Content Marketing for Customers Instead of Prospects

I recently received an email from someone who's read my book. He asked how to go about creating content to nurture and retain customers rather than prospects. I love this question as so many B2B marketers are solely focused on lead generation at the expense of building relationships with customers.

Customers you have are highly valuable. Marketers need to start paying attention to the entire lifecycle - including the development of post purchase relationships.

Just as you'd map content to the buying cycle, you can create a content map for the customer lifecycle.

The major difference in getting started with a customer nurturing program is the starting point. Their status quo is different than a prospect's.

• They already have your product.
• The problem you educate prospects about solving is solved.

Given those assumptions, create a baseline for their current situation by considering what the questions are that they need answered to move them from the status quo of the points above. Examples could include:

• What opportunities are now available with that original problem solved? Fixing one can open up the possibility of fixing another that was unseen at the time.


• How can you help them move from "beginner" status to "expert" status in how they use your product? In other words, how can you help them get even more value than they ever hoped to get when they made the original purchase?


• Why should they ante up for a support or services contract?


• What other related products could help them achieve new strategic objectives?


• Were other departments affected by the change your product brought that you can now help to solve?

As you create your customer nurturing strategy, you need to consider that their expectations are different than your prospects. They expect you to know them, as well as their situation and which products they're using. And, rightfully so.

They expect personalized, valuable communications, not blanket emails that could be for anyone. (Okay, that's similar to prospect expectations) In essence, the threshold for screwing up is much lower, so take care and do the proper planning.

The one thing I want to make really clear is that the content you create for prospects is not the content your customers want or need. This should become obvious when you answer the questions above.

The best part about customer nurturing is that you can actually gain access to them to truly learn what content will be most helpful. You should have a way to segment them appropriately given what you know about them. You've also got access to the service people who support them. A veritable treasure trove of information exists if you'll just go after it.

Customer attrition is largely based on indifference.

Replacing customers is very costly.

I highly recommend that you put customer nurturing programs at the top of your priority list for 2011. If you want to prove accountability and contribution to revenues, this is a great way to gain traction with your company.

Don't forget that your customer content marketing strategy isn't just about marketing programs but can impact customer service and support interactions as well as account management activities. What content do those people need to help nurture your customers?

Don't forget about the word of mouth and referrals that can come from highly satisfied and loyal customers. Nurturing customers can also pay high dividends in net new business. Especially in a social business environment. Just saying...

Comments

[Customer support software]

The article is really awesome. I totally agree with it, we all know customer is king. After sales services is must and with many points to be consider to satisfy customer. Glad to be here and have read a wonderful article.

[Bbmarketingplus.wordpress.com]

I like your point about moving prospects from "beginner" to "expert" status. The flip side of helping customers' derive greater value from their products is warding off competitive inroads. When we do customer research to uncover new market requirements, I'm always amazed by the number of people who ask for a feature they already have. Just because someone has access to a capability, doesn't means he or she is aware of that. It's our job to make customers aware of what they have, so they don't engage with others to seek it out.

[Gul4t9]

I always heard the stories about costumer relations and costumer nutrition but I was never able to understand these strategies before going through your article. I am student of Bachelor Business Administration your article is really helping me out to complete my assignments as well.

[Wattjeffmiller]

Great post...practical advice.

[Gul4t9]

The foundational success attributes include caring, empathy, communication, self-discipline, optimism, competitiveness and influence. Developing these foundational success attributes improve your success in sales.

[Brandon Yanofsky]

Great post Ardath. I'm a huge fan of this form of marketing.

Have you read "The Referral Engine"? The author talks quite a bit about this.

Actually got me to write my own article:

http://www.blistmarketing.com/2011/01/marketing-the-wrong-way/

Talks about a lot of the same stuff you talk about.

[Geomarketing]

Your blog is informative and usefully content marketing for customers. Basically, content marketing is the art of communicating with your customers and prospects without selling.

[SEO Perth]

Customer relationship must be nurtured as time goes by as this will probably lead to a more fruitful relationship as time goes by. You may never know because of that relationship you will have many prospects that you never expect to have for your business.

[SEO Los Angeles]

Having quality content done for your customers is truly a very good sign as it makes your customers feel cared for because of the best quality articles that you gave them making your relationship even stronger...

[SEO Perth]

I've read an interesting powerpoint on this subject just today and it outlined how important it is to build Real Rapport with customers. Basically, in order to achieve this, you need to listen and identify the customers' needs and ultimately come up with a strategy and services to satisfy that need.

[SEO Los Angeles]

Nice article. The challenge we find for our clients:

1. Identifying where clients and prospects are going on the website.

2. Updating sites to ensure prospects are filtered to the right place and clients are filtered to the right place to read that relevant content.