Consumer Behavior

A thorough understanding of your target market is essential to a successful marketing strategy. You need to know what appeals to them, what triggers their purchasing behavior, and how you can influence it further. A detailed analysis of your audience will enable you to reach the right people with the right message.

With so many businesses competing for attention, there are certain unspoken rules when it comes to marketing strategies. If want to stand out, take a step back and analyze how other companies have reacted to consumer behavior. This will help you to create an effective strategy that works for your business.

The team at FineView Marketing has the experience to recognize the importance of consumer behavior. They are skilled at using the right tools and strategies to apply a customer-first approach to your marketing campaign.

What is Consumer Behavior?

Simply defined, consumer behavior is the actions a consumer takes before, during, and after buying a product or service. To understand the motivations for these actions it’s important to take a deep dive into their beliefs, values, concerns, and buying habits.

There are a number of psychological, social, and emotional variables that influence customer behavior. These factors should guide your marketing strategy from start to finish.

Cultural Factors – Culture is the practices of a particular nation, people, or group. It could be determined by nationality, location, or religion. A consumer buying decision based on culture would be buying ketchup for fries in the U.S. and fries sauce in the Netherlands.
Social Factors – Purchasing behaviors can be affected by a person’s environment and background. The goods and services a consumer buys may be based on what friends, family, and other social groups have purchased. For example, a person in the market for self storage may use the same facility as a parent or sibling.

Personal Factors – Personal factors include age, occupation, financial situation, marital status, lifestyle, and values. A personal behavior example is a younger parent purchasing an SUV instead of a minivan. Personal perception may be that a minivan is more in line with a middle-aged family.

Psychological Factors – These factors are based on personal beliefs and motivations. For example, a consumer who loves running will spend more money on high-quality running shoes than a person who prefers working out in a gym.

When Your Marketing Strategy Targets Everyone, It Converts No One

According to Kajabi, “You can market and advertise every hour of the day for three months straight, but if you don’t know how your target market will react to those messages, you’re wasting your time.”

Understanding buyers and their motivations are important, but you can’t just assume that buyers fall into one category or another. In other words, optimizing for success by using various online and offline channels to collect information about consumers is key.

Google Analytics is widely used and provides statistics and analysis tools that enable marketers to measure the success of campaigns, track purchases, and discover patterns. Based on customer behavior analytics, marketing campaigns can be designed to drive traffic to your website, retain visitors, and convert leads.

Don’t ignore offline sources when you’re collecting customer data. Contact information, loyalty statistics, and purchase histories can be practical tools in targeting the right demographic.

Send the Right Message

Brand loyalty is at an all-time low, which means that marketers must work harder than ever to win over consumers. A brand must show authenticity and relevance to the daily lives of consumers.

Each market has a unique demographic that requires customized messaging that has to be offered related to changing market conditions. What stage of life are your customers in? What do they care about? Why do they need self storage?

Adjust by offering online rental and account management for those who wish to continue doing business digitally. If you’re located in a college town, offer shared storage for students who are short on cash.

Persuade Customers to Spend More

Understanding customer behavior helps marketers identify the needs of a target audience, create tailored experiences, and design solutions to solve their problems. Customers can then be persuaded to spend more money. For instance, consider how Amazon shows product recommendations on its homepage and product pages. This is a strong example of marketing based on consumer behavior studies and data.

Takeaway

The bottom line is that consumers are pickier than ever before, which means that brands must be more flexible and responsive. With so many factors driving the purchasing behavior of consumers, it can be difficult to create a strategy that appeals to everyone. The key is to analyze your audience and understand their needs and motivations. Once you’ve done this, you can create a strategy that appeals to as many people as possible.