What's a crucial marketing tactic that many founders seems to overlook? Read on as James Hickson, head of Brand Hackers, offers 3 simple tactics to approach customer insights.
There’s one crucial marketing tactic I see too many founders ignoring. Talking to customers! It’s so underrated, which makes no sense because...
↳ it’s so damn easy to do
↳ the output is so damn powerful
Seriously, there’s no need to overcomplicate it.
Here’s 3 simple things to start TODAY:
1. Setup a WhatsApp group for your top 20 customers:
Share what you’re working on with them and give them the inside scoop on what’s coming up. Not only will it build stronger brand advocacy, but it will become your go to for. You’ll be surprised how willing people are to help if they feel really part of building something special:
↳ regular honest feedback
↳ marketing ideas
↳ NPD insights
2. Send a survey to your mailing list:
Google forms or Typeform - don’t overthink it:
↳ be clear and upfront about what you’re looking to find out
↳ ask questions that test this hypothesis
↳ keep it as short as you can to get the answers you need
↳ reward participation (entry into a prize draw works)
↳ repeat every 3 months
3. Dive deeper with your survey respondents:
Select a mixed bag of customers (regular, lapsed, one time only etc.) from your survey respondents and go deeper with a handful of them. Setup a video call with 5 of them to get into a bit more detail with their answers, and ask whatever you couldn’t manage in the survey. Take a larger segment (about 20 is good) and get your voice note on:
↳ WhatsApp voice note them with 1-3 specific questions
↳ ask them to voice note back - this is important
↳ the gold is in the detail and people edit themselves less when rambling through a VN as opposed to a written answer
None of the above require a lot of money or even time but the results you’ll get can be transformational in helping you develop your product, your brand and all aspects of your business. It isn’t groundbreaking advice but it needs repeating often because I still meet too many founders who haven’t spoken to customers in months and are wondering why their proposition isn’t landing. Give it a try!
