How Voice of Customer Research Is a Powerful Tool in Your Content Marketing
I should have baked sugar cookies.
This year, my family and I carved out Sundays as the day we enjoy all things Christmas. Not only am I trying to take time to enjoy the season, but it's also the only day there isn’t a practice, a basketball game, or a swim meet.
Since Thanksgiving, we’ve:
Wrapped gifts
Decorated the house
Placed ornaments on our Christmas tree
And it’s worked well for our family to reserve this day to enjoy the season. Until this past Sunday...
This was the week to bake, and we were all set to make gingerbread cookies. I’ve made them in the past, and they seemed to be loved by everyone. Or so I thought.
I had so many high expectations about this particular Sunday.
The shopping was done
The house was decorated
The tree was up
The day was going to be relaxing, and memories were going to be made.
I baked the gingerbread cookies earlier in the day to allow them to cool while we decorated the Christmas tree.
After the tree was trimmed, I whipped up some royal icing and made pastry bags out of Ziplocs for decorating and easy cleanup.
I set up a station for each child, let them pick which cookies they wanted to decorate, and then it began:
“I don’t like gingerbread.”
“This frosting is gross.”
“I only want to listen to Dolly Parton (my daughter), not Christmas music.”
This is when I realized two things.
First, I think my expectations and to-do list of what I wanted to accomplish were too high (not surprising).
And two, I didn’t even consider what they wanted. As a copywriter, I should’ve known better! I should’ve asked what others in my family would have liked to do to get ready for Christmas. And more importantly, what type of cookies did they want to bake?
This is what voice of customer research does. It helps you dig in and learn what your customers actually want, saving you time and money (in my case flour, sugar, and stress.) It helps you put out a product or service you know your customers are going to love and give you rave reviews on.
What Is Voice of Customer Research and Why You Don’t Want to Skip It
When I first started taking the time to conduct voice of customer research as part of my VIP service, it was a total game changer. And it wasn’t even that hard.
I conduct short interviews to dig into the consumer experience. My clients’ customers are eager to share their experiences with me. I love it, and here’s why:
I hear the customer’s exact language
I learn their pain points
I discover how they feel
I listen to their problems
I uncover the intangible benefits of a product or service
And the best part are the quotes. The swipeable quotes and testimonials I’m able to extract out of these conversations are the golden nuggets of creating personality-packed content.
At times, it feels like the customer almost writes the blog, email, webpage, or sale pages I’m hired to write. What could be more relatable than the customer’s words?
Plus, when I started incorporating this practice into my content creation for myself and my clients, the reviews of my work went from, “This is really great!” To:
Or
“Oh. My. God. I love this and am so so so grateful for your brilliant mind and energy helping make this dream of mine become more of a reality. I will implement these recos bit by bit over the next week (already updated the header haha). Thank you so much!!!”
All because I was speaking and using the exact words, feelings, and phrases their customers used.
Plus, my favorite part about conducting voice of customer research? It’s like a mini pep rally before the writing phase of the project.
Hearing what your customers have to say
How your product or service has impacted their lives
Who they would recommend for your services
That information is priceless. Especially when it’s more important than ever to deliver authentic and connection-driven content. You simply can’t afford to can’t skip this step.
High-quality voice of customer research will help you stand out above other online businesses and communities.
Here are my favorite ways to get started with voice of customer research and uplevel your content.
My Favorite Types of Voice of Customer Research
There is a growing emphasis for online businesses to deliver value-driven, client-centered products or services.
Listen to any podcast about entrepreneurship, and you’ll hear that the way to be successful in business is to have a product or service that solves a problem.
To make sure you’re listening to what your customers have to say, conduct voice of customer research. The Aberdeen Group found that businesses who have completed high-quality voice of customer research have 10x the annual year-over-year revenue growth and 55% customer retention.
To help you get started, I’m sharing my three favorite ways to conduct voice of customer research.
1. Interviewing Customers
Interviewing customers, in person or virtually, is my ultimate favorite way to conduct voice of customer research. These conversations are rich in personality and allow you to dig deep into the thoughts and behaviors of your customers. Here you can collect the most valuable feedback and use it to uplevel your products, services, and content.
A drawback with interviewing customers is that these can be time-consuming interviews and need to be planned ahead to allow for scheduling. However, this method is my preferred way to gather valuable information about your course or coaching services because I can really dig deep into a specific subject area.
It also sends a strong message to your current customer base that you really care about their needs. It shows you are making an effort to nurture your relationship with them.
2. Searching Social Media, Podcasts, and YouTube
Searching social media threads, following conversations in Facebook groups, listening to podcasts, or scrolling YouTube is another way to gain valuable voice of customer research.
Here, you can discover the keywords participants in these groups are using, the questions they’re asking, and learn what topics followers are responding to the most.
Although it’s harder to reach a deeper level inside these conversations, you can sometimes get a more honest and unfiltered response to a specific brand, product, or service.
3. Sending Out a Survey
Sending out a survey may be the most flexible and quickest way to get feedback from your customer base. Once it’s built, you have the opportunity to send it out to a larger number of people and receive a larger number of responses.
A survey also allows you to collect both qualitative data (comments and feedback) and quantitative data (numbers) related to your online business. Having a mix of attention-grabbing quotes and stats to back up your course or coaching business can be really powerful.
A few things to help make your survey a successful one are:
Keeping it short – creating a survey that is short and easy to fill out (like with multiple choice or a simple thumbs up or down) can increase the likelihood your customers will fill it out.
Meet your customers where they’re at – embedding a survey in the place your online community hangs out the most will increase your response rate.
In-the-moment surveys – if you just closed the cart to your launch, immediately send out a survey and ask people why they didn’t buy. It can be a valuable way of collecting more responses and figure out how to strengthen your next launch.
Of course, there are other ways to complete voice of customer research, like:
Reading customer reviews
Talking to your customer-facing team members
Reviewing feedback forms
…and more.
The key is finding something that works for you and your business. To help you dig in and complete your own voice of customer research I’ve included some of my favorite questions I ask when interviewing my client’s customers.
Examples of Voice of Customer Questions
Here is a list of questions I use when interviewing a customer. It’s important to remember to take the opportunity to go off script and follow the twists and turns of the conversation.
Or, when sending out a survey, approach it with a curiosity mindset. If you don’t get helpful feedback, tweak the way you ask a specific question or change the timing of when you send out the survey.
Here are a few questions I like to ask:
Tell me a little about yourself. (This puts your interviewee at ease and also gives you some information about the type of customer seeking out your client’s services.)
What was going on in your business or life that made you seek out the [my course, coaching, or membership]?
What was the most frustrating part about the problems you were having?
Was there something else you tried before reaching out to me?
Why do you think the other things you tried didn’t work?
Were there any reasons or hesitations for you not to buy?
In what way have my services impacted your life?
What was the best part about my course, coaching business, or membership?
What other kinds of people would benefit from my services?
Describe where you want to be in one year and in five years.
Remember to have fun with this process. The time you take to really get to know the people you serve will not only help you deliver a product or service your clients love. But it will also help you deliver authentic and relatable content they’ll connect with. And increase your overall conversion rate!
Feel Refreshed and Energized With Content Marketing
Voice of customer research has quickly become one of my favorite parts of my VIP service.
I get so excited after engaging in an interview or reading the results of a survey. Plus, I feel more confident about the content I’m delivering to my clients.
Yes, it takes a little time, but this energy-giving practice effectively helps turn your browsers into buyers. And, unlike me, it’ll save you from drowning in 72 gingerbread cookies.
To learn more, sign up for my email list, where you’ll get simple marketing strategies, copywriting hacks, and tidbits about entrepreneurship to help propel your business forward.
Happy Writing!