Understanding customer-focused marketing

Building trust and loyalty with customers is one of the main goals of customer-focused marketing. Companies that are trying to make a profit tend to neglect the needs of their customers and they do not market in areas that will actually reach their customers.

In order to start marketing toward your customers, take a look at things your company is currently doing to strengthen it's relationships with customers. Are you doing things to build bonds with your customers? How do you raise brand awareness? Many companies engaging in newsletter marketing and surveys, these are great ways to increase your relationships with your customers and it's a great way to capture their attention.

Customer-focused marketing also takes a look at the way your customers are responding to current and past advertising promotions. Perhaps there were some past advertising methods you liked, but your customers didn't respond to. With customer-focused marketing, you will re-visit some of these past ideas and look for ways to re-vamp them to make them successful.

Start conducting surveys and market research to find out what your customers need's are. This can also give you insight into their buying patterns. Another benefit of market research is that it can also help you figure out which way is the best way to reach your target audience. Some prefer online marketing while others still like print marketing methods. Conducting market research on your own is actually much easier than people think, the time-consuming part is when you need to organize all the data and then perform the evaluation of it. Use email newsletters and other online promotions to get their attention. The benefit of most online promotions is that it is free to do and the data is easier to organize.

An important thing to remember with customer-focused marketing is that one-time buyers are just that, one-time. It doesn't make sense to continue marketing to a person that has determined they will never purchase from your company again. Instead focus on your existing customers since they bring in 80 percent of your revenue. If you are determined to make a one-time buyer into a long-term buyer, you must act quickly on correspondence after their order. Use marketing promotions like "Second chance" offers to get their attention and keep them coming back.

Here are some of the important things you need to keep in mind with customer-focused marketing:

• Creating product and brand awareness


• Building company and product identity


• Strengthening customer relationships


• Increasing community awareness


• Encouraging customer referrals

Your customers need to see your products and services being marketed, especially if you are dealing with some big competitors. You must build brand and company awareness in order to influence customers. Take a look at your current marketing strategy, are any of the promotions helping you educate the public about your company and your products?

Awareness and identity go hand-in-hand. The identity focuses more on the emotional needs of the customers. What is it about your products that will sway your customers to purchase from your company again? What type of emotional connection do they have to your brand?

Strengthening customer relationships comes from taking time to recognize your customers. Do you let them know how much you truly appreciate them for their support? Do your customers like your customer service department? How quickly do they respond to the needs of the customers?

It helps to strengthen customer relationships when you can make a name for yourself in the community. People need to see your company out there doing good and strengthening local ties before you move on to national ties.

Finally, good customer-focused marketing will promote customer referrals. If you really want to find new customers that can help your company find success, this is the way to do it.