Maybe you’ve heard of customer evidence programs, where a business shares the story of a satisfied customer with an emphasis on their perspective and success that also shows the effectiveness its own solutions?
Like any systematic approach that requires cooperation and focus from different teams and departments, there are a few prerequisites that should be fulfilled before beginning the program.
We have compiled a handy checklist of must-haves that are key to the initial and ongoing success of any businesses considering their own customer evidence program.
1. Do you have SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timebound) for a customer evidence program and different departments in general?
These are important because they will help you visualize the steps necessary to achieving them. SMART goals are key to any major business effort, but they are particularly important when it comes to customer evidence because they help keep different departments focused and on the same page throughout the process.
2. Do your program goals align with your business goals?
Building on SMART goals for your program and your department while imagining how these goals will help your business reach its greater goals is important to ensuring that your program is helpful over the long term and how it can be better utilized across different departments.
3. Do you know your target audience, who they are, what their challenges are and how your story could help them?
Any smart marketer knows that without having a clear audience in mind, creating the right content becomes more difficult. Understanding your target audience and what their pain points are will help in crafting content that resonates with them and shows a clear solution to their challenges.
4. What channels and content formats does your audience prefer?
Where should you communicate with them? Knowing who your audience is isn’t enough. You also have to know where to find them to ensure your content is seen. This is particularly true when it comes to lead generation and awareness campaigns where businesses are searching not just for a bigger audience, but the right bigger audience.
5. If you are searching outside your home region, can your content be localized enough to make an impact?
Customer evidence content can be a valuable to businesses looking to expand into new markets because it provides a deeper level of credibility than data sheets and branded content alone. However, it doesn’t matter how good this content is if it feels too ‘foreign’ to your target market. This will ultimately cause them to pass over it in search of a solution with a more familiar feel.
If you’ve met these prerequisites, but you’re not sure where to go next, or if you’re just interested in finding out more about why a customer evidence program could be effective for your business, download our ebook 'Customer Evidence 101: How to Turn Customer Success into Marketing Bliss' today! It even includes an extended version of the checklist above to make sure you’re covering everything before you begin.
