As has been explained by Snir Moshe Hananya, customers are the heart and soul of the digital market. What digital marketers do is that they first create an engaging content, publish them and then wait for the customers to follow the leads. The leads then guide the customers to the products which the marketers want to sell to the customers. The beauty of digital marketing is that the customers can be categorized and characterized as well according to their behaviors.
In this very article, Snir Moshe Hananya explains journeys and stages that a customer goes through when they are guided by a lead. The industry divides customers into three major classes and categories such as acquisition, engagement at second and thirdly the retention.
For expanding its business, the marketer is required to understand each of these categories from the core of its heart. The ultimate aim of a marketer is to generate more and more revenues which can only be done by increasing customer-base. Usually, the number of customers increase over time, however, sometimes it works in the opposite direction as well. So for retaining old customers and engaging new customers will require fair amount of efforts on the part of a marketer. For this, learning the stages of customer is crucial than any other thing.
Acquisition
The first important category of customers through which they initially go through is the process known as “acquisition”. Acquisition is the sole and absolute responsibility of a marketer. Therefore, it is the marketer who has to come up with plans which can ensure re-visitations by old customers and engagement of new customers.
Further acquisition can be made possible through improving the content and leads. Continuous optimization of web portal by the marketer is a fair tactic of engaging more targeted customers. A very effective method of acquisition, however, is to use advertisement and in the case of acquisition it has to be paid advertisements. Paid promotion is also good for reaching out customers who are not familiar with the name of your company and its products.
Looking for partners has also proved to be very effective for expansion of the business in the digital market. At the same time, with a partner in place, a company can not only boost customer exposure but also spend more on acquiring further customers.
Engagement
In the customer oriented business quality, standard and improvement are the three key elements for ensuring long-term engagement of customers. The three elements are so intertwined that the marketer cannot adopt one and leave the two. All three of them have to be ensured at the same time. First comes the quality of content. If the content is not qualitative and has errors or not good in terms of language, then it will certainly fail in engaging customers. Similarly, in the customer oriented and services business, the marketer cannot afford to compromise on the standard.
On the basis of sub-standard content, web portal and products, strong foundation for a business cannot be laid down. All the three have to be top notch.
Thirdly, a business cannot keep the customers going to other websites if they find out that the content has never been altered, improved or changed. Change is what keeps the customers engaged irrespective of how old the website is. So for the sake of customer engagement, a marketer has to be creative all the time. He is required to improve the content regularly in order give the content a new and fresh look to the customers.
Retention
Retention is the third stage through which a customer has to deal with regularly. From the perspective of a marketer, marketer needs fresh customers as well as old customers. In this connection, a marketer has to develop a strong bond with the customer and earn his loyalty. Retention can be made possible through various methods. For instance, customer loyalty programs can be initiated in which discounts or rewards points can be offered to keep old and new customers engaged. Similarly, using events and important days, for offering further discounts has been one of the great method of ensuring retention of customers.
Other effective methods for retention are improvement in the website and its content, and boosting of customer experience.
Conclusion
In the end, Snir Moshe Nananya suggests that better understanding of customers’ journeys and their behavior are tools for embarking upon future strategies. Digital market requires a marketer to be vigilant at all times and to keep a close eye on the increase and decrease of the traffic. Thereafter, find causes of increase and decrease and utilize them for the betterment of the business.