You spend huge amounts of time each week creating content, posting social updates, and updating and improving your website. And so you think you know your customers. Perfect! The only problem is that you don’t get much interaction… Does this sound familiar?
- You spend several hours creating blog content, posts for Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, tweets and more.
- The number of fans on your Facebook page is increasing, but no one is talking about you.
- The number of readers on your blog is not increasing.
- Your turnover does not increase.
You are stuck and don’t know what to do next. What could be the problem? You have taken courses. You have researched the social networks. You believe that you post interesting content. You know that conversation is most important in social media. Yet no one seems to talk to you. If this sounds familiar to you, have no fear. This is a known problem that we see with our clients, during our digital strategy workshops and during our training courses . Usually this is because communication channels and technology are started too early, before they have a good understanding of their customers. Drawing up buyer personas is therefore a first step. We previously wrote about what buyer personas are , why you need them and how you can set up buyer personas.
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What questions do customers ask themselves during their customer journey?
Success in marketing, and more specifically in digital marketing, is all about understanding your target audience. In the image below you can see that the only way to get people to move from “ tines, interesting ”, to “ hey, I want to know more about that ”, to “ hole, maybe I should contact Invisible Puppy because they have apparently an answer to my questions ”, is by understanding what questions they have at each stage of the purchasing process. In our jargon, we call this process the customer journey . It is the path that customers take following a succession of contact moments with online & offline channels, to make a (renewed) purchase and even to the moment that they want to propagate your brand as an ambassador to their network.
Understanding this customer journey is of paramount importance. At any time during this journey, a customer always has a new and different question. Is this something for me? What other solutions exist? How much is it? To know what these questions are, you need to invest time to get to know them . You need to know what keeps them awake at night. You need to know where they hang out both online and offline so you know where they look for information and answers to their questions. You need to figure out how to have a relevant conversation . Such a conversation often starts by starting up the right topic at the right time. A conversation that helps them feel good and helps them achieve business and/or life goals.
The reality is unfortunately different. Knowing our customers is something that, deep down, we all have to admit that we don’t really care enough about. However, with the right questions and technique, this is not an insurmountable problem. And let that be the subject of this blog post ;-).
Start with strategy, then tactics
Ok, before you exclaim ‘ Yes, Tom, I knew that now! ‘, let me explain why I bring this up. All too often I see plans that are full of tactics , without substance. And that content, that’s what it’s all about, of course. Your story, your knowledge, that is why customers come to you or are interested in you. The distinction between strategy and tactics is actually very simple.
- Tactics : Tactics are very practical things you do every day. Writing blog posts, sending tweets, replying to emails, contacting bloggers, improving your search results, etc.
- Strategy: Strategy is an overarching vision , intended to fulfill your predetermined goals and objectives. Strategy is the plan that ensures that all your daily activities (tactics) contribute to your monthly, quarterly and annual business goals.
An example of the difference between strategy and tactics
Perhaps this is all a bit theoretical, so an example will make everything much easier to understand. The example is simple: it is a strategy with only one goal. In practice, you may have several goals that you want to pursue at the same time.
Target:
- Increase sales by 25% by the end of the year
Objectives:
- Raise awareness of our website to the target audience, by 100% by the end of the year.
- Increase traffic to website by 50% compared to last year
- Increase repeat purchases by 10% compared to last year
Example strategy:
- Engage audiences at key touchpoints in their day when they are receptive to your messages.
- Generate new, unique visitors to your website.
- Motivate existing customers to make a purchase again.
