It takes more than a low price and a good product to attract customers these days, unfortunately. Today, the market sizes of every industry are enormous. To stand out and achieve relative success, methods of customer influence must be used.
Digital signage is an excellent outlet to influence your audience, but only by understanding your customers’ way of thinking will your content have the deciding effect. Let’s take a look at only a few of the principal elements which drive your customer to approach your business over another and make that purchase.
1. Understand the customer identity, and appeal to it
This guideline essentially means “know who you talk to”. Besides broad demographics there is a deeper level which makes up identity. Why does identity matter? Because today the vast majority chooses products which fit their identity. How does your service or product bring them closer to being the person who they wish to be and goals they wish to achieve?
Understanding your customers’ identity can sound like a heavy psychological brainstorm, but it certainly works. Take teenagers for example. If a teenager believes they’ll be the coolest kid on the block if they get your product, be it a particular shirt, backpack or drink, they’ll buy it. Essentially, understand and show what your audience ultimately wants.
2. Understand your customers’ values
Values vary from person to person, almost as much as tastes. Target audiences, however, typically share similar values. One example are costly watches people buy. There is hardly any technological innovation in this segment. The values for the most part is not on functionality. Instead, materials, brand names and long lasting worth are used as signs and preservation of status and wealth. Thus, advertising the function, in this case, won’t have a strong effect.
Understanding customers’ values obviously allows you to better talk to them. If their values are recognized, they are motivated to approach the source of that value. For example, you can see one particular example of value in many industries of today’s time. Customer service is an important tie-breaker between competition these days. Instead of highlighting technical advantages, businesses draw in more people by showcasing superior customer service, and proof of it. This is where the next guideline ties in.
3. Don’t neglect reviews and feedback
As you may be aware, a dominating majority of consumers relies on reviews before making a purchase decision. Typically, people gather information online, but despite reviews being a democratic field beyond your individual reach, you can certainly influence it. For instance, you can add an RSS feed from your social media. Encouraging people to leave reviews through social media can be a great way to show what they think about your business.
Note, also, that negativity shouldn’t be fully filtered. If there are both pros and cons out there, the review seems more genuine and believable.
4. Awaking emotions
Human beings, as hard as some try to be, are not objective by nature. Their daily decisions and thoughts are very much subjective. If this weren’t true, all ads you’d see would simply state the product, price and location where it can be bought. There wouldn’t be a place for spokespeople, models, colours or music in them. Sounds quite dull.
The most influential ads are the ones which evoke an emotional response in a person. When have an emotional connection with a purchasing decision, it’s very difficult to break it off. This is why personalized content like ads or special offers based on previous customer behaviour work so well.
The amazing thing about emotional connections is that people tend to rationalize them with objective facts. In a way, they’re attempting to mask the fact that the decision was an emotional one. Emotional decisions are like a crack in the customer’s armor. If exposed to the right content, consumers create an emotional connection which you can appeal to as the person behind the screen is seen.
5. Listen to what the customers are saying
The simplest way to listen to your customers is through your own brand channels, such as emails or phone calls. This direct communication provides the easiest way to understand what your customers want, and improve upon it.
Social media channels, on the other hand, is a much richer way to listen in on what drives your audience. People share their preferences on trends, brands and many other things which appeal to them. Paying attention to these channels of communication can provide you with great insight into how your customer thinks.
Speaking of trends, this is a particular field where you’d want to listen really closely if you want to stay on top of which trends are dominating at the moment, especially in the field of digital signage.
Hopefully now you have an idea on which steps to take to understand your customer base better. The identity, values and preferences of your target audience is always gradually shifting, especially when new trends emerge. Trends are a clear example why it’s important to always be aware of what speaks to people. Use that knowledge to take the power of influence into your owns hands.
