A new year means a new beginning for your growing business. Last year was difficult for everyone because of the COVID-19 pandemic. We all have been through a lot in 2020, but now, you and your customers will experience a well-deserved fresh start.
It is time to find creative ways to be closer to your target market in the new normal. It’s always a good sign to be gaining more customers. But do you know what is better? Your new customers being loyal to your brand.
First of all, you have to understand the customer behaviors that will help your marketing team create decisions for their upcoming strategies. Understanding your audience will help you in improving your products, addressing their queries quickly, and adding more leads.
However, knowing your audience’s age and location is not enough. In getting to know your customers, you have to reach out to them on a personal level. You need that approach to realize what they actually want and what makes them buy or not buy the product.
Thinking about the ways to be closer to your target market? Then take a look at what’s listed below.
Understand client segmentation
A great way to serve your customers is to understand how their needs fit your marketing strategy. Knowing the client segmentation can let you find out your client’s income status, buying history, their favored medium of communication, and many more.
This method is efficient because a MailChimp study showed that segmented email campaigns have 14.72% more clicks than emails without segmented campaigns. A study from DMA’s National Client Email survey showed that 60% of all email revenue came from segmented email campaigns, from 55% in 2012. During 2013, over 77% of all email marketing revenue came from more technological practices.
The data above shows the importance of client segmentation in email campaigns. Before sending out your emails in a one-size-fits-all approach, consider understanding your customers first and send out emails that cater to their needs.
Adjust to their preferred purchase method
Ever since the pandemic began, many customers preferred cashless transactions. In the Philippines, digital payments are growing fast because of worries over contracting the virus. GCash, the mobile money service of Globe Telecom, stated that the number of registered users increased by 150% in the month from mid-March.
Consumers nowadays like to have contact-free purchases such as scanning paying bills in an app. For example, in the UnionBank app, you can open a bank account and pay your bills remotely. This shows that you have to cater safe and worry-free transactions to your customers.
Always use your website
Keeping your customers posted in your corporate blog is definitely a good idea. You have to make your website stay updated and, at the same time, give out tips to help your audience cope up with the new year in the pandemic.
You do not have to make your marketing strategy look like it is back to normal. Your content can still sound both empathetic and hopeful to your readers, especially knowing that we are still going through the same challenges this year. It is a great way to give good energy and let your clients know that there is still a future for their small business.
Keep on sending messages
No need to send them a hard-sell content. A simple message like asking the readers how they are doing would let your subscribers know that your brand’s relationship with customers goes beyond sales.
A survey from Dynamic Yield showed that 62.26% of consumers feel happy and excited to reply to a personalized message. It just shows that you have to care for them on a personal level. All you have to do is not take advantage of the current situations but keep a genuine approach in knowing that they are still safe and well.
Staying connected with your clients consistently, even if they don’t give you a response, is still a simple method to get referrals. Whether it be in various mediums—emails, phone, and SMS—your audiences can still stay updated on what is happening to your business.
Give resources
2020 was a financially difficult year for small businesses. Now, you can take the opportunity this year to share tips and insights on how industries can still rise despite the ongoing situation right now.
For example, Salesforce gave updates on how they used their products to help others in the crisis. One of their approaches is establishing Salesforce care solutions. That solution helps keep employees safe and form trust between customers and businesses. It also helps improve responsiveness for healthcare and the community.
Another example you can also do is make a knowledge hub on your website so that your customers have access to insights for 2021. You can also create an exclusive social media page for that type of resource too. In those resources, you can make pages showing the possible tools to help your customers do purchasing activities remotely.
Host webinars
Yes, you might get some new leads and sales from your webinar. But do you know what is more important than those transactions? Deepening the bond between your customers and your brand.
The goal of those events is not to make money but to ensure your customers enjoyed them. For example, Salesforce holds an annual event called Dreamforce. Their webinar caters relevant and insightful conversations about CRM to their customers all over the world.
We also do webinars here in Third Pillar to let our partners and clients learn more about adapting to today’s technology. For your reference, you can watch our webinar about healthcare and e-commerce.
If you have an anniversary celebration or a product launch in mind, then you live to stream it through your social media channels. It is an effective way to make your customers feel involved and know your products better. You can also offer special discounts for the ones who watched your event live.
Let your customers create the content
Just face it: making blogs for your website content is very time-consuming. It is also getting more expensive to produce, especially the evergreen long-form contents.
Wondering how you can save both time and money? Get your customers to join the bandwagon with you! For example, let your clients make blog posts or images for your website and social media pages.
In Burberry, they created a page on their site that shows customer images. After letting their customers help promote their brand, their sales increased by 50% in a year.
It is a way for your audience to discover your brand with testimonials from your customers. Showing your brand from a customer point-of-view will help lessen your content load and increase sales.
Reward your customers
A study from Bain and Company and Harvard Business School showed that a 5% increase in customer loyalty rates means a 25-100% increase in profit. Keeping your customers will save money in the long run because sales and marketing is often the most expensive strategy for most businesses.
One thing you can do is give your loyal customers back in return for staying with your brand throughout the years or months. One example is that Domino’s Pizza messages their customer on their rewards balance once a purchase is made.
Make consumers feel valued and rewarded. Give them the gift they deserve after purchasing from your brand for a long time.
Take advantage of making discounts
It is a new year, and you got to mark the upcoming holidays in your calendar right now. Make use of those special days for the special promos to your target audience.
You can offer discounts whenever it comes to online orders, like the previous 12.12 sales in Shopee and Lazada. You can also give back to the community by providing a price reduction if a purchaser brings a receipt from a charity-based merchant.
According to The Economist, there was a 73% increase in the sale of lotion in a value pack. Customers preferred the larger quantity over the other option. To sum it all up in a nutshell: consumers intend to look for discounts.
Try using this idea to make a promo for Valentine’s Day. Who knows? Probably your sales might skyrocket.
Having a new relationship with your customers is a fulfilling task. Being there for them as a good friend is a simple yet valuable gesture. Hopefully, you will keep that in mind when you meet your new customers.
Here at Third Pillar, we ensure that our clients still keep their business stable through thick and thin. We give an approach to help them stay connected to their target audiences and customers despite the circumstances.
Our team gives a human-centered approach through our CRM, Data Management, E-procurement, and E-commerce solutions. Contact us here now, and we will help you find the best solution right away.