may seem obvious, but it is remarkable how few companies actually put a well-functioning segmentation model into practice. In many cases, we are still bombarded with a one-size-fits-all communication approach from organizations. I wrote an article about this earlier .
2. Understand the journey
The basis of good 'customer journey guidance' is estimating the importance that your target group attaches to the various touchpoints. It is also important to understand in which phase of the customer journey the touchpoint in question plays a role. For example, it could be that your physical store hardly generates any direct sales (since almost everyone buys via your online shop), but is an important link in the customer's orientation process.
From push to pull
The role of the marketer has changed drastically in this new power play. Instead of pushing products, the modern marketer now focuses much more on creating a pull from the market. A smooth customer journey, across the various touchpoints, is essential here. The marketer has the pleasant task of working together with all other internal and external links on the perfect customer journey. Perfect? Well, almost perfect. Since customer journeys are so individual and dynamic that the 'ideal' customer journey will not be achieved quickly.
The question is, how do you do that, designing a (nearly) perfect customer journey? Strategist and research consultant Rob Luif describes a number of indispensable steps in his book 'Customer Journey Optimization'.
'Know your customer' is pretty much the oldest marketing law that exists. Yet few organisations comply with it. Companies with a limited number of relationships can in some cases rightly say that they really know their (potential) customers. The greengrocer on the corner will be able to address and advise his regular customer in the hong kong mobile number search right way ('Cauliflower again this week?'). With many thousands, sometimes millions of customers, this will no longer be possible. Yet larger companies will also have to build up knowledge of their target group, by answering how and why questions.
Why does the consumer buy a particular product?
How does he use this product? In what situation?
How satisfied is he with the product?
Based on such insights, an organization can work on a relevant segmentation of its primary target groups. This may seem obvious, but it is remarkable how few companies actually put a well-functioning segmentation model into practice. In many cases, we are still bombarded with a one-size-fits-all communication approach from organizations. I wrote an article about this earlier .
2. Understand the journey
The basis of good 'customer journey guidance' is estimating the importance that your target group attaches to the various touchpoints. It is also important to understand in which phase of the customer journey the touchpoint in question plays a role. For example, it could be that your physical store hardly generates any direct sales (since almost everyone buys via your online shop), but is an important link in the customer's orientation process.