Responding to customer feedback is the hallmark of a customer-centric marketing strategy. Incorporating new information, like the results of a Net Promoter Score (NPS) survey, into your plan can help you be more impactful in your marketing efforts.

If you’re running an ongoing NPS program, you’re getting new results all the time. Use these results to fine-tune your strategy like a compass, always recalibrating toward where your customers are pointing you.

If you survey all of your customers at once, use the full results to update your strategy. You’ll have a wealth of information about what your customers are thinking, and what you need to do to create advocates and boost the next round of results.

Here are 6 ways that you can use this valuable data to inform and tailor your 2021 marketing plan to your customers’ needs.

Take stock of your brand loyalty

While the actual score you receive doesn’t necessarily matter, knowing how it has changed over time is insightful. Your NPS is a direct result of how well you market to the right prospects. As your firm attracts more ideal customers and provides more value to them, the number of satisfied promoters will increase.

Comparatively, if your NPS drops dramatically, it’s time to re-evaluate your marketing strategy. Are you attracting the right customers? Are you misleading prospective customers in order to make a short-term sale? Do you need to be focusing your marketing efforts on existing customers to help them see value? A decrease in your NPS is an alarm bell that you should pay attention to.

But while a sudden dip in NPS might be an obvious cause for worry, you can still learn a lot from the survey even if you’re not seeing drastic changes to your results.

Confirm your positioning strategy

Your NPS data can provide confirmation that you’re positioning your product correctly. Are promoters raving about your unique selling proposition? If not, what are they all talking about? Identify what promoters really like about your company, and start talking about that! Use the language that happy customers use in their survey results. A word cloud can help illustrate the most important terms for your promoters.

Secondly, look at who your promoters are. What industries do they work in? What are their positions? These are the types of leads you should pursue. These leads will turn into happy customers who go on to recommend you to friends and family.

Alternatively, you can also identify the types of leads that will waste time by looking at your detractors. These are poor-fit leads who are likely to take up valuable customer support time and are likely to churn anyways. P

ay particular attention to their company size, industry, and any use cases they mention in their responses. If solopreneurs are consistently disappointed after purchasing your product, then it’s time to stop selling and marketing to them.

Work with your brand advocates

Referrals are the most important and effective channel for lead generation. According to R&G Technologies, leads that come from referrals convert 30% better than leads from other sources. People trust recommendations from friends and colleagues far more than they trust your website or advertisements.

While many brand advocates will spread the word about your products all on their own, you can fuel organic growth by asking for referrals. Self-identified promoters are telling you that they would recommend you – you just need to make it easy for them to do so.

If your NPS data shows that you have a large number of promoters, a referral program should absolutely be part of your 2021 marketing plan. Consider:

• Asking promoters to review your business on G2, Yelp, or Google.
• Setting up a referral program to reward promoters for spreading the word.
• Emailing promoters to ask for a testimonial or case study.

Identify weaknesses in your branding

Even with the best of intentions, your branding may mislead prospects. Analyzing your NPS data can help you identify where your detractors are getting the wrong idea from what you promise them.

For example, if multiple unhappy survey respondents mention the volume limits of the starter plan, it’s worth examining what types of businesses you’re marketing each plan to. Perhaps what you thought was appropriate for small businesses is really only sufficient for an individual.

If a customer *thinks* they’re getting one thing, but end up with something completely different, their expectations are not met.

This is one of the biggest drivers of disloyalty. Setting clear expectations – even if it means these customers don’t sign up right away – is always better than misleading customers about the sale.

Find opportunities for growth

In your NPS data, you may discover an entirely new avenue for marketing your product. As you review your customers’ responses, keep an eye out for the ways that customers are using your product.

For example, promoters might rave about how they use your product for a new use-case you haven’t thought of before. This might open the door to a new sales vertical (ie. plumbers, marketing agencies, childcare professionals). Include these new use-cases when you’re creating new SEO content, setting up product pages, or writing case studies.

Finding new niche markets is a good way to grow your market share without needing to create new features.

Segment customers

Your promoters and detractors are not the same. So you need to stop marketing to them in the same way. While promoters might be happy to be upsold and cross-promoted, detractors likely need more education and support.

Use your results to separate happy customers from unsatisfied customers. With Nicereply’s API, you can add each customer’s response to their contact record in your CRM. Then when you’re sending out marketing emails, choose whether you send it to promoters, passives, detractors, or everyone.

Make better marketing decisions with NPS surveys

Sending out surveys is only a small part of the battle. If you don’t take the time to analyze the results, and incorporate this information into your marketing plan, it’s not worth sending out a survey in the first place.

Keep an eye out for big dips in your score to see how customers are feeling. Adjust your positioning and language using your customers’ responses. Listen to your advocates and your detractors to find new opportunities for growth. There’s a wealth of information hiding in your NPS data if you take the time to look for it.

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