Many brands focus on gaining the support of industry influencers. While this is a great strategy, there is also another technique that is just as valuable. In fact, this technique may even be more valuable for small businesses that do not need to target big names. This technique is focusing on the customers and realizing their potential to be the biggest influencers for your business. Developing a personal relationship with your customer will spread the word about the reliability of your business. So where do you start?
Identify your best customers
Your best customers are the ones who continuously ask for your help and are willing to spend the money in order to do so. Think about whom in the past has always needed your business, and those are your best customers. Now that you have identified them, remember how you have treated them in the past. Have you reached out to them to thank them for their business? Have they spoken about your business to their friends? How did they hear about your business? These are questions you need to start asking yourself once your best customers have been identified.
Utilize your best customers
Now that you know who your best customers are, they are a gold mine for answers you need to reinvigorate your business and keep improving. Reach out to them to receive customer feedback. Provide them with promotional deals that will keep them coming back for more business. In order to turn your best customers into influencers, you have to give them something to talk about. Something that they just have to share with those around them. After all, that’s what an influencer does – they share information that others value. In order to get the influencer to bring in new customers, you must offer this influencer something in return. Create a mutually beneficial relationship that will be long lasting.
Turning a customer into an influencer is something that will take time and nourishment. It’s really about building a relationship with your customer – something any business needs to master.