My daughter is about to turn one year old. Recently, I began the baby-proofing of every little space within our home because her curiosity includes finding every little object and exploring every possible item. To achieve optimal baby-proofing, I had to get on my hands and knees and try to see the world from her perspective. It was a fascinating exercise and an incredible reminder of how we must take the time to change our perspective to get the best possible outcomes. This one activity opened my eyes to a completely different world. This essential step helped me discover some unsafe areas that needed addressing that would not be visible otherwise.
Taking the time to shift your perspective when applied to marketing and communications is imperative. However, it has become increasingly more complex. A technological advancement adding obstacles is machine learning. Content curation is now an expectation of users. If you are on a website, the first step is often accepting cookies. This practice is how businesses track their customers’ behaviors and carry on their journey with you even after you leave the website. When performing market research, it is helpful to capture the information of active users. Still, it is tough to explore individuals who may not match the profile of your website user.
An example is if you are considering adding a new product or service to your business offerings. How do you research this customer type if all of the content curations via the device you use to conduct the research are associated with you? Your individual habits, interests, location, and demographics inform the digital advertisements in whichever app you use. Technology advancements like these are critical for advertising relevance. However, seeing your content from your client’s perspective makes it increasingly challenging to derive the best possible outcomes.
Consider the following tips to help mitigate these market research hurdles:
1) Set up a browser to match the customer persona you want to research. This would require clearing your cache and making the browsing activities similar to that customer base.
2) Take the time to observe your customer’s behavior.
Physically Observe: You can do this by physically watching them at a computer and ask them to perform searches for certain products and services to capture information.
Use Big Data Tools: You can use tools like Google Trends to determine what may be favored based on specific demographics.
Capture Your Own Data: Another option is to incorporate tracking features into your website and certain content where you are testing a specific market. Make the tracking unique to that visitor to test if what you are saying and doing is working. This practice is often in the form of or referred to as “Call-to-Action” buttons.
Ultimately, taking the time to assess your customer base and make informed decisions about creating content, information, and resources to reach your customers is mutually beneficial. When your marketing works correctly, your message is rarely seen as another ad or spam. It instead is perceived as a resource, a solution, and likely will prompt a relationship in the future.
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