Posted: August 23, 2019
For the past three years, Salesforce has leveraged its immense platform to bring insights to the way customers and businesses use technology to buy goods and services. The 2019 State of the Connect Customer report isn’t an immense document to read through but in case you don't want to read through it, here are the top takeaways that all marketers and those looking to optimize their marketing strategies should take heed of.
For example, did you know that 71% of customers expect companies to communicate with them in real time? If you are responding to customer inquiries 2-3 days later, then you aren’t living up to your customers' expectations in 2019.
What else did we learn from the Salesforce State of the Connect Consumer 2019 Report?
- Consumers have four important expectations right now:
• Standards for modern engagement call for extraordinary, customized experiences that vary from customer to customer depending on their needs
• Innovation is always happening, and customers are expecting you to take advantage of it
• Transparency, authenticity, ethics, overall trust are front of mind for many consumers right now
• Customers are paying attention to your company’s ethics and values - Nearly half of marketers focus on customer experience initiatives across their entire companies
• Nearly 2/3s of customers are willing to pay a premium for great experiences Customers expect to be treated as individuals, not with generalizations
• This intimacy and digital touch points mean that 71% of customers expect companies to communicate with them in real time - 55% of customers (and 68% of millennials and Gen Z) prefer digital channels over traditional ones
• Nearly 50% of younger generations buy products directly from a brand (direct to consumer models) - Still a lot of room for adoption and potential in voice technologies and connected devices(IoT)
Phew, that’s a lot to take in! But what does all this mean for your company and your digital marketing strategy? What opportunities can be found within these insights?
- Always be looking for innovation that can help you increase the quality of your customer’s experience with your company.
- Put yourself in the shoes of your customer and follow their buyer’s journey to see where it makes sense to have touch points. When they left something in their shopping cart? After they visited your store? After a call with customer service?
- Are you using AI, CRM insights, and targeted marketing to ensure that your customers feel they are being treated as individuals?
- Having clean data in a CRM like HubSpot makes it so much easier to tailor your email marketing to the right audiences. Don’t spam people if they aren’t interested!
- It isn’t enough to create a Facebook or Google ad and hope that your preferred customer sees it. You want to use social media ad experts or pay per click specialists to ensure that your digital ads are targeted and optimized to be pertinent to your audience.
- Depending on the age range of your ideal customer, always be adapting to what channels they are expecting to engage with businesses. Generation Z, for example, is quite comfortable using frictionless messenging apps to chat with businesses. Baby Boomers and Gen Xers probably still prefer more traditional channels.
Looking to start or optimize your digital marketing strategy? Set up a CMO consult with Four Tens! We’ll go in and get an outsider’s perspective of your company’s marketing techniques and goals. We’ll even provide our suggestions on how to get better metrics and close more customers!