Working on content creation and marketing, while going through all the intricate steps and following carefully crafted strategies, we often overlook the ones we are designing it all for. Even if we do remember them, we fail to understand their needs and requirements. We forget that our target audience and their fulfillment is the sole requirement of everything. No brand can survive without a proper audience to support it.
In simpler words, your success depends upon your audience’s satisfaction. So if you want to hold an accolade or two in this field, it’s time you start producing customer-centric content right.
Given below are a few helpful tips to provide you with some ideas on the subject. Since they are all revolved around the one and only factor- pleasing the populace, let this fun mantra prepare you for the promising outcomes to come. It’s “Please them to please your brand!”
Setting things straight
Redefine your customer strategy and revolve it around your target audience. You can incorporate the following tips to sharpen your approach. Straighten everything out from beginning to end, so much so that your brand voicescreamswith customer-centric marketing!
Understand expectations and learn how to meet them.
If there is one thing, we can observe and learn from successful business tycoons like Steve Jobs and Elon Musk, understand your audience’s expectations from you and then perform beyond their imaginations. This has been their course of action for a while now. Confused? Let me clear those clouds. You see, with the introduction of Musk’s idea like SpaceX, people who previously were just excited with the possibility of an alien civilization went berserk with the idea of colonizing Mars and making foreign friends. Spending thousands of dollars on a future project, these innocents didn’t know of the genius marketing strategy lying behind.
Elon knew that people were absolutely losing their minds to see aliens; he knew of those numerous fake UFOs flying on different YouTube channels. With the general public being so invested in something’s mere existence, he out of nowhere brought up a project that could result in possible acquainting with the said subject. People ought to lose it at that! And they did, earning him tons of revenue enough to come No.1 on the list of rich chaps.
The same strategy was followed by Jobs, where he, in a world of keyboards and small screens, introduced touch screens and other exciting gadgets like iPads and iPods, which at the time were like small incredible pieces of metal.
Hence, folks, this is one strategy you shouldn’t live without. Know the expectations and perform with the farfetched and unthinkable versions of those to win the hearts of your customers, making them your absolute fans!
Stay connected to form long-lasting relationships.
It comes as no doubt that staying in touch with your clients is the utmost priority in today’s digital world. It would be best if you were both frequent and responsive in each exchange to let your customers know of your attentiveness towards them. Of course, you can use Gmail, SMS, In-app messages, FB Messenger, or even make direct phone calls to do the job.
Besides taking the traditional route, you can also mod things up by asking viewers on your social media platform of stuff they would like to see you improving and incorporating. Run surveys on Instagram stories and make use of the mood-boards to rate your performance level or set up choice boards with stuff you have lined up and let your audience choose for themselves. This will provide them with a sense of communication and make them feel engaged in the entire content creation process.
Always be in reach
As it takes a huge financial and time expenditure in servicing customers, many digitally-built businesses mostly hide their support behind layers of pages, blocking out difficult customers and benefiting their brand.
But viewing the other side, customers on average may not be the biggest fans of, you know, being blocked. They might feel neglected that their chosen service doesn’t care for their issues. You will be viewed as another arrogant business-only brand, which, as it sounds, is not the best of statuses out there.
So instead, why not take up a little financial burden and form another team for ‘helpline’? Make your
Contact Us
Button to be easily accessible and visible to all. When a troubled customer arrives there, let your team deal with them nicely and see how satisfied that buyer returns from your brand.
Forget spending dollars on Ads and marketing tactics; this contented buyer will do the advertising for you.
Maintaining your audience
So you convinced some decent amount of people to buy your products. They came, spent some cash and left. Now what? Is there any credibility that they will return? I mean you are here to build an ongoing market. What will you do with one-time customers?
For the sake of your brand, you must guarantee your customers return and complete purchases. As marketing studies tell us, it costs nearly five times more to get one new customer than retaining the already existent. So focusing on them and finding ways to encourage their return should always stay on top of your priority list.
You can do this by doing a bit of research and giving your customers a chance to meet their goals and wishes. Excellent customer service is a must through it all. Make the experience unforgettable for them. Compel them to believe their accomplishments are entwined with your brand.
For example, provide retailed items as RMI does with their flame-resistant clothing for mine workers or the unique and certified courses they give for safe machinery usage. Did I mention those courses are free?
This unique approach allows the customers to avoid costly mishaps and gives them the tools needed to sharpen their careers. By attending more and more of these courses, not only do these customers benefit themselves but begin relying on RMI with their long-term goals.
In-person meetings
While the digital market has provided us with many advanced tools and easy lures, if there is one thing it has taken away, that is human contact. Sure now you have various platforms where you can express your product and its exclusiveness; the improvements through feedback have helped the market grow and with compelling buttons like “Shop Now” and “Sale!” being transparent to everyone in the comfort of their homes, has brought up revenue like nothing else. Still, the lack of in-depth human contact has been a boulder in the path of gaining customer trust.
My father has this saying he religiously follows, “Don’t buy it lest you try it.” By trying it he means to see its functionality. A substantial demographic population believes that they shouldn’t buy something unless they have seen it with their own two eyes. These people view digital marketing as deceitful and a scam, and who would blame them? Looking back at their time before the dawn of the internet and our diverse global economy, marketing was all about direct human contact. If they wanted something, they went to a shop, talked to the salesperson, analyzed the product on their own, and bought it in-person. They grew up at a time where viewing the product before you buy it was as essential as anything, and doing it otherwise led to getting scammed.
Now that digital marketing has robbed them of that comfort, it is time we think of a solution and bring back the in-person experience, at least to some extent.
It may sound outdated and like bearing unnecessary wallet pain, but hosting such events can prove beneficial to your quest to customer centrism.
With organizing events, you express the worth of two parties: the customers and the brand. Think about this initiative by Sofi on hosting diverse community events across the country. They argue that while expensive, this investment of theirs holds a positive outcome. Pressing on the advantages of direct interaction, receiving feedback from their members, and claiming it as a way to build brand affinity.
In Conclusion:
The path of becoming a truly customer-centric business may come off as both complicated and expensive, but don’t be discouraged by it, for the smallest of policy changes can leave a significant effect on your buyers and will, in time, earn you more than what you initially invested.
Remember always to put your customers first, understand them and interact more. Put yourself in their shoes and minimal effort on their part. This will make them realize the value they hold in your business. And everyone loves being valued. It will have them falling in love with your content in no time!
