Having the ability to see inside the minds of customers is probably the dream of many marketing professionals. It is an extremely difficult task to understand what catches their attention, what their interests are, or what they do not like to purchase. In a scenario like this where you cannot read the minds of customers, read the information about them. Yes, analytics of big data is the only tool available to businesses to sustain or grow a base of customers.
Customers while buying things online, leave traces of information which needs to be understood diligently to serve them better. Such information can be termed as their characteristics also and includes-
Age
Gender
Employment status
Family and marital status
Income level
Geographic location
The factors which finally cause a purchase
The factors which made them stay on a website
The kind of product information they look
Their payment preference
Their content consumption habits
Interests or any other behavior pattern
Now, this information becomes big data and it needs to be analyzed or decoded effectively in order to decide best strategies for the excellent performance of the business. Let’s see how it can be done.
Evaluate the average purchase size of a customer and look at this not just in aggregate but by each characteristic. Consider that people buy products based on value, and not just on price. Now think can you sell more or different products to the people of these particular characteristics by using a promotion or creating awareness in them.
Calculate the money you spent on marketing and sales to hold on the customers of a particular characteristic. If you spending more and the customer is not buying in large then you unnecessarily incur the cost to hold that specific category of customer.
How much money a particular characteristic of a customer is shelling for your website? Is it less or a lot? This will indicate the strength of your lifetime relationship with that base of customers.
Which characteristic of theirs shows that they are not interested in your website or product? Identify it and see what measures you can take because it costs more to acquire customers than to maintain them. Make sure that your actions or delivery increase customer loyalty.
Are customers happy with your products and services? Is the other category of customers not happy? Evaluate the difference between the two and find out your flaws. Decide the necessary improvements that need to be taken promptly to reach customer expectations.
See, is your intended customers actually buying from you? Is your business going the way you thought it to be? If the answer is NO, then it looks like you are out of alignment. You need to refine your offerings as per the different characteristics.
Thus, divide the group of customers on the basis of their behaviour, demographics, and merit and prioritize these groups by the value they provide to your company. Understand the characteristic of a customer and deal with them in the same way. Say, for price-conscious customers of your brand, offer a 20% discount on the final cart value. The ones who are socially active may buy a product from your site if a part of the product price proceeds for a specific social cause. Always remember, data will just be data until or unless you connect it with human experiences, habits or values.
