The Power of Data in the Age of the Customer

Traditionally companies used print advertisements and other outbound methodologies to attract consumers and buyers.

In todays digital age, the consumer shopping experience now starts online.

Consumers are now finding the time to research and educate themselves through online videos and remarkable content. They aren't relying on only one source any more.

They might be scouring your competitors.

In the age of the customer, consumers are looking for companies that understand their needs and are connecting with them.

The Importance of Behavioral Data in Customer Centric Marketing

Today's buyers are demanding.

According to Forrester and Silverpop, "They now expect companies to know where they've been, what they've seen, and what they've accepted or rejected. The only way to gain a competitive advantage is being your customers first choice."

Your buyers are actually putting off talking to your sales team until they are ready to buy from you or they're educated enough to begin the sales process. Your buyers are finding the information that they need. They're more educated and informed compared to buyers in the past.

To stay ahead of the game and remain competitive, companies must adapt the way that they approach and engage with these consumers.

Are your efforts turning prospective customers away?

In-Depth Understanding of Customer Behaviors and Needs

Do you know what pages your contacts are viewing and what they're interested in? If not, this pose a potential problem for your business.

While all customer data is valuable,however the most telling data is behavioral.

Behavior is the most frequent trigger for automated marketing campaigns.

Buyer behavioral data also remains the greatest untapped marketing asset. Your marketing decisions shouldn't be based off a gut feeling. Consider using data and behavioral data to attract your audience and increase the success of your campaign.

With your buyers now expecting you to know the who, what, where, when and why of their every behavior, this makes data more important than ever.

Do you really know what your visitors are doing on your site? Are there certain words or colors that make them click on your call-to-action?

Knowing this information is a quick way to improve your marketing. With a few changes you'll start to see results in no time. You probably have a CTA; below each blog post, one in the right sidebar and a banner CTA. But do you actually know which CTA is getting the most traffic and clicks? If not, be sure to check out our latest ebook, Dissecting Calls-to-Action that Convert.

Customer Engagement

You shouldn't be developing hundreds of marketing campaigns based on all that data you've collected.

It's about fully integrating your marketing campaign across multiple channels. Spending more time engaging and interacting with your audience and buyers.

It's all about engagement.

Since your potential customers are looking to the Internet and doing their research before beginning the sales process, it's important that you're providing relevant content that shows your expertise. Do just write about the same old thing that every other company in your industry is talking about. Leverage their interests and needs to create remarkable content, that will make you stand out from your competition.

Do you know where your visitors are coming from? Within the next few months, you'll begin to find that more of your traffic will be coming from social media outlets.

Even though you should be consistently engaging over multiple channels, you also don't want to spend a majority of your time on a channel that isn't generating a ton of traffic.

Channels can include:

• Blog

• Social media

• Email

• Webinar

• TweetChat

• Resources

Think about it in regards to social media. Which platform is generating the most traffic and bringing people to your website? Determine whether it's Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+ or LinkedIn. If a significant portion of your traffic is coming from Twitter and Facebook, you might want to put more time into engaging and interacting with your audience.

Don't forget to include social sharing buttons. Add sharing buttons to emails, landing pages, and ebooks. They're a great way to expand your reach. Potential customers that find your content remarkable are going to want to share it.

Many consider marketing automation a huge aspect of inbound marketing which utilizes behavioral data. Upon collecting the data, you'll be able to identify what they're interested in, what pages they've viewed, what offers they've downloaded and what blog articles they've read. Have you considered using that information to help push your contacts down the sales funnel? Consider setting up workflows that will automatically send relevant information. Keeping your prospects engaged.