Your sales team uses information from their interactions with leads and customers to learn about your customers, including what gets them to pull out their wallets. But you can use data from any stage of the customer journey to improve sales.
There are many things a customer or potential customer does to help you learn more about them, from how they interact with your site to which social media networks they use. Here are insights about what you can learn from how your customers interact with you online.
Social Media
There are dozens of popular social media networks out there, and even more networks for niche interests. Salespeople can learn a lot about a person just by which networks they choose to use—not to mention what they post, tweet, share, pin, and like.
At the time this article was written, Twitter users were sending 7,432 tweets per second. Twitter users are constantly connected to technology. They check their fast-flying feeds and post quick snippets often. They value real-time interaction and a conversational tone. A quick and clever turn of phrase will be more pleasing than long-winded, one-way conversations.
Takeaways:
Twitter users likely expect you to be online as much as they are, and may direct questions toward your Twitter handle. Quick, to-the-point digital communications are better than phone calls or long-winded emails.
Forty-five per cent of women who use the internet are on Pinterest, compared to 17 per cent of men. Pinners are highly visual people who value organization, design, and DIY, and are mostly between the ages of 18 and 49. They use Pinterest as a way to express their creative sides: share recipes, fashion, décor, and crafts, and find inspiration for everything from Halloween costumes to wedding invitations. The focus here is less social and more inspirational and instructional.
Takeaways:
Sales and marketing materials with plenty of images, especially those that explain how your products or services work, hit home with Pinterest users. Allow them time to review your pins, and be available for questions.
LinkedIn users are often particularly career- or business-focused. They are “movers and shakers,” or want to be, and are constantly looking for potential opportunities. They are well-educated (27 per cent have had some college education and 50 per cent have graduated) and are often middle to upper class.
Takeaways:
Expect LinkedIn users to do their own research. Provide them with plenty of information, and make clear the benefits of your products. If those benefits improve their professional lives in some way, even indirectly, all the better.
Your Website
The best data about your customers may come from how they interact with your website. Why? Because you control the content, and it’s pretty much all about you. That gives you the perfect opportunity to discover how your branding, products, and marketing directly affect your customers.
How Did They Get There?
Knowing where visitors come from can tell you a lot about which actions your business should take to encourage conversion.
Did a potential customer reach you via a search engine? They’re probably still in the discovery or exploratory stages of the customer journey. Reach out with a no-pressure introduction.
Did they type your URL into the browser? They already know who you are and may have been to your site before. Perhaps a limited-time sale is exactly what they need to make a purchase.
Did they click onto your blog from your newsletter? They may already be loyal customers, so look for upsell opportunities.
What Do They Do?
Tracking a visitor’s progress through your website can also give you insights.
If a visitor spends a lot of time on your FAQ page, then clicks over to your contact page, you may have a customer service ticket in the making. Perhaps a quick check-in from your sales team can solve the problem and get your brand kudos for being proactive.
Do they check out a product or two? They may be deciding between your brand and a competitor. This could be the perfect time to discuss your warranties, guarantees, and loyalty programs.
Do they browse a large number of your products all at once? Looks like they may have already decided on your brand, but just need to choose the right product. Take on the role of product expert and guide them to the best product for their needs.
Conclusion
If your marketing team knows what they’re doing, they’re constantly collecting streams of data on prospect behaviour to improve their performance. However a potential customer interacts with your brand online, you can learn from each and every action. With the right CRM, you can turn that data into insights for your sales team, too.
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