Customer Input Marketing

Anyone who is in business knows that to stay in business they need to make a profit. Your profits increase as you sell more products. You sell more products as your customers make repeat purchases and you acquire new customers. You retain customers and acquire new ones through marketing and your marketing campaign is most effective when it is tailored to show your customers how your product fulfills their needs. The best way to figure out how your product fills your customers' needs is to let them tell you how. Customer input and customer relations can have a positive influence on your marketing and sales. Here's how to get your customers involved in your marketing process so you can make it more effective:

Customer Surveys

Any business can incorporate customer surveys into their marketing campaign to help with customer retention and to help better their future marketing efforts. Online stores can make is a pop-up at check-out, phone numbers for taking a survey can be included at the bottom of receipts, or if your customers call into your business, you can ask them to take a phone survey. Surveys of what the customer experienced, what was good, and what could use some work can help you tailor your business to better fulfill your customers' needs. Just as a word of advice, if you are having a hard time finding customers who are willing to take the survey, offer them something for their time. You'll find with customer surveys helping to direct your marketing efforts, your profits will increase.

Comment Cards

Allowing your customers the option to leave a comment about your service and/or product can also make a big difference when it comes to an effective marketing campaign. Many online stores offer customers the ability to review products they have purchased as well as customer service provided. You can also have comment cards available in your store or a web or email address at the bottom of receipts where they can register their comments. When a customer feels like the have an input and can help other people in their buying experience, they are more likely to use your service again and it helps you see where you can focus your marketing efforts as well as where you have room for improvement.

Community Forums

In today's world people want to feel connected to others somehow. If your business can build a community from its customers, they will feel connected, apart of something bigger, and they will feel that their needs are being met. Community forums are a great way to foster client relations. You'll find within your customers' threads needs and wants that your business can address. You'll find customer advice that they may be unwilling to give on a survey or comment card. Being apart of a community gets people talking and when people talk, ideas are generated, problems surface, and marketing can zone in and be more effective.

Membership Programs

If you offer a membership program to your customers, once again you are getting them involved in a community and giving them a sense of belonging. Many membership programs require that customers be a part of an email or mailings list. They also have members only feedback programs where you make your customers feel important because only members can give the business feedback. A membership program can help your marketing campaign focus on those customers that truly matter to you because they come to your business enough to be a member of it.