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Newsletter #746: The “Promote Your Customers” Issue

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If you supply your customers with the stuff that helps them run their businesses, you've got a vested interest in seeing them do well. Try these ideas to promote them and their work:  

   1> With your ads  
   2> With your publicity  
   3> With your awards  
   4> Check it out: Aerial tour of NYC

1> With your ads  

Instead of using your ad space to talk about your stuff, what if you used it to show off your customers and what they're doing? Colorado's FirstBank used their billboards and banner ads to promote their customers — babysitters, piano instructors, and math tutors — in an effort to show how they care about small businesses. If you've got some extra ad space, try featuring your customers. They'll appreciate the promo, and you'll instantly add some passive word of mouth to your advertising by showing off the real people who use your stuff.   

The Lesson: Try combining the power of passive word of mouth with a little love for your customers to help their businesses — and yours.

2> With your publicity  

Help your customers by making them look great in the press. A great example is from Emanual Rosen's original edition of "The Anatomy of Buzz" in which he shares the story of how author Jacqueline Susann promoted booksellers. Not only did Jacqueline send booksellers individually autographed copies of her book for them to read and review — but she also met with them at conferences, took photos with them, and mailed the pictures to the booksellers' hometown newspapers. The gesture made the community booksellers look great, and it also helped get the word out about Jacqueline's new book. You could build on this thinking by not only promoting customers in the traditional press, but also by highlighting their work in your newsletters, case studies, and blog posts.

The Lesson: A little promotion in your publications, on your website, or in your stores can go a long way toward building a strong relationship with your customers.

3> With your awards

Promote the customers who best use your stuff by giving them special awards that they can show off. Microsoft does it with their "Partner of the Year" awards in which they pick a handful of winners out of thousands of entries based on "the best dedicated use of Microsoft technologies to provide solutions for their customers' needs." The winners blog about their awards, announce them in press releases, and brag about them in their sales materials. Try creating awards for your best customers — ones for customers that have been with you the longest, for customers that used your stuff to get the most new business, and for customers who find new and better ways to use your products.

The Lesson: Highlight the customers having the most success with your products by giving them something they can brag about.

4> Check it out: Aerial tour of NYC   

Check out Pixelcase's aerial tour of NYC for a pretty amazing perspective of the city. From high up, you can take a 360 degree look from above major landmarks like Times Square, The Empire State Building, and the Brooklyn Bridge.

Check it out: Pixelcase.com

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