Marketing Map for Customer-centric Success

You know that your customer is fundamental to your strategic success. At the heart of everything you do and everything your organization does, there should be an all-encompassing consideration of your customer.

Digital tools and channels have dramatically transformed the way buyers choose to purchase. They’re more empowered, and more inclined to research online before reaching out to a sales rep. Because of digital, the fate of marketing campaigns and sales pipelines lies very much in the hands of the buyer. And despite this shift in power, many organizations still haven’t adopted a customer-centric approach to marketing and selling.

Content

Self-empowered modern buyers are actively going out and seeking knowledge, trying to find their own solutions. Consequently, the problem that sellers and marketers are facing is that these buyers are no longer responding to cold outreach and traditional broadcast marketing techniques.

Traditional tactics aren’t working, as buyers turn to search engines and social networks to self-educate through the consumption of digital content.

It’s important to align content not only to different stages of the buying process, but to specific buyer personas as well, as the kind of content that will engage and incentivize them will vary based on their characteristics and preferences.

Above all, you should look to create content that tells a story in a variety of formats. The format you select will ultimately depend on that buyer persona, and where they are in their customer journey.

Sharing Content

Once created, you need to share your content in the space where your target audience exists, engages, and learns, be it on LinkedIn, or via Twitter. You want your audience to be compelled to curate your content. Therefore, content is a key pillar of social selling, as well as modern marketing; buyers are much more likely to consume content from people and peers than brands and logos. That’s why a piece of content’s “shareability” should be a key consideration for you during creation, curation, and distribution.

Advocacy

Your best salespeople are sometimes your customers. Customers who are willing to say wonderful things about you and your company. Buyers today not only have more choice, but they also have a louder voice, which you can leverage to your brand’s advantage.

The traditional perception of customer advocacy is something like a reference program, which is based on gathering references to help sales reps enhance your company’s credibility and acquire more customers.

The key to developing advocacy is clear communication. You have to create an amazing customer experience end-to-end, great product, honest and accurate marketing, responsible salespeople.

The most effective marketing strategies are driven by a customer-centric culture. A customer-centric organization is where every process starts and ends with customer success in mind. It’s a culture. Every aspect of your company should be aligned with the sole purpose of creating an optimal customer experience. When you do this for your customers, they will in turn champion your success.