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Using Survey Analytics To Get into The Mind of The Customer

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Found in:    engage | Consumer Products or Services | Financial Services | Healthcare | Restaurants | Retail/Ecommerce

The following article is a guest post submitted by Jacob Haney. Jacob Haney is a content marketer presently working with Research Optimus, a business research outsourcing company. A writer by day and a reader by night, he is loathed to discuss himself in the third person but can be persuaded to do so from time to time.:

If you are interested in submitting a guest post to the Second To None blog, please reach out to danielb@secondtonone.com with your idea.

“It’s not too difficult to collect data from customers today, but the task of analysing that data is not so easy. This post will walk you through some of the methods to using survey analytics to get into the mind of your customer.

This is where we come to a discipline known as digital psychology. This process uses a combination of proven social and digital practices to view consumers’ behaviour through a focused economical lens. Founder of Guku, Andrew Nicholson, uses an easy-to-understand fishing analogy to describe digital psychology. He uses the river to represent technology while the fisherman represents our minds. The river is always changing and moving at a rapid pace while the mind remains the same for generations. In short, technology always changes but the human mind does not.

The overall concept is that we can better understand why people act a specific way through observation of human behaviour through psychology rather than from the way we’re influenced by technology itself. This approach is focused on understanding why users have certain behaviours online. This is the best approach to getting into the mind of your customers.

Emotional Motivators Drive Consumer Behaviour

By our very nature, we’re an emotional species so corporations tend to market to us on an emotional level. They want to appeal to specific emotions (depending on the market) to drive us to certain purchases. Some common triggers include:

  • Fear and Anxiety
  • Urgency
  • Uncertainty
  • Trust
  • Curiosity
  • Altruism

The point here is that any emotion works as long as it’s targeted at the right audience. Survey analytics provide an inside look into the emotions behind your target market, so you will know what emotions to trigger to get the best results.

Persuading Resistant Customers

One of the most important marketing concepts is the buyer’s journey. This process usually involves three phases: awareness, consideration, and decision. In order to properly define your buyer’s journey, you need to understand them. Survey analytics are one of the most effective tools used to better understand your target market.

Resistant customers end up getting stuck on a specific part of the journey so you need to identify that area and remove any resistance.

You’ll also need to learn what is in your market’s best interest. Resistant customers will always need a strong “why” that motivates them to follow through with the buyer’s journey. Survey analytics will reveal important information like:

  • Unique interests of your target market.
  • Does any part of your sales process offer resistance?
  • Are all important concerns being addressed throughout the sales process?

Finding the Right People Through the Right Channels

Learning the behaviour of your target market will also reveal the channels where they are most likely to be reached. Digital psychology is all about understanding who your audience is, where they can be found, and why they need your product or service. Survey analytics addresses all three of these factors. Think about it for a moment. What good is it to launch a Twitter ad campaign if most of your audience is found on Facebook?

Once you know where to find your target market, focus on that channel. If they are on Facebook, then host Facebook live chats where your audience can ask questions. If they’re on Twitter, hold live Q&A sessions.

Digital psychology will allow you to get inside of the mind of your customers. The most important aspect of survey analytics is discovering reasons why your audience is not buying your product. These bottlenecks are usually easy fixes.  ”


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