customer following - part 2

By the Marketing Team at InteractOne

A Strong Customer Following Equals eCommerce Success – Part 2

In our previous post we discussed the reasons why growing your customer following is important. If you missed it, go check it out. Understanding the importance of building your brand and customer following is critical to your success not only as a Magento merchant, but as an entrepreneur and business owner. The Magento platform is a robust tool that when used correctly, is critical for building the success of your Magento store and customers. Here are our 3 ways Magento merchants can build their brand and customer following.

1. How to Build Customer Loyalty

Merchants earn customer loyalty by providing positive customer experiences and products that meet customer’s needs. Smart Magento Merchants select their online tools appropriately to support their brand needs. There are a couple extensions that Magento has to help build customer loyalty.  

Extensions such as Magebuzz Social Share make it easy for customers to create an account and log into your store via their favorite social platform. Valuable customer information allows merchants to remarket specific product suggestions via eMail and social remarketing platforms.

Rewards based extensions like Sweet Tooth provide benefits by giving points to frequent shoppers.

Notably, through an eMail provider like Dotdigital, merchants can sync customers point balance via Dotmailer’s campaign design and segmentation tools. Tailored eMails, including personalized product suggestions based on shopping behavior and purchase history, greatly increase the number of conversions.

Extensions like Magebuzz Social Share and Sweet Tooth combined with eMail providers like Dotmailer will increase customer retention, customer purchasing frequency, and customer lifetime value while lowering customer acquisition costs. Reward and loyalty programs help to build happy customers and purchase frequency.

2. How to Build Connected and Happy Customers

In today’s rapidly growing digital world, social media has become the most efficient way to connect and stay connected with customers. Monitoring and staying active on social feeds is the basis of that connection. Customers want to see a business taking an interest in what is being said on social media about your brand.

Tools such as Hootsuite can aid in measuring return on investment for social media and help protect reputation on social media through tracking capabilities.

Connect with customers and stay up-to-date with what is being said about your business. A pleasant customer service experience should be the goal of every customer interaction. Utilize online tools like Hootsuite to monitor and measure social efforts to build happy customers.

3. How to Define the Right Customers for Your Brand

Properly tracking user activity is the most critical step to building a customer following. Merchants need to identify what products customers are viewing, and have the ability to intelligently remarket to them. Finding a way to reach the right demographic for your brand can be a daunting task but there are several tools available to help simplify the process.

The easiest way to identify customers is to use data already being collected. Google Analytics is the most common way to track customer behavior. Google Analytics has very in depth demographic data that can give insight on customer behavior, but if the optional tracking isn’t configured properly it can cause issues. Make sure to have eCommerce tracking enabled and check that the sales funnel is setup properly. Some of the most valuable information about site usage and customers is within Google Analytics.

Create advanced segments based on demographics like location, age, past behavior and/or purchases. Use geographical segmentation to target customers with localized, personalized content, like special offers. With Magento Customer Segmentation and CMS banners, create locally targeted home pages for customers who are living in a certain region. Display promotions/discounts based on if-then statements that appear when a customer falls into a certain customer segment. Magento’s segmentation capabilities help to effectively and personally market to your audience without wasting effort.  

For more advanced tracking, Kissmetrics and Woopra offer in-depth demographic data for more insight on individual customer behaviors. These services can be used to further define your target audience. Kissmetrics offers behavior analytics, automated eMail campaigns and tracking for key growth segments. Track customer behavior and use helpful tools to engage with customers at every stage of the buying process. Woopra has the ability to create customer profiles, track analytics, send out automated eMails based on behavior and connects tracking across all your apps. Woopra’s customer profiles provide a comprehensive look at customers in every stage of the buying cycle. Woopra also has the capability to segment based on each customer’s individual behavior. Services like Kissmetrics and Woopra help to efficiently define your customer.

Interested in growing your customer following?

We’ve helped plenty of merchants over the years through their Magento site and marketing strategy. Contact us to learn more about how we can help you build your brand!