Having trouble making decisions to overcome situations in times of high uncertainty? No worries. Consumer insights can help overcome these issues. You don’t need to rely on your gut instinct any longer. The goal is to understand and interpret information to the fullest. That’s where consumer insights come into play.
You can leverage different analytic tools to find insights that help you streamline your brand image. These metrics can help you make informed decisions in these uncertain times. All you need to do is provide your specific market needs, size, competitors and metrics. This can make you understand the “what, why, who, when, where and how.”
Enough talk about how to go about it. Let’s discuss a few things before touching on the importance of consumer insights.
Table of contents
- What’s the Difference Between Market Research & Consumer Insights?
- How to Start Using Consumer Insights?
- How to Gather Good Consumer Insights?
- What are the Types of Customer Insights?
- Why are Consumer Insights Important?
- Consumer Insights: A Necessity or Not?
- Closing Thoughts: Consumer Insights For the Win!
What’s the Difference Between Market Research & Consumer Insights?
It is about time we stop confusing market research and consumer insights. They are not interchangeable terms. Instead, one could say they are completely different. Market research allows one to understand the following:
- Market size
- Market needs
- Competitors
- Customer behavior
So, one could say the whats are answered through market research. As for the whys, we need consumer insights. Why a particular product or service has gained popularity. This information isn’t available to us in market research. All you can access is statistics and data, which are equally important.
On closer examination, consumer insights help understand the data in reference to the context. You can gain an understanding of the data and plan a strategy to move ahead. Some of the most used consumer insights are as follows:
- Customer relationship management
- Customer satisfaction
- Customer acquisition
- Turnover rate
- Cart abandonment rate
How to Start Using Consumer Insights?
Here is a list to understand start using consumer insights to your advantage:
- Establishing Key Learning Areas – This can help conduct better research.
- Identifying Resources – The who, where, when, what, why and how can help you gather effective information.
- Collecting Methods – Know your target audience to nitpick the collection method from surveys, focus groups, interviews, etc.
- Understand the Departmental Needs – This can help you organize your gathered data much more efficiently.
How to Gather Good Consumer Insights?
Gathering good consumer insights can be tricky, especially if it is your first time. So, the first step is the identification of quality data. You can’t conclude without differentiating results from one another. However, it’s a daunting task, so you may need some help.
A dedicated analytics team is just right for the job. They have years of experience and expertise to help you guide through the process. Also, breaking down consumer behaviors and understanding them is much easier.
The next step is digging deep for consumer research. You need to forecast and assess future trends with the help of customer behavior. It’s a little time-consuming, but the results are worth it.
After identifying your dataset, it’s time to segment them according to your consumer profiles. This can help you personalize your communication, which has a better chance of being reciprocated by the target audience. Isn’t that the whole purpose of consumer insights? So, why not break it down into steps that are easy to follow?
Now, all you need to do is test out your theories and set up controls to compare and contrast the results. That’s how we make magic with consumers’ insights. They are no longer feedback or analytic results, but now the same customer insights are ammunition to overcome all issues.
What are the Types of Customer Insights?
You may come across many different types of customer insights. Here are a few different types you should be aware of. They can help you enhance your business image by improving the quality of your product or service. Consumer insights are as follows:
- Customer engagement
- Consumer loyalty
- Acquisition to retention ratio
- Competitor data
Why are Consumer Insights Important?
So far, we have covered what are consumer insights. It is about time we check why we even try to understand them. Hence, let’s dig a little deeper into why consumer insights are important. We understand that client behaviors, trends and feedback all come under customer insights. But the goal is to understand how to leverage them to our advantage.
Imagine that consumer insights are your golden ticket to your lottery. But it’s not just luck. This time stats and figures support your ideas. You can personalize your day-to-day operations according to the customer’s needs, wants and demands. Yes, you heard us right.
That’s how you have your audience hooked and meet your consumer expectations. The results will speak for themselves. Your sales growth will drastically increase, and you can surpass your competitors.
Here are some benefits to name a few:
- Optimize your online presence
- Expand your products and services
- Curate new marketing and sales tactics
- Develop customer personas and consumer journey maps
- Improve your sales rate
- Boost consumer engagement and satisfaction
- Higher profitability
If these reasons aren’t enough, we have plenty more that we will cover in detail. All you need to understand is that the end goal is to maintain loyal customers. It is possible, all thanks to consumer insights.
Benefits of Using Customer Insights
Customer insights can help make tactical and informed decisions in these highly uncertain times. You don’t lose your consumer base that you put your heart and soul into building. But by leveraging customer insights to your advantage, you are fostering meaningful relationships. As a result, you can stay in touch with your target demographic.
The results are not only quantifiable but improve the quality of your daily operations. Here are a couple of benefits of leveraging customer insights:
Forecast Churn
This is one of the most significant statistics for businesses. They can predict future revenue streams that may open due to market trends and consumer behaviors. It can also help identify key areas that have a direct impact on customer service and churn rate.
Personalization
Personal experiences are what make or break a business, especially after COVID-19. Experiences and interactions are necessary to leverage consumers’ feedback to our advantage. This can help you tailor the experience to the customer’s expectations.
Planning Ahead
Consumer insights make planning ahead of time much easier. You can plan out how to proceed forward with the inventory. This can help you slow or boost production, depending on the demand. You will already know how much space there is to accommodate your products in the warehouse.
Targeted Promotions
Consumer insights, once again, is the wild card in your hands. It helps you take insight-driven decisions to improve your sales and profitability by targeting groups. For instance, if you see a particular group of people interested in your products, you can offer bundle deals for the target audience. It increases the effectiveness of your marketing efforts by 30% and boosts operating margins by 60%.
Optimum Product or Service Pricing
Since a recession is around the corner, you should reconsider your pricing strategy. The goal is to offer consumers what they can afford. But these decisions are only based on the feedback and analytic results generated. So, you can price your products or services according to market trends and consumer preferences.
Consumer Insights: A Necessity or Not?
The ball is in your court. Now, it is your decision whether you want to leverage customer insights or not. But this is only possible if you choose the right sources of information. There are many you may stumble upon, but not everyone will be useful.
So, pay attention to your customer’s needs, demands, behaviors and preferences. This can help you decide whether success stories or customer interviews are good for your business. The goal is to curate a strategy that makes a difference. You can’t waste precious time or resources on generating unfruitful data.
Setting an ideal profile is what helps you streamline your efforts and vision. Without this, you can’t make your business stand out from the crowd. So, tick all the boxes, even if they seem very obvious. Sometimes, the obvious things are what make you lose focus on the end goal. Hence, it’s best to cover all the basics before going advanced.
Closing Thoughts: Consumer Insights For the Win!
After closer speculation, we can say that consumer insights are here for good. No business can ignore it for long. Collecting and analyzing data is part of the job to stay up-to-date with the latest trends. You can just bring anything to the table and expect the audience to go crazy. It’s best to do research and understand the market before investing in a new prototype. It can help you boost your profitability and sales by a significant margin. If you don’t believe it, try it for yourself.
Featured Image: Ace Research
