At Centipede Digital we utilize multiple channels, including television, print, social, digital, mobile, tablets and video – to provide consumers with content they want and to effectively deliver the messages of our clients to the marketplace. In the past, investments in media campaigns meant that you would tell your story to the masses and wait for the response, while this method still has moderate success, it is not keeping pace with the changing ways that consumers consume media.
While Millennials don’t account for all of the expendable income in the marketplace, we are certainly starting to notice a transfer of wealth from one generation to another. This poses a significant problem for marketers that aren’t convinced that there is an evolution underway.
The problem is that Millennials don’t really care about traditional brands and are connecting to the brands they choose to do business with in many non-traditional ways. I am constantly telling clients the importance of really knowing your consumer and then taking that knowledge and connecting all the dots to boost sales, up-sells and cross-sell opportunities.
You don’t have to be a mega-company to win at the marketing game, you just have to ensure you are taking advantage of every opportunity you can to be everywhere your current and potential customers are. Here are a few suggestions to get you started on your journey.
- Know your customer. There is usually a slight disconnect here. I’m not talking about knowing their names, anniversaries, and birthdays. I am talking about developing personas for each of your major customer groups and then using those personas in every marketing decision that you make. If you’re not familiar with personas and you are interested in learning more, check out “6 Golden Rules for Creating Marketing Personas in the New Digital World” by John Lincoln on inc.com.
- Understand your customer’s journey. Create a reverse path from purchase to the customer’s first experience with your brand. Seek to understand the journey your customer took from finish to start. Use those learnings to create a cohesive understanding of the customer experience that can be utilized across your organization. This way everyone understands how to ensure the customer has a consistent, enjoyable experience with your brand. Turn positive customer journeys into an opportunity to get the customer more engaged in telling their story about your brand, turn them into brand influencers.
- Implement and use a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) process/system. Data can enrich what you know and what you don’t know about your customers and prospects. Too often information is housed in one department or another and are never shared cross-functionally. In order to deliver a highly relevant message, you must have the most relevant data possible. At Centipede Digital we utilize marketing automation, a process and system that many of our clients use to manage customer relationships, sales and marketing. We leverage analytics and real time insights to understand and better anticipate evolving consumer/audience behaviors, needs and channel preferences. This data also helps the agency and our clients target existing customers more accurately as they move through their journey, bolstering campaign response rates and overall revenue.
- Create a strategy and stick with it. I don’t care if you were the marketing MVP of the year, you need a strategy. Now that you have discovered all of these great customer insights, put them to work for you. When you don’t have an expert guiding you through the strategic planning process you will put yourself at risk for a myriad of different things. There are a few things you need to keep in mind if you are going at this alone.
– Marketing does not work over night. If your business is suffering a loss or is looking for quick hit revenue, you are going to set yourself up for failure.
– Put a realistic strategy in place. The way I look at strategy is that it occurs above the shoulders; while, tactics occur below. Set realistic key performance indicators if data suggest something isn’t successful and you’ve given it more than a little time then adjust your tactics and see your strategy through. It is important to remember that repetition is key.
– Share your sales and marketing strategy with everyone in your organization and you will certainly start to see the results.
Centipede Digital is an independent data-driven marketing agency. We leverage intelligence at every decision point, which helps you market to the right consumers, at the right time, in the right way! Contact us today to discuss how you can put our expertise to work for you.