Consumer insights research: how to do it right

Consumer insights research, along with market research and customer experience, are examples of business terms that are frequently used.

And for a good reason: consumer insights research helps you prioritise business goals because it contains data you can use to manage and improve customer satisfaction in the long run.

Above all, improving customer satisfaction over time has proven to future-proof businesses.

According to Microsoft research, businesses that examine their customer behaviour and use it to gain consumer insights outperform their peers in sales growth by 85%.

Customer experience management (CXM) is continually observing customer behaviour to improve future experiences, and consumer insights are the gold nuggets that great CXM can extract.

These insights show exactly what changes can be made to improve your service.

In this article, we’ll look at what consumer insights research is and isn’t before moving on to some great starting points for finding and leveraging your own insights!

What are consumer insights?

Consumer insights are information that a company gathers about its target audience to understand better what they need and how they feel about the brand. Businesses can improve their products and services by analysing current and potential customers’ thoughts and feelings about a brand.

What is the importance of consumer insights?

Customer insights are critical because the customer experience is king.

Understanding your customer base’s needs leads to accurate customer insights. By implementing your insights, you can increase loyalty among your current customers while also attracting new customers through customer advocacy – and the numbers back this up.

Aside from outperforming brands that do not leverage insights, overall customer experience (CX) significantly impacts your bottom line. According to a Bain & Co study, companies that excel at CX grow 4-8% faster than their competitors. Furthermore, if your customer experience management (CXM) technique converts customers into brand promoters (as defined by NPS), their lifetime value increases by 6 to 14 times.

Also, remember that meaningful consumer insights are the foundation of any solid marketing strategy.

How to conduct consumer insights research

Many brands rely on first-party sources such as website browsing habits, mobile app behaviour, and transaction history. The issue is that it is too one-sided.

There’s nothing to back it up, validate, or compare it to, and you typically only get to dive into the “what” and not the “why.” As a result, you know what they’re doing but not why.

But what does it take to generate consumer insight research that drives meaningful creativity? First, we go over the key pillars you should think about.

Identify major roadblocks

Asking the right questions is the first step toward finding the correct answers. You can make an informed business decision by defining the key strategic business questions you need to answer.

Most marketers that know their onions will agree that for marketing KPIs to matter genuinely, they must be tied to broader business goals, such as increasing sales or concentrating on customer retention. So, finding the answers to the following questions is critical:

• Is a particular consumer segment experiencing a drop in sales?
• Is it necessary to change brand perceptions?
• Do you intend to target a new demographic?
• Are you simply hoping to gain a better understanding of your target audiences?

This will assist in informing your research methods from the beginning by providing clear direction on what to look for and why.

Make use of actionable insights

High-quality data is one of the most valuable commodities in a marketer’s toolkit. Dodgy data sets, on the other hand, drain marketing resources and limit campaign effectiveness.

Working with data from legacy systems with no solitary or unified customer view is common. Because of the proliferation of devices and channels, customer journeys are becoming increasingly complex, and organisational conflicts can lead to siloed data analytics and duplicate customer data across multiple databases.

However, there is a simple solution.

Today, platforms with 100% harmonised data across audiences, regions, and research waves are available. Take advantage of their offerings.

Make your strategy more efficient

Regarding genuine marketing strategies, simple ideas have the most impact. Therefore, you can improve the customer experience by focusing on your consumer insight’s simple yet defining aspects.

Insights differ for every agency and marketing department. However, focusing on the consumer’s preference, perception, or attitude will assist any creative in tapping into the mindset of potential and existing customer behaviour, leveraging the fundamental truth that has been discovered.

Create customer journey maps and personas

Combing customer data and searching for the things that stick is the next critical step towards discovering the truth.

You can find consumer insights by using in-depth consumer data to learn who they are, their motivations, priorities, and daily challenges.

Begin by creating realistic buyer personas based on your demographics.

With this customer insight, you can also map the consumer journeys you want to track and each touchpoint involved, so you know exactly how your customers interact with your brand.

Concentrate on the data

The next step is to determine which feelings, perceptions, and trends can be used to turn consumer insight into a creative message.

Your idea may take on new life depending on what you discover in the data.

And the result, if done correctly, is a creative message that truly resonates.

Filter your consumers into subgroups

Some data is more useful when linked to specific segments or individuals.

Determine which target market segments to investigate based on your objectives. Are you attempting to reach a new audience, for example, or to increase loyalty among your current customers?

You can combine personas and demographics with shared characteristics such as age, gender, and interests to understand their motivations better. It can also help you develop the empathy required to drive meaningful engagement.

This can also help you spot lookalike audiences to widen your reach or direct you to the right influencers, channels, and content types to focus on.

Tell the story behind the data

Consumer insights aren’t just for researchers. These fundamental truths about your target audience will help you understand what defines them.

This is critical in driving more targeted business decisions and assisting your organisation in keeping consumers and the customer experience at the forefront.

However, data can be overwhelming, especially for those who only work with it sometimes.

This is why it is critical to present your most important findings understandably.

Using visual aids such as graphs and charts to bring the statistics to life while focusing on consumer insights will tell the story behind your data and spark innovative ideas that work.

Recognise that context is king

Insights become helpful with context.

It is valid when combined with your own goals and behavioural data to pinpoint the right message, timing, and placement.

When it comes to unlocking this value, collaboration across departments is invaluable.

You can paint a more holistic picture and spark great ideas by collaborating with other consumer-facing peers across teams and departments, incorporating what they know with in-depth consumer data.

One way to spark these ideas is to look at powerful examples of brands putting consumer insights into action.

Wrap up

Obtaining the best-possible consumer insights boils down to establishing an efficient Voice of Customer program so your customers can fill you in on their needs. This is followed by using effective data analysis methods to transform the closed and open-ended data you collect.

Your overall business strategy is only as good as your consumer insights.

Look no further than Survey54 for accuracy, especially when dealing with various types and complexities of data.

Survey54’s data analysis and visualisation technique generate accurate and nuanced consumer insights displayed in a dashboard designed specifically for African and other emerging market businesses.

Contact us today to have a custom model built for your company.