Your customers should be the driving force behind all the content you create. Whether blog posts, coupons, email campaigns or in-store posters, your consumers need to be at the heart of everything your brand does. Yet, many business owners fail to actually listen to what their consumers need and want.
Your customers are always communicating with you, whether it’s through positive words, reactions, or even a lack of engagement with what you have to say, this communication can be one of the most valuable assets you could ever have.
When you create marketing content, your customer is always foremost in mind. Many business owners have a well-established content plan, based on an avatar of their target audience. While this is immensely useful, it can actually drown out what your existing customers are saying right to your face. You might end up so focused on the
data, you could forget that your audience is sharing more with you.
You can supercharge your marketing content, connecting on an even deeper level with your consumership if you harness your listening power.
- Listen to your customers! Most business owners don’t blatantly ignore what their customers are saying, of course not, but they can often miss what a customer is trying to say. Take the time to actively listen to your customers, even if what they are talking about doesn’t seem relevant, or you don’t quite connect it with a problem you can solve for them. Take note of what they say, and go back over it again. In listening to your customers, you might discover patterns in what they want and need. You will be better equipped to create future content in keeping with those wants and needs.
- Ask questions! Don’t forget to ask questions. Your customers will be only too happy to answer them. You could ask more open-ended questions on social media that allow for a longer discussion, you could feature a voting poll with an option for people to add their own suggestions, or you could create surveys for more streamlined feedback. If you show your customers you are interested in hearing their opinions, they will share a wealth of information with you.
- Promote popular content! It can be tempting to share lots of fresh new content that you think will wow your audience, but if you haven’t been listening to them, it might not get the interaction you were hoping for. What does your audience engage most with, and why? Focus on promoting content that they want to see.
- Feature customer stories! A fantastic way to show your audience that you care about what they have to say is to feature a customer story in your content. This could be a blog post or social media post telling their story, or even interviewing them if they’re not too shy! Other customers will relate to this, and feel included, as it shows you are actively listening to your audience. You should also encourage testimonials which allow your customers to give a voice to your business. There is no greater validation for a company than when its consumers are willing to offer a great testimonial on its behalf.
- Create more! When your customer sees that you are creating content in response to their feedback, or that you’ve paid attention to what they’ve shown interest in, their trust in you grows more. Listen closely to them and find the content topics that your customers enjoy the most. You can take the same approach when creating ads. Perhaps you could create a special offer named for a regular customer. For example, you could run the “Lucy” special for a specified period of time, enticing new customers via a special discounted rate on one of your products or services.
The bottom line is that businesses are becoming increasingly customer-centric. Cost efficacy comes from investing into current customers in order to gain new clientele. Let your consumers speak for themselves and strategically build your marketing plan around them. They will thank you for it!
