The Importance of Using Customer Feedback To Better Your Marketing Strategy
What is marketing?
Marketing is all about promoting and selling the benefits of your products and services to customers. Good marketing, however, takes this one step further: it asks your customers what they’re looking for, then responds to their needs. What’s the best way of doing this, you ask? Well, it’s not as complicated as you think… just ask for their feedback! Straight up “what do you like, what don’t you like, and what could we doing better?” could really help your business. Let’s dig a little deeper…
Why is feedback important?
Customer feedback is important because it strengthens perceptions about your brand: by initiating a conversation with your customers and genuinely being interested in their opinion, you’re helping them to become more connected to your brand. Moreover, by making them feel as though you’re giving them influence over the way they’re marketed to, you’ll find you generate tighter purchasing relationships and higher loyalty. Also, feedback generates greater transparency around marketing: something customers are becoming ever more attuned to and therefore value highly.
Secondly, asking for feedback means you circumvent the risk of getting your marketing strategy wrong. If you’re simply guessing (even educational, data-led guesses), there’s a possibility you’re giving your customers what you think they want – not what they’re actually looking for. Just as businesses know that feedback from employees is crucial for an organisation’s success (reflected in tools such as those provided by software products like Upraise), you actually have to ask your customers what they want if you’re going to stop them going to a competitor.
What kind of information can I gather by asking for feedback?
Well, the possibilities surrounding the types of feedback are endless, and are as varied as the questions you want to pose! You could use customer feedback to influence your social media strategy, your website design and your customer service experience, to name but a few examples.
For instance, ask for opinions surrounding how your customers feel about email marketing. How do you know your customers only want one email a month? How can you be certain they wouldn’t prefer two or three, or even more than that if you don’t directly ask them? Similarly, how do you know your customers aren’t turned off by your scheduled Twitter posts if you haven’t actually asked for their opinion on the matter? Be proactive, be vocal and let your customers know that their thoughts and feelings are valuable.
How do I let my customers know I want their feedback?
Make it your mission to tell your customers you’re actively seeking their opinion – and not just now, for a particular project – but always. This all begins with being the kind of brand that customers feel they can approach, so make sure your social media presence is tip top. Respond to queries quickly, inject your brand’s personality (Innocent are exceptionally good at this) and always remain polite and professional. Next, generate a survey using a free tool such as Survey Monkey and disseminate it to a targeted group of customers. Finally, make mention of the fact you’re all ears across your marketing channels – online and offline.