Back to basics: What are some effective marketing strategies?

The key to successfully sustaining and evolving a business is really about listening - be it to your employees, clients, customers or support network. The need to ‘evolve’ can lead to businesses focusing too much on innovation and eventually losing their grip on why they’re doing what they’re doing in the first place. 

Sometimes, going back to basics can go a long way! The most valuable innovations often come from taking a step back and truly getting to understand your customers - but how can marketers do this? 

Monitor the market.

It’s important to keep your ear firmly to the ground to ensure your customer engagement strategies are rooted in the now. In the face of the cost of living crisis, customers are unsure about spending and - annoyingly for brands that have spent months or often years building loyalty - are switching from their regular brands to get better deals. 

This is why it’s important to pay attention to your customers' spending habits and consider them accordingly. Think about how you can differentiate yourself from your competitors and appeal to potential customers by showing that you value them.

The art of listening.

Customers’ habits are constantly changing, and their choice is more varied than ever. So, you may not ever properly know your customer, but you can give yourself a decent chance by just tuning in? 

When it comes to getting to know your customers, some might need to take it back to basics and have regular, human conversations with key customers. For others, however, it might involve investing in a full tech suite, complete with machine learning, AI and automation. That’s not to say that one is better than the other - it just depends on the business and the customer.

It’s important to let your customers lead you rather than the other way around. To put it simply, don’t offer customers a discount on a pair of trainers if they only wear brogues - it’s irrelevant and will likely make them feel like you know so little about them that it would be better not to offer anything at all! Instead, experiment with offering customer loyalty products that have intrinsic value to your customers but less often. These heavily personalised but less-frequent rewards usually cost far less whilst having more impact. 

Utilise data to build customer niches.

We’re not letting automation take over at Ello any time soon; instead, we have a team of customer engagement specialists working full time to analyse customer data and predict future behaviours in line with this. Many of our clients use this intel to build niche communities of uber loyal customers.

Here’s a good example: If you’re a brand trying to target an active audience, forget thinking people engaged with fitness are all interested in focusing on the exact same gym routine. Instead, focus on digging deeper: you might end up identifying a tribe of dedicated fell runners who like running in extreme conditions that are perfect advocates for your business. The numbers may not be in the thousands, but this niche group may be more lucrative to your brand than a random mass of gym lovers would ever be.

You can only achieve this level of personalisation and knowing through a data-first approach.

Abandon aggressive marketing techniques.

Since the pandemic, aggressive marketing tactics have begun to fade out. The cost-of-living crisis has made this shift happen even faster as customers appreciate a softer approach to marketing that takes into account their economic situation.

Customers want to see an empathetic, human approach from brands, which slowly builds trust over time. We’re living through a period wherein being aggressively targeted doesn’t garner the best response, but a softer approach, focussing on human centricity, encourages audiences to be far more responsive. 

Reconsider what a loyal customer is.

We can’t stress enough the importance of loyalty schemes. Most loyalty and engagement programmes focus on rewarding big-spending customers after they’ve hit a certain amount. However, in a world where there’s more competition and less loyalty than ever, brands can’t afford to wait this long to engage - even a simple ‘thanks for joining’ gesture can go a long way.

So don’t just prioritise your biggest spenders. It’s crucial not to neglect younger customers. Who knows, they could potentially spend a whole lifetime with your brand - so play the long game.

Experiment with Ello’s effective marketing strategies.

Now that you are clued up on some effective marketing strategies to help your business, it’s time to put them to use. Ello Group can help you find the balance between keeping your customers happy and engaged while returning a profit.

The biggest misconception in today’s marketing world is believing you can’t be customer-centric and do well commercially. In an increasingly noisy world, the key to this is knowing how and where to listen. That’s where we come in. Join 3,000+ businesses already partnering with Ello and boost your customer retention today.