Finding the right marketing strategy can be tough.
Marketing is a costly and time-consuming process, and if you don’t get it right, that’s a lot of resources spent for very little ROI. In today’s digital world, marketing can be even more daunting, since customers have never been more well-informed about the products and brands they choose.
So how do you market to an increasingly aware audience?
Businesses understand the importance of both social media engagement and online reviews, but many never consider combining the two.
Maybe you have the best product on the market, the fastest shipping, and the most proactive customer support. Satisfied customers flock to leave you positive feedback across multiple review sites and social media channels.
Free to use image sourced from Pixabay
Why not utilize that feedback as a marketing tool? What could be more powerful social proof than your customers eulogizing over your product or service?
Take your positive feedback and turn it into social media content.
Here are some steps to get you started
1. Claim your business on social media and review sites
Before you can utilize online feedback, you need to know where it’s coming from.
Look for review sites where customers are talking about your brand, like Google, Yelp, and Trustpilot. Also consider industry-specific sites—if you’re a travel destination, you’ll want to look at Tripadvisor. If you’re a restaurant, try Zagat to promote your restaurant menu.
Claim your business on those sites. This gives you control over the information presented there, a way to keep track of what people are saying about you, and the ability to respond to reviews.
Next, establish your social media presence. Are people tweeting about you? Reviewing you on Facebook? Posting about you to their Instagram feeds?
Create social media accounts for your business so that customers can have a place to reach you directly. And don’t forget to verify them wherever possible so that people know the information you’re presenting is legitimate.
2. Ask for reviews
Once you’ve claimed your social media and online review channels, it’s time to fill them with customer feedback.
You can encourage reviews via email in a few ways. One is by having a prompt in your regular newsletter, reminding subscribers that feedback is always welcome.
Another way is by having emails that automatically trigger upon order and/or delivery of your product. You can ask a simple question like “how did we do?” as extra motivation.
Remember to add a few links to your preferred review channels so that customers can easily leave feedback. Don’t make them jump through hoops.
Apps
Whether you’ve developed your own app or you do business through apps like eBay or Amazon, create prompts for costumes to provide feedback upon order or delivery.
Social Media
Create posts on various social media channels asking for honest feedback. This is extra beneficial since social media is such a public outlet. More people will see that you’re open to feedback, and social media customer reviews will be publicly available immediately.
Website
Create a review or testimonial section on your website and direct customers to it. Since you have more control over your own website, you can create different types of feedback channels—a page for video testimonials, a page for written reviews, a page dedicated to reviews from business partners, etc.
If a customer is browsing your products with the intent to purchase, their main port of call might be your website. Being able to shop, access reviews, and leave feedback all in one place can expedite the buying process.
Phone
Phone calls are still a vital avenue for customer feedback. When something goes wrong, a customer’s first move is usually to call customer support.
How you handle their issue will define how they talk about you afterward.
Having an active customer support helpline with kind and helpful staff will go a long way to fostering customer relationships. A happy customer is more likely to leave good online feedback for you, which you can turn into promotional content.
You can use tools like an automated phone system for small businesses to make sure you’re getting all the customer feedback to the right place.
Offer incentives for your customers to leave reviews
Encourage customers to leave reviews in exchange for a reward. Offer discount codes, gifts, enrollment in a prize draw, or social media shout-outs. You can turn happy customers into loyal brand advocates through fun and engaging incentives.
3. Respond to reviews
Responding to reviews gives your brand another element of visibility.
- By utilizing online customer feedback systems, it shows that you’re receptive to customer feedback, which encourages more customers to leave reviews.
- It proves that you take feedback into account, giving people more confidence in your brand.
- It shows how much you care about your product or service.
- It allows you to display some of your brand’s personality.
It’s important to respond to both positive and negative feedback. For positive feedback, you can reply with a simple “thank you” or even automate the process. It shows customers that you’re gracious and attentive.
It’s even more important to respond to negative feedback, as studies show that customers are more likely to do business with brands who do.
Image sourced from reviewtrackers.com
For negative feedback, it’s important to be calm and civil. Don’t blow up at unhappy customers, even if you think their complaints are nonsense. Look at negative reviews as an opportunity to show off your excellent customer service skills.
If there are genuine issues, apologize and offer personalized assistance in correcting those issues. If a review is riddled with inaccuracies, gently correct any misconceptions. For feedback that’s both inaccurate and downright rude, you could even try a humorous response—plenty of brands have gone viral with witty clap-backs to rude customers.
Most importantly, don’t censor feedback. Deleting reviews is a sure-fire way to make customers lose trust in you.
Show people that you’re willing to listen and take their criticism on board. Allow your brand’s personality to shine, even in adversity.
4. Use reviews to gain customer insights and fix issues
What better way to gain insights into what is and isn’t working than through direct customer feedback?
You can use reviews to find and fix problems with everything from your product to how your website functions. You can streamline your customer journey from start to finish by listening to and acting on feedback.
You can become a more empathetic company by listening to your customers and showing them you’re willing to step up and fix your mistakes.
5. Start turning feedback into social media content
Now that you’ve accumulated some feedback, it’s time to make it work for you. Here are a few ways you can turn feedback into social media content.
Share positive social media posts
Sharing your social media customer reviews is the simplest way to promote your brand through online feedback.
Retweet enthusiastic tweets from happy customers. Share positive Facebook reviews on your business page. Add Instagram posts to your stories. Anywhere that customers are posting about you, use social media platforms’ built-in sharing capabilities to spread the good news.
Screenshot reviews and post them
For feedback that comes from Google, Yelp, or other review websites outside of social media, you can use screenshots. Find reviews that stand out and screenshot them. Then, you can create posts around them on your social media accounts.
Video testimonials
Many people prefer watching a video to reading a bunch of text. You can take advantage of this by either creating your own video content, or asking customers to create user-generated content.
If you have a YouTube channel, you can create videos showcasing your best feedback. If you’re active on Instagram, you can ask customers to create video reviews explaining why they use your product. Sites like TikTok are perfect for short, snappy viral content, which is ideal for sharing.
You can even use negative feedback to your benefit. Video series like Mean Tweets or the Real Actors Read: Yelp Reviews allow brands to take the most outrageous reviews and turn them into comedy gold. This can show audiences that you don’t take yourself too seriously, and that you’re willing to poke a little bit of fun at yourself.
Images
Images are the ideal social proof, and many sites have started allowing pictures alongside reviews for that very reason. The online fashion retailer SHEIN, for example, encourages customers to upload photos of themselves wearing their purchases.
You can also encourage your customers to upload photos of their purchases to social media, sharing your brand with their followers. This allows you to share their user-generated content on your feed.
Being able to see your product in action can give customers more confidence in your brand. Not only are you willing to provide social proof, but your products also look all the more enticing when real people are using them.
Social media ads
You can even turn your online feedback into advertisements. Flex your graphic design flair to create gorgeous ads that include customer testimonials, five-star reviews, or gifs and videos.
Polls
Social media polls can be a fun way to engage customers, as well as a useful tool for your business to source customer insights. Participation in polls is also quicker and easier than writing a review, so people are more likely to take part.
If you’re curious about something specific, like how your customer service department is doing or who your audience’s preferred phone.com competitors are, start an online poll for quick results.
Optimize your feed
For many customers, your social media feed is their first impression of your brand. For existing customers, your social media feed keeps them engaged and informed.
You want your first impression to be a strong one, and your ongoing influence to be compelling. So make sure that your feed looks good, updates regularly, and remains relevant to your audience. Don’t give customers a reason to unfollow you.
When you start turning your online feedback into a social media promotion tool, treat it like you would any social media post.
- Is the post clear and concise?
- Does it offer your customers something?
- Does the design fit in with your brand’s aesthetic?
- Does the content fit in with your brand’s style?
- Are you posting at an optimal time of day?
To help you with this, you can use online tools to optimize your social media feed. This can save you time and ensure that your social media channels are always active and up-to-date.
The benefits of turning online feedback into social media content
Reviews are important to customers
Studies show that most people read at least one review before purchasing a product, and that many read more than that.
Image sourced from Statista
Reviews are a vital promotional tool. Customers want to make informed decisions about where they spend their money. They want to see evidence that they’re supporting good brands with solid products.
By turning online feedback into social media content, you’re delivering that information right to your customers’ social media feed.
Build a relationship with your customers
Social media engagement between brands and customers builds affinity. By having a social media presence, you’re already encouraging engagement with your brand.
Building online feedback into your social media content is just taking that relationship one step further. It’s proof that listening to feedback is an important part of your company, and that you don’t hide what people are saying about you.
Honesty is the foundation of any good relationship, after all.
Bypass ad-blockers
If ad-blocking trends are anything to go by, intolerance for ads is growing amongst customers.
Image sourced from backlinko.com
Some of the top reasons cited are:
- Ads are too intrusive
- Too many ads on the internet
- They take up too much space
- They are annoying or irrelevant
The growing sentiment against blatant advertising makes your marketing department’s job much harder. Getting eyes on your product when more and more people refuse to entertain ads is difficult.
This is where social media marketing can shine—if it’s done right, it doesn’t feel like marketing at all. Using online feedback in your social media content isn’t intrusive, doesn’t take up too much space, and is relevant to people who follow you.
Create authenticity
Where marketing can seem aggressive, intrusive, or even dishonest, real feedback from customers acts as undeniable social proof that your brand is worth investing in.
Sharing positive feedback on your social media feed is a more natural way of promoting your brand. Whether through text reviews, video testimonials, or pictures, the feedback is evidence of your happy customers and their willingness to be brand advocates.
You’re already welcome
If someone follows your brand on social media, that means they’ve already accepted you into their feed. They will be less resentful of you popping up and showcasing your products than a random ad.
Consider your next marketing campaign
As customers become more aware, more discerning, and more vocal, it’s more important than ever to welcome their feedback.
Building relationships with your customers has never been as crucial to growing your brand.
Free to use image sourced from Unsplash
Customers are far more likely to listen to what their peers are saying about you than what you’re saying about yourself. So what better way to foster trust and loyalty than by engaging customers with honest feedback, showcasing your customer service skills, and letting your own customers promote you?
If you’re tired of rolling the marketing dice, it might be time to try turning your online feedback into social media content.