Today, you will find the internet flooding with content that highlights the importance of being customer-centric building your business plans with your customers at their crux. Well, that itself demonstrates the power your customers hold.

According to a report by Think with Google, 61% of people expect brands to provide experiences based on their preferences. 

Also, another survey shows that 75% of CX (Customer Experience) leaders claim to have seen positive correlations between customer satisfaction and business objectives.

However, knowing the importance of customer-centric marketing strategies is only helpful when you learn how to implement them for your benefit.

In this post, we will cover the following:

• What Is Customer Driven Marketing?
• Importance of Customer-Driven Marketing Strategies
• 5 Easy Customer-Driven Marketing Strategy Steps
• Some Examples of Successful Customer-Driven Marketing Strategies

Let us begin with understanding what customer-driven marketing means.

What is Customer Driven Marketing?

Customer-driven marketing means pivoting your marketing strategies on one basic principle- “Customer Satisfaction and meeting customer demands in a personalized manner ”

Simply put, you should work towards developing customer-focused business strategies aimed at maximizing CX (Customer Experience) and providing your customers with products based on their preferences.

Let us now understand why a customer-driven marketing strategy is so important:

The Importance of Customer-Driven Marketing Strategies:

– High customer lifetime value

Customer value-driven marketing strategies (discussed later on in this article) will help you assess the entire journey of your customers and not just their transactions. 

These strategies aim at targeting your audience and developing products based on their demands and requirements.

Eventually, you will retain your customers and increase Customer Lifetime Value. 

Here’s an interesting fact for you: A 5% increase in customer retention is equivalent to a 25% increase in profits.

Tip: “Customers tend to prolong their association with companies that prioritize their satisfaction.” 

– Customer loyalty

Emphasizing customer-driven marketing strategies will make your customers feel valued. 

These strategies focus on improving your customer experience which results in a well-established loyal customer base.

About 96% of the respondents in a survey say that customer service plays a crucial role in determining their loyalty towards a brand.

– Increase your brand advocacy

A customer-focused business strategy implies- satisfied customers who tend to share their experiences with friends and family. 

This will maximize your brand referral and amplify your sales.

Here’s another interesting fact for you: 92% of the customers trust their peer recommendations more than any other suggestions.

– Higher perceived values for your products

Customer-driven marketing strategies directly affect how customers interact with your organization. 

A satisfied customer will be willing to pay more for your services, given that you incorporate their feedback while developing your products.

According to ‘adQuadrant’ 86% of people are willing to pay more, provided they get a better experience. 

– Higher sales

A satisfied customer base (established through customer-centric strategies) ensures a steady flow of sales which eventually generates higher revenue.

Take Note: 73% of companies that provide great customer experience exhibit higher financial growth.

The following image represents how good CX leads to higher sales:

Now that you know how important customer value-driven marketing strategies are, take a look at 5 easy steps to create your own Customer-Driven Marketing Strategy:

5 Easy Customer-Driven Marketing Strategy Steps

1. Segmentation

Segmenting your market audience will help you analyze the behavioral patterns of your customers and enable you to target your audience precisely.

Segmentation can be carried out in numerous ways based on demography, behavioral patterns, geological factors, psychographic factors, etc.

Moreover, it will broaden your view of the market and help you in channeling your resources to generate maximum gains.

2. Define your target audience

You should define your target audience and analyze their needs based on their purchase patterns and behavior towards your products and services. 

This will also help you pinpoint your customers’ demands.

Create personas for your customers and develop your products based on their preferences.

3. Take customer feedback as a basis of your product line

Integrate a culture of gathering customer feedback in your marketing framework and emphasize enhanced customer experience.

You can also use methods to measure the level of customer-centric culture in your organization (like calculating NPS, determining Churn rate, and CLV) to check if your customers are satisfied with the services you provide them.

4. Invest in customer service

In the current business world, the importance of customer satisfaction can’t be emphasized enough.

Thus, you should incorporate an efficient customer service team to tackle product-related customer grievances as swiftly as possible.
You can either delegate your customer service responsibilities to an outsourced team or recruit employees within your organization to form a customer service department.

5. Work on customer engagement

Focus your marketing strategies towards creating engaging content and ensure that you incorporate omnichannel practices to connect with your target audience through numerous platforms. 

Different audiences prefer different methods to analyze information. When you define a target audience (as mentioned earlier in this section), you gather loads of data related to their daily lives, interests, work-related information, etc. 

You should use this knowledge to plan a data-driven marketing strategy that will help you engage with your audiences better.

Some Examples of Successful Customer-Driven Marketing Strategies

1. Starbucks Marketing Strategy:

Starbucks is the leading organization in the market for premium coffee. Despite being renowned for high prices, Starbucks has still managed to dominate over their competitors by determining their target audience and investing all their resources towards keeping them satisfied.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• They defined their target audience- mostly urban inhabitants, health-conscious people, and upper-class business(men and women).
• They understood the lifestyle of these target audiences and provided them with the one thing that they most craved for, ‘peace and high-quality coffee’.
• They expanded their marketing strategies by adapting to the digital world for engaging their audiences on virtual platforms in addition to the preexisting physical engagements.
• They market fan-based products with great passion (a great example of how to incorporate customer feedback in the production process)

2. Amazon’s Marketing Strategy

Amazon is a huge conglomerate that sells a wide range of products ranging from movies, books, groceries, clothes, and digital accessories. Starting as an online marketing platform for books, it has experienced humongous growth and is now one of the leading organizations in the world.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Amazon provides a vast range of goods that is capable of satisfying most of its customers’ requirements.
• It ensures a user-friendly website that can be used by less tech-savvy customers as well.
• They make continuous efforts in collecting customer feedback and integrate these into their services thereby, maximizing customer satisfaction. 
• Its marketing strategies integrate numerous targeted marketing platforms and channels that increase their outreach and help them in engaging with their customers through omnichannel practices.

3. Zappos Marketing Strategy

Zappos is the world’s largest online shoe store that offers a wide range of premium quality shoes for its customers. Like most success stories, even they had a humble beginning. Yet, they now compete with the world’s largest conglomerates. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS: 

• They focussed entirely on expanding their reach via digital platforms and e-commerce tools. 
• They were the initiators of using social media platforms as a marketing strategy that helped them connect to their customers on their preferred social media sites.
• They segmented the market and targeted audiences based on their interests.
• They have always set high standards when it comes to customer experience and satisfaction.

Bottom Line

The current business world runs with customers at its crux. Thus, it is inevitable that you align your marketing strategies according to your customers. 

If you are reading this, that means you are now equipped with the easiest steps to encourage a customer-driven marketing strategy. 

Parting Words:  “Customer-driven marketing strategies are most effective when you first determine who your customers are, and analyze their purchase patterns and preferences. When you prepare a business plan, ensure that you first break this vast discipline into segments and work on them individually. This will broaden your perspective and help you focus on intricate details that you would have otherwise skipped out.” 

You can consider Saufter for improving the efficiency of your customer service team. With its powerful automations, your team can avoid many repetative tasks and focus on a customer-centric approach. Additionally, you can also give a try for AI-powered live chat solution of Saufter to build personalized relations with your customers. Furthermore, they offer customized pricing.

So, what are you waiting for?

Start Your Free Trial Now!