Should Marketing Focus More on Customer Experience?
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Marketing today is certainly not a black and white field. But should marketing itself suffer from customer retention?
The role of marketing beyond the point of sale is a gray area. We all generally agree that our job is to create demand by helping businesses recognize when they have a problem, but keeping new customers happy is Few would agree that it should be a major chapter in your marketing strategy.
One reason is that today’s customer service is still overwhelmingly reactive and focused on troubleshooting. It’s hard to see where marketing expertise fits in.
It’s also clearly useless when research shows that companies that focus on retention at the expense of new customer acquisition struggle to grow sustainably. This is because brands with smaller market share have fewer customers with lower loyalty. Conversely, according to the Double Jeopardy method, brands with higher market share have more customers, and those customers are more loyal.
Should marketers care about customer retention?
If increased customer loyalty basically comes from getting more customers, why should marketing bother with customer retention?
Because it’s a lost opportunity. Customer retention is still important. It is not a successful growth strategy in isolation.
First, and this is from your own experience, it’s not uncommon for a customer not to hear a peek from a supplier until an update is weeks away. call. Note that they are intangible business assets that affect profitability.
Building stronger relationships with customers not only keeps them interested in your products and services and makes them aware of new releases, but also makes them more forgiving when the business makes mistakes.
Related Article: How CMOs Master New Jobs: Superior Customer Experiences
Don’t take customer awareness for granted
If that’s not enough, it also helps maintain mental availability. Too many companies take customer awareness for granted (they are customers after all), and those same customers jump on the next shiny new product that’s about to hit the market and grab everyone’s attention. I’m just surprised when
Second, the buyer journey doesn’t end cleanly when the sale ends. As customers use your new product and see positive changes, they should be more willing and willing to try other solutions to other problems. Losing contact means missing out on obvious cross-sell and up-sell opportunities.
Third, satisfied customers make great case studies. In a recent survey by our B2B marketing agency, Considered Content, approximately 28% of buyers said they would like to be able to view testimonials, case studies, and reviews from specified companies. But only 9% of marketers offered them. Similarly, 27% of her buyers would like to be able to access referrals from existing users they can contact directly. Only 5% of marketers offered this. The most engaged customers are also the most loyal customers. The deeper your relationship, the more likely they are to agree to help you.
Finally, be aware that not all end users of products and services are one of the multiple decision makers involved in their purchase. They weren’t necessarily part of the decision, but I have no doubt their verdict will be taken into account in deciding whether it sticks after the trial period.
Where should the marketing alignment be?
A 2020 survey of 500 senior client-side marketers across all major business sectors found that “top performing” companies outperformed “mainstream” companies in terms of marketing alignment with other departments. It turns out I got the score. However, even among the top performers, marketers score relatively high on alignment with customer service (68%) compared to e-commerce and merchandising (76%) and sales (72%). was low.
Of course, not all companies are the same. Some companies (usually fast-growing software companies) are building their customer success teams with a more proactive approach to helping customers seamlessly use their products. A large part of the aim here is to expand and deepen adoption, so their technology is more deeply rooted in their day-to-day operations.
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Related Article: Are You Sacrificing Customer Experience for Marketing Leads?
Quality content is fine
It’s good practice for today’s marketers to create quality content that covers every stage of the sale, connecting what buyers value to what they are currently offering. Luckily, creating content for new customers is just one step toward building a deeper relationship with existing buyers. Perhaps the educational content you create by focusing on potential customer issues and pain points can be easily repurposed and updated for existing customers.
But there’s another big reason marketing is stepping into existing customer territory. According to the latest research, today’s buyers are becoming more independent and aloof. You can no longer reliably expect them to contact customer service about issues (just like you don’t contact sales to make a purchase).
By storing all your marketing content in an easy-to-navigate self-service library, you can be confident that you’ll find answers from you, not from other struggling users or, worse, your competitors.
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