New Marketing Team: Your Customers

By Dean Schwartz (SWAG Master): Is your marketing team budget tight? Did you know there is a virtually free resource that you can tap into to help with your marketing efforts? It is your customer base! Whether you are flush with cash or operating on a shoestring budget, engaging with your customer base is essential to expanding your outreach.

Customer acquisition can be hard, but who better to promote your brand than your loyal customers? People tend to share the best and worst things that happen to them. So when you go out of your way to do something meaningful for your customers, you can be sure they will tell their friends. And those are the word of mouth endorsements you need. If you do that, you will have a team of loyal customers marketing your company.

Easier said than done. But don’t worry, here are a 5 simple tips to turn your customers into an extension of your marketing team.

5 Ways to Make your Customers a Part of Your Marketing Team

Find your fans and influencers: Not every customer will be willing to shout your name from the rooftops, but many of them will! Those are your fans. The trick is to find those fans who also have a strong presence within the community. We call those “influencers”. Give your influencers incentives to spread the word about your brand. A great way to do this is by giving them some really awesome promo SWAG. Your influencers can make a really big difference.

Give them something useful: We have touched upon this in a previous blog, but it is worth mentioning again. If you give people something useful, then it is more likely that they will keep it. You can brand just about anything, from USB drives to surfboards and everything in between. Tap into the needs and SOBO will help you find a product that fills it.

Pens are good, but wearables are better: When someone is wearing your logo they are endorsing your brand. It is just like word of mouth but without the words. But don’t forget to be fashionable. Create a wearable that gets worn not just because your brand is on it, but because it is actually something people want to wear. If you create an item people want to wear, then you don’t necessarily need an obvious logo on it. Not everyone wants to walk around in a hat with your company name in huge letters on it. However, they may want to walk around with a unique hat that happens to have your logo on the back.

Make your SWAG a coveted prize: The world we live in is social and people love to share their opinions, particularly online. One way to boost engagement online is to create a contest. Whoever submits the winning entry gets an awesome piece of SWAG. This will increase engagement with your current customers, AND attract a whole new pool of customers. Just remember that social media is a conversation, and you should be just as active as your customers.

Flat out ask them: Sometimes it really is as simple as asking your customers to spread the word. Ask them to share your page on Facebook or give them a cool promo gift with a note encouraging them to tell their friends about you. You won’t know the answer until you ask.

Time to build out that marketing team! Need help coming up with some creative giveaways or cool SWAG for your customers and influencers? Give SOBO a call 888.752.0432, send us a note, or browse through our catalog. SWAG with style!