Analyzing Customer Behavior Can Shape Your Future Marketing Campaigns Seven steps to understanding your customers' needs, wants, and motivations.
By Parwinder Singh Edited by Heather Wilkerson
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The biggest benefits to conducting customer behavior analysis are customer satisfaction and, in turn, revenue. The more satisfied customers are with your company's products, the more likely they will purchase those items and subsequently become repeat customers. That's what we call a direct impact.
Customer behavior analysis can also help you identify potential issues in your marketing campaign. It's important to realize that communication problems happen with every ad campaign; a lack of understanding of the needs and wants of your business' customers can lead to frustration, lower profits, and lost customers.
Here's how you can analyze your customer behavior and create a more effective marketing campaign:
1. Segment your audience data separately
Unlike other types of research, customer behavior analysis relies on you segmenting your data and then describing their reactions to the product or service. You can't qualify your audience unless you have already identified their unique attributes.
Once you identify your segments, you can decide which data to collect and how frequently. Sometimes it makes sense to conduct this type of analysis more regularly. Other times it makes more sense to conduct it less frequently. Conducting a customer behavior analysis on a monthly basis is ideal for businesses that have limited resources and are trying to gain a better understanding of customers.
Related: How to Grow Your Business When Customer Behaviors Change
2. Identify the critical benefit for each group
Once you have your segments identified, the next step is to identify a key benefit of your product or service. Although this may seem like a simple task, it can often be difficult and time-consuming. You'll want to ensure that the key benefit you identify is the primary reason customers choose your business over others. It's also important to remember that you shouldn't be too descriptive in your identification of the key benefit.
3. Develop a profile for each segment
After you have identified the key benefit for each segment, develop a profile for these groups of customers. This will help you understand which attributes and behaviors are shared among all customers belonging to that group. A good customer behavior analysis tool will provide you with the necessary information on which attributes and behaviors to include in your profile.
4. Allocate quantitative and qualitative data
At this point, it's essential that you allocate your quantitative data and qualitative data to either your quantitative or qualitative profiles. Suppose you're conducting a customer behavior analysis on a monthly basis. In that case, you'll want to allocate all of your quantitative data to one set of profiles and all of your qualitative data to another collection of profiles. This will help you gain insight into how your customers respond to certain aspects of the product or service. On the other hand, if you're conducting a customer behavior analysis on an ad hoc basis, you'll want to allocate both quantitative and qualitative data sets to each set of profiles. This allows you to gain insight into what attributes and behaviors are common to different types of customers.
5. Compare your quantitative and qualitative data
After you have allocated your quantitative and qualitative data, compare the results to see if they are similar. Don't simply compare the demographics of your customers. Instead, look at the response data itself. For example, suppose your analysis turns up a lot of negative feedback concerning an upcoming ad campaign. You find that most of your customers are males between the ages of 25-and 34 (a demographic you're targeting with this ad campaign). In that case, it may be wise to review how your ads are being received. You might discover that many of your potential customers don't like ads because they're too long or unclear.
Related: Why Big Data Is Your Key to Beefing Up Customer Engagement
6. Apply your analysis to a campaign
Finally, once you have completed your customer behavior analysis, it's time to apply the results to a campaign. There are many ways in which you can use this type of analysis. One significant benefit of conducting customer behavior analysis is that it allows you to avoid making a mistake that could potentially lose customers. For example, advertising too much or too often can turn off customers; however, if you apply your customer behavior analysis findings before you decide on the launch date for your next ad campaign, then it will be easy for you to figure out how many ads or how much money you need to spend on that future campaign.
7. Analyze the results
Once you have launched your campaign, it's essential to revisit your collected data. Conducting a customer behavior analysis first will allow you to understand better how customers will react to your campaign. It will also help you identify any problems that may have arisen during the campaign and assist you in formulating an effective solution to these problems.
Conducting a customer behavior analysis is a great way to gain new insights into what different types of customers want from your business. It also allows your business to learn more about its customers. By achieving this insight and knowledge, you can build better relationships with individual customers, thus, increasing repeat business and overall revenue.
Using these tips, you can efficiently conduct a successful customer behavior analysis. By categorizing your data and comparing it, you'll be able to gain new insights into how your customers are reacting to the product or service. By doing so, you will be able to increase profits and ensure that all of your customers receive exactly what they want when they walk through the door of your business.
