Buyer marketing is a type of marketing approach aimed at reaching the right people in the right context. Despite a long history of proven success, this strategy remains underutilized in the economy as a whole.
Why is it so? What makes it so valuable? And how can you use its power for your own business?
Table of Contents
What is Buyer Marketing?
Let’s start with customer marketing basics. It’s all about directly influencing the behavior of your most important customers. It’s about finding the right demographic to target, understanding that demographic better, and then developing large multi-channel campaigns that target that demographic directly. It also goes for reaching these demographics with marketing and promotional messages that encourage them to buy your products when they are most likely to buy them.
Buyer marketing is a broad term that includes many different tactics and strategies. Writing online content, running direct ads, packaging your product, and positioning your product on store shelves are all strategies that can play a role in your overall marketing strategy for shoppers.
Benefits
Why is customer marketing so useful for brands?
Audience targeting is important for all kinds of marketing and advertising strategies, and for several reasons. In buyer marketing, you’re going to take audience targeting to the next level, getting to know your audience even better and influencing their behavior as much as possible. Accordingly, you will benefit even more from the benefits of the target audience. Your marketing tactics will be more relevant to the people she’s familiar with, and you’ll minimize competition in the process.
Buyer marketing is not just a strategy; it is a combination of many different strategies under one roof. Because of this, there is no single “correct” way to practice it, and you are not limited to any single combination of tactics. You can combine many different channels and different approaches in the service of a higher purpose.
-
Coordination and Consistency
Some brands like shopper marketing because it gives them the ability to coordinate multiple departments and display the brand more consistently. The departments of marketing, advertising, sales, and even customer service have a role to play in reaching your target audience and communicating your brand values to them.
How to implement the strategy
How to start implementing a buyer’s marketing strategy?
-
Consider working with professionals
You can develop and implement a buyer’s marketing strategy entirely in-house. But, as a rule, it is better to work with professionals. Experts with experience working with buyers are more likely to recommend effective tactics and provide the information needed to ensure a positive return on investment (ROI). Luckily, you have several options for how to do this. If you have the budget, a buyer marketing agency is the best option, but otherwise you can hire a full-time buyer marketing expert or work with buyer marketing freelancers who really know their stuff.
-
Prioritize Market Research and Audience Understanding
The whole basis of consumer marketing is understanding and influencing a specific audience. The better you know your audience and the more objective your understanding, the more effective you will be. This is why your top priority should be investing in market research and audience understanding. Through surveys, focus groups, and secondary forms of research, you can get to know your target demographic inside and out—and sell to them much more effectively.
-
Develop a comprehensive strategy
At this stage, you will be able to develop a comprehensive strategy that sets the tone and strategic goals for every tactic you add to your arsenal. How do you want to position your brand? How is your brand different from competitors? When and how do customers usually buy your product? What makes them choose your product over others?
-
Coordination across channels and departments
Buyer marketing is not limited to one area; you need everyone on board with your strategic goals.
-
Measure, analyze and continually improve
Hold closely monitor your KPIs (key performance indicators) across all channels and departments. Which of your tactics work effectively? Which ones fall? You can use this information to reallocate resources, change your strategies, and ultimately improve your marketing systems and customer processes.
parting thoughts
There aren’t enough brands involved in shopper marketing, in part because it’s a relatively new concept. But their loss is your gain; this is an important opportunity for you to develop your own strategy and gain an edge over your competitors.
With better audience targeting and better strategies working in coordination with each other, you will be much more likely to increase sales and make your brand more influential.
