The changing consumer landscape has flipped business on its head. What was once a company-controlled marketplace has become an uncontrolled (from the business perspective) place where buying decisions are driven by the customer. Instead of being influenced to buy based on fancy billboards and Super Bowl commercials, people are now more influenced by the opinions of friends, families, colleagues, and others within their network.
Companies are now scrambling to re-orient themselves around customers in order to build a sustainable competitive advantage. This means that marketing needs to move away from being a planned, one-size-fits all experience that is “pushed” to consumers. Instead, companies need to focus on creating a great customer experience in the online world that is inviting and will “pull” them in.
The first step in creating this consumer-centric experience is to learning everything possible about your target market. Most importantly, you need to discover your customer’s preferences for how they get the information they need to purchase. Here’s a guide to get you started…
- What needs do they have?
- What problems do they face?
- What interests them?
- How do they find information?
- How do they consume information?
- Do they prefer reading content or watching videos?
- What media do they read or follow?
- What social sites do they visit?
- How do they share information?
There are certainly a lot more questions you could ask to learn even more about them, but this is a good start. Once you really know your customers, you can begin building a really effective integrated marketing strategy. A strategy that utilizes all of the digital tools at your disposal; website, social media, search engines, and paid online advertising such as PPC.
If you are looking for a partner to help you revamp your marketing to meet the demands of today’s consumer, contact us for information. We’ve got years of experience and have helped businesses from a wide variety of industries gain market share by creating impressive integrated marketing strategies.
