Gone are the days when customers had very little opportunity to interact with a company. Today, technology has given power to anyone to interact with any other person or organization at any point in time. This is definitely no news to us as we are already communicating with companies in different ways.
Kudobuzz – Customers as Marketers
For some companies, identifying which opportunities to take advantage of in order to get feedback from customers may be a challenge.
Companies can use these powerful opportunities to get their customers intricately involved with the building and marketing of their brand. Let’s see how.
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Do you struggle to come up with a unique marketing concept to advertise your brand? Now, why don’t you let your audience speak to themselves? It is as simple as running a campaign inviting your fans on social media to come up with marketing concepts and then picking up the best. The beauty of this is that even before your marketing actually happens, you get your fans attracted to your brand because they want to have a go at the competition. Next, when you finally pick the best concept, usually by a public voting also on social media, the winner will gleefully share the ad. Finally, you get the chance to speak in a language that you are pretty certain is the language of your audience.
Allowing customers to make their own blend
I bet you have heard about the Local Motors story. If you haven’t, you should definitely read about the car manufacturing company that allows its audience to design new car models and buyers to assemble their own cars with instructions given. This kind of customer involvement naturally endears the customer to the product hence increases the length of time the customer uses the product. In addition, it opens the door to an abundance of creative ideas for your company at a cost considerably less than you will spend for research and innovation.
Show your product in action
Do you sell a product that customers can take a photo or video of? It could range from clothing to electrical gadgets. Collect these from customers and show them off on your social media pages and your website. There is nothing more convincing than your potential customers seeing your product in use.
Verified reviews and testimonials
Tied to the previous point, why don’t you get your customers to write about their experience with your product or service. A review application like the Kudobuzz Review App sends emails automatically to customers after they have made a purchase from your site. The reviews left by your customers will go a long way to project your brand and convince others about you.
Bringing external parties to be a part of your company’s creative processes can be very rewarding and cost-effective. After all, your customers do the talking and do it in the language of your audience.
Take caution however not to offend your customers in this process, otherwise, you will receive a negative feedback that could damage your reputation. When requesting input especially in a format of a competition, be sure to spell out the rules very clearly and stick to them. Failure to do that can breed bad blood. Do not deliberately ignore input from any qualified participant.
It is also great to motivate customers and your general audience to take part in this process. If you are a young company still finding your feet, fret not, motivation does not always have to cost you money. People are motivated by several other things: curiosity, a desire to learn, entertainment, social status among others.
Tell us. How have you involved your customers in any creative processes in your company? What was the result?
What about motivation? Did it cost you much? Share with us.
