What is Customer Centric Marketing?

This will be the first in a series of posts dedicated to the concept of “Customer Centric Marketing” and how businesses can use it to win in the online marketplace.

Customer Centric Marketing  is the process of crafting ALL marketing messages to address your “Ideal Customers” from their point of view, looking back at you. This is the old, “Try walking in my shoes” idea. Customer Centric Marketing is the key to any good content marketing strategy.

On the contrary, “Company Centric Marketing” is defined as looking out at your customers from your point of view. I affectionately refer to Company Centric Marketing as the “Me Monster.” I’ll talk more about the me monster later.

At WINNOVATE we frequently engage in guided brainstorming sessions with our customers that focused on how to present their businesses to prospective Ideal Customers online.  In these session, one question I always ask is, “What is the most important thing you want people to do when they encounter your business online?” Online encounters include arriving at your website, seeing your social media posts, etc.”

When first presented with this concept, 90% of customers say, “We want them to learn more about our company.”  While learning more about your company is important, it isn’t the ideal next action you really want prospective customers to take when they encounter your business online. The most important thing businesses need prospective customers to do is engage with their business as soon as possible during an online encounter.

What Does Good Online Engagement Look Like?

Depending on your business model, online engagement might include any of the following:

  • making an online purchase,
  • filling out a contact form requesting more information,
  • calling the phone number they found online to talk to your sales team,
  • starting an online chat with your sales team,
  • liking, following, and/or commenting on your social media post across various social media channels,
  • signing up for email offers & updates,
  • and a long tale of other engagement opportunities.

Do You Know The Top 3 Online Engagement Types For Your Business?

Here’s a simple mapping process to help you find out:

  1. Document a list of all the engagement opportunities you can think of that are relevant to your business,
  2. Rank the list by priority of profitability to your business,
  3. Share that list with your circle of trusted advisors (including customers & vendors if possible)
  4. Then revise it based on their feedback.

What is the Me Monster?

I’ll end this post with a little humor that illustrates the negative perception you can put forth online by not marketing to your prospective customers in a way that makes them feel like you really care about their wants first.

One of my favorite comedians is Brian Regan.  His comedy is clean enough for my children to watch which is a bonus. Brian has a bit called the “Me Monster” which illustrates the natural tendency for people to want to impress others.  I’ve embedded the YouTube clip of the video below.

WARNING: Only watch this in a place where uncontrollable laughter is acceptable.

Do You Know Any “Me Monsters” or “Moon Walkers?”

I’d be curious to know which business you think are “Me Monsters” or “Moon Walkers” based on your encounters with them online, on tv, radio, and elsewhere.

Leave a comment below and tell us what you think.  

The next post in this series will focus on how to use customer centric marketing to improve online engagement with your target “Ideal Customers.”