As a small business owner, you’re probably familiar with marketing anxiety—those feelings of self-doubt whenever you launch a new campaign. It’s hard to know for sure how your target audience will respond to your newest advertisements. (How will you capture their interests this time?) Luckily, there’s one surefire marketing strategy you can fall back on whenever you need relief from the pressure: Use a customer success story!
What’s a Customer Success Story?
A single customer success story pulls more weight than most other marketing plans combined—and requires a lot less work from your team. That’s because most consumers (regardless of industry) seriously appreciate the opinions of other clients.
A customer success story, also known as a “case study,” shares the experiences of other customers after using a product or service that your business provides. It usually includes:
- A testimonial from the customer
- Their story—including how you met their needs
- How they found their experience working with you
- Results achieved because of your product or service
It all boils down to this: Your potential buyers want to understand the future of their business decisions. They spend much of their research time simply trying to predict how their investment will look in a month, 3 months, or a year. Sharing a customer success story gives them a “happy ending” to cling to. It reassures them that all will be well if (or when) they spend money with you.
How Can a Customer Success Story Benefit My Business?
Sharing a customer success story yields many positive results for your business. It’s about more than money (although that’s always an important metric). Customer or client satisfaction is the backbone of any successful brand!
Here are three key reasons why you should include customer success stories in your next marketing launch:
It Shows a Real Person with Real Results
A customer success story is powerful because it shows that an actual person achieved positive results from the product or service your business provides. Of course, this isn’t a shock to you, the genius behind the brand! But your potential clients often need in-your-face facts to help them know that you’re the answer to their problems.
Think about the last time you researched new software for your business. Reading customer testimonials was likely a necessary step! You may have even searched away from branded websites for customer reviews and ratings, just to be sure you were making the right choice.
But you don’t want your own clients to work that hard. You can make it easier for your visitors by serving one customer success story after another on a silver platter (i.e. your website).
Future Customers Can Imagine Their Own Success
You might be surprised by how visceral the decision-making process is for many members of your target audience. Many people require immersive marketing experiences in order to imagine themselves as your client.
When a success story is particularly compelling, prospective customers are able to imagine themselves part of the happy ending.
Help your future clients along in their process by jazzing up a customer success story with video or images! You can add an enticing story to your blog or collect several stories to feature on a separate link on your navigation bar.
Related: How To Determine A Client’s Lifetime Customer Value (& Why You Should)
Your Customers Feel More Engaged
Your website visitors are genuinely entertained as they scroll through a customer success story. They’re more likely to stay on your site for longer and continue clicking for more interesting information.
Weave stories throughout your social media platforms and marketing emails, too. Include where customers started, what their experience was like, and where they are now. Such stories inspire browsers to get to know your brand better.
No matter your niche, entertainment is a real seller! Rather than inundate your audience with product or service information and brand promises, break it up with a customer success story to draw them in.
What Role Do Metrics Play in Sharing Each Customer Success Story?
Sharing customer success stories might be creative in nature, but you need concrete data to make the most of a powerful strategy! Here’s how:
Use Data to Identify Engaging Customer Stories
Keep track of your client metrics so every couple of months, you can review which clients saw the best results working with you. Reach out to those clients and see if they’re willing to participate in a customer success story and feature it on your marketing platforms!
Related: What Are The Most Important KPIs To Land New Clients and Boost Profits?
Measure the Effectiveness of Every Customer Success Story
Whether you feature a customer success story on your blog, social media, or website, be sure to track your traffic. Every click can lead to a newly satisfied client or customer—a huge win!
The effectiveness of your customer success story is only certain with data to prove it. Review your website page metrics and customer journey flow in Google Analytics to see if prospective customers are using the success stories to help make their purchasing decisions.
Featuring the occasional customer success story may be just the break you need from other marketing tactics. You’re sure to attract more suitable clients by sharing the positive experiences and outcomes of those who came before them.
Data can help you make sure a customer success story is worth your while to feature. Remove the guesswork and learn how to Measure & Maximize with us.