The Best Marketers…

Why not let your customers market for you?

Content Marketing doesn’t all have to be produced by an agency or in-house Marketing department. Your customers are already marketing for you; why not go a step beyond listening to them and share what they’re saying?

Last weekend I went to Butterfly Wonderland in Scottsdale, Arizona. According to the company website, the atrium the exhibit houses is the largest in the United States and home to thousands of butterflies from all over the world, (including Costa Rica, Malaysia, Ecuador, Thailand and the Philippines).

Here are some ways Butterfly Wonderland or any new business can let their customers market for them.

Customers, marketers… same thing:

An informative website is an important first for any business, but what you really need is to share a feeling – let your customers attach an emotional value to your atrium/non-profit/theater/coffee shop/whatever before they ever set foot in the door.

Here’s how:

1) Twitter: What are your customers saying?

Importing a Twitter feed into your website homepage lets your customers speak for themselves. (Of course you can monitor which tweets go live with the appropriate permissions in place.)

2) Instagram: What are your customers seeing?

Using #yourbusinessname hashtags, add a photo gallery to your site that imports photos your customers upload to Instagram. Candid visuals without retouching and studio edits reach people because they’re relatable. By sharing your customers’ photos, you give them even more reason to post and share what they’re seeing with their friends.

3) Vine: What if customers could share the total experience? (They can!)

Let your customers share their total experience with video. Vine is a video sharing service that lets users share what they’re hearing and seeing in six second videos that are looped for emphasis. Sharing Vine videos on your website let’s you give new customers a preview without them sitting through a five minute YouTube video.

Click here to check out a Vine I posted at the atrium last weekend. Vines can be easily embedded into the HTML for any website so you won’t need a web developer for this part.

Your customers are your best marketers because they listen to each other. They frequently research to see what others thought/felt when they were at your business. Why not make all of the details and warm vibes accessible from your homepage? Go ahead, give them butterflies.