As implied in part of a quote by popular American fantasy novelist Brandon Sanderson, some traditions may come and go. It goes, “But merely being tradition does not make something worthy.” The quote could trigger the motivation that causes marketers to move from focusing on one part of the funnel to adopting a growth marketing model during this evolving pandemic.
Before the pandemic, customers knew and understood they were often recipients of mass marketing communication efforts. A 2018 Oracle study of nearly 3,800 people revealed that they weren’t just fed up with bad customer service. They also felt that proactive and personalized interaction were the keys to converting digital customer engagement and customer loyalty.
The pandemic has advanced thinking so that many customers no longer wish to be thought of as a number. Because of COVID-19, they’re confused and feel they’ve lost control of many things in their lives. They wish to feel that they’re being heard and are valued.
By leveraging both inbound and account-based marketing with other tools, like digital PR or social media PR growth marketing allows marketers to reach beyond leads and encourage real brand proselytization. These will be the keys to quicker post-pandemic recovery and success.
Relationship-Building
Relationship-building is a major difference between funnel builders and growth marketers. Paying attention to buyer behavior and what they’re most interested in and seeking and then helping them get there generates customer loyalty. Throwing in other things like training and tips that will help buyers succeed can only help seal the relationship.
Behavioral Segmentation
Gathering and organizing such things as customer age, income, gender, etc. before the pandemic was valuable in targeting communications to customers. What it failed to gather was an understanding of their behavior. A change in progressive profiling by applying different data strategies to deliver more dynamic behavioral segmentation will deliver even deeper customer behavioral insights that should be considered in future communications.
Inserting intuitive and dynamic forms at key touch points also aids marketers add to previous data by allowing brands to add new questions and gain even more understanding of their customers. This brings even more potential and power to audience segmentation and tailored campaigns.
Customers find brands in numerous ways. Because they learn and discover through various platforms, another new growth best practice is integrating automation software across all the brand’s channels. This will help ensure that the brand gets the maximum exposure possible.
Customer Experience
Capturing, tracking, and analyzing customer preferences and behavior arms brands with the information needed to tailor communications. What may also be discoverable in that same data are hints on what will motivate that same customer to act. This is where brands can truly resonate with targeted messages that display knowledge-based empathy and gain loyal customers.
Make It a Lifelong Journey
Growth marketing should be the next permanent step for marketing departments interested in bringing along customers on a lifelong journey with them. When customers realize their brand genuinely cares about them, they will not only remain loyal but are likely to become the brand’s strongest advocates.