When you compare traditional marketing to digital marketing there is one big difference between the two.
With traditional marketing you just are not able to get full insights into who your customers really are. When you run a TV campaign you cannot tell who actually viewed your commercial and if those who were served it even viewed it at all. It’s also difficult to tie back what effects that TV campaign had on your bottom line.
This is where digital marketing fills the void; with cookies and other tracking methods at your disposal. Your dollars spent in digital marketing can go toward finding your key customer base.
Here are four strategies on how you can get moving in the right direction, and finally figure out that age-old question: who really is my customer?
- Start testing immediately using PPC
The reason why I mention PPC here is because it is the fastest route to getting your ads on the market. This quickness to market allows you to swiftly begin testing your ads, and your site experience for who you think are your core customers.
Let’s say you sell jeans and you want to test “high end” vs. “discount” searchers and their actions on your site. With PPC, you can set up two ad groups with keywords and ads that reflect your test. You set them off into the search world, and within a few days you can compare the results of your two ad groups against each other. One metric you could look at is conversion rate – do high end searches convert at a higher rate than discount? If so, then you should think about optimizing your site to reflect a sense of luxury and provide more products that high end shoppers find of interest.
That’s a very rudimentary example, but you can see the endless possibilities and value that PPC can bring to your business right away from just pure performance results.
- Test different landing page experiences
Let’s extend the example above further, and say you’re interested in finding a partner that will help you in tracking activity on your landing pages. One vendor that can get you up and running immediately is Optimizely. Again, figuring out what elements work the best for your user demographic is key.
By undergoing continuous landing page testing you should be able to make informed decisions on whether or not certain elements on your site work. Getting rid of the clutter and replacing it with something with more utility helps your users achieve their goals more efficiently. In the end, you’ll increase your conversion rates and grow your bottom line.
- Surveys facilitate feedback
What better way to get visitor data than from your own visitors? I’m sure you’ve had those annoying in-window pop ups when you visit new sites asking you if you want to take a survey. These are companies that are going after exactly what you should be going after as well – real opinions from real site visitors.
Google just released a new product called Consumer Surveys where you can choose what users – by demographic attributes – you want to release a survey to and then pay Google per each response. This is a great option to look at if you are looking to get faster responses than your in-site surveys and gives you a broader reach to find where you stand in your market.
- Motivating to customers to provide their data
Consumer data is priceless. Ulta Beauty gives you a free eye-liner on your birthday if you sign up for their club, and Express gives you a 15% off coupon if you give them your email address. These companies aren’t just giving you something for free because they like losing money; it’s because they want to figure out who their core customers are.
In this day and age, consumers are more relaxed than ever to give you all their personal information in exchange for something of value to them. Companies like Amazon are taking advantage of this and are using all that Big Data that they gather from their site visitors to make big money (can I patent this?).
Try to think about what you can offer your visitors to gain as much information as you can from them. This will help you in creating a model from your analytical platforms to attain an even deeper understanding of your core customers.
These four strategies will help you begin forming the idea about who your core customers are online, and get you moving in the right direction. Remember, data is priceless, and data will grow your bottom line.