How to get customers to promote your business

Have you ever wondered how you could get customers to promote your business? Looking at customers solely as people who buy your stuff is short-sighted, misguided, and will lead to poor growth. Instead, you need to step back and take a look at the bigger picture.

Customers are in a unique position; they can sing your praises for you, give you feedback on your product which allows you to make changes, and they can even help you to close difficult sales – but only if you work with them.

How do you do this?

Here is how to get customers to promote your business for you:

Understand Customers’ Needs

Anyone who has read The Lean Startup will understand that it is usually customers who originate the world’s most successful innovations.

A company might come up with an initial product, but it is the customer’s feedback that helps a company to tweak the product so that it satisfies a buyer’s needs.

If you’re struggling with product development, you could do a lot worse than find out what you customer actually needs. There is little point in developing a product that nobody has any need for.

Give Your Product Away

Achieving early sales is not easy. When a new product enters the market, it is often the early adopters who convince other buyers to get onboard with the product.

Early adopters are customers who buy your product before anyone else. Once others see these early buyers using the product, they too are encouraged to buy it.

If you’re struggling to convince even early adopters to buy your product, you may want to consider offering a discount of some sort. PayPal famously struggled to get going at first, until the founders decided to offer early adopters cash in return for setting up an account.

Customers soon got on the program – and they soon told their friends, who told their friends, who told their friends.

Encourage Online Customer Testimonials

A customer bought your product and loved it. Great!

But to really maximise this sale, you could offer rewards to buyers who post customer testimonials on your website.

Even better, you should give more confident buyers the chance to post a testimonial via video.

Identify Customers Who Are Willing To Sing Your Praises

Lots of buyers might like your product, but not all of them are going to be willing to talk you up to others.

To identify buyers who are willing to publicly promote you, you can conduct a survey that asks a simple question:

1) How likely on a score from 0-10 are you to refer this company/product/service to a friend?

Then, find the customers who scored 9 or 10 and you’ve got a list of advocates. Ask and you shall receive!

Engage Advocates

Sometimes, you don’t need to hunt down supporters. A quick check through social media can tell you who is already banging your drum in the form of positive reviews and feedback.

All you need to then do is engage them and offer them an incentive to further promote your product.

It’s key that your incentive is organic. The last thing you want is a customer who is only interested in promoting you in exchange for a reward.

Get In Touch With Bloggers

Offering a popular blogger in a related niche the chance to try your product for free in exchange for a review, is a great way to get customers to promote your business.

These are a few ways to get customers to promote your business. Another way to promote your business is through social media marketing. This is one of many talents the team at Easy Consulting can do for a business. Whether you’re wanting to build brand awareness or promote your special events & new products, Easy Consulting is here to integrate social media into your overall marketing strategy. Contact us today and let’s get started!