Today’s consumers are choosing businesses that take the time to know them and care about their needs. A customer-first strategy centers around customers and provides a suite of services, products, and experiences that surprise and delight, foster loyalty, and boost lifetime value.
Research shows that of companies that focus on providing an excellent customer experience, there’s an 80% increase in revenue.
Additionally, over 50% of customers will switch to a competitor after a single unsatisfactory customer experience.
However, while brands recognize the importance of putting customers first, many brands are challenged to do so.
So what is holding brands back?
First, brands must understand their customer base, down to the level of the individual customer journey. There is where it gets daunting for many marketers. With so much data being produced at such a rapid pace and across multiple channels, collecting and integrating this data to make sense requires the right technology, data insights, and analytical processes operating in connected concert.
Top 3 Customer-First Marketing Strategies
1. Use Data-Driven Strategies to Get to Know Your Customers
You can’t be a customer-centric business without knowing your customers. In today’s age, this means adopting a data-driven mindset to capture customer information at every touchpoint. Customers are producing mounds of information – marketers just need to know where to look and how to collect it.
Marketers should collect a range of data including first-party data such as contact data, demographics, customer service, social media interactions, and transactions. Data can also be supplemented with third-party assets such as lifestyle, behavioral information, life event data, and purchase intent.
Types of data sources include:
- Website Analytics – Page views, session duration, bounce rates, conversion rates
- E-commerce Platforms – Purchase history, product preferences, shopping cart data
- Social Media – Likes, shares, comments, mentions, follower demographics
- Email Marketing – Open rates, click-through rates, unsubscribe rates, email preferences
- Mobile Apps – In-app behavior, usage patterns, push notification interactions
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Systems – Contact details, communication history, customer segmentation
- Point of Sale (POS) Systems – In-store purchase data, payment methods, customer loyalty interactions
- Customer Feedback Surveys – Satisfaction scores, feedback forms, product reviews
- Call Centers/Customer Service – Call logs, service requests, issue resolution times
- Live Chat – Chat transcripts, response times, customer inquiries
- Loyalty Programs – Membership data, reward redemption, loyalty points
- Referral Programs – Data on referrals, referral sources, effectiveness of referral incentives
- Advertising Platforms – Ad impressions, click-through rates, targeting criteria
- Online Reviews – Product ratings, customer testimonials, review sites
- Third-Party Data Providers – Purchased demographic, psychographic, and behavioral dat
- Event Registrations – Attendee information, event participation, lead capture
2. Integrate Data to Deploy Personalized Campaigns
According to research, 59% of consumers say personalized engagement based on past interactions is crucial to winning their business and 70% of consumers say a company’s understanding of their personal needs influences their loyalty.
To achieve this level of personalization, data must be integrated from various sources to create a unified view of each customer. By combining data from touchpoints, businesses can better understand their customers’ preferences, behaviors, and needs to create personalized offers that resonate with individual customers.
Data integration also enables the creation of customer segments, where campaigns can be tailored to specific groups based on insights such as past purchase behavior or browsing habits.
For example, a customer who frequently purchases sports apparel might receive personalized offers on new athletic wear, while another customer who engages with beauty content on social media could be targeted with relevant beauty product recommendations.
By integrating data, brands can deploy real-time personalization where campaigns can be adjusted on the fly based on the latest customer interactions. For instance, if a customer abandons their cart, an automated email with a personalized incentive can be triggered to encourage them to complete their purchase. Or if a customer interacts with a specific product category on your website, they can be targeted with related ads across different platforms.
3. Foster a Customer-Centric Culture Across the Organization
Building a successful customer-first strategy is in many ways dependent on the company as a whole. Many departments interact with customers and there must be a shared mindset of focusing on customer experiences.
When the entire team is on board, processes can be put in place to integrate systems, collaborate on messaging, and ultimately break down silos to focus on the customer.
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