The focus of our blog for this month is customer advocacy. We will look at what a good B2B PR case study should look like, how to make it appeal to a digital audience and here, we start with five top tips for getting your customers to agree to endorse your products or services.
Now more than ever before we live in an age of reference. These days we rarely pay for anything significant without asking for a second opinion or checking on the views of others. So, getting your customers to say nice things about you and recommend your services has never been more important.
It’s one thing knowing you have a contented bunch of customers, but quite another to get them to become an advocate for your business. Not only are customer case studies a much sought after commodity for the sales team, they are also a fantastic tool for B2B PR to showcase how businesses are benefiting from a product or a service.
So how can you convince customers to become an advocate for your business? Here are our top five ways to engage your happy customers:
- Have you asked them? One of the most common reasons for customers not wanting to get involved is for fear that it’ll take up far too much of their time. Keep the process simple and do as much of the leg work as you can yourself by gaining essential background details from your own account manager.
- If you need to interview your customer, send them a list of the questions you want them to answer in advance to give them the time to gather the information you need.
- Show your customer examples of other case studies you have in your portfolio. When they can see what you’re trying to achieve, it might help convince them to do the same.
- If the customer is unable to endorse suppliers in written or visual form, perhaps they’d be willing to speak to a prospect directly by phone or facilitate a site visit?
- Can the customer use the case study too? If it showcases your customer to be innovative or a trail blazer in their industry they may benefit from using it too, and this may just encourage them to get involved.
Visit our case study page to see examples of our case studies.