All successful business owners know that understanding your customer base is vital to its success. Common practice has taught us as marketers to place brand loyalty as a high importance, and affecting buying behaviour in a way that our most desired customers are people that only buy Acme Cola, and frequently.  But that is hardly the case! Below are some modern marketing tools to help understand your customers and therefore your business.

Heavy Half-Light Half rule

We often fall into a fallacy that in order to grow sales, our resources and efforts should place greater emphasis on growing customer loyalty. Modern marketing research claims that about 50% of sales come from the top 20% of buyers, with the other half coming from the remaining 80% of customers, or light buyers. Brands lose customers every day through one reason or another and it is completely natural, but if our goal is to grow as a brand then resources should be focused on people who are most likely to be influenced to convert, which are normally your light buyers.

Double Jeopardy Law

No, it’s not the American TV game show from the 90s. Double Jeopardy Law, put simply, is that ‘small brands’ have customers who purchase less loyal and less often. What does this mean for you? It means that your focus should be primarily on building market share. Again, this leads back to the idea that your light buyers are equally as important as those who buy from you regularly, build it and they will come!

Purchase Patterns

Here’s a shock. A majority of consumers who are buying your product still buy from your competitors. In fact, sole loyalty in most industries is around 5%. We all buy from a repertoire of our preferred brands, normally buying what’s on special, what’s seasonal, etc. Just because a customer didn’t buy from you this time, doesn’t mean you’ve lost them completely. The goal of your marketing outputs should be to fight for that ‘top-of-mind’ awareness, so that whenever the next purchase situation arises, they think solely of you (awwwww).

Tailoring your Digital Marketing Strategy

Balance, balance, balance. To grow your brand, you cannot rely on one digital marketing strategy alone. Understanding your customer base and their purchase behaviours will enable you to tailor efforts

We have amazing technology available at our fingertips nowadays, especially through remarketing. This field is available through the Google Display Network and social media platforms, all of which enable you to have your message shown to users who have already visited your site. When partnered with a coupon code, this works a treat for helping grow repeat buyers and that top 20% of the pyramid.

What about light buyers? Potentially the most important slice of the pie. Utilising the Google Display Network helps place your ads on websites within the same category, building brand awareness. To purchase, potential customers first need to know about you, right? That’s where social media comes in. This wonderful world puts your brand in front of more eyes, both locally and globally, ultimately creating a front-of-mind meaning the next time they go to purchase. Hopefully they’re thinking of your brand. Make the most of all platforms available and use it to drive light buyers into making that purchase.

Having a balanced digital marketing strategy that appeals to your most loyalest of loyals, and someone who can’t even recall what you do is my recipe for success.