Blog Post

How to Find Customer Insights?

by: Power Digital February 13, 2019

Table of Contents

You know it’s important to evaluate data and use it to better your business.

After all, the right feedback and insights help you serve your customers better. That, in turn, grows your audience and sales.

However, there is one problem.

You may be unsure: What are the best ways to find impactful Customer Insights?

That is why we are here. We’re sharing few core ways to establish and hone Customers Insights.

Real Quick, What Are Customer Insights?

Before proceeding, let’s confirm what Customer Insights are.

Customer Insights are the reasoned thoughts that come from a combination of quantitative and qualitative research and data analysis.

To learn more, dive into this comprehensive blog on Customer Insights.

The Steps to Find Customer Insights

In a world of data and information sharing, statistics and studies are often thrown about like a boat on a stormy ocean.

That is why you must be careful with how you acquire and process information. (Like discovering a national poll only surveyed 50 people…not so reliable.)

Let’s address authentic ways to find customer insights.

Ask Your Customers Directly

Although this may seem obvious, the most logical way to find out what someone is thinking is to ask them.

As Kristin Smaby, in “Being Human is Good Business”, says,

“When customers share their story, they’re not just sharing pain points. They’re actually teaching you how to make your product, service, and business better.”

A great example of a company who uses feedback to better experience and boost sales?

How Apple Increased Sales with Customer Insights

Apple utilizes NPS surveys to evaluate and better their experience at retail stores. For example, a survey is sent whether someone purchased an Apple watch or just had an appointment, helping to evaluate the purchaser and gain insights from someone who decided not to buy.

Customers are asked to rate their experience. If they rate lower than 6, an Apple team member reaches out to them personally. Not only that, the store managers and team members then meet up to discuss the feedback and find solutions to any negative comments.

It was found that this follow up strategy resulted in an extra $25 million per year.

Surveys can be executed in multiple formats. There are two main forms of surveys:

Online Surveys
- As in the example above, online surveys via form can be highly effective. Some great, common platforms used are SurveyMonkey and Google Forms.
Phone or In-Person Interviews
- In some cases, talking voice-to-voice may be the best option because it lets you:
  - Interact with all 5 senses
    - In-person allows one to interact with touch, taste, and smell. This can be vital for certain products. Have a new food product? Coming out with a new line that involves different material?
  - Control the environment.
    - To know how a customer will interact with products in a store, it is most helpful to put them in that store setting. Maybe you want to know how they would use a product. By giving it in-person, you can observe and take notes accordingly.
  - Contact with those less digital or second language.
    - Some groups, like senior citizens, have lower levels of digital literacy. Online surveys may be an obstacle to them. In addition, if English is not someone’s first language, a survey in English may be more of a challenge or harder for them to interpret.

To be candid, in-person surveys do have cons, too. They are typically more expensive, as you need a meeting place and a person to host the interview. This usually involves more research costs, as well. However, if it’s the right fit for your business, what you learn from the research can lead to changes in your business that increase revenue overall.

Data Analysis of Your Existing Customer Base

Here are valuable ways to evaluate current customers on a deep level.

Google Analytics

Google Analytics gives you a superpower.

The power to break down demographics and segment your people.

It’s like shooting webs from your wrists, only way more effective for understanding your clientele and boosting business sales.

Demographics

Learn about the demographics of your customers. Know who the top converting segments are when it comes to essential basics:

Gender
Age
Location
Behavior (New user vs. Returning one)
Devices (If the majority of your visitors are on mobile, pay extra close attention to how mobile friendly your site is and user experience throughout different paths.)

Knowing demographics is vital. After all, targeting a 20-year-old European female is very different than persuading a 45-year-old American male. Well, typically anyhow!

In-Market Segments

An in-market segment addresses a potential buyer who is in the market for purchasing. As Courtney Cox of Atomic Design & Consulting shares, “These segments simply tell us what else our potential customers are looking to purchase in the near future.”

This information helps you determine:

Where to place your ads.
How to better develop your buyer persona

Affinity Interests

Affinity interests are used to increase awareness among these potential buyers and keep them at the top of the sales funnel.

As an advertiser, the ability to segment by Affinity Interests lets you define who you want to reach. It factors in the most recent searches, like keywords, recently searched websites, and interests of the potential consumer, as well as ongoing interests.

For example, if you are an organic dog food company, you may want to target based on dogs/pets, recent visits to big pet-based brands, and maybe other dog related products.

How is this different from in-market segments?

In-market segments are for potential buyers at the bottom of the sales funnel and, at that point, those more likely to psychologically ready to click BUY.

With these Insights, make sure to:

Continually evaluate and make adjustments based on fresh insights
Use copy that addresses each segment very specifically and strategically
Audit the placements for QA

Facebook Audience Insights

Facebook is another powerful tool for gaining Customer Insights. As a robust platform, take time to dive into the backend and evaluate the different demographics, engagement information and other data tracked for you.

Evaluate Your Audience

Get a clear understanding of the audience connected to and engaging with your page. Find out:

Gender
Age
Common Job Titles
Brand Affinity
Interests / Hobbies
Purchase activity, including behavior and how they purchase

Even find out info on everyone in Facebook in general or another type of custom audience you select.

Do not be afraid to dive into the deeper level of the Facebook depths. The most potential is in the deep layers of the Advanced targeting capabilities.

TowerData

Tower Data is a platform rooted in email intelligence, validation, and services. Its main goal is to increase engagement and conversions.

And we all want that, don’t we?

It is unique in that it reveals demographic information about your existing customers based on their email address. The email intelligence aspect specifically allows you to enhance your database based on information regarding demographics, interests and so forth. This can include gender, income, shopping info, and beyond.

Data Analysis of Competitors Customer Base

It has been said to keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

Not to declare enemy status on anyone, but on another note, how close are you keeping your competitors?

Here are a few powerful tools to keep tabs on your competition:

SEMRush
- This tool lets you evaluate organic research on keywords that your competitors are ranking for, in addition to useful insights like any position changes of domains.
Facebook Audience Insights
- As touched on earlier, Facebook gives you the opportunity to get powerful insights on those engaging in your own page and brand. Good news: You can get insights on your competitors, as well. First, you can start with the basic manual review of a competitor’s page. For example, see what features they are using. If all competitors are using a similar feature, it’s likely doing good work for them. You can also get reports from platforms like Sprout Social with more information via a competitor report.

Market Research

Here are the top tools for conducting market research.

MyBestSegments
- This tool lets you evaluate various market segments by linking consumer behaviors such as shopping and finances. This helps you to discover who your best customers are and, of course, where they are and what they are like.
SurveyMonkey
- Here, you can host surveys and utilize their Market Powered Data to:
  - Survey existing contacts (working with their templates, if you desire)
  - Connecting with your target market via their Audience Panel option
Ask Your Target Market
- This online market research platform empowers insights from very specific target markets. It allows for a unique survey design and interactive analysis tools, like the ability to filter by traits and answers, as well as chart out data.
Social Listening
- Social Listening is monitoring digital convos to understand how consumers are talking about an industry or a brand on the internet.
Nuvi
- This platform allows you to monitor conversations happening related to your brand, as well as customers, markets, competitors, and your overall industry. How? It utilizes data from social platforms like Instagram, engines like Youtube, millions of blogs, and more.