Most companies do not talk to their customers. When you think about it, that’s shocking. Your business lives and dies based on how it serves its customers. How can you expect to succeed if you do not know who these people are or what they want?
With hands down, customer development is one of the most important things every advertiser needs to do. And you do not have to go through a product team or a customer support team to do it. There are practical ways every advertiser can be involved.
Here’s how to do it yourself:
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Talk to Your Customers
While planning to launch version 2.0 of Mailshake (formerly ContentMarketer.io), I spent nine months doing customer research to find out what people liked about our product and what they hated.
I would reach out to customers and ask if they could call me on the phone for free advice or a $ 25 gift card or something. Not everyone was interested – many people were surprised that I did it at all – but I got a very positive response to the process. Now, we do this for every company we find and for all the clients we use on Web Profits. The results are so powerful.
Oh, and if you don’t have customers, you’re not out of the way. If you are in the early stages, you can always talk to your competitors’ customers instead.
To get started, log on to a site like Capterra or GetApp, where people rate your competitors. You will notice that most of these sites allow people to link their LinkedIn or Twitter profiles to their comments. Use that information to reach 30-40 people (in my experience, you’ll get a 20-30% success rate) and ask what they like or dislike about your competitors’ products.
Their answers may not be things you can use for your product, but at least you will start by understanding what people want in solutions like yours.
Track the Pros and Cons of Competitors
Google’s stuff like reviewing “[contest name]” or [competitor’s name] testimonials.
This will be much better than bulk data, but it will be incredibly valuable whether you are introducing a new product or trying to fix an existing one. Follow this up over time, especially as technology changes in your industry.
Check Before Building
Hiten Shah does a good job of this, but basically, you have to be sure of your product and how you will present it before you get into development.
If I was starting over with a new product, I would take the above steps to find out how I want my solution to be different from my competitors. Then, I will have a wireframe designer for my ideas, and test those ideas on sites like 5-second tests or User Details. If any problems arise, it will be easier for me to fix them in the design phase, than when I am still developing.
If I had done this to the original ContentMarketer.io, it would have saved hundreds of people passing by the river that I eventually changed.
Attend Conferences or Events Where Your Customers Are
Spend time near your customers. Listen to what they are talking about. See what makes them happy. Not only will you go with a lot of different marketing ideas, but you will also get more feedback when you approach it in an informal setting than you would if you were asking as part of the formal research process.
Live A Day In The Life Of Your Customer
Before we started building a cold email tool, we went using cold email tools. Send us cold email messages. We found out what worked and what didn’t – what we liked and disliked.
Now, every week, I talk to our most successful clients and those who have problems. I wonder how they use this tool, and I always distance myself from these conversations with new ideas. Not everything makes it a product, but at least I know what our strengths and weaknesses are – and how I can make the tool even better for their needs.
If you can no longer communicate with each customer, it is easy to do automatic customer listening to get a continuous SaaS product response at a high level.
Customer listening has helped JotForm reach 4.3 million users and even promote their latest product, PDF Editor.
It may sound like a lot, but so far, about 600 new ideas have emerged from this process. How much better would you be if you had that opportunity? That is the power of customer development performance.
Be There
Customer service is no longer just a face-to-face contact. If you work in a factory or marketplace where customers live online, you need to amend your service delivery to include that. You do not need to be the Twitter handle for the help desk, just make sure you respond quickly and informally to customers on your main Facebook business page or your Twitter account.
Get a Common Answer
Feedback is a great way to grow your business and your skills. Provide ways for customers to provide feedback, whether it is a follow-up email or phone call, a suggestion box, or something new and exciting.
