ARTICLE:

IT'S POSSIBLE TO BUILD A DIGITAL STRATEGY THAT ISN'T CUSTOMER-CENTRIC

Express Optimization, Chief Digital Strategist

I recently spoke with a digital marketing director at an established, mid-sized company about their digital strategy.

This director is smart, articulate, and laser-focused on results and the bottom line, but by her own admission, she couldn't tell me about her customers.

I told her more about the concept of buyer personas and how developing quick profiles that help you really understand and empathize with your customers can help determine, meet, and even exceed their real needs. I recommended personas as the next, best step she could take to develop a great digital strategy.

"I'm not in for all of the fluff."

For her, a customer-centric approach wasn't on the radar, and she didn't want it on the radar. She continued to reiterate her focus on numbers.

"Intuition is a very powerful thing, more powerful than intellect, in my opinion." - Steve Jobs

Numbers are what many managers do and many are great at the art of analytics. But many aren't in the business of putting themselves in the shoes of their customers. Employment statistics prove that to be true: businesses hire thinkers, planners, and administrators for management roles, but many of those people aren't natural empathizers.

Who are the empathizers?

They're the employees who empathize with customers (and employees), who genuinely care about customer problems, and who can come up with creative solution after creative solution.

They're able to "sense" when there are gaps in process or user experience because they're able to imagine themselves in the role of the customer and intuitively feel and experience those gaps. Once that sense is activated, they won't rest until they find a solution.

These employees make excellent partners with their thinker/planner counterrparts because they both offer valuable insight that provides a balanced view of both the bottom line and creative, customer-centric solutions.

It's a winning combination.

Companies that employ customer-centric digital strategies are seeing impressive increases in profits, leads, and customer loyalty. If we think about our own experiences, we intuitively know this to be true. We're so much more likely to do business with—and continue to do business with—a company who...

  • "Gets" us

  • Values us

  • Cares about what we care about

  • Builds genuine trust

  • Makes doing business a pleasure

We've all interacted with businesses that focus so much on themselves and their bottom lines that we come away feeling like a number.

Humans have needs. Humans have problems. And you're not going to understand human customers, meet their needs, or solve their problems just by looking at the numbers. The numbers won't, by themselves, help you build an intuitive, customer-centered digital strategy.

If you don't know *who* you're spending your marketing and digital dollars on or *why*, you're losing your relevance (and customers, and leads, and profit, and ROI...). Quickly.

In over 15 years working with B2B and B2C businesses and non-profits of all sizes, it's amazing how often I've seen this basic first step—this acknowledgment of the humanity of it all—not make the cut. It's a big-time lost opportunity.

Am I surprised that a digital marketing director wants to increase profits, generate higher quality leads, build customer loyalty, and be a thought-leader? No. Am I surprised that she wants to do that while focusing on numbers and without considering her customers? Still no.

Many digital managers will continue to steer away from intuitive, customer-centric approaches because numbers are concrete and make them more comfortable than fluff. The better solution though—the winning solution—is a partnership.

It's why I do what I do.

Any company that truly wants to build a solid brand, build customer loyalty, become a thought-leader, and generate more and better leads must be customer-centric.

Focus on the customer. There's no substitute for it. Then, use the numbers to prove that your strategy is working, and to tweak your approach.

#digitalstrategy #ftw #expressoptimization

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