Let Your Customers Speak For You!

We as marketers can talk endlessly about how awesome our product is or the number of useful features it has, but our customers want to hear it from someone else. Who you might ask? People like themselves that they can relate to. I know that when I am shopping for a product online I read the customer reviews each and every time. Maybe I am worried about the quality and then I read a review from another customer that says that they were having that same concern but when the product arrived, it exceeded their expectations. Am I more likely to purchase this product after reading this review? Of course, it only makes sense.

Now that we have established that customer stories are important to include on our website, how do we get them? Depending on your business, there are several ways to find customers who are more than willing to recommend your product. But you have to be willing to ask! Ask anyone that you connect with that has something positive to say about your product.

Click the photo above to read an example of one of EasyStand's customer stories - "Incredible Ian"!

1. Ask people you are connect to on social media websites. Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are great places to find potential candidates for customer stories. If someone writes a tweet, shares a picture or comment on Facebook, or posts a video on YouTube about your product, start a conversation with them that ends in agreeing to participate in a customer story. It might actually take writing a post or tweet simply asking for customers to come forward.
2. Create a share your story page on your website; this makes it easy for customers visiting your site to sign up. This page should be in the same area as the customer stories page of your website. Reading those stories will inspire them to share their own. You can also link to this page when posting comments on your social media sites.
3. Make sure that when you are interviewing customers that you ask the right questions. Get the information that your customers are looking for. They want to know what your product will do for them, if it can improve their life, solve a problem or simply make them smile. Show them through the stories of others, they won’t be disappointed.
4. Finally, try to include a photo(s) and/or video! Most people find it easier to relate to someone when they can visualize them. It’s a bonus for you if the photo or video is of them using your product. Photos and videos make stories believable!

Now that you have these wonderful customer stories at your fingertips, use them to their full potential! Include them on your website, post them on your social media sites, and write blog posts about them. Let your best customers promote your product for you!

Bryanne Freitag is the Marketing Coordinator at Altimate Medical Inc./EasyStand in Morton, MN. Bryanne helps maintain their websites at easystand.com,  blog.easystand.com and the company’s many social media sites.  Thank you Bryanne for contributing this guest post! 

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