How do you adapt your marketing strategy to changing customer behavior?

Identifying your target audience is critical for a successful marketing strategy. To start, conduct market research and analyze customer data to understand their behavior patterns. Also, study your competition to identify their target audience. Next, create detailed customer personas and segment your audience into specific groups. This will enable you to tailor your marketing strategy to the needs of each group. Don't forget to continuously monitor your audience to keep up with their changing needs and preferences. By following these steps, you can create a personalized experience that will help you connect with and retain your customers.

In general, any marketing plan should be reviewed at regular intervals or when a crisis occurs. This review can also be extended to changing consumer behavior. But if consumer behavior changes, I first examine the macro environment of the industry to see if environmental factors have caused this change. These factors are very sensitive and can sometimes lead to risks for the entire marketing plan. After that, I examine the micro factors of the industry. Here, I pay most attention to the performance of competitors and new players in the industry. Has there been a change in the behavior of current competitors that has affected consumer behavior? In the final stage, I will definitely examine the marketing mix.

Using STP is crucial for identifying and targeting the right customers. ‘Segmentation’ allows you to divide the population into groups that share similar characteristics on the basis of demographics, psychographics, geographic and behavioural elements. After you have identified the segments of customers you need to ‘Target’ the right people by defining your market and service focus and pinpoint the important and determinant attributes. And lastly you have to establish a ‘Position’ in the minds of those customers that offers you a competitive advantage over the competitors.

'Thinking Customer backwards' is the most valuable principle in marketing. And to think like one, you need to know who your target customer is? If you are building a new business, start with the problem you are solving of a certain section of people. Once you make your product (as a solution to the problem), go test with target customers. You might find newer insights when you dissect the users who are most overjoyed - thats your target customer! Bingo! Instagram started as Burbn which was a geo-networking app for people who love booze. But it iterated basis most-overjoyed section & usecase. If you already have a business, then see the largest customer base using your product & is satisfied (NPS) - that's your target customer!

Here are three strategies to consider: 1. Invest to Understand Your Customer Data & Feedback: Analyze feedback, reviews, and social interactions. Should there be a notable shift towards mobile usage, ensure your website offers a seamless experience on these platforms. 2. Embrace Personalization: Extend a personalized touch to every customer. Leverage data insights to curate individualized experiences. Tailor messages and offers based on their preferences and behaviours. 3. Integration of Emerging Channels and Technologies: Stay abreast of new platforms and technologies in alignment with evolving consumer habits and preferences. Explore nascent social media platforms or invest in cutting-edge technologies to enhance customer interactions.

Monitoring market trends, competitor strategies, and optimizing your social media presence helps you stay abreast of evolving consumer preferences. However, maintaining authenticity and relevance is equally crucial for long-term success.

Consider that the best differentiator isn't just reacting to their moves but innovating to shape the game. While SWOT analysis is valuable, the true edge lies in creating trends, not just following them. In the digital age, the new tools for this are real-time data analytics and predictive AI, helping you not only monitor but forecast the future of your industry. So, shift from follower to visionary, using data and intuition to lead, not just catch up. It's not about watching your competitors; it's about becoming the one they watch in awe.

It's important to be 'just one of the followers' in the eyes of your competition. Consume their media as though you were their ICP. You'll get a lot of value from it, not only might you learn a bit, but you'll also benefit from quickly understanding who their target audiences are, and therefore how you can reposition to claim your share of voice in your ICPs! Take the time to get a wide depth of insight from all your competition, if you do it right then you'll always be 'in the know'.

Knowing your competitors and understanding how they are adapting to changing customer behavior is critical. Learn from their successes and failures, but most importantly, strive to differentiate your brand by offering unique value propositions. Establish trust and credibility with your customer. By prioritizing their needs and focusing on building genuine relationships, your business can carve out a niche and differentiate itself from competitors.

With my marketing hat on, I enthusiastically support monitoring competitor activities across all media. Now, with my business perspective and a focus on sales, we must be more assertive. Customer needs seldom change, but methods of meeting them evolve. Don't just observe competitor operations—interrogate them, as they might have done to you. Acknowledge where they’ve got it right. Aim to reclaim your customers by matching their offers and devising value-added incentives – Value Engineering. Why the reluctance to play hardball? While fairness is ingrained in business, competitors, many of whom are based overseas, view you as fair game. Remember: "Do unto others as they've done unto you"—I know it’s wrong, but I also know who's winning.

In this era of information overload, authenticity and relevance stand out. It's not just about traffic and conversions; it's about building trust and relationships. By offering genuine value, you'll increase not just brand awareness but also customer loyalty. It's not just about being visible; it's about being unforgettable. Example; Imagine you run a boutique coffee roastery. To optimize your online presence, it's not just about ranking high or lots of followers, it’s about creating a digital environment that brews connections. You can regularly share engaging content like tips, bts and even spotlighting loyal customers' coffee rituals. Your should respond promptly to comments, addressing questions and sparking conversations.

It's a 'magical experience' for our potential customers when they come across an interesting website or piece of content while conducting their own Google searches. The feeling of "I stumbled upon this gem" is remarkably interesting. This is why we frequently give more credibility to websites discovered through organic searches rather than PPC ads. SEO is still a major driving force in the digital marketing. As long as users explore the web through Google's eyeglasses, we have to take time to fine-tune our SEO strategy on regularly.

Echoing some of the points already made on this aspect but let's be honest, Google and other search engines have finally realised that good, value adding content is shown by time on page, scroll depth and events (like video click and completes). The great element of this change is that it encourages marketers to understand their customers better, create good content that is making a difference to their ICP, rather than keyword loading a piece of dull copy. The inclusion of video has really been a game changer for our team, adding in different ways to consume the information we create while keeping the viewer onsite has helped our conversion and will be in turn boosting our SEO performance! It's a win win!

One of the best means to improve SEO ranking resides right here within the LinkedIn platform. In my experience, LinkedIn Newsletter text holds high authority within Google search.

The manner in which you sell your products greatly impacts your online goals and efforts. For instance, when your main sales techniques revolve around being viewed as an industry expert, white papers and online articles are great ways improve both how the market rates your knowledge and your standing in the industry. The online articles that can be most beneficial are in trade publications. Since these publications link the articles to your websites, the SEO boost from the relevant inbound links is great.

Mapping the customer journey is important to understand their experience, needs and pain points. But it is also extremely important to optimise the delivery process and for that we must understand the process not only from the customers perspective but also the frontline interactions, consecutive backend support activities and technological process linkages at each step.

One of my favorite tools I use with clients is “The Content Matrix.” That is a simple matrix with your buyer's journey down the rows and your buyer's personas across the columns. You can then brainstorm relevant content at each intersection. This ensures you are creating the right content, for the right persona, for each stage in the buyer's journey.

By examining the entire journey, businesses can identify bottlenecks, streamline operations, and enhance overall efficiency. Insights from both customer-facing and internal processes enable a more nuanced and effective approach to refining and aligning the entire service delivery ecosystem, ensuring a seamless and satisfying experience for customers while maximizing operational effectiveness.

The most effective customer journey map wasn't created by a marketing agency but... by McKinsey The 2009 Customer Decision Journey (look it up on Google) is probably the most useful tool to help you identify and structure 1) what your potential consumers are going through 2) how to respond with the adequate marketing tactics

Creating a customer journey map is an underrated aspect of marketing. In an hour or so, you'll quickly see areas where you're not communicating to your customers or creating divisions between high LTV and low LTV clients. With modern technologies and platforms like Basecamp, Slack and automations there is no reason any customer should be left behind in terms of communication and product knowledge throughout their journey with your business. 1. Take time away from the grind to commit to the process. 2. Build the journey as though you were a consumer that didn't know the product or service, answer questions that you'd have, not just FAQs that appear on Google! 3. Take actions to plug any gaps and enhance current touch points.

Talk to the target audience and listen to them more often. Surveys and customer journey mapping are all theoretical approaches that may deliver mixed results or worse highly inaccurate data. Instead, meet the customer in an environment where they are comfortable and talk to them with a genuine infent to listen. Talk to them individually and you will come out wiser, with relevant data and better ideas. Do your lab and academic work after you have met a certain number of TA folks. This is the most simple yet important rule. Lets keep it real and pratical. Try it and see the results for yourself.

When you test your results as how your campaigns are working, what alterations are required, how to scale up the campaign, is it reaching to the right target audience etc then you start getting results. Constant follow up on measuring the campaign effectiveness is really important

When you test your results as how your campaigns are working, what alterations are required, how to scale up the campaign, is it reaching to the right target audience etc then you start getting results. Constant follow up on measuring the campaign effectiveness is really important

No need to reinvent the wheel here: to measure results, the marketing funnel (Awareness/Consideration/Preference/Purchase Intent) remains the most practical tool. Multiple vendors such as Ipsos, Kantar or more boutique research companies offer brand trackers, which will help you identify where to focus your efforts, and how much progress you're making.

Testing and measuring should be done in a predefined environment. That's why marketers use funnels designed to convert strangers into clients. A well-known marketing funnel is the AIDA (Attention/Interest/Desire/Action) - classic. Using those 4 stages of the buying process you will acquire your ideal customer personal when done right. However, keep in mind that this is only the first step in delighting your customers with an easy-to-buy process.

To stay close to the pulse of customers and to be able to adapt your marketing strategy I recommend establishing 1. Empathy Workshops: Use customer feedback to foster empathy and understand needs. 2. Journey Mapping: Chart the entire customer experience, highlighting improvement areas. 3. Feedback Systems: Regularly collect and act on customer feedback, like surveys. 4. Customer KPIs: Prioritize metrics like satisfaction and retention; reward excellence. 5. Direct Engagement:Engage directly with diverse customer groups for insights (happy, unhappy and neutral) 6. Collaborate: Team up with sales, support, etc. for a broader view. Lastly, an advocacy program, with an advisory board and user meetings, boosts customer-centricity in strategy.

IT'S ABOUT REAL PEOPLE. Be wary of thinking about customers, journeys, personas, etc. Instead, think about people — real humans, just like the ones in your life, on your block, in your office, at the airport and grocery store. If you're far removed from the lives of the people you're aiming to connect with, take steps to reacquaint yourselves with them. Do or commission research, qual and quant. Take part in immersive exercises that put you in their homes, their cars, their struggles and triumphs. Think about their actual needs and problems, and then imagine how your brand/products can add value to their lives. If you are thinking like an advocate for them rather than for yourself, you stand a chance at making a connection.

Adapting to the ever changing customer journey requires lessons in empathy. Developing personas, tals and icps and mapping the customer journey, reviewing and optimizing metrics are all necessary but remembering you are marketing to people who don’t fit into a box and who’s goals, dreams and attitude change often several times a day is an important detail to include in strategy. Use tools to meet people where they are. Include options for them to engage the way they fill at that moment. Remember whether you are b2b or b2c marketers it does not matter because ultimately your role is to be B2H or H2H. Business to Human or Human to Human … Empathy matters.

1. Less graphs, more stories. Reframe marketing goals as customer goals - it's more fun (and impactful) fixing things for people than selling things for companies. 2. Customer facing teams are an untapped resource. Use these teams to surface insights or unmet content needs and use them as a panel to review early concepts you're exploring to help validate your thinking. These teams are your in-house customer experts, treat them as such! 3 - Learning eats strategy for breakfast. Switch from a traditional "Plan & Predict" model, to learning by doing. We call this "Experiment & Adapt". This takes a mindset shift, but preserves limited budget for the concepts you can evidence (rather than hope) will succeed.

Using Predictive Analytics is a very important part of ensuring that your marketing strategy is aligned with changing customer behavior. Predictive analytics is about using statistics and modelling to predict future outcomes. In the case of customer behavior, data such as: - Purchasing/transaction history; - Messaging response rates; - Content engagement patterns; and - Demographic and/or psychographic shifts, when incorporated in these kinds of statistical models, help to give marketers insight into where and how marketing strategies must be changed, to better adapt to changing customer behavior.