No two customers are alike, and they all interact with your brand in unique ways. The first step is to get a breakdown of your customers, which will allow you to target them with the most appropriate content and offers. To categorize your customer base and develop buyer personas, use a wide variety of characteristics, such as demographic traits, online shopping habits, and other engagement tendencies like customer lifetime value. An ecommerce-focused analytics tool can help by automating this process - Glew provides 25+ pre-built customer segments, as well as the ability to easily filter data to create your own customer segments, including:
2. Identify their needs
Now that you have buyer personas, it’s time to figure out why they chose your business and the pain point you’re solving for them. Did they purchase out of convenience? How much were they willing to spend? Did they consciously seek your brand out? Are they likely to purchase from you again - and when? Perform this exercise for each of the buyer personas you identified in step 1. Once you think about the context of your buyers’ needs, you’ll be in a better position to gear your outputs towards meeting those needs — which is the next step.
3. Determine how your brand meets those needs
The initial research is done: you have your buyer personas, and you know what their main goals are. The next step is to determine how your business specifically can solve your customers’ problems. The goal is to make their purchasing experience as seamless and easy as possible, so now is the time to focus your efforts on the data-driven insights you’ve gained. Think about what experience each buyer persona might prefer - what products and price points they might be most attracted to, what marketing channels and strategies will work best on them, and how you can create a purchase and post-purchase experience that promotes repeat visits and customer loyalty.
4. Apply your analysis
Finally, capitalize on all of this data you’ve collected by optimizing the way you connect with your customers and prospective customers. Each persona will respond differently to different channels and types of content, so use it to personalize the buying experience. With the insights you've gained from conducting your customer analysis, you’re in a better position to optimize your marketing campaigns, driving key metrics like total sales, average order value, lifetime value and repeat purchase rate. Focus your efforts by thinking about what your goals are here - are you trying to acquire more new customers in a certain customer demographic, or retain more of your existing high-value customers? Are you trying to boost lifetime value over time or get each of your customers to spend more with you on a single purchase?
How to use customer analysis for your business
So — what does all of this mean for your business? By conducting a thorough customer analysis, you’ll gain insight into your customers’ behavior that allow you to focus your marketing efforts better. The data you’ve collected can help you steer more potential customers your way, provide them with a more streamlined and personalized experience, and ultimately increase brand loyalty and customer retention. That means greater efficiency in your marketing efforts, and added revenue for your bottom line. Your customer data will also help you identify which advertising campaigns are most effective and predict future consumer behavior, which is more important than ever given the competitive ecommerce market — a market that’s estimated to have 2.05 billion global digital buyers in 2020. Companies that pay attention to their customers’ behavior and preferences will have the most success — now and in the future. Don’t forget these key takeaways:
Customer analysis helps you identify your target customers, anticipate their needs, and then use data to ensure that your products and services satisfies those needs
Customer analysis allows you to provide personalized content and marketing campaigns for your customers, which leads to stronger customer acquisition and retention, as well as increased brand loyalty
Data points needed for customer analysis can come from your ecommerce cart, retail locations, marketing channels, CRM, customer loyalty and support platforms and more - and can include things like demographic data, purchase behavior, marketing campaign interactions, spending habits and more
Effective customer analysis includes segmenting your customers, identifying their needs, determining how your brand meets those needs, and applying that data to your business practices in order to optimize your experience for your customers
Answers & Comments
ANSWER
1. Segment your customers
No two customers are alike, and they all interact with your brand in unique ways. The first step is to get a breakdown of your customers, which will allow you to target them with the most appropriate content and offers. To categorize your customer base and develop buyer personas, use a wide variety of characteristics, such as demographic traits, online shopping habits, and other engagement tendencies like customer lifetime value. An ecommerce-focused analytics tool can help by automating this process - Glew provides 25+ pre-built customer segments, as well as the ability to easily filter data to create your own customer segments, including:
2. Identify their needs
Now that you have buyer personas, it’s time to figure out why they chose your business and the pain point you’re solving for them. Did they purchase out of convenience? How much were they willing to spend? Did they consciously seek your brand out? Are they likely to purchase from you again - and when? Perform this exercise for each of the buyer personas you identified in step 1. Once you think about the context of your buyers’ needs, you’ll be in a better position to gear your outputs towards meeting those needs — which is the next step.
3. Determine how your brand meets those needs
The initial research is done: you have your buyer personas, and you know what their main goals are. The next step is to determine how your business specifically can solve your customers’ problems. The goal is to make their purchasing experience as seamless and easy as possible, so now is the time to focus your efforts on the data-driven insights you’ve gained. Think about what experience each buyer persona might prefer - what products and price points they might be most attracted to, what marketing channels and strategies will work best on them, and how you can create a purchase and post-purchase experience that promotes repeat visits and customer loyalty.
4. Apply your analysis
Finally, capitalize on all of this data you’ve collected by optimizing the way you connect with your customers and prospective customers. Each persona will respond differently to different channels and types of content, so use it to personalize the buying experience. With the insights you've gained from conducting your customer analysis, you’re in a better position to optimize your marketing campaigns, driving key metrics like total sales, average order value, lifetime value and repeat purchase rate. Focus your efforts by thinking about what your goals are here - are you trying to acquire more new customers in a certain customer demographic, or retain more of your existing high-value customers? Are you trying to boost lifetime value over time or get each of your customers to spend more with you on a single purchase?
How to use customer analysis for your business
So — what does all of this mean for your business? By conducting a thorough customer analysis, you’ll gain insight into your customers’ behavior that allow you to focus your marketing efforts better. The data you’ve collected can help you steer more potential customers your way, provide them with a more streamlined and personalized experience, and ultimately increase brand loyalty and customer retention. That means greater efficiency in your marketing efforts, and added revenue for your bottom line. Your customer data will also help you identify which advertising campaigns are most effective and predict future consumer behavior, which is more important than ever given the competitive ecommerce market — a market that’s estimated to have 2.05 billion global digital buyers in 2020. Companies that pay attention to their customers’ behavior and preferences will have the most success — now and in the future. Don’t forget these key takeaways:
Customer analysis helps you identify your target customers, anticipate their needs, and then use data to ensure that your products and services satisfies those needs
Customer analysis allows you to provide personalized content and marketing campaigns for your customers, which leads to stronger customer acquisition and retention, as well as increased brand loyalty
Data points needed for customer analysis can come from your ecommerce cart, retail locations, marketing channels, CRM, customer loyalty and support platforms and more - and can include things like demographic data, purchase behavior, marketing campaign interactions, spending habits and more
Effective customer analysis includes segmenting your customers, identifying their needs, determining how your brand meets those needs, and applying that data to your business practices in order to optimize your experience for your customers