How to Better Understand Your Customer

The old adage ‘know your customer’ has never felt more relevant in the era of anonymous purchases made online from individuals across the world. By knowing your customer, you’re better able to plan a number of your business processes – from the marketing campaigns you enact, through to the kind of customer service that you provide. Thankfully, the digital age has given rise to a number of exciting new ways to understand one’s customers – and it’s the objective of this article to outline some of the most novel and exciting ways to do this, helping businesses get the edge in a competitive online marketplace.

Look at Data

Whether you’re a large company or a small one, you’re still going to process a heap of data that can help you make conclusions about your customers that direct your whole business’ strategy. The trick here is to pull out and process this data effectively, with software and other online processes to help you piece together a picture of those that trade with you. Krystal.uk, the web hosting platform, can help you monitor this, or you might wish to use Google Analytics and other online programs to help you get to know your customer better.

Examine Public Profiles

If you’ve got social media pages – and in the modern era of business, all businesses should do – you’ll have a number of followers who’ve taken the time to bookmark your page and engage with your brand. These, you might say, are your core customers – those individuals who’re familiar with your brand to the point that they’d like to remain up to date with your latest product releases or service announcements. Examine their profiles, taking note of the kind of demographic circles your social media followers are from, to get a fuller picture of your core customer base.

Online Surveys

You’d be surprised just how many of your customers are happy to fill out a brief online survey, especially if there’s something in it for them. Consider setting up one of your own, with a reward offered (usually a percentage off their next purchase) to encourage some excellent, quality primary customer research ‘from the horse’s mouth,’ so to speak. Make sure your questions are snappy and revealing – often multiple-choice tick boxes are best – so that those that do fill in your questionnaire aren’t required to type for a long time.

Monitor Marketing Campaigns

Every piece of marketing material that you release on the world wide web will be measurable in terms of its relative success. You can measure site visit spikes or sales peaks to understand the effect that your marketing tactics are having on your business. The insights you’ll glean from these – if you compare them over time – will show you where your most successful marketing techniques are paying off. For instance, a young crowd might respond well to pop media references, while a professional crowd might prefer more sobering and trustworthy marketing. The process of interpretation here will be vital to understanding your customers’ wants and needs.

Knowing your customer is as important as ever in the digital age, and the tips outlined above should help you attain a deeper understanding of the individuals who interact with your company.