7 easy ways to find customers for your first customer story
Finding customers to feature in your customer stories isn't always easy, especially if your program is new and you don't have existing examples to show people.
When running new programs, these are the 7 methods I usually recommend for getting your first few customer stories.
1. Check social media mentions
People active on social media are typically happy to share their stories. They also often benefit from the exposure opportunity that a customer story brings.
Find these people by checking your social media mentions or searching for your brand on relevant tools.
2. Use existing relationships
Look to customers you already have a relationship with.
Speak to sales, customer support, success, or partnerships teams to discover if they know any customers who are likely to be a good fit.
3. Follow up after positive interactions
After a successful support ticket, have your support team check whether the customer is happy to be contacted about a customer story.
Be sure to provide these teams with information showing the types of customers you are looking for.
4. Check review platforms
Look at G2, Capterra or other platforms relevant to your industry to find people who have left positive reviews.
You can then either reach out directly if the platform allows it, or try to match these reviews with customers and reach out to them manually.
5. View industry communities
Check subreddits or other niche industry communities to find positive brand mentions. Then reach out to the people behind them to ask if they'd like to be featured in a customer story.
Increase your chances of success by first checking their customer profile to see if they're a good fit.
6. Look for passion for your brand
If none of the above work, look for any place where people are interacting with your brand. Look for blog post comments, email newsletter replies, survey responses or anywhere that shows a love of your brand and a willingness to promote you.
7. Cold outreach
Our final tip is to find suitable customers in your own data, then contact them directly to ask if they're interested.
There's plenty you can do to increase your chances of success, including highlighting the benefit to the customer, overcoming their fears, and identifying the right people (more on all these ideas in a future post).
If you have a lot of customers succeeding with your product, this is can be a super effective way to find opportunities, as long as you don't mind a lower success rate.
