Part 4. Putting this into practice

How I've seen this work in businesses I know

“Know thy customer” in 2024

A question of information

Qualitative

Speak to customers
Speak to the market
Engage on LinkedIn
Come to events
Speak to industry peers
Get out from behind your desk
Generally, it helps you understand the general customer
Depending on what your business does, it can also help you understand the specific customer, but generally it’s not enough

Quantitative

Trends reports
Benchmarks
Etc etc
Digital engagement signals

Revisting the eBook example

Without engagement data

Did they download it?

…so we can

spam them?

With engagement data

Did they download it?
Did they open it?
How long did they spend on it?
Which bits did they read?
How long on each topic / theme?
Which onward links did they click?
Which channel did they come through?
Did they share it?
Where and who with?
Where did they drop off?
Did they come back? Twice? Three times?
And more

…lets us answer

Was helpful and interesting?
Were there any any areas of high engagement?
Do these areas relate to problems we help with?
How deep was their engagement with these?
Does their reading behaviour match the profile of previous buyers?
Which channel(s) can we reach them on in future?
Etc etc
All of which helps you answer:

…so we can
Be more helpful to the customer

What we're trying to set up

MIT has studied
this to some degree
(yes, that MIT)

https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/152922