3 ways to drive demand with voice of customer research

By Rachel Henry

If you want to stop chasing sales and start creating demand for your offerings instead, it’s critical that you understand your customers’ wants and needs. One simple and effective way to do this is by conducting a voice of customer analysis — a form of customer research.

Customer research is an invaluable tool for getting the perspective of the person who is central to your story. In marketing, the person who is central to your story is the customer.

In this guide to voice of customer analysis, we’ll share:

• How customer research can help you drive demand to increase sales 

• Ways to leverage the benefits of voice of customer analysis 

• Ways to use your customer research to give your audience what they want 

Drive demand to increase sales

Driving demand starts by positioning your B2B tech company to be your buyers’ first choice. Only 3% of customers in a given market are ready to buy immediately. This means it’s essential to target the other 97% by generating brand awareness and building trust through your marketing content.

A loyal fan base will rave about your brand, in turn, creating additional demand for your products and services. For example, if you tried to buy the iPhone 13 in 2021, you may remember the many months’ wait it took to get the sleek new model in your hands. Apple is a master of innovation because the company understands its customers’ wants and needs inside and out, and this translates into an in-demand user experience.

For B2B tech marketers to fill their pipelines, they must understand how demand generation begins with compelling marketing content. The first step to driving demand for your offerings is by increasing brand affinity — awareness of your company, products and services. Once you raise awareness, you can start strategically weaving voice of customer research into your content to nurture your audience. 

How customer research supports demand generation

Exceptional companies understand that marketing should be about who you serve. Conducting customer research, through a voice of customer analysis, will give you a clear path for crafting brand messaging, content and campaigns that resonate with your market and that bring in revenue to your company.

For example, in 2016 the social media app Snapchat's parent company Snap Inc. unveiled Snapchat Spectacles — sunglasses that could record 10-second videos. The glasses were only available at random Snapchat-themed vending machines dropped around the United States, causing a groundswell of excitement from the company’s audience. Eager buyers had to race to learn the location of the machines through social media channels, then beat out other customers before the machines ran out of product.

By taking a different approach to marketing, Snapchat was able to leverage its understanding of its audience to drive demand, making its app more valuable to consumers. 

The benefits of voice of customer feedback are plenty. Here are some of the biggest perks:

1. Learn what your customers are struggling with and working toward 

Customer research will provide your tech company with the exact words your buyers use to describe their challenges and goals. You’ll also learn other key insights, like what value they gain from your services. These are golden nuggets for your brand messaging.

2. Showcase your expertise

Answer your audience’s burning questions with your expert opinion. Establishing your position as a thought leader in your field will encourage readers to turn to you for answers, because they trust you to provide the most useful and insightful information. Leverage your experience to share industry insights that solidify your place as a go-to resource.

3. Address how your offerings solve problems and get results

Customer research enables you to not only develop messaging and content that reflects your position in the market, but that also speaks directly to your customer’s pain points. This is your chance to share exactly how your products or services help buyers achieve the transformation they’re seeking.

3 ways to drive demand with a voice of customer analysis

There are many ways to conduct a voice of the customer analysis. Client interviews and surveys can give you information straight from your audience’s mouth. Or, you can use your social media channels to post polls and create Q&As. Remember to also leverage private online communities like Slack, which can help you build relationships with your audience and gain insight into the most effective ways to shape your brand’s identity. 

1. Use customer research to create a new lead magnet 

Your lead magnet needs to be a piece of content your audience actually wants to read, so they’ll give up their email address in exchange for it. You can use your voice of customer analysis to write a white paper, or create an ebook or checklist that is informative and useful to your target market. By using customer research to inform your lead magnet, you can create the best B2B lead magnets that your audience wants to get their hands on. 

2. Use customer research to inform your keyword strategy for your blog 

A voice of customer analysis can help you understand who you’re writing for, and discover the most used keywords in your market. Once you know the keywords and phrases your audience is searching for, you can work toward ranking for the search terms that matter to your potential buyers. This starts with providing information on the B2B topics they’re interested in and questions they’re looking for answers to. 

3. Use customer research to plan a new content series 

Make your tech company’s next marketing email, video or podcast based on what your audience is most excited to see or hear about. You can strategize your content with B2B topics that position your brand as a thought leader and help you stand apart from your competition by deeply understanding your audience — like how Snapchat knew its audience would be interested in sunglasses that shoot short videos. 

Stick with us! This post is part of a series on developing a 10-step content creation workflow for exceptional results. Read the next post.

Expertly navigate your brand marketing

Your customers are willing to tell you what they want, but you need to know how to gather the information and leverage it. While voice of customer research is key to guiding your messaging and content, building a strong brand relies on much more. Get our new guide, 6 Keys to an Undeniable Brand, to help you craft compelling messaging to catapult your sales.