3 Ways to Understand Digital Consumers The ideal approach to your prospective consumers in the digital platforms
By Vikram Kumar
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Humans have communicated and interacted amongst themselves since the beginning of time. But, with the passage of time, the mediums of communication have evolved. Due to the advent of technology and internet, all of us have become digital consumers. Even the way that businesses interact with their consumers keeps evolving at lightning speed. Today, the channels of communication between businesses and their customers have become digitised.
In this digital era, the focus of businesses should be to understand their customers. It is essential to pay attention to the everchanging communication channels. The concept of consumer focus or "Consumer is King" is not new. The importance of customer centricity has existed since the beginning of businesses. But, in this era of digital revolution, the mediums of interaction have changed between consumers and businesses. The consumer behaviour is constantly changing due to the enabling nature of technology and easy access to information.
The ideal approach to understanding your prospective consumers' behaviour is through research. Here are some insights to understand your digital customers:
Consumer Research is Crucial
The internet has been around for quite some time now and over time, people have learnt how to leverage its power. As people become better versed with modern communication technology, they are able to utilise it more efficiently and effectively to their advantage. For marketers, this means that they have to offer their best in order to win over these well-informed and digital-savvy prospects.
Due to excessive information and multiple options, people have become accustomed to acquiring the correct and hazard-free solutions within a matter of seconds. For example, if you have a slow or unresponsive website, the visitors will likely bounce back and move to the next, better option. It is instant gratification that makes the visitor like your website. While building a website for your business, ensure that it showcases engaging material and highly relevant material.
Online sharing is the new word of mouth. Modern-day consumers have multiple opportunities and digital platforms where they can share experiences and valuable information, provide reviews as well as ask for recommendations and leave comments. Hence, for your online success and promotion, user-generated content plays a crucial role.
Customer Loyalty: Build and Maintain by Combining Human and Digital
While considering the underlying motives of the modern day customers, you will find that the consumers want a relatable and relevant personal experience in the form of information. This is a major reason why a face-to-face interaction still works like a charm. It offers the right personal approach that people look for. But, talking to each customer for 30 minutes has a drawback: scalability.
The digital and the personal approach are not opposites. Nowadays, digital solutions can imitate the same personal approach in a more scalable manner. Segmentation of customer base and personalisation of customer's experience can be done through the usage of data. For example, Your loyal customers can be identified digitally and then, a personalised thank-you note can be sent to them.
At times, an automated flow, like drip email campaigns, is needed to convince the customer of your story. Sometimes, a personal talk for 30 minutes will do the trick. The business that is able to seamlessly combine the two- digital and human aspects- will have more chances of success.
Challenge the Status Quo
Businesses should be able to question themselves. If something works today, it will not necessarily work tomorrow. A business must be able to cope with and adapt to this ever-changing reality. Do not be afraid to challenge the status quo. Social media presence is one of those things. The use of social media by businesses will change drastically in the coming years. Also, sometimes what works for a majority of businesses, might not be applicable to you- or vice versa.
"Figure out your path, but dare to be agile". Today, any type of SME should have this mindset. It is incorrect to think that you are right, by default. It is essential to figure out the course of where you are headed to and stick with the plan. But, also, be agile. It is crucial to know your customer and as you go along, follow a trend or evolution from the industry.
Today, one of the biggest challenges for SMEs is to understand the digital consumer. Without any effort from your side, technology cannot be the answer to all the things. If you don't understand why people are on social media in the first place, then why worry about your social presence. You need to understand who your customers are, why they are buying your product and how will that process change in the coming years. It is also important to understand the impact of technology on the business' relations with the current customers and the new customers in the coming time.
