6 Ways to Get Staff and Customers to Market Your Business for You
Why spend thousands of dollars on marketing tactics when you have brand cheerleaders right under your nose?
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Incentivise new referrals for staff and customers
Get your staff involved in the process of winning new business. Providing incentives (financial or something else of value) for new referrals or leads will help to motivate employees to participate. The process can make it easier for them by equipping them with the knowledge and training to network effectively, and the tools like personal business cards to refer new customers.
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Get your staff content marketing
Each employee in your business has their own knowledge, insights, and expertise. Tapping into the advice and knowledge that they can offer and then publishing it online will not only help to establish the expertise of your team and build trust in the business, it will also boost your online visibility. Content marketing gives something tangible to share online, and a reason for people to return to your business website. While not all staff will feel comfortable writing, many others will be if they know their work will be supported with editing or topics to write about.
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Get Your Customers to Leave Reviews and Testimonials
A client’s happy experience captured online can be very powerful. Genuine reviews are easy to spot, and hundreds of people will see them and take stock of what is said. Asking customers to leave an online review can raise the profile of your brand, and boost your rankings in search engine results pages. If not a review, getting others to do the talking on your behalf by publishing testimonials on your website and business social media profiles are marketing activities that are among the most convincing.
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Re-think email signatures
The email signature is an opportunity to craft a message about the business that you’d like others to see and ponder. This can be the personal ethos of your company, the way you strive to do business or another tag line which sells your business. Emails are also often kept, forwarded and seen by many sets of eyes, making the message in the email signature worth thinking about. It’s also makes sense to include links to social media profiles, and your company website. The email signature doesn’t always have to be the same either. They can be changed periodically to raise awareness of new promotions, awards won, or anything else that you’d like to spruik.
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Encourage Customer Referrals
All business owners will agree that word of mouth referrals are one of the best forms of marketing, and cost not a single cent. Some of these will happen organically if you are good at what you do, but to increase your referral rate, it’s worth incentivising customers who successfully refer others by offering bonus services, discount vouchers, or something else that they value.
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Get them to spread the word via social
Your employees and customers have extensive online networks through their social media accounts which can be invaluable in raising the profile of your business. Encourage employees to comment and interact on company social media profiles to increase the visibility of posts. Staff will be more likely to spread the message by suggesting content for them to share. Encouraging staff to create compelling LinkedIn profiles will not only raise their corporate brand, but the brand of your business too. For businesses that offer consulting or other professional services, the product that you offer is the talent and expertise of your employees. This means a strong social presence and social interaction online is an opportunity that a business should leverage.
Finally, the most authentic marketing comes when your employees and customers believing in what you do, and why you do it. Through a strong company culture and keeping stakeholders updated on the vision and goals of the company and where they fit in to the bigger picture, your closest resources will me more likely to become raving ambassadors. Get this right and the rewards are many, no least some very effective and affordable marketing.
Engaging your customers through getting the word out there online is something that every business owner should consider.