With so many different marketing and sales channels to pursue in the digital world, it's easy to think that your prospects and target customers know exactly what your business does.

But are you getting the right messaging out there? And are you using the right channels to talk about your customer service and customer feedback? People buy from people, so it's important to not underestimate the value of satisfied customers and personal recommendations.

Telling the right stories

We all love a good tale, don’t we? And being able to tell an engaging customer story is still one of the best ways to get a prospective customer hooked on your brand.

When you can use real customer quotes, or refer to testimonials from satisfied clients, this brings with it a level of authenticity and honesty that’s hard to argue with. This isn’t about marketing blurb or PR spin – these are real stories, from real people. And they’re worth their weight in gold when it comes to expressing how, and why, you do business.

Think about using:

• Personal recommendations – recommendations can be peer-to-peer recommendations from existing users or testimonials from your satisfied customers. Working quotes and testimonials from these brand advocates into your content and marketing helps to add authenticity – showing what you’re really about.
• Case studies – customer case study posts or videos show the real experience of what it’s like working with you. Choose customers who you know share your vision and who believe strongly in your brand. Then interview them, have a chat and find out what they really like about your business. It can often be an illuminating experience.
• Consumer/customer feedback – in the digital world, your online reviews are an essential part of gauging how well you’re meeting customer expectations. Solutions like TrustPilot help to measure customer ratings, and feedback from your social channels and selling platforms, like Amazon and Google ratings, all provide extremely useful and quotable content for your marketing. If someone says they love your new updated product on Twitter, share that love and get the message out there as widely as you can.
• Follow-up surveys and questionnaires – another route to genuine feedback is asking your existing clients to take a survey. By targeting your questions carefully, you can get extremely detailed responses to your field of interest. That might be views on your new product, feedback on your customers’ experiences, or simply just asking customers why they use your brand. It’s all incredibly useful information to have in your data bank.

Start telling the right stories about your business and customers

When you tell the right stories, you create an awareness not just of your products and services. You start to reveal the underlying vision behind your business, the atmosphere in your team and what it’s like to be your customer. That’s a powerful tool to have in your marketing toolbox.