How consumers spend their time online is something that has intrigued marketers since the dawn of the digital revolution. Their behavior, in regards to how and when they want to engage with a brand, is something that always seems to be changing. Because of this, businesses often struggle when it comes to continuously improving their customers' experience and making sure that they are meeting all their expectations.
Using actionable marketing analytics has helped many businesses solve these problems. By collecting and analyzing customer data, you can act on behavior through the optimal channel, when the time is right. In addition to allowing you to gather valuable insights from your customer data that will boost the performance of your campaigns, marketing analytics will also help you to improve the efficiency of your marketing and sales teams by allowing you to quickly see what is working, and what is not, each step of the way.
If you've never experimented with marketing analytics before, now is the time to get started! Below, we've listed some great ways that businesses are using marketing analytics to learn about customer engagement. Check them out and make sure to share your thoughts with us and our audience by leaving a comment!
Determining which marketing channels are the most effective.
How customers engage with a brand is not limited to desktops and mobile devices. In fact, there are about 120+ marketing channels around today that marketers are investing in so that customers can receive their message in the way they want. As new technologies develop, this list will grow even more, so using analytics to determine which channels your audience likes to connect on will definitely add a significant amount of value to your operations. Not only for customer engagement, but also in regards to your business investments!
Mapping the customer journey
Seeing how your customers are navigating through your website or store from their perspective is key to understanding how to improve their experience. Using analytics to map the customer journey not only allows marketers to have a clear view of each step their customers take, but also reveals which steps were instrumental in turning casual visitors into customers, as well as which steps may have been road blocks.
Developing a content strategy
Having a content strategy in place is so important, especially due to the amount of time and money marketers spend on creating great content. However, it's difficult to develop a strategy for your content without getting a deep insight into which kind of content engages your audience and which kind does not. Enter marketing analytics. In this Demand Generation Benchmark Survey Report, almost 90% of marketers surveyed ranked improving the ability to measure and analyze their content marketing impact as a top priority for their business. Don't be in the 10% of marketers who don't seem to care about customer-centric content! In addition to measuring open and click-through rates to discover which content your customers think is interesting enough to look at, analytics can also be used to measure the amount of time customers spend on your content. This helps marketers to know which content customers find the most useful or enlightening.
Timing interactions and follow ups
Marketers are also using analytics to study when their customers are engaging with their brand so they can schedule their messages accordingly. Finding the right time to communicate always depends on what your goals are, but developing a consistency in your communications will help your customers know what to expect and also encourage them to look forward to hearing from you. Analytics can also be used to determine how many follow ups will be needed and what the best times are for sending them out.
Understanding buying patterns
Analyzing your buyers seems like a no-brainer. These are the people you want to come back and the people you hope are sharing your company with their friends! Who they are, where they are, what they bought, when they bought, the many factors that influenced their decision to buy, and and how their buying habits have changed over time are all questions that can be answered through marketing analytics.
Measuring customer satisfaction
The marketer's job is not done once a purchase has been made. To keep customers coming back, you must determine how satisfied they are with the product or service they purchased. Creating customer satisfaction surveys or adding a feedback form to your website will allow you to gather useful data on how your customers really feel about their experience with your company. This data can then be analyzed to make improvements or even to develop new products or services that will better fulfill the needs and expectations of your customers.
