Content marketing and customer loyalty

NB The article is originally produced in Danish

Optimize your touchpoints - also in marketing

It is often in the marketing department of the company, that production and distribution of content occur. But even though a lot of content is produced, you should still look it over and ask the question: Is our content creating value for our customers, and does it create customer loyalty?

And is what we brand ourselves on appropriate for customers’ perception of us – and ultimately our customer satisfaction? Customers do not only see one side of the company – they see and judge the whole. We have previously written the blog post: “Is customer focus part of your 2019 strategy?”. Here we presented the idea of ​​implementing a strategy on customer focus by doing an overhaul of all the touchpoints that the company’s customers are in touch with. This makes customer focus an integral part of the company – which can hardly lead to poor sales figures.
Based on this approach, the company starts to identify and optimize the touchpoints that the customer is less satisfied with and which may be to blame for the customer not shopping at the company in question again – or not having a special and memorable experience in his interaction with the company.

A touchpoint is also the activities, in the form of, for example, content, which the marketing department puts into the lake to brand the company.

Some companies believe that they are customer-oriented enough in their marketing because they have segmented their marketing to suit the target audience.

But, especially on digital channels, we as a company communicate with several types of target groups, and therefore we also get a challenge in adapting content to the different types of people. It can thus also be difficult to satisfy all customers in this particular touchpoint on the customer journey, if we have no idea who we are communicating to and what needs they have.

Quit the sales speech and connect with your customers

Content as a not new, but does not make it any less relevant, especially for our presence on digital media. But at the same time, there has been a paradigm shift in the way we approach our customers and other stakeholders. It becomes more a matter of adapting its content to the reality of consumers because they no longer bite on push marketing with sales gas and selling messages about how excellent we are.

Instead, we are rewarded for creating content that informs, educates and guides the customer. In other words, marketing that your customers value because it creates real value for the customer, and not just encourages you to find the credit card.

The ambition should therefore be that we are present with content that helps the customer in his purchase consideration while creating good customer experiences. At the same time, it helps us in the direction of getting a customer who is satisfied and gets the needs that are present at a given time met.

You do not waste their time – you optimize it, and they will thank you for it.

Adapt your content to ZMOT

How do we gain good content that you can send, you might ask? Yes, some of the benefits are actually user involvement and data that you can again use to deliver sharp, value-creating marketing, which we again highlight, creating satisfied and loyal customers. The increased focus on customer-oriented marketing comes, among other things, in line with the ever-growing search for information on the Internet before purchasing products and services.

The search for information happens because we have the technology and information at hand, and it influences the way we buy and make purchasing decisions.

The fact that customers are increasingly looking for information on the web as part of their purchasing decision-making process makes virtually all markets extremely transparent. This advances significant parts of the decision-making process from the former Moment of Truth to what is now called: Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT).
ZMOT is the moment when you grab your PC, mobile phone, iPad or other web access and start searching for knowledge and learning about the product or service you are thinking of buying or trying.

Your company’s online marketing and knowledge sharing therefore becomes an extremely crucial factor for purchasing and customer loyalty. Zero Moment of Truth is the new, fourth step in the future purchasing decision model for customers.

Therefore, when it is relevant to talk about customer orientation in this context, it is because it requires companies to really understand what concerns their customers and how they can help their customers. This instead of doing marketing, where the company in a classic and erroneous way highlights its own capabilities.

This means that the content you produce must be so convincing and value-creating for the customer that the customer on that basis feels like contacting the company to buy its products and services.

In short, there is a clear connection between customer loyalty and the quality we deliver in our communication and marketing. However, it can also be a challenge to find exactly the content that a potential or existing customer is looking for. Here, dialogue and insight into the target group are the key words.

You can get dialogue and insight by asking your customers directly about their experiences in connection with a purchase or a possible purchase – and preferably without disturbing your customer unnecessarily with long and time-consuming questions.

There are several types of surveys and methods that can help your company on the right path when it comes to creating dialogue or deeper insight into who you are actually communicating to – and including the extremely simple NPS method.

Summary

In the blog post above, we have touched on the importance of good content and shaping the company’s marketing according to the reality and needs of the modern consumer. The needs are information available on the right channels and that customers feel that we can meet their needs because we are close to the market and the currents that are constantly changing course.
The consequences of the Zero Moment of Truth behavior mean that even greater demands are placed on how the company’s products, services and employees perform when they meet customers on digital platforms and through the content they deliver in the form of content. In the future, we will probably see that the companies that do really well in terms of customer satisfaction and optimize the crucial touchpoints will have even more success. Those who do not deliver the goods and do not listen to the needs of their customers will get out of the abyss faster than otherwise.