Who deserves your attention?

Every marketer and their dog is aware of the importance of knowing their customers and sending them the right message, but what tools are in place for them to do this? What can we actually use to monitor them and choose how to target them? Resources are often spread thin and struggle to be managed effectively. This highlights the importance to develop the back-end assets, the planning and development of documents which outline exactly what the objectives are and what needs to be done to achieve these.

For example, an account-based marketing plan lays the foundation for content to be created to target different buying personas, and what each persona requires at every relevant stage of the buying cycle?

Here I have created a tool for analysing existing customers, and the basis for strategic planning to target each section. I have chosen the two key metrics that affect a marketing orientated company, value and frequency of purchases. Value relates to the average monetary spend of each purchase while frequency relates to how many times they have purchased. These metrics were chosen as they are utilised by every business-to-consumer (B2C) organisation.

Use of model

Through the use of this model, it is easily identifiable who requires different campaigns and the grouping of particular segments. Marketers can find inconsistencies in their activity where one segment receives full attention, and another receives none. This can alienate segments and allow the relationship to be broken and see customers defecting. By applying this model time will be split effectively to nurture each segment to develop the relationship and maximise the returns from this.

This model offers marketers the chance to place different market segments into the quadrants and identify who requires what. It effectively links the overarching aims with the content plan and provides a basis for which different plans can be created. Without applying the correct amount of resources to different levels of consumers, revenue will not be maximised, and a lower ROI will be achieved.

Implications

This value-frequency model has implications for organisations who offer both high and low-value goods, as customers at different ends of the spectrum are reactive to different material and this needs to be defined before content is distributed. For example, a retail organisation will need to put significant time into developing loyalty with high-value customers as the nature of the industry involves a high turnover of customers, extending their customer lifetime value is pivotal. This can be done through relationship nurturing, personalising the messages that are sent to them and ensuring they are relevant and in line with the customer persona. On the other hand, customers with a low purchase value but high frequency can effectively be managed by mass-market social media activity, as they only need inspiration and can be influenced easily.

Conclusion

When devising a content strategy, applying relevant models and frameworks provides stability and clarity, though it does rely heavily on your ability to effectively segment your audience, so you may need to research a Customer Data Platform (CDP) if you haven’t already got one in place.

It becomes easily visible to all members of the organisation which direction the company is going in and what needs to be produced for which segment. This allows clear targeting to be conducted and the utilisation of company resources for quantitative results.