{"id":6575,"date":"2019-09-18T11:22:26","date_gmt":"2019-09-18T11:22:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/?p=6575"},"modified":"2021-01-11T21:50:09","modified_gmt":"2021-01-11T21:50:09","slug":"want-to-reach-customers-think-like-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/2019\/09\/want-to-reach-customers-think-like-one\/","title":{"rendered":"Want To Reach Customers? Think Like One!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Why EMPATHY for your CONSUMER will always result in a Better, More Effective Marketing Plan.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s pretty easy to sit in a room and come up with a flashy marketing plan that\u2019s sure to please other marketing experts. That doesn\u2019t mean it will be a good <\/em>marketing plan or that it will be at all relevant to your consumers, but you\u2019re certainly free to try the locked room method. Plenty do. The plan often fails; the team repeats the process all over again, and somehow nobody realizes that the key ingredient for success has been missing the whole time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m not talking about data here. It\u2019s easy to get seduced by numbers and graphs and demographics. However, if you want to create effective marketing for your consumers, then you need to walk a mile (or ten) in their shoes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Look, I understand the appeal of data and analysis. It\u2019s an important part of success in most things, marketing included. But it is not the only ingredient to success, and if you rely only on the data then you\u2019re going to miss out on the context that gives the data meaning. You may understand what <\/em>people are doing, but that doesn\u2019t mean you know why <\/em>they\u2019re doing it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dig deeper, and ask the right questions<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The path to purchase is far from just a numbers game. Think about what someone goes through when they are considering the products or services that you have to offer. What would prompt them to need your business in the first place? If you were making a similar purchase, what factors would you consider when evaluating which business to buy from? What would be your deal-breakers and your must-haves? Are you looking to research your options heavily, or is it a purchase where you can go with the most affordable option that meets your needs? How would the real, unavoidable demands of your budget impact your options?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smart consumers ask themselves plenty of questions before making a purchase, and smart marketers should do the same when laying out a marketing plan. The data will likely have some answers, but there\u2019s no way to get a complete picture without considering the needs of consumers in a more direct, personal way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you rely only on data, you\u2019re going to miss out on the context that gives the data meaning. You may understand what people are doing, but that doesn\u2019t mean you know why they\u2019re doing it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not just for marketing<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

How many times have you visited an ecommerce website to make a purchase, only to find a hundred hurdles to clear before you can get what you came for? Slow loading times, buggy user interface, no search feature, unclear page\/category choices, poor product descriptions, broken links\u2026 The list goes on and on. If you\u2019re a consumer and you land at a business like that, you\u2019re probably going back to Google to find your next option.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thing is, poor design choices often feel <\/em>intuitive for the people who designed them. You know the system and see how it works from the ground up, so naturally consumers will too, right? The truth is that consumers experience your website and marketing from their viewpoint \u2014 not from yours.<\/strong> Those two things may line up, but that\u2019s much harder to do if you don\u2019t understand the real, day-to-day needs of your consumers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the right hands, data and experience work together to paint a more complete picture than you\u2019d get from either source individually. That\u2019s only possible, however, if you\u2019re willing to invest in the \u2018experience\u2019 side of the equation, too. Take the time to put yourself in the consumer\u2019s shoes, and your marketing will be much better for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#RetailRelevancy<\/a> #RonR<\/a>\u2026 #NoLetUp!<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Originally posted at TedRubin.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why EMPATHY for your CONSUMER will always result in a Better, More Effective Marketing Plan. It\u2019s pretty easy to sit in a room and come up with a flashy marketing plan that\u2019s sure to please other marketing experts. That doesn\u2019t mean it will be a good marketing plan or that it will be at all relevant to … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":6576,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[137,7],"tags":[1251,1571,106,32,1318],"class_list":["post-6575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-posts","category-tedrubin","tag-consumer-engagement","tag-consumer-loyalty","tag-consumers","tag-marketing","tag-marketing-resources"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6575"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6628,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6575\/revisions\/6628"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}