Question: Our company is a B2B and we originally started blogging to attract new customers. What are your thoughts on using content marketing for current/existing customers?
Yes, Yes, Yes!!!
If I could answer this blog in 3 words, that would have been the answer.
I can’t even begin to tell you how frequently I talk to clients who are looking to use content marketing and social media solely as a way to drive new business.
While I am a huge proponent to these methods as a way to connect and engage with new prospects, I actually believe that your content marketing will often be most valuable to your current customers.
Content Marketing Drives Word of Mouth!
Here is the best part. Did you know that according to the Business Network Institute that 98% of businesses rely most heavily on word of mouth marketing for their new customer acquisition, yet only 3% of businesses have a word of mouth marketing strategy? With this being the case, content marketing to your current clients is a great way to promote word of mouth.
Ask yourself this…Who is your best source of referrals (word of mouth) if not your current client base? Your current clients are your best source, right? So it is a great idea to be communicating with them regularly. These ongoing conversations can help them to better utilize their products/services or learn about your company to become more familiar (engaged) with your brand. There are so many benefits to continuously talking to your customer community that it would be hard to list them all. Suffice it to say, generating content for your current customers is a wonderful idea.
Perhaps the best way to approach current business vs. new customers is that much of the content can benefit both parties. If you write with both current customers and new prospects in mind you will be reaching more people more regularly (depending on your promotion) and from this there will be more opportunities to grow your business with customers old and new.
Whatever you do, don’t fall into the trap of thinking content marketing and social media is just for generating new business as it is a great way to keep in touch and grow your business with your current customers. Leaving us to ask…
Do you create content with your current customers in mind?
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Daniel Newman is the co-founder of V3*Broadsuite and is an experienced C-level executive, serving as a strategy consultant for small and mid-sized businesses. He’s also an insight/analyst partner to four Fortune 50 enterprises and previously served as the co-founder and CEO of EC3, a hosted IT and communications services provider. Prior to that, he served as the CEO of United Visual, Inc. in Chicago Illinois.
He is a widely published writer who contributes weekly to Forbes, Entrepreneur, Huffington Post and industry publications such as Commercial Integrator, Sound & Communication and Corporate Tech Decisions. He’s also author of three best-selling business books including The New Rules of Customer Engagement, The Millennial CEO, and just recently Evolve: Marketing (^as we know it) is Doomed.
Daniel has established a reputation as a leading thinker in topics such as Social, Big Data, Cloud and Mobile. He has been named to many top influencer lists in all of these areas, including recognition by the Huffington Post as one of the 100 business and leadership accounts to follow on Twitter. He is also an adjunct professor of management at North Central College.
