If you want to write for your customers, you have to talk to your customers. The results can be surprising.
I like to interview my client’s customers. A freelance writer has the freedom to ask questions that a company owner or employee can’t ask or hasn’t considered. I can then turn the interview into a powerful case study. Unlike a customer-written testimonial or letter, a case study tells the complete story of the project. It captures the attention of customers who recognize themselves in the story. And it can broaden a company’s perspective on the value of their products and services.
Recently I interviewed a long-time customer of Sensatronics (
www.sensatronics.com) for a case study. Sensatronics designs and builds monitors that keep data centers safe—cool, dry, secure, smoke free. Sensatronics knows that the monitors successfully protect equipment worth hundreds of thousands of dollars; every customer says so.
But this customer talked about the value of monitors for capacity planning. Information from the monitors saved the company from making an expensive move to a larger data center too early. Now Sensatronics has a new benefit to add to their marketing message—and a new category of potential customers.
If you ask your customers the right questions in the right way, the answers may change your marketing approach and revitalize your marketplace. Have you talked to your customers lately?
