The Internet is an ocean filled with all kinds of users. Some intend to sell their merchandise while others are on the lookout to purchase it. Since e-commerce made its way into the online platform, the internet has been the busiest medium of buying and selling. With so much to offer in an endless stream of promotion, exposure and visibility, it has become imperative that one must learn how to use these gifts to their advantage. In this article, we have gathered a list of 4 different practices that you can use to actively promote your brand just by building customers.
What Can You Achieve from Your Customers?
Although marketing is not limited to any certain medium, internet, by all means, is the fastest and the most cost-effective platform to get known. However, certain constraints can cause inefficiencies in your marketing mix especially when you fall short on funds. But this is where the internet has a solution for it. Though certain practices, you can not only seal your leakages but also make an army of free marketing agents to do your bidding involuntarily on every platform they can reach. However, there are things that must be kept in check so a smooth customer building process can be set to motion.
4 Useful Practices to Promote Your Brand Free of Cost through Customers
1. Feedback
Giving your customers a voice is the mark of a true brand that cares for its customers. By allowing a feedback portal you can penetrate those customers who yearn to be a part of something for longer periods or even a lifetime. It strengthens the relationship and puts the customer on an equal standing. It reflects greatly on your brand and shows how much you care about your customers. While customers post their feedback and feel valued, you can use that information and improve your marketing techniques and integrate better e-commerce structure. You can do this by introducing comment logs on product pages, text fields and testimonials section on your website.
2. Social Media
If you need you, customers, to stand up for your brand, you have to do more than just opening a feedback portal. Even if you have a section to let customers share their thoughts about your products and services, there is no guarantee that they will participate in it. This is where you can make a difference. You don’t need to learn any web development to create social media presence and make it official for your brand. You can easily create a Facebook account and start sharing content on your timeline. Once you have optimized on one network, you can move to Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram etc. What will this do? It will crank up the participation from your customers 10 fold. It will open paths to two away portal where you can post content, get the customer to respond to it and then reply it from your end as well. But most importantly, you can use this platform to gain attention on a whole new level. You can create contest campaigns and offer incentives to your customers so you receive maximum coverage on your products and services. This way customers will increase their contribution and make your pages filled with positivity.
3. Forums
Brand evangelism is a pure product of effort, dedication and utmost care that a customer can get. Without the active presence of any of these, you cannot secure a loyal customer willing to promote your brand on your behalf. However, in order to reach that level of satisfaction, you must consider getting a table together where your customers can cyber-meet and share their experience, queries and suggestions to the rest of the group. Producing a community is only possible if you have a platform for it. This does not require any complicated web development. Social media is a good alternative but it doesn’t work on a passive spell. The solution is a forum. The forum is an excellent source to acquire knowledge, interact with the admins and learn about things that are not in the textbook. The best part about these forums is that they don’t require as much filling in contrast to social media and comment logs. Volunteers are always on the lookout to answer queries and help other shoppers with various issues. They keep up the fire kindled while you secure more customers and link them together from these community forums.
4. Emails and Newsletters
Email marketing has been the primary source of promotion and exposure for decades. It has served online merchants with endless means to secure conversions and produce revenues for their stores. However, with the rising tides of technological advancements, the means to acquire customers and retain them have been revamped and reshaped. What was once the only channel to reach customers now became sidelined to advance techniques such as paid marketing and SEO. This is where you must reinvest. Email marketing is your salvation to getting your customer back and restoring the incorruptible evangelism you need to promote your brand. You can start by re-designing your template and adding all the necessary textual and visual elements required for an irresistible appeal. Introduce CTAs to lure customers, offer discounts, gift cards and coupons to show how much you appreciate your clientele.
Final Thoughts
All and all, brand evangelism is not a permanent solution to your marketing shortcomings. To get your people to love your brand you must first get down to the basics and build a marketing structure. Once you have a tangible strategy to spread your content, you can move to the next step and start offering incentives to your customers and use them to promote your brand for free.
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See also: 5 Twitter Mistakes That Can Ruin Your Brand
