5 Marketing Terms You Should Know: Part 2

Customer Personas: A detailed representation of a company's ideal customer, based on market research and data analysis, used to inform marketing strategies and decisions

In the process of discovering your brand identity, you should also focus on who exactly is the ideal customer. A customer persona is a snapshot using behavioral and demographic data to create your ideal customer. This also includes in-depth market analysis and research as well. The goal of these personas is to provide your business with insights to better understand your audiences and also learn how to spot potential customer pain points and ways to increase adoption.

Customer Journey: The series of interactions and experiences a customer has with a company, from awareness to post-purchase, that inform their overall perception and relationship with the brand

The customer journey consists of all the various interactions and touchpoints that a consumer has with your business, starting with awareness of the product/service and ending with completion of a purchase. In some instances, this can end with the consumer leaving a review or testimonial of the product/service. The customer journey coupled with customer personas will help to really understand those customer pain points as mentioned above. 

The stages of customer journey include awareness, consideration, purchase and loyalty/advocacy. I’ll break this down in a separate article.

Personalization: The process of tailoring marketing messages, content, and experiences to the individual needs and preferences of each customer

Admittedly, personalization in marketing is hard. It’s acquiring enough data about your consumers, which can be collected through purchasing behavior, site action behaviors, and a variety of digital marketing metrics. A great tactic for personalization in marketing is using the data from your audience to create targeted email marketing campaigns or to improve upon digital marketing efforts. In recent years, personalization can be achieved by implementing tactics such as customer surveys, prizes, giveaways, discounts, memberships, etc. and using all the information collection to make the overall customer experience more unique. 

Retargeting: A form of advertising that targets users who have previously interacted with a company's website or content, with the goal of bringing them back to the site to complete a desired action, such as making a purchase.

Ever been sent an abandoned cart email? They’re casual, low effort reminders to potential customers to finish completing an action - like a purchase. In some instances, they even come with a discount offer to complete the purchase, providing greater incentive to complete the action. All of this is retargeting and it’s part of the marketing strategy to complete the sale - and to collect needed behavioral and demographic data. 

Referral marketing: A marketing strategy that incentivizes customers to refer new customers to a company through referral programs or referral bonuses.

Referral marketing is a great way to build an audience of early adopters while incentivizing them to assist with your marketing efforts, usually through bonuses and rewards. A well-known referral tactic is one used by banks, giving new customers “free money” in the form of cash bonuses and rewards for getting their friends and family to open a new account or credit card. Referral marketing is one tactic used to shift consumers with a higher net promoter score into a loyalty tier. 

I hope these terms and definitions come in handy the next time you’re thinking about your communications and marketing strategies.