Optimising communications amidst changing consumer behaviours
The ways in which we communicate are ever-changing, and consumers today seek increasingly personalised experiences. Keeping up with changing consumer behaviours requires you to understand your customers on a new level– their lifestyle, life stage, affluence, digital engagement, preferred channels and more– and apply this necessary insight into your messaging and communication strategy effectively.
But how can you build such a detailed profile of your customer base to optimise your communication with them? The answer is Acorn.
What are the factors influencing consumer behaviour changes?
- Cost of Living: The cost of living crisis continues to profoundly affect the lives of consumers and the success of businesses. Changing shopping preferences and spending patterns exhibited by customers has had pronounced impacts on business operations across every sector.
- Post-COVID-19 pandemic: The pandemic has permanently altered every aspect of consumers’ daily lives, from their shopping patterns to their socialisation, to the way they work. Going to the office five days a week is no longer the norm, socialising is undoubtedly different and the fondness we have for our local areas and high streets has grown. The change that businesses have experienced in consumer spending patterns post-pandemic comes down to our priorities and lifestyle having changed due to the pandemic. Businesses that adhered to the fluctuating demands and trends shown by their customers found their footing during this trying time.
- Environmental/sustainability: As consumers have grown increasingly aware of the impact that their purchasing decisions can have on the environment, their changing priorities, the ways in which they shop and how they interact with brands has significantly altered.
What information or data do you need to optimise your communications?
Learning more about your customers on a deeper level to enhance your communications is simple: all you need is a postcode.
Our geodemographic segmentation tool, Acorn, divides the UK population into groups at postcode level. Once you’ve captured your customer’s postcode, Acorn supplies a comprehensive view of the type of residents who live in that postcode, including their affluence and demographic characteristics.
How can Acorn data enhance your customer communication strategy?
- Acorn can be combined with your own customer data to gain additional insight into your customers and take the first step towards delivering a more personalised experience for each segment. Upon profiling your database, you can identify the key Acorn segments and use Pen Portraits, a snapshot summary of each of the segments across key demographics that highlights their financial status and lifestyle traits. This helps you better understand the key traits of each category, group and type to personalise your communications.
- Finding out what motivates your customers through Acorn data allows you to build communications that will resonate with them. Understanding their preferences helps you target the correct medium, and understanding their life stage means that you can design communication methods that appeal to them.
- Acorn helps demonstrate which channels your customer is most likely to engage with. This can help you allocate your budget towards the most influential channels.
- Acorn’s targeted approach ensures you can deliver a high-quality customer experience to every single customer on every single occasion, which will improve your engagement and ROI.
- Acorn can be easily appended to your customer database. It is available as a postcode directory or via our Demographic Data API, which allows for real-time insights on your customers from the very first interaction you have with them.
To stay ahead of changing consumer behaviours and the impact these changes can have on your business, try Acorn out for yourself or contact us to learn more.
