Improve Cross-Channel Marketing With A Customer-Enthralled Approach

Consumer habits continue to change as shoppers test new shopping methods and explore different brands and retailers. Nearly 9 in 10 consumers tried a new shopping behavior at the end of 2021, and almost half have made purchases from new brands, stores and websites. Consumer loyalty is up for grabs, and your marketing must rise to the occasion to keep current and attract new customers.

While most companies acknowledge the effectiveness of their customer-centric business strategies, only 8% of enterprises are truly customer enthralled. Investing in customer-focused initiatives can yield at least a 700% ROI over 12 years, but companies — and marketers — must first understand how to use the approach to their advantage.

Center your strategy around the customer

What exactly does it mean to be customer enthralled? It means going beyond offering an effective, efficient customer experience or encouraging your employees to bring a positive attitude to customer interactions. A sharp-eyed focus on the customer elevates your business strategy to impact everything from a company’s vision to its operations and even the primary value it offers to partners, employees and customers.

A customer-enthralled company continually adds value to the customer experience, prioritizing customer needs within each new business goal, with a focus on increasing loyalty and retention.

Where do marketers fit into this business model? A focus on the customer drives the experiences and value we offer our audiences. With this marketing approach, we know there’s no such thing as an “average” customer because each customer is an individual with different needs. We focus on customer lifetime value (CLV) as a measure of our marketing decisions. Here’s how you can center your marketing strategy on the customer.

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Embrace agile marketing

Agile marketing offers a remedy to siloed teams sending disparate messages across channels. This marketing approach asks teams to identify high-value projects where they can focus their collective efforts, complete projects together, evaluate the results of their actions and iterate to improve over time. By focusing on the same mission and tasks to accomplish their goal, your team can dedicate its time and energy to the customer.

Double down on your “why”

Outside factors are constantly changing: trends, behaviors, economic stability. As you pursue customer-enthralled marketing, ground this approach in your company’s foundation, your “why.” Values-led companies deliver more for their customers emotionally, fostering loyalty through authenticity and consistency.

What’s your business’s purpose? What does your brand want to do for its customer community? Cordial’s recent customer engagement study surveyed 2,000 consumers to capture their evolving needs and attitudes toward marketing. Eight in 10 consumers think it’s important to buy from companies with a positive culture and clear values. Why do you and your colleagues show up for work each day? Reflecting on your “why” helps you connect your customer’s needs to your business’s unique value.

Drop long-term plans and follow the data

The only constant these days? Change. By exchanging your long-term plans for real-time pivots, your team can enjoy maximum flexibility in pursuing your goals. Shortening plans doesn’t mean ignoring benchmarks, though. Instead, you’re positioning your company to react more effectively as customer preferences shift.

Over 81% of consumers told Cordial they’d more likely buy from brands and stores that provide a personalized experience. More than half labeled most marketing messages they receive as generic. A vast majority (78%) express frustration about receiving  generic brand messages.

The bottom line? Consumers want hyper-personalized experiences — which they don’t consistently receive. Collecting and understanding your data — in real-time — is vital to offering the personalization customers want.

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Employ a test-and-learn approach

Marketers take in new information on how to engage daily — an onslaught of information which can overwhelm even the most dynamic teams. A test-and-learn approach prioritizes progress over perfection. You can send your great ideas into the wild, evaluate their performance and pivot based on customer feedback.

To benefit the most from this approach requires streamlined technology and access to data to help drive decision-making and enable your team to change course without losing momentum. Unfortunately, according to Cordial research, the vast majority (81%) of marketers face obstacles when trying to send personalized messages. Resource constraints, data formatting and data access top the list of hindrances. And 9 out of 10 marketers wish they could use real-time data more easily to build high-impact marketing campaigns.

Developing a customer-enthralled mindset takes time, tools and practice, but it also simplifies your mission as a marketer. How? By:

• Aligning your teams toward one goal.
• Changing course without losing your “why.”
• Identifying and fulfilling the customers’ needs at the right moment with the right message.
• Constantly upping the ante on personalization in your cross-channel marketing efforts.

And you’re doing it all so that customers see and feel your commitment to satisfying their expectations.