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Advertising is a painful expense that companies would surely love to do without if they could. However, advertising is crucial to finding new customers and keeping old customers coming back for more. However, not all advertisements need to break the bank. Customers can prove to be some of the best free advertisers there are! The question simply remains, how does a company, even a startup, make advertisers out of their customers?
Encourage Social Media Interaction
Social media is the future of business, especially when it comes to both free and paid advertisements. Anyone could tell you that many people spend a considerable amount of time on social media nowadays. While on social media, potential customers are sure to come across advertisements and posts made by businesses.
While businesses will have to pay for someone to run their social media account, what they don't need to pay for is the reblogs, likes, and shares their posts get from people who see it. When people spread the posts around the internet, it's like free advertising. This way, the post not only gets seen by people who follow the business's social media account but by people who follow the customer as well.
However, customers are more likely to repost some kinds of posts over others. So, how are businesses supposed to know which type of post is more popular with customers than others? Luckily, there are a few things businesses can do to encourage customer engagement on social media.
- Ask questions
- Post polls and quizzes
- Add hashtags
- Have contests
- Add pictures or videos to posts
The more people talk about your product or brand, the better. After all, it's like the phrase goes, there is no such thing as bad publicity. One example of this came up with Le-Vel Thrive, a supplement company. It was debated on social media and around the internet whether or not the company was a scam. This got people talking about the company, spreading awareness. It later came to light that there was nothing scammy about the company at all and that they sold quality products. Even though they had to go through what could have been a scandal, it is likely that they ended up gaining customers from it, with the help of social media!
Allow Customer Reviews
Many customers do their best to check customer reviews before they buy a product. In fact, according to a recent survey, research shows that just over 90% of customers read online reviews sometimes before making a purchase. Mose people also agree that an online review is just as good as word-of-mouth.
For this reason, it is important for customers to be able to write and read reviews. If possible, it's best for businesses to allow customers to leave reviews on their website after making a purchase. Assuming the review is positive, this makes for great free advertising.
Sell Great Products
Finally, one of the best and easiest ways to get customers to act as free advertisers is for the business to sell great products or provide an excellent service. This is because one of the most effective forms of free advertising is people talking about a business, AKA, word of mouth.
When people like a product, they are sure to talk about it, and naturally too. Customers talk on social media and in-person all the time about their favorite TV shows, foods, clothes, and more. For this reason, making a great product helps to get people talking about it. After all, people are likely to be interested in something that their friend is also interested in.
All in all, when it comes to turning customers into advertisers, it's best to do so as naturally as possible. Customers don't want to feel like they are being lead to talk one way or another about a product or service. Instead, customers will naturally talk about a product if they like it. By giving a customer the ability to interact with businesses on social media, leave their own reviews, and generally enjoy a product, they are more likely to talk about it in a wonderful light and work as free advertisers without even thinking about it!
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