5 Consumer Research Insights for SME Content Strategy

5 Consumer Research Insights for SME Content Strategy

As a small business owner, much of your success will depend on how your customers perceive you. 

Your business needs to stand out from the competition, after all, and the only way you can do that is by utilising consumer research within your content strategy.

But, don’t worry – it’s not as difficult as it sounds.

In this article, we will be sharing our top five consumer research insights to help you on your way to business success.

1. Utilise The Latest Web Design Trends

If you want to keep your website current and attractive to new customers, your web design may need updating.

For this reason, you should choose a web builder like WordPress because it’s completely customisable, unlike closed source platforms like Squarespace. 

WordPress also lets you get creative with your web design, utilising the latest trends to create a website your customers engage with. 

“WordPress is open source, which means that anyone can use, change, and redistribute it as they wish. Not only does this make it entirely free, but it also means that savvy developers have been doing all sorts with the code. As such, a huge host of features, apps, and widgets have been designed to work with WordPress, making it much, much more customisable than closed source platforms like Squarespace.” 

– Dan King, Owner and Web Developer at Dan King Digital.

Business owners who gather consumer research are a step ahead of the competition when deciding on the best website design. 

So, if you want your website design to resonate with your audience and provide a solution to their needs, let consumer research drive the design process.

2. Consistency Is Key

One of the first things you need to know about becoming a consummate marketer is that consistency is the key to building a future-proof business.

Consumers love content, especially content that provides value by offering a solution to a need, with 61% of consumers are positively influenced by custom content.

Companies without a consistent content strategy will find it challenging to gain new leads, increase brand visibility and develop a loyal customer base.

Even with a small to non-existent budget, you can create regular blog content that helps your business get noticed. 

Consistent blog writing – from short informative posts to long-form articles – is the best tool to utilise in your content marketing strategy.  

3. Monitor Website Visitors

Google Analytics is a great place to start when looking to monitor your website visitors. 

After all, what better place is there to source new content ideas than from your own users?

This software provides you with data on how many people visit your website each day and which pages they looked at.

Evaluating website visitor data in this way can be an excellent method of finding out what content on your site your audience is engaging with the most. 

“Customer-centric Organisations can differentiate themselves from the competition by producing content that delivers greater value. Focusing on addressing the needs of audiences first sets the foundation for meeting business goals and achieving greater success.” 

– Jennifer Leigh Brown, Columnist at UX Booth

Therefore, use these metrics to focus your content in a way that resonates with your audience, increasing your click-through rates, time spent on a page, customer loyalty and conversions.

4. Create Surveys For Case Studies

We have spoken about social proof many times before, and it is one of the most important driving forces behind business success.

Customers want to know that other people are buying your products or services and are benefitting from them. 

Therefore, sending out monthly customer surveys is a great way to generate feedback, testimonials for your website and content for case studies.

A case study is a piece of content that highlights how your business achieved success with a specific product or service. 

Case studies are an opportunity for you to show off a little bit.

Consumers love reading these as they provide:

• A detailed insight into behind-the-scenes information.
• Offering up statistics.
• The process behind a success story and opinions from other customers.

What’s more, case studies can also be a highly effective way of converting leads into customers by showing them exactly what your company can do.

5. Create Buyer Personas

When you collect consumer data and feedback, it becomes a lot easier to utilise your content strategy insights. 

And one of the best ways to give your customers what they want is by using their data to create buyer personas.

A buyer persona describes your ideal customer, wants, and needs to target your content more effectively.

The most useful buyer personas include customer pain points and challenges they are hoping to overcome. 

Ultimately, the better you understand your customers’ needs, the more equipped you will be to meet them.

Final Thoughts on Consumer Research

You can utilise consumer research to drive businesses forward, removing the guesswork when it comes to providing your customers with what they want.

By utilising consumer research within your content strategy, you can save a whole lot of time, money, and effort while keeping your customers coming back for more.

For more advice on marketing your small business in 2021 and consumer research, you can discover more of our hints and tips here.