7 ways to get to know your customer

How much do you know your customers? Basic information from purchase history doesn’t really tell you much about them, and around 80% of brands have insufficient data about their customers to allow them to create effective and targeted marketing campaigns, to increase repeat custom, as well as a wider audience. Since building customer relationships is essential to growing your market share in any industry, the more you can improve your customer data and how you utilise this, then faster your growth and more effective your marketing will be. So how can you get to know your customer better?

1. Use all the data you can

The only way to really get to know your customer is to use all of the data that is available to you. You should access as much behavioural data and web analytics as possible. Free tools like Google Analytics are designed to give insight into the customer journey, as well as a breakdown of channels and conversions. If you have other tools you can use, make sure you’re using these to build the bigger picture when it comes to your customers.

2. Think big!

Your attitude to your business can limit what you can achieve, so it’s important for small businesses to think bigger. Although the data they analyse may be smaller-scale and using less sophisticated tools, the process is just as valuable. Take advantage of these processes and as your business scales, your processes will already be in place to make the most of your customer data.

3. Go social

Social media is often overlooked by marketers, with 7/10 choosing to ignore it for business marketing completely. If you can refine your social strategy, social media can be a great way to connect with new customers, and keep your brand visible to existing customers. This can encourage repeat purchases over time, and keep your brand fresh in the minds of customers.

4. Extend the customer lifecycle

  Every customer will have a unique customer lifecycle, based on factors including their past experience of your brand, and the level of relationship built so far. If you can increase this lifecycle, you can increase your customer value, increase future purchases or add additional services you provide to that customer. If you can stay in touch and connect at the points they are ready to purchase, then you’ll have almost guaranteed sales.  

5. Customer triggers

Identifying triggers can be helpful to see which customers are most likely to become repeat customers. Doing this will allow you to determine where to focus your marketing efforts and budget more carefully and strategically.

6. Realise it’s about more than just a purchase

Past-purchase behaviour is something that many marketers will be familiar with and know how to utilise fairly well, but this can still be built upon. It is helpful to drill down into which channels are working effectively to direct purchases. Along with household composition and propensity scores, this information can prove invaluable in terms of targeting your future marketing in a cost-effective and strategic way.

7. Always review

What’s worked in the past may not be what’s working now or in the future. Keep reviewing your methods and results and ensure you’re looking at your data in the most effective ways to really get to know your customer, rather than just getting stuck in what used to work. Find out more by booking your place on our Know Your Customer course.