HOWTO'S
How to Use Your Customers as Your Marketing Resources
When asked about marketing resources, not a lot of professionals will say, customers. Instead, most businesses will talk about their ad campaigns on social media or Search ads.
Thinking about your customers in this way is something new. A lot of organizations and businesses claim to put their customers first or call themselves customer-centric. Still, most companies’ bottom line is that customers just aren’t thought of as brand ambassadors.
By giving customers the importance they deserve and providing amazing support through live chat app on website or other channels, your customers will organically promote your products and services to the people in their circle.
Having enough customers that care about your brand dearly is a sign that you’re doing something right, and you should double down on your current strategy.
Here is how you can use your customers as a marketing resource:
Build a product that your audience would love to market.
The majority of companies and startups get this first bit wrong.
If you’re creating a product that no one wants to buy, then you should be certain that no one would like to market said product for free, principles of reciprocal determinism apply in this case.
If you are reinventing the wheel, it might be too difficult to create a die-hard following for your product.
Creating something unique, something fresh is what you should strive for if you want your customers to market your offerings for you.
People or consumers these days have a lot of options and little time to spare.
Your product will truly need to stand out and address a core pain point that your customers face. A lot of this situation will come down to how you reach out to your audience, how favorable your brand perception is, and how good your marketing and outreach teams are at doing their job.
Create a product that your audience would enjoy using and something that they would take about in their free time to their friends and work for colleagues and family.
It’s ideal to do prior market research and identify your potential customer’s needs and pain points before you even get started with the drawing board.
Create incentives for your customers.
People like free stuff. But what modern consumers love even more is a brand that provides exceptional products and even better experiences. Let’s dig a little deeper.
When organizations hear about customer incentives, their minds rush to spending money.
Incentives don’t always have to be monetary. You should try to be more creative, more innovative with the kind of incentives you give out.
Having a large following on social media can help in this regard. Ask your customers to share the content of them using your products. Companies like GoPro regularly post UGC featuring their customers in breathtaking locations, making the most out of the products that GoPro has to offer.
GoPro’s loyal audience get to be featured on its Insta page, helping them stand in the spotlight and even get a few followers in the process.
You can also send your customers a goodie bag on special occasions like onboarding and yearlong anniversaries of using your products.
Little things matter when it comes to things like customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Think about how you can brighten up your customer’s day. Once ideas start pouring in, you can then move on to choose the right ones. Remember that each customer is different. If you have done your homework correctly, you will have relevant data on each customer and their preferences. Use it wisely.
Gently nudge your customers to leave favorable reviews.
Remember the last time you bought a fridge or a smartphone?
Most people go through a personalized process of gathering information and make sure that the product in question is the best choice.
A part of this process used to be asking people what they think about the company and the product. These days thanks to the internet and abundance of information online, prospective buyers rush to check what people have to say about a brand online.
Most of the time, a simple reminder like a small pop up or a timely email will be enough to convince a loyal customer to leave a positive review.
Providing superior customer service is also something that you should make an effort towards. Treating your customers with respect and a high level of diligence is something that most prominent brands do, and you should follow suit.
Provide a vastly superior customer experience to your customers, and a large majority of them will be willing to share their positive experiences in their reviews.
Ask your customers for advice.
If you have a loyal following and have been in business for a while, this will be one of the easiest things you can do.
Customers love it when they see their favorite brands putting the customer’s needs first and asking them what they would like to see in future products and services.
Getting specific feedback from your audience is literal gold for your business. Try to create a survey that addresses issues in a way that encourages your customers to pour their hearts out and really think about the questions. Not every customer will respond in the way you want them to, but the majority will be more likely to respond to a survey designed with respect to their preferences.
At the end of the day, you only need to think about your customers and prospective buyers. If you make conscious efforts to include them in the creation or betterment of products, then you will be able to secure your future success to a great extent.
Conclusion:
Happy customers are the lifeline of any business.
Your goals, plans, and strategies mean nothing if your frequent customers aren’t your biggest supporters.
Customers, when given the required tenderness, love and care, repay you by increasing your business’s goodwill in the market. Getting good reviews and having a positive connotation attached to your organization’s name will not only help you sell more, but it will also help you recruit top talent to grow further and expand.