Strategy - Chic Marketing

Building Customer Awareness Before Purchase

Chris @ Chic — Mon, 08 Dec 2025 14:45:44 +0000

Or How to Attract Customers Before They Know They Need You

As a small or medium-sized business, you know how important it is to stand out from the crowd. But here’s the thing: your customers don’t always know they need you until the moment they’re ready to buy. So, how do you make sure they pick you when that moment comes? The answer lies in building awareness and trust before they’re ready to make a purchase. By creating content that helps them during the early stages of their decision-making journey, you can position yourself as the go-to expert in your field.

Why Awareness Matters

If a potential customer is scrolling through a list of businesses that offer the product or service they need, see your name and think, “Oh, I’ve heard of them before” then that familiarity can be the difference between clicking on your website or choosing a competitor. Building awareness isn’t just about being visible; it’s about being memorable. If your business has already provided helpful information or answered their questions earlier in their journey, you’re more likely to be front of mind when they’re ready to buy.

The Customer Journey: It’s Not Just About the Final Step

While impulse buys exist, it’s generally for cheap items. For more expensive purchases, customers go through a process. Before someone buys curtains for their new home, they’re researching interior design ideas, figuring out how to measure windows, or learning about different fabric types. Before someone books a holiday, they’re looking up destinations, reading travel tips, or comparing accommodation options. If you want to increase your chances of being in the mix at the time of purchase, you should try and meet them during these early stages. By providing valuable content that answers their questions or solves their problems, you’re building trust and showing them that you understand their needs.

How to Create Content That Attracts Customers Early

So, how do you create content that grabs attention before your customers are ready to buy? Here are some practical tips:

Understand Their Journey Think about the steps your customers take before making a purchase. What questions do they have? What problems are they trying to solve? For example: – If you sell baby products, create content about pregnancy tips or preparing for a newborn. – If you’re a home improvement business, write articles about DIY hacks or how to choose the right materials.
Be Helpful, Not Salesy The goal here isn’t to push your product or service right away. Instead, focus on being genuinely helpful. Share advice, tips, or insights that show you’re an expert in your field.
Use Blogs, Articles, and Guides Your website is the perfect place to host this content. Write blog posts, create how-to guides, or even share checklists that your audience will find useful.
Encourage Engagement Don’t stop at just providing information. Invite your audience to sign up for your newsletter, download a free resource, or follow you on social media. This keeps them connected to your brand and gives you more opportunities to nurture the relationship.

The Benefits of Early Engagement

By creating content for the early stages of the customer journey, you’re doing more than just attracting visitors to your website. You’re building trust, establishing your expertise, and making your brand familiar. When the time comes for your potential customers to decide, they’ll already know who you are. They’ll remember the helpful advice you gave them, and that familiarity can give you a huge advantage over your competitors.

Start Building Awareness Today

So, what can you do right now to start building awareness and trust with your audience? Here’s a quick checklist:

Map out the typical journey your customers take before making a purchase.
Brainstorm content ideas that address their questions or challenges at each stage.
Start creating blogs, articles, or guides that provide real value.
Promote your content on social media and through email marketing to reach more people.

Remember, marketing isn’t just about selling – it’s about building relationships. By helping your customers before they even know they need you, you’re setting yourself up for long-term success. Not sure how to get started? Or don’t have the time or resources? Contact us today, and we’ll help you let your expertise shine!

The post Building Customer Awareness Before Purchase first appeared on Chic Marketing.

Hyper Personalisation: Is it Necessary for Small Businesses?

Chris @ Chic — Mon, 05 Jun 2023 12:39:00 +0000

Personalisation has become a key strategy for companies aiming to connect with their customers, but have you heard about the latest trend in personalisation? It’s called hyper personalisation, and it’s poised to change the way businesses engage with their customers.

First, we’ll look at why businesses use personalisation, what hyper personalisation entails, its benefits, and some concerns consumers may have. We’ll also discuss how small businesses can embrace basic personalisation and collect valuable customer data.

Why Businesses Use Personalisation

Personalisation is no longer a luxury; it’s a necessity. While people aren’t screaming out for it, they are responding better to those businesses that are providing it than those who are not. By understanding individual preferences, businesses can create personalised communications with relevant offerings that resonate with customers. Providing these tailored experiences drives engagement and increases customer loyalty.

Understanding Hyper Personalisation

Hyper personalisation takes personalisation to a whole new level. It harnesses advanced technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, and big data analytics to deliver individually tailored experiences. By analysing vast amounts of customer data, such as browsing history, purchase behaviour, and demographic information, hyper personalisation enables businesses to make highly targeted and precise recommendations and offers.

The Benefits of Hyper Personalisation

Hyper personalisation done well is win-win for both businesses and customers.

It enhances customer satisfaction. Delivering recommendations for items that the customer is interested in turns “annoying messages” into useful and helpful ones.
It increases customer loyalty. If you offer goods and services that your customers want and need, they’ll keep coming back to you.
It increases positive brand sentiment. Delivering targeted items means that your customers will look forward to receiving your messages rather than avoid them.
It boosts conversion rates. By offering relevant recommendations, businesses increase the likelihood of customers making a purchase.

And The Disadvantages

Unfortunately, when the wrong, or incomplete data is used, the resulting communications can have the reverse effect.

After a purchase has been made. Delivering recommendations based on items your customers are searching for before they make a purchase is useful. However, repeatedly recommending alternatives after they’ve bought something is counterproductive.
Browsing for a gift. If a customer’s browsing and purchasing habits differ from usual just before Christmas or Valentine’s Day, it is more likely they’re buying a gift, than making a dramatic lifestyle change. Suggestions based on these interactions after these times are likely to be less welcome.

Consumer Concerns about Hyper Personalisation

Despite the numerous advantages, hyper personalisation does raise some valid concerns among consumers. Privacy tops the list of concerns, as customers worry about the collection and usage of their personal data. Transparency and ethical data handling are crucial for businesses to build trust and address these concerns effectively. Consumers want control over their data and the assurance that it will be used responsibly.

Hyper Personalisation Challenges for Small Businesses

Implementing hyper personalisation can be challenging, especially for small businesses. It requires significant investment in technology, data infrastructure, and skilled personnel. Small businesses often face resource constraints, making it difficult to adopt and maintain complex hyper personalisation systems. However, this doesn’t mean they can’t benefit from personalisation.

The Power of Basic Personalisation

Basic personalisation, though less advanced than hyper personalisation, can still have a profound impact. Small businesses can address customers by their names, send personalised emails, and tailor content to specific segments. These small touches show customers that they are valued and understood, leading to improved engagement and customer satisfaction.

Collecting Basic Customer Data

Small businesses can gather basic customer data without extensive resources. Simple methods such as customer surveys, feedback forms, and in-person interactions provide valuable insights into preferences and needs. Engaging with customers on social media platforms and monitoring purchase history also offer opportunities to collect data and improve personalisation efforts.

Personalisation is undeniably a powerful strategy for businesses, allowing them to create meaningful connections with customers. While hyper personalisation may seem out of reach for small businesses, basic personalisation can still yield significant benefits. By understanding customer preferences and employing targeted approaches, businesses, regardless of size, can deliver exceptional experiences. Remember, personalisation is not just a luxury but a necessity in today’s competitive landscape.

If you would like help in embracing the power of personalisation and watch your business flourish, get in touch, we can help.

The post Hyper Personalisation: Is it Necessary for Small Businesses? first appeared on Chic Marketing.

Do You Want to Build a Snowman?

Chris @ Chic — Thu, 27 Feb 2020 15:03:40 +0000

When I asked my daughter this morning if she wanted to build a snowman, she told me there wasn’t enough snow. But as you can see from the header, there was. Ok, so it may not be a big snowman, but it’s still a snowman. It was still fun to make, and in the end, we had something tangible to show for our efforts.

Many businesses I have spoken to are like my daughter – they don’t want to build a snowman with me either. They also tell me that they don’t do any marketing because they don’t have a large budget like other companies do.

The thing is, you don’t need a lot of snow to make a snowman and you don’t need a large budget to create something that works. Do things the right way, and you can still see a positive response. Do lots of little things the right way and the cumulative effect can be impressive.

A big campaign may work, it may not, but is it sustainable? Can you handle a sudden influx of new customers?

Small changes to your website can see you convert an extra couple of visitors. Making it easier to upgrade or buy accessories can increase the average spend. Sending targeted offers straight to your clients will encourage them to purchase more often. These things might not show an immediate jump in profits, but you will see steady growth.

At Chic Marketing we can help you achieve these objectives. Get in touch and we will be more than happy to visit you and discuss ways in which we can help your business grow. We may even be able to build a snowman together.

The post Do You Want to Build a Snowman? first appeared on Chic Marketing.

New Customers. How Many Do You Actually Need?

Chris @ Chic — Wed, 17 Jul 2019 08:15:41 +0000

The desire for new customers is usually the starting point of conversations with new clients. Very few however have thought about how many new clients they want or how many they could cope with.

Regardless of how well you look after your existing clients, the truth is, every business needs new customers, but it’s not always a case of more is better. In fact, too many in one go can cause you problems if you’re not ready for them, and ultimately damage your business.

How many new customers could you realistically cope with?

In theory, thousands sounds great, but is your business set up to accommodate them?

If you are Amazon or an online publisher, then yes, you probably could – happy days, now go and count all that lovely new money.

On the other hand, if you are a family run bakers or a provider of specialist software then I would suggest not.

The bakers probably wouldn’t have the capacity to store twice the ingredients, enough ovens to bake twice the products, or the staff to serve twice the number of customers over night.

Integration of specialist software takes time to set up, embed into a business and train the staff to use. Would they have the skilled, experienced employees available to suddenly double or triple the number of installations?

Can you meet your customer’s expectations?

The figures vary across different sectors, but generally it costs between 5 and 13 times the amount to get a new customer than to keep an existing one, so:

The first rule when spending all that money, is – Don’t upset the customer.
The second rule when spending all that money, is – Don’t upset the customer.

If you’re spread too thinly, not only will you fail to look after your new clients properly, you may upset your existing clients and no longer give them the service they are used to. Not only will they not come back, they’ll tell everyone else to avoid you too.

As a business, you should be looking for sustainable growth, with a steady increase of new clients over time. This number will be different for each business and be dependent on a number of factors. Do you know what it is for your business?

At Chic Marketing we can create a marketing strategy just for you. So, if you’re looking to attract new customers at the right rate for your company, get in touch.

The post New Customers. How Many Do You Actually Need? first appeared on Chic Marketing.