With today’s empowered buyer, you need to be in the mindset that your best marketing channel is actually going to be your existing customers. And when your customers succeed, it’s your best predictor for business growth.
The world of marketing has shifted to word of mouth, and reviews are more important than ever before. Anni takes you through how to support your customers and advocates with an inbound marketing strategy designed for them.
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Episode Transcription
Hi. I’m Anni Kim from HubSpot, and this is Skill Up, the show where you’ll learn how to take your sales, marketing, and service skills to the next level.
Today's buyers are empowered. They’re resourceful, informed, and really ready for whatever you’re selling. Any knowledge you’re looking to serve their way, they’ll pass, set, and spike back over to you. (Sports.)
These old marketing tactics, they work, let’s not get crazy here, but there’s one that really gets the most shine these days.
My favorite part of the episode. Segment, please!
You need to be in the mindset that your best marketing channel is actually going to be your existing customers. And when your customers succeed, it's going to be your best predictor for business growth. Which takes us to... customer marketing.
Customer marketing is marketing that’s focused on existing customers.
Once in a far off-land called Years Past, buyers made decisions solely based on what a company told them. But now, in Today Land? I don’t know, I’m not naming these places, people decide what to buy based on what the company's existing customers have to say.
Word of mouth and reviews are more important than ever. And by delighting existing customers, and showcasing their success, you can help prove your own brand’s value.
Have you ever looked up a restaurant's reviews before making a reservation? Or maybe asked a question on social media about something you were dancing around buying? Of course you have. I mean, going in blind to a restaurant? What are we, in-sane!?
You do this because you trust opinions. Look, consumers are faced with way more choices today. Tech has basically expanded to every reach of our existence. We can create products and companies much more easily. With that, everyone is competing for our attention. So it makes sense that consumers rely so heavily on word of mouth.
And if you’re practicing inbound -- hold up, I mean, hey, it’s just me, this little voice inside your head at the moment, Hi, Anni, charmed I’m sure, but you are practicing inbound, right? Phew, ok, thought we were going to have to derail this whole thing and take a very long tangent for the next 17 hours.
If you're practicing inbound, then you're putting your buyer in the center of your business.
You need to build a delightful end to end experience that’s tailored around your buyer's journey. Every experience a customer has with you is important. And yes, that includes their experience with you after they've purchased.
Marketing doesn't end after you pass a qualified lead off to sales. No, no. Marketing is part of the entire methodology. Attract and engage. And it just so happens to fit pretty nicely into the delight stage, too.
Customer delight is about exceeding a customer's expectations to create a positive customer experience with a product or brand. It’s going above and beyond to create a memorable customer experience.
While some might think word of mouth marketing is as mysterious as the astral plane -- I mean, really -- there’s plenty of ways to delight customers. Let’s run through some of them real quick:
- Solving customer problems
- Being timely
- Being helpful
- Helping customers succeed
- Listening to customer feedback
- Being enthusiastic
- Being unexpected
- Building a community
All of these create an emotional connection and sense of goodwill among customers. And that’s what’ll make them more likely to be loyal to your brand long-term.
The inbound methodology outlines how customers who are delighted will become promoters of your business and can help you attract more strangers to your business. Let’s take a moment to ponder two important questions…
It’s the wind. We’re working on a small budget here.
Why would you tell a friend about a product or a business? And why do you promote a business or product? Take a moment to think about that. Well.
We got it? That’s a one take!
The answer to those two questions is simple. Right? It’s trust.
If you establish trust with people, chances are they’ll recommend your product or service to their friends and family. Marketing can help play a big role in turning a customer into a promoter and helping promoters influence those that don't know about your business. Promoters help continuously move people through the inbound methodology -- attract, engage, delight.
You need to serve your website visitors, your leads, your customers, and most importantly, your promoters. [Sales and marketing alignment] is just as important as [customer service and marketing alignment], just as [sales and customer service alignment]. It’s all connected!
If your business strategy revolves around the customer, you'll need to have a customer success strategy that leverages cross department collaboration and integration.
Your job is to help each customer get the unique support they need to be successful. Supporting customer delight is an investment in retention and revenue. Your priority should be to serve people and serve your customers.
So customer marketing is all the more important in a world that’s two thumbs or a forefinger away from social media. It’s how we communicate with a business. And this type of word of mouth will happen if you're building a more personalized one-to-one relationship.
Right, and while that might not always be so easy, the real trick is how to facilitate that in a way that's both unique and scalable. Luckily, I know just the topic for next week.
Until then, that’s all I’m saying. See you there!.