We all realize that customers who are fully engaged are more likely to continue to be loyal customers. So, it’s easy to see how customer marketing is set to play a defining role in how B2B businesses attract customers in the near future.
Customer marketing is vitally important in retaining customer bases in any kind of business, whether corporate or more entrepreneurial start-ups.
So, what exactly is it and why is it so important to ensure your business remains competitive and doesn’t lose important customers to others in your industry?
Let’s start this article by examining the brief answer as to what customer marketing is and how all businesses should be harnessing its power in order to retain all-important customer bases and remain at the forefront of their industry.
What is customer marketing? Having a robust customer marketing strategy is imperative in an ever more competitive marketplace. Retaining the customers you have will ensure ongoing sales and success. Customer marketing is also useful in attracting new customers to your brand and helps to build loyalty and trust.
Now we’ve looked briefly at this important topic for anyone in the competitive playing field of B2B business, in order for us to understand a little better, let’s start by taking a look at exactly what customer marketing is.
Unfortunately, many businesses are not maximizing the value of their current customers. We can understand this, by looking at recent research from experts which uncovers that over a third of the companies surveyed aren’t realizing the true revenue potential of their existing customer base.
In a nutshell, customer marketing is a type of marketing that is primarily focused on your current list of customers rather than future prospects.
Customer marketing refers to any marketing activity or campaign directed at existing customers.
This kind of targeted marketing will have a series of important outcomes if a successful marketing strategy is put in place which can:
The meaning of Customer Marketing can vary considerably, depending on the industry and company.
customer marketing is a type of marketing that is primarily focused
on your current list of customers rather than future prospects.”
Some may have more of a focus on the customer’s journey, or maybe a greater interest in brand advocates while others will be concentrating on upselling or cross-selling.
This kind of marketing includes any type of marketing campaign that is designed specifically for existing customers. The easiest way to think about customer marketing is understanding that you are looking to create strategies aimed at them.
Let’s take a look below at how we can meet those needs.
Finding out exactly what your customers want, right through from the first touchpoint to any kind of after-care or service is simple if you are able to identify their needs.
There are many ways in which you can start to create a picture of how your customers react to, purchase and otherwise use your service or brand.
There are a number of ways in which you can identify your customer’s needs. This could be a combination of the below:
Focused listening will tell you which social networks your audience is most actively using and the general overall mood and feeling that surrounds your brand. It’s also useful to find out how your customers feel about your competitors and your industry overall.
Focus groups can more easily be explained as a kind of group interview. By observing and recording the interactions, a focus group can help us to appreciate how people think and feel about an experience, issue or service.
Like any other research or evaluation, you carry out, it’s primary purpose is to find out how your loyal and current customers feel about your offering.
Once you have your crucial data to keep your customers coming back for more then make sure you deliver on the following:
Businesses that have developed a robust methodology for how they collect and share customer insights within their organization will create the best environment for meeting customer needs quickly and effectively.
So, let’s take a little closer look into why it’s so important to introduce a stellar customer marketing strategy into your business.
“Design the features and products your customers want”
With the face of the retail and consumer space becoming more digitally and technologically advanced, it’s more challenging than ever before to attract new business.
According to a study by industry experts, it was found that those customers who enjoyed a strong relationship and a personal attachment to a brand delivered a 23% increase in sales compared with an average customer.
Another report describes how marketing to your existing customers can yield on average. These figures demonstrate clearly the need for a great customer marketing strategy within your business. addition to the fact that attracting new customers is less profitable, it’s also more challenging than ever.
So the above shows fairly clearly that when you have managed to secure the elusive new customer and sign up to your brand or service, it makes sense to do whatever you can to retain those customers.
You will also find that not only customers who have given you their hard-earned cash require your attention; you will also find they demand it too.
It does, of course, seem like a no-brainer to market specifically to your existing customers, often it can go underneath the radar in terms of spending precious resources such as time and money. It can be very easy to overlook your existing customers in the hot pursuit of new business. While explicitly marketing to your current customers
“It can be very easy to overlook your existing customers
in the hot pursuit of new business.
So now we’ve seen why it’s important to create marketing campaigns around those customers who have purchased from you previously, let’s take a look at what you will stand to gain by doing so.
The benefits of customer marketing:
Actively curating a base of satisfied customers is possibly one of the best ways you can grow your business through referrals, bringing a raft of positive attention to your brand or service.
“With the face of the retail and consumer space becoming more digitally and technologically advanced, it’s more challenging than ever before to attract new business.”
So now we’ve seen some of the benefits of creating a marketing program aimed specifically at your current customers, let’s take a look at some ways of getting started and find out exactly what it is your customers want or need.
To ensure your important client and customer base continues to be loyal to you will depend a great deal on your marketing efforts.
Sometimes it can be tricky to reach your existing customers in ways that show true value, an appreciation of their loyalty and also devise unusual marketing campaigns which perhaps have an element of surprise.
So, if it’s proving difficult to get started, you could start first with the marketing channels that you already have up and running in which to address your crucial existing clients. Some of these channels might include:
Already having these channels working will make it easier to ride the wave and give your customers something truly pertinent to their needs or wants.
For instance, if you are sending out a monthly newsletter it may be an idea to devise a section of the newsletter devoted to ‘10’ pain points you know your customers experience. Or maybe you could give details of a webinar where they can speak directly to you with their questions.
The clear message is that a customer-focused marketing strategy is designed to retain those hard-won consumers by learning as much as you can about their wants, needs, desires and crucially, their behavior.
As modern consumers are demanding more in the way of transparency from the brands they are loyal to, it’s especially important to meet their needs.
It’s a crucial element of your marketing strategies to make sure your key customers are at the forefront of your marketing to leverage a major impact on the generation of revenue and continue to remain relevant and competitive.