In today’s data-driven world, businesses need to leverage customer data to create more marketable products and services. It allows them to be more relevant, productive, and proactive in acquiring an advantage over their competitors. As a business owner, you cannot compete and excel in today’s highly competitive market without implementing a data-centric approach.
Data collection consists of different methods. It comprises various elements like customer relations, online resources, storage, and tools to gather data. As a business owner or decision-maker, you can utilize customer data in different ways to market your products and services. For instance, if you have a list of customers’ email addresses, you can reach out to them via email marketing campaigns to let them know about your latest offering. Having customers’ contact numbers also gives your marketing efforts an edge as you can create SMS marketing campaigns. The availability of diverse customer information enables marketers to use multiple channels to promote their business and increase the customer base.
The primary purpose of customer data collection is to know their interests and preferences. It helps you to build better customer base segmentation to approach them with attractive and relevant offers. Once you start targeting customers precisely, it helps boost lead generation and increases the chances of conversions.
The following are some methods that can be used to collect customer data for use in business-related tasks and decisions.
Surveys
It is one of the most widely used methods that allow marketers to collect information via contacting customers directly. You can ask customers for anything and use this method for either qualitative or quantitative data collection. Surveys usually have a list of questions that can be answered in a few words or by selecting an option(s) from multiple choices.
It would help if you had people in your marketing team who can create innovative survey questionnaires to enhance the collected information’s quality. You can motivate current employees to pursue higher education, such as an MSBA online, to help them understand the basics of collecting marketing analytics and put them to use in business decisions.
You can conduct online surveys through email, phone, or on social media platforms. However, using a third-party hosting service can make the task even easier.
Online Traffic Tracking
A customer’s digital footprints allow you to gather customer data conveniently. When somebody lands on your website, you can easily track the route that led them to your website and the page they spend the most time on. It helps you assess customers’ likes and dislikes as you can keep track of what they clicked on. You can also gather this type of information by using analytics software or through website hosting. There are different online tools available that you can place on your site to read cookies. It gives you valuable insight to read customer behavior and helps in creating a more detailed data set with personal information.
Transactional Data Collection
If you sell online products, transactional data gives you valuable insights into customer preferences and buying patterns. You can save this transactional data from your web store or in-store point of sale system. It is good if you have a customer relationship management system to keep all this information. It will give you deep insights into the number of products you sell, what type of products people prefer and how often customers make purchases from you.
Online Marketing
You can also gather essential customer data through online marketing campaigns when you run them via search engines or social media. Online tools can help you track demographics such as age, gender, location, device type, etc. In combination with personal data related to customer preferences, you can combine all the information to create highly targeted marketing campaigns via PPC and paid advertising on social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram.
Extended reading: how to get 1k followers on Instagram in 5 minutes.
Social Media Analysis
In today’s digital era, social media is the perfect platform for customer data collection. All you need to do is take a good look at your social media page’s follower list to assess what type of people follow you. It helps you build a good understanding of your target audience. Tracking social media page analytics also allows you to monitor your brand mentions regularly by setting up notifications. Most of the social media platforms give you access to detailed information on content engagement rates and reach so you can judge your posts’ performance. In this case, third-party tools can also provide you valuable insights.
Registration and Subscription Data
Offering something to customers for providing contact details is also a vital way to collect important customer data. You can do this by asking for some basic information from people who visit your website via a suitable lead magnet, such as discount coupon or an e-book. It helps if you integrate this feature on the sign-up of an email list or similar program. It plays a vital role in converting your leads as customers start developing an interest in your brand and products/services.
However, you should maintain the proper balance while asking for personal information. If you ask for too much data, website visitors might feel that you’re intrusive and will be discouraged.
Online Store Monitoring
One of the most effective ways to collect data is to monitor the performance of your online store. You can analyze various factors such as store traffic to know the number of people visiting your store in a day. This data lets you identify the time you get the most engagement. It helps you decide the best time to run marketing campaigns and draw customers’ attention to your store.
Conclusion
Having comprehensive customer data at your disposal is essential to run a successful business. You have to leverage data efficiently and utilize it properly to create result-driven marketing strategies and achieve your business goals. This is only possible by using the correct data collection methods to gather accurate and valuable customer data.
