More Than Just Expanding A List
Customer on-boarding can be short and sweet or lengthy and involved, depending on your product or service. Upon signing up, their name goes on to a list of others. And doesn’t that feel good – to see your list grow?
But there’s more to gather than just names. What about picking information that could help you plan your business growth? What about information that could inspire or focus your marketing team?
Beyond The Name
Gender-based has come under fire lately, but there is still room to segment customers in this way. Some products are bought more by women, others by men. Most are largely gender neutral.
So, consider asking a gender question to verify your suspicions about who buys your product. But keep in mind this isn’t an easy question. 1&1.com says this best: as you segment your market by gender, you must “see the current social situation and contemporary needs of both sexes.”
It’s worth noting that you would need to see to the needs of those who do not identify male or female. Then you can confidently tweak your marketing to appeal to your target market.
Choosing The Right Medium
Carol Luther of the Houston Chronicle points out that younger customers are more likely to see your marketing message online or on television. Older clients and customers are more likely to see print ads in a newspaper or hear a radio spot. So, gleaning some data about age at onboarding can be very helpful.
Maps And Tracking
Consider asking where your customer is living. The US Census Bureau’s 2016 census data shows that people from rural areas in the US are more likely to own their home. And if a rural person owns their own home they are more likely to hold it free and clear – 44{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} for agricultural homeowners as opposed to 32{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} for their urban counterparts.
This is information that could be helpful to anybody in the construction or mortgage industries. Anybody with a product for older homes might like to know this as well. You can often gather location data during on-boarding by collecting IP addresses eliminating the need for a separate question.
Products Have Personalities Too!
Finding out other personality traits of your customer can help your marketing team modify the product presentation to better match their characteristics. Carol Kinsey Goman writes in Forbes magazine that mirroring has been proven to increase rapport among people.
Babies mirror and mimic their mothers, and we continue to echo our peers and acquantainces throughout our lives to develop relationships.
So, it stands to reason that by simulating our customers’ attitudes and lifestyle choices, a company can foster a closer relationship with its customers. That’s where onboarding comes in.
You’ll need to know those on your list who share these same attitudes as your product so that you can specifically tailor your marketing campaigns accordingly.
Loyalty At Onboarding Isn’t An Oxymoron
Likewise, you’ll want to identify prior or long-term customers. Just because they’re going through the onboarding process doesn’t mean they’ve never done business with you before.
Usually, people analyze sales data about the most recently and most frequent customers. A strategically worded question during on-boarding can increase the number of loyal customers you can identify. Ask prior customers who would like to come back to you!
