Customer insight: the key to a data-driven marketing strategy

Did you know that your customers and prospects hold the key to a more targeted, data-driven marketing strategy?

Your customers are a treasure trove of trends and insights into;

• the key decision makers within your ideal targets
• the conferences and events they are more likely to frequent
• how their financial situation can impact who they choose as a vendor

and so much more…

The analysis of customer data is not commonly performed with the intent of uncovering nuggets that can transform the approach to your marketing strategy but in the competitive life sciences sector, harnessing data sitting right under your nose can be the differentiator you need to succeed.

Putting customer analysis into action

A recent project conducted by the Research & Strategy team was an analysis of a client’s customer dataset with the intent of prioritizing conference attendance. With the number of events far exceeding most organizations’ available budget, finding ones that maximized prospect nurturing was of the highest priority, followed by events that provided the best brand awareness opportunities.
After evaluating the events their existing customers attended within the past year, we were able to create a data-driven list that included an event the client hadn’t previously considered attending.

The value of customer insight

Organizations with a robust Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool and a strong Business Development (BD) team are advantaged when it comes to uncovering information about their customers and prospects. Ideally, the CRM tool should include your customer’s key decision makers that can be evaluated based on their seniority, the job role(s) they hold, and their impact on the vendor decision-making process. If you belong to an organization that uses a defined sales process such as the Miller-Heiman Strategic Selling model, your CRM may have even more detailed information available about the goals, motivations, challenges, and needs of the key stakeholders. In the Miller-Heiman example above, this would be your user buyer, technical buyer, and economic buyer. Identifying these individuals can help you target prospects with similar attributes, thus keeping your BD activities laser focused.

Developing buyer personas that are specific to your organization’s needs is critical to ensuring your BD teams know who they are looking for, and how they can best address their needs.

Download the full whitepaper here to discover more about how your existing customers can help you find new customers, and in the process, make data-driven changes to your marketing strategy.