In my last blog, I talked a little bit about how your customers are your best resource for information regarding your brand and insights into how you should create or change your messaging. When you ask them the right questions, they’ll tell you all you need to know.
Most companies create a brand persona for their marketing departments to use as a resource for creating marketing campaigns. This brand persona is a fictional profile of their customer. These personas often include not only demographic information but also personality traits, common pain points, needs, wants, and attitudes, all within the context of how the company’s product or service can benefit them. Personas are a great starting tool for marketers, and I don’t want to take away from their importance.
However, to be effective, there is more to learn. And this is where talking to your customers comes in. Your customers can tell you which product or service benefits are most important to them. They can also tell you when a benefit is not really a benefit or if there are unexpected benefits you didn’t know about. They’ll tell you the final factor in their decision to purchase with you and if that factor has been accurate after purchase.
Most importantly, they can tell you how they talk about your company to their friends and family. Think of all you can do with this information! It’s so valuable!
Consumers are relying on peer reviews and recommendations more often to make purchase decisions. That means many of your customers are probably very willing to tell you what they think about your brand. So just asking for a testimonial or review is a significant first step.
But let’s take it a step further. What about customer satisfaction surveys? These do not have to be as complicated as you think. It’s a matter of creating a feedback loop that offers you a constant flow of valuable customer communication. First, identify the details you need to know. Are you interested in brand perception or brand awareness? Are you interested in learning what your customers think about a particular product you offer or how they are using a specific product? Do you want to know if your perceived customer journey is actually what is happening? Maybe you need information on what your customers would like your next product or service launch should be.
Prioritize your strategic subject(s) and write questions that will get you those answers. Narrow down the questions you would like to ask at any time to less than five. Then, find touchpoints to ask those questions. For example, include a few questions at the bottom of your weekly e-newsletter or post a weekly survey on Facebook. You could create a survey page on your website and offer an incentive for customers to take it. The goal is not to have every single person who receives the questions answer them. A reasonable response rate will depend on the survey vehicle and your industry. Shoot for 25% until you learn which vehicle works best for you.
Store your data in a spreadsheet or your CRM so that you can spot trends and other valuable information. It may take some time to collect enough information to be statistically sound, but each customer’s point of view can still be valuable on its own. Always include a note asking your customer to agree that you can use their comments and feedback in marketing and sales messaging.
Here are some effective ways to use customer feedback. If you ask open-ended questions and certain descriptive or unique words keep coming up, use those words in your ads and marketing. If a product benefit seems to be the most important decision-maker at the end of the customer journey, spotlight that benefit in those marketing materials. If your customers report confusion over a certain element of your product or service, create a piece of marketing content that explains that detail. If your brand awareness doesn’t seem to be where you’d like it to be, invest in a brand marketing expert (me!) to help you get your brand in front of more people.
When I work with business clients, I ask for their customer personas and any surveys or feedback they may have collected from them. Ideally, I’d also love to talk to a customer or two or at least submit some questions for a customer to answer. I really feel this information is critical to me being able to write content for clients. In most cases, I’m writing content on behalf of my client with the intent to engage their customer. It’s challenging to do that if I don’t know who they are. As I said in my last blog, the customer is the hero of any brand story.
