As businesses everywhere know, a marketing sales funnel starts with enticing prospective customers and transforming them into satisfied customers. The funnel, however, doesn’t end there, for you should also encourage your customers into inviting other people into entering the marketing sales funnel. This is possible when you’re able to turn your satisfied customers into brand advocates.
Why Advocates?
It’s not enough that you acquire new customers into your sales funnel if you’re unable to keep them—or worse, fail to make them encourage newer people to try transacting with your business. What ventures like yours need to do is to create a customer base that encourages the creation of new customers. This is because, with the availability of online reviews, 88 percent of consumers tend to determine the quality of a local business simply by reading reviews, while 72 percent of them will trust one with positive reviews. Simply put, consumers trust their fellow consumers in making a purchase decision.
More than producing excellent products and reliable services, your business should also utilize your existing consumer base and make them market your business to make a lasting impression among your target audience. You’ll be surprised to see how many new customers they’ll be able to bring into your marketing sales funnel.
Online Reviews
The best way to start turning your loyal customers into brand advocates is to encourage them to write online reviews. Some offer incentives as a reward for positive reviews, while others mention it subtly. Either way, you gently remind your customers that giving your business a glowing review would mean a lot.
Offer Great Customer Service
Customer service is one thing that businesses should already offer before the customers themselves even ask for it. Superb service shows your customers that you deeply care for them, thus spurring serious brand loyalty among them.
Incentives Can Work Best
Some brands already offer incentives to people who refer their friends and colleagues into getting their products and services. Referral programs offer a win-win situation for both your business and your customers: You get new people into your sales funnel, while they get a neat incentive for your products.
Transparency Works Best
Truthfully, customers know that there is no perfect business in every industry. What they don’t appreciate, however, is when businesses fail to handle disastrous events with full transparency. Remember that the brand that wins their customers’ loyalty takes extreme measures simply to make the latter happy.
Having brand advocates, along with an improved automated marketing sales funnel from companies like 5 Star Brand, is an effective recipe for a successful small business with a large and loyal customer base.
Sources
7 Tips to Turn Existing Customers Into Your Small Biz’s Biggest Advocates, Salesforce Blog
4 Unconventional Ways to Turn Customers Into Brand Advocates, Entrepreneur
