Business owners with a business website invest a lot in marketing their business with a variety of systems and digital marketing strategies. Alongside all these proven tactics and ongoing promotion of products and services, there is one thing people tend to forget in their business – the level of customer engagement. Your customer base is the most valuable piece of the business puzzle – successfully turning visitors into customers and turning customers into returning customers is one of the biggest tasks for business owners who maintain a business website.
What if, as marketers and website owners, we could keep our regular business customers close to us and turn them into brand ambassadors? You have the option to showcase your brand value, major clients who worked with you, and your successes in various places on your website. At the same time, if you spend all your marketing money on ads showing reasons to choose you, you are probably not communicating well enough, and your regular customers should be part of your marketing strategy. There are several key reasons why it is important for your customers to become business ambassadors and talk about it rather than you doing so:
1. People trust people (and even influencers) more than companies
Consumers are skeptical about businesses in general, so it is no surprise that they trust influencers, coworkers, and even celebrities more to give them good advice on new products. Influencer marketing is experiencing meteoric growth because influencers build a loyal following of like-minded people who begin to trust them and their opinions. Followers believe that the influencer genuinely uses the product they promote, and therefore they find these brands well-branded and possessing a quality reputation. It is important to emphasize that for an influencer to work with a certain brand, they first receive the sample product and check if they are satisfied with it before starting an online promotional collaboration with the brand. Influencers treat the product like an end-customer who received it after ordering, so there is greater value in the advertisement than in the company’s information about that product.
Customers usually won’t talk about the technical details of the product or service you sell, but rather tell about the change it brought to their lives – how with your product their dog is happier and healthier, or how with the service you provide they have more time with family. They speak from their personal perspective, and when they talk and recommend a product or service it looks authentic and not like pre-written copy.
2. Big brands use this strategy because it works
This strategy works great for large brands also because their reputation precedes them and they have deep enough pockets to diversify their marketing activities. However, a marketing strategy of this kind can suit any company and any business. Major brands like Tesla, Nike, and Airbnb experienced huge success after shifting part of their marketing strategy to a customer-centric strategy.
An excellent example from major brands is Airbnb, which decided to cut its marketing budget by 25% in a bold and unprecedented move, directing a large part of the remaining budget to customer-centric marketing. In 2021, they launched a global brand campaign – “Made possible by hosts”, and they reported 2021 as the company’s highest-revenue year. The campaign focused entirely on people who use their service from both a business and leisure perspective. The entire campaign was about the average family vacation or solo trip of service users.
3. Customer case studies significantly improve SEO
Within your website, you have plenty of space to write about yourself, the company, the services, and the products. Usually, this type of content will be on the About page and the Home page. You won’t find a page dedicated to customer reviews on many company websites. You can create such a page with a diverse nature and in various ways – customer case studies, customer unboxing videos, written reviews, reviews from Google My Business or Facebook, video reviews, and more. Review formats of this type can allow customers to speak on your behalf to visitors who have not yet become customers.
Letting customers speak on your behalf leads to more user-generated content and very diverse online traffic. Adding case studies or reviews that involve an authentic customer touch leads to a positive impact on your website’s search engine optimization (SEO). In addition, you can publish these videos on YouTube and other social networks and increase the amount of exposure they receive.
4. Word-of-mouth marketing is still a legitimate marketing channel
In recent years, studies have shown that when it comes to online purchases and transactions, a high percentage of users prefer to rely on a review from a close acquaintance, friend, or family member. From this, we learn that alongside stunning ads and precise campaigns, what makes a business successful and high-converting is excellent service and customer care. If brands want existing customers to lead their marketing strategy, it will have to happen with a quality product that customers genuinely connect with.
With the digital exposure that can be achieved, any change or update related to a particular business can be seen, whether it was published by the business itself or by a satisfied or disappointed customer. Proper use of these mentions can become a significant part of your business strategy and replace part of the existing strategy using digital word-of-mouth marketing. Shift the online discourse about your brand from talking about the amazing features your products have to talking about what your customers do with the products, and that way you can maximize the positive reviews you receive.
In Conclusion
As an advertising agency, we do not claim that paid campaigns and all existing marketing strategies should be replaced with customer-centric marketing. Carefully examine your current marketing efforts and make a decision on where you can cut back, since not every marketing effort ends in success and high ROI. Customer-centric marketing is a natural extension of social proof and significantly increases the conversion rates of visitors to your website, primarily helping those who are hesitating whether to make a purchase or leave their contact details.
About the Author
Dvir Naaman, 27, graduate of the Digital Marketing course at HackerU College. Experienced in WordPress website development, paid advertising on Google, Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok platforms. Specializes at Fialkov Digital in search engine optimization (SEO). Has rich experience in eCommerce and dropshipping, and is the owner of Merchant Center – a website consolidating information on eCommerce systems and advanced marketing systems to increase business conversions, with an emphasis on eCommerce store sales.
