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Smart marketing starts with knowing your customer

09 Nov

Smart marketing starts with knowing your customer

by SMB Suite
in Managed IT, SMB Blog
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Do you really know your customers, or are you just guessing?

When creating marketing materials and campaigns, many companies rely on an intuitive understanding of client preferences and behavior. This approach can lead to missed opportunities, because you simply don’t have the customer data and insights necessary to effectively target your communications.

Data drives great marketing

What if you could understand customers much better—not just from your own observations, but based on real-world data? Using customer data to inform marketing decisions means you have something more solid than gut instinct to rely on. Over time, you can come to predict consumer behavior by season, geography, product type, service line—any data point you collect can become fodder for competitive advantage.

In the past, business intelligence (BI) solutions that make such a strategy possible were only available to large companies with dedicated IT staff. Today, the cloud makes it possible for small and midsize businesses to obtain these powerful technologies as low-cost or even free subscription services to try first.

Scaling personal service

Customer data insights become ever-more-important as you grow from a small to a midsize business or larger. The intimate client relationships characteristic of smaller organizations can be difficult to maintain on a larger scale. At the same time, customers want their needs met with accuracy and a personal touch.

Data is the bridge that can get you from here to there. Using customer data, you can segment your clients into groups based on various characteristics, such as purchase size or industry. Then, you can tailor marketing to match their preferences, simultaneously making the customer experience more personal and increasing the efficiency of interactions.

Keeping the whole customer in view

It’s common for companies to have multiple touchpoints with customers, such as sales, service, project management, and so on. There’s a tendency for data about customers to become fragmented, making it harder to understand the full spectrum of their behavior.

When looking at small business data solutions, like BI, it’s important to seek out options that can incorporate many types of data, regardless of where it is stored. The more data you can use, the more accurate your insights can be. What about pulling data from multiple sources into one view? With a data-agnostic solution, your analytics can serve as connection points for gaining an accurate view of your customer across the entire purchasing journey.

Choose wisely

Getting to know your customer is easier than ever thanks to cloud technology. By centralizing data from a wide variety of sources and delivering powerful visualization and analytics tools, these solutions can enable you to create compelling messages that speak to customers’ true needs. They work closely with other solutions in the Microsoft platform, including Office, SQL Server, Azure, and more, while also interoperating seamlessly with popular third-party solutions. Discover how knowing your customer can mean growing your business.

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Steve’s been with SMB Suite since 1998 and has been involved with nearly every aspects of the Company’s business as a strategist, professional services executive, cloud solutions architect, and senior consultant. In his current role, Steve is responsible for SMB Suite’s revenue and oversees the execution of ERP, CRM and BI projects for customers across a broad range of industries. Steve combines his expertise in MS Dynamics GP, CRM and other Microsoft products with a strong foundation in accounting and business to identify gaps and streamline customers’ processes. Prior to co-founding SMB Suite, Steve was previously Corporate Controller for MEHLE Behr and, prior to that, Audit Senior for Ernst & Young. Steve holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the University of Texas at Arlington.

Jeremy is responsible for SMB Suite’s technology vision, strategy and implementation and is the architect of the Company’s Dynamics Cloud Platform. Highly adept in every facet of managed services, ERP systems and e-commerce platforms, Jeremy’s expertise spans the implementation and support of business and financial software solutions, as well as the customization and integration of SMB Suite’s cloud ERP technology stack. He holds numerous Microsoft and industry-related certifications, and was primarily responsible for designing the Company’s progressive business services platform in the early days of the Cloud. Prior to SMB Suite, Jeremy served as the financial analyst, systems administrator, and information systems liaison for a $2 billion financial services corporation.

Monty is responsible for SMB Suite’s day-to-day operation and, most importantly, its customers. As a leader, motivator and mentor, Monty creates loyal high performance teams willing to “walk through walls” to accomplish their goals. Prior to SMB Suite, Monty served as President of The Bradshaw Group (TBG), a global distributor, manufacturer, and repair facility for digital printers. In this role, he was the Company’s ambassador to its most important domestic, European and Latin American customers and TBG achieved a best-in-class Net Promoter Score of 74 for its superb customer satisfaction. Prior to TBG, Monty served as the General Manager of Sam’s Clubs three highest grossing U.S. stores and was named Regional Operator of the Year in 1999. Monty holds a BBA in Marketing from Texas Tech University and is an active member of Business Navigators. He has been active in Vistage International, Executives in Action, the Dallas/Fort Worth Retail Executives Association, as well as, A.P.I.C.S., the leading professional association for supply chain and operations management. Monty also volunteers with Hunger Busters and ManeGait, a therapeutic horsemanship organization.

David is a proven financial and information technology professional with expertise in providing business accounting software and computing solutions. He began his career by starting and managing a successful independent consulting practice for several years. He then launched the local systems consulting unit of Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneurial Services Group, leading the office into the hi-tech consulting arena. After successfully developing the unit for Ernst & Young, David founded NextCorp (which became SMB Suite in 2013) to serve the business software needs of clients throughout the US. David has made SMB Suite one of the best cloud ERP providers in the industry. In addition to being a successful entrepreneur and leader, he is a software and technology specialist, holding certifications in various Microsoft and other technologies.