When expanding into new markets, use data from your current customers to extrapolate and draw insights that accelerate market penetration. Your customer experience (CX) program is the place to start.
Quick links:
Identify new market opportunities
How to expand into new fields with CX data
How to expand geographically with CX data
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Types of Customer Experience Data to Collect
Look into the following types of customer experience data:
- Customer feedback
- Customer behavior data
- Demographic, psychographic, and geographic segmentation data
Customer Feedback and Reviews
Sentiment analysis involves using technology tools and human oversight to understand the emotional tone of customer comments across surveys, reviews, social media, and other channels. You want nuanced readings that go beyond positive/negative to capture enthusiasm, frustration, confusion, and every shade in between.
Direct customer remarks provide valuable insights. Rank requests for new features or improvements. Identify recurring complaints and pain points. See where to expand an offering, or where to cut.
Customer Behavior Data
Web and mobile analytics platforms record user interactions such as page views, clicks, taps, time spent, abandonment rates, and more. When you examine these patterns, you see what content resonates most, the logical next steps to guide users, as well as roadblocks or leaks in the funnel.
CRM systems and product instrumentation show actual purchasing behavior: top sellers, bundles frequently bought together, unpopular offerings, and features customers use (or ignore). You gain visibility into buying cycles and real-world product usage after purchase.
Demographics, Psychographics, and Geographics
In addition to the behavioral and sentiment insights discussed above, you’ll want to understand what type of people your customers are. Drill down into demographic, psychographic, and (if you’re serving international customers) geographic insights.
Demographics
Demographics are statistical aspects of a population that can be measured and quantified. Age, income, marital status, number of children, home ownership vs renting, and many other data points give you entry points to reach your ideal customer.
Armed with demographic data from your current customer base, you have a much better idea of what will resonate with your new market. If your main customer is a thirty-something soccer mom in Market 1, you might want to target that same demographic in Market 2.
Psychographics
Psychographics are those intangible qualities that shape customer sentiment and decisions. Attitudes, values, interests, and personality traits all shape purchasing decisions as much as demographic factors.
Leverage what you know about the psychographics of your current customers to laser-focus on similar customers in your new market.
Geographics
Geographic insights reveal language, location, regionalized phrases/idioms, and cultural sensitivities. If you sell in multiple geographic markets, you can leverage what works in one geography, and then extrapolate and test in another market. You’ll identify the similarities and differences much faster.
How to Use CX Data to Find New Market Opportunities
CX data shows you exactly where to find untapped market potential. Analyze what customers say, do, and care about to uncover opportunities to expand your business.
- Pinpoint the most frequent and urgent customer needs your current offerings don’t address
- Use these insights to brainstorm new products, services, or features that solve those problems and exceed expectations
- Identify the most significant obstacles customers face in their buying journey
- Develop targeted solutions to eliminate those roadblocks and create a seamless experience
- Find the customer segments with the highest engagement, spending, or growth potential
- Tailor your offerings and messaging to resonate with their unique preferences, motivations, and lifestyles
- Focus your expansion efforts where customer needs, your unique strengths, and market demand align for the best chance of success
How to Use CX Data to Expand into Adjacent Verticals
When you analyze customer needs and behaviors in your current sector, you uncover untapped market potential. Here’s the process:
- Identify cross-industry opportunities
- Understand industry-specific customer needs
- Leverage cross-industry customer insights
- Validate your expansion strategy
Identify Cross-Industry Opportunities
Look for patterns in customer data that reveal overlaps between your current industry and adjacent sectors. Identify common pain points, needs, or desires that your existing products or services could address in new industry contexts.
For example, suppose you offer a software solution for the healthcare industry. In that case, CX data about financial management within healthcare might uncover insights about how financial departments in other verticals could benefit. This insight opens the door to expand your offerings and tap into new market opportunities.
Understand Industry-Specific Customer Needs
Dive deep into customer feedback, reviews, and behavior data to uncover the unique needs, expectations, and challenges of customers in your industry. Identify the key factors that drive purchase decisions and customer satisfaction in that sector.
Many of these insights will apply to your new market. It’s your job to tease them out and leverage them.
Leverage Cross-Industry Customer Insights
Analyze CX data from your current industry to identify customer segments that are likely to have similar needs or behaviors in your target industry. Use these insights to create targeted marketing campaigns and personalized offerings that resonate with those specific segments.
For instance, maybe you notice that a key demographic in your current market is very eco-conscious. If you’re expanding into a new industry, highlight your commitment to sustainability to draw in customers with the same green priorities. CX data connects the dots between your proven strengths and the new audience you want to win over.
Validate and Refine Your Expansion Strategy
As you enter a new industry, continuously gather and analyze CX data to validate your assumptions and refine your approach. Monitor customer feedback, satisfaction scores, and engagement metrics to identify areas for improvement and optimize your offerings.
Stay agile and responsive to industry-specific customer needs and preferences. Use CX data to inform product development, service enhancements, and marketing strategies that keep you ahead of the curve in your new industry field.
How to Use CX Data to Enter New Geographic Markets
Market expansion, as we’ve seen, can involve broadening from one industry to another. Another expansion strategy is to enter new geographies. The geographical expansion brings a quagmire of regulatory and logistical concerns, but it can pay off big. Here’s how you can leverage CX data to shorten the learning curve:
- Leverage current customer insights
- Monitor and improve
Leverage current customer insights
When you analyze customer demographics, focus on the subset of your customers that shares a cultural affiliation with your target geography. For example, if you’re an American company expanding into Brazil, you may have Brazilian-Americans among your customer base.
Drill down on their preferences and behaviors to understand how to more effectively serve your Brazil market.
Monitor and Continuously Improve
CX data provides a real-time pulse on customer sentiment, satisfaction levels, and engagement in new geographic markets. You can quickly spot and address any issues or roadblocks customers face, showing your commitment to their success.
Regular monitoring also reveals opportunities to refine your localization efforts and optimize the customer experience. Use CX data to learn and adapt to stay ahead of evolving customer needs and outpace competitors in new markets.
Measure Success with CX Data
Consistently review the key customer experience metrics to evaluate the impact of your new market efforts. Define clear goals and KPIs upfront to determine if initiatives meet expectations.
Track indicators such as:
- Customer satisfaction scores
- Retention and churn rates
- Revenue from new markets
- Product usage/engagement
- Customer effort scores
- Net Promoter Scores
Pay very close attention to the data, especially right after launching in a new market. If you spot any problems or missed opportunities, don’t hesitate to make changes quickly.
Improve Business with CX Data
To succeed in new markets, continually listen to customers and gather insights into their pain points and preferences. It’s an ongoing cycle: gather feedback, analyze it, optimize your approach, and then repeat.
Make it a habit to regularly collect customer input through surveys, reviews, social media monitoring, user testing, and any other available methods. Leave no stone unturned when mining these valuable perspectives.
Use what you learn to enhance your products, messaging, support offerings, and every interaction with customers. Show your commitment to delivering tailored experiences that precisely meet local needs.
As customer expectations inevitably shift over time, stay agile and adapt your strategies accordingly. Constantly improving based on customer feedback will allow you to pull ahead of the competition in new markets for years to come.
About Symplicity
Symplicity will supercharge your customer experience program so you can leverage insights to drive higher rates of engagement and retention. Contact us today to explore how to unlock the full potential of customer experience data.
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CX FAQ
How do big data and metrics affect CX?
Big data and metrics provide companies with deep insights into behaviors, preferences, and pain points. This intelligence personalizes interactions, products, and services. Robust metrics quantify CX performance, highlight areas needing improvement, and enable data-driven decisions.
How can customer data help me expand into adjacent industry sectors?
CX data analysis reveals common customer needs, pain points, or desires across industries. These cross-industry insights identify opportunities to solve problems with your expertise in new sectors. Well-understood preferences of existing customer segments also inform tailored offerings for those audiences in adjacent markets.
What are the biggest mistakes companies make when using CX data for new market entry?
Companies make the following mistakes when using CX data for new markets:
- Fail to properly segment and localize data insights for specific markets
- Rely too heavily on broad metrics instead of journey-based analysis
- Fail to integrate data sources for a unified customer view
- Neglect to continuously monitor and adapt strategies based on real-time feedback
How can AI and automation tools assist with analyzing CX data for new markets?
AI and automation tools enable intelligent data processing to surface valuable insights, trends, and predictions around customer behaviors and preferences. They can help unify fragmented data sources, perform journey analytics, and provide recommendations for optimizing experiences. AI-powered journey analysis can even predict customer behaviors before they occur.
How big is the customer experience analytics market?
According to Business Research Insights, the global customer experience analytics market size was valued at USD 6224.9 million in 2021 and is expected to reach USD 13755.57 million by 2031, growing at a CAGR of 7.9% during the forecast period.
Further Reading
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Resources
Customer Experience Analytics Market – 2024 To 2031 Report. (2024, 02). Business Research Insights. https://www.businessresearchinsights.com/market-reports/customer-experience-analytics-market-106827
