As a business owner or marketing professional, you have to understand the concept of customer intent and how it can be best used for personalized customer experience.

By understanding what it is, businesses can create more personalized marketing offers and tailor their strategies to customers on an individual level. Today, Jones Associates shares a quick post that opens up the doors for you to use customer intent in your marketing endeavors.

What Is Customer Intent?

Customer intent simply means your customers’ motivation behind a certain action. Their intent is what they want to accomplish. For example, if someone searches for women’s shoes, they likely want to buy women’s shoes. You can utilize Google Trends to get an idea of popular searches, but your webmaster can give you more information specific to your site. Intent does not always translate initially into a purchase. Sometimes, your customers’ intent is simply to gather information, such as pricing or size and availability.

How To Leverage Customer Intent

There are many different ways that you can get to know your customers’ underlying motivation.

To fully understand customer intent, you have to do research. You might send surveys or create a focus group. You can also do what’s known as social listening, which is simply the act of monitoring and analyzing social media conversations. You can also utilize data culled from your website to get a snapshot of your customers’ journeys. For example, if they put a pair of shoes in their shopping cart, you know that their intent is, ultimately, to purchase shoes.

If you extrapolate this to an ecommerce store, obviously the site has to be user-friendly with customizable content and an easy-to-use payment section, as well as the ability to analyze sales and inventory data to better streamline each customer’s experience. Luckily, there are options for commerce software that allow you to do just that.

Tailored Content Converts

Grazitti Interactive says it best, “Custom content is the future of marketing.” Why? Because customers don’t want to feel like they are nothing but an open wallet. Customizing your content helps set you apart from the competition and helps your customers throughout their buying journey. Nine out of 10 users rate custom content as more helpful than generic information. Think of it this way: when you reach customers with the info and insight they want, you become a more trustworthy source that shows that you truly know what they need.

Customer Retention Matters

Custom content is not only important when targeting new customers. Constant Content explains that your customized marketing materials also reinforce your image and create a stronger following of loyal customers. Everyone wants more customers, but don’t ever lose sight of the fact that simply increasing your customer retention rate by 5% can boost your revenue by up to 95%. This is not only accomplished through increased sales but also because happy customers tell their friends and family.

Ultimately, offering your customers curated content based on their actions and intent is one of the best ways to offer real value to those that support your business. Remember, custom-tailored content converts more customers, and it’s widely considered more helpful than generic pop-ups and other content. To get the most out of your efforts, make sure to listen to your customers, use data to inform your business decisions, and keep organized and accurate records of your findings.

If you’re looking for a global management consultant who can help you meet and exceed your goals, contact Jones Associates today to get started.