If you find that your marketing efforts aren’t bearing fruit, it could be that you don’t know your customers as well as you should. The pre-online era made this a much easier task. You learned directly face-to-face about your customers’ habits through their shopping practices and interactions with you. You knew what they were looking for, what they were likely to buy and who usually bought what and when. Online shopping  presents a bigger challenge, since customer motivations are often shielded from retailers. Attempts to understand customers have naturally given rise to several smart business apps to help make the ideal customer profile.

Creating customer profiles can help you understand your “ideal” customer in a more comprehensive manner. In slow economies, when it becomes more difficult to make sales, it is this information that will help you weather the storm. However, far from being static, customer profiles should be living dynamic entities that update as your customers evolve. Here are five ways building customer profiles can provide the boost your business craves.

Increase Customer Loyalty = Repeat business

Customer loyalty, hinges on you understanding and meeting their expectations. A company that repeatedly asks customers to trust them and then lets them down isn’t going anywhere. Customers want to know that they can trust your business. Creating a customer profile helps you to understand each patron and what he or she expects from you. Companies destroy trust through several practices such as inappropriate pricing, poor customer service, and product unavailability, to name a few. Each company must dedicate itself to understanding customer expectations, and then adopting practices that meet and exceed those expectations.

Gain Opportunities for Growth = Targeted business

A solid customer profile needs the direct input of shoppers. While typically gleaned from brick-and-mortar interactions, smart surveys attempt to fill in some of that missing information. Customers who take the time to fill out a survey will rarely set out to deceive anyone. On the contrary, customers want their voices to be heard and will furnish a business with almost all the information they desire. A company can discover the customer’s purchasing habits and interests. A smart survey can also help a business identify new opportunities and help direct the launch of other products and services. The results of a smart survey will allow your business to understand spending behavior and identify disengaged customers, detractors and misconceptions about your company.

Improve Communication = Effective Messaging

In the online world, relationships can be difficult to foster, but with the aid of a customer profile, your business will find it less complex to cultivate meaningful relationships with shoppers. Improving communication with consumers also allows the company to take the reins of the conversation. When the business oversees directing that conversation, they can cast it in its most favorable light. Engaged customers are returning customers and make for great referrals.

Segment Your Marketing = Attract the Right Customer

Knowing your customers gives you the upper hand when it comes to creating marketing campaigns. Even if your business is somewhat niche, your customers may be more varied than you realize. Identifiers such as age, gender, and ethnicity are just the tip of the iceberg and customers may both resemble each other and differ greatly. A larger business having several different types of patrons will find it worthwhile to get to know more about the people who purchase their goods. Knowing what customers want, how they find out about your store, their routines etc., will help your company devise targeted marketing strategies for each segment. Understanding how groups of customers are like each other will help avoid misdirected efforts when deciding your marketing budget.

Attract More Customers = Achieve Critical Mass

By far, the largest benefit of creating customer profiles is the ability to attract more patrons. In addition to this, knowing your customer means that selling to them becomes less obscure. You can target specific media and online forums where you are likely to find your ideal potential and will have a higher probability to convert them into one-time or recurring customers.

When data is used correctly, it will not only reflect your customers’ needs, but it will also show your company’s dedication to those who patronize your business. Harnessing this data is no longer optional, it is the center of a customer-oriented approach that companies like Kloudville have made easier to adopt. The result of getting to know your customers will be better profits and increased customer loyalty give your business a leg-up on its competition.

Try Kloudville now to see for yourself!