Dress Up Your Product with Naked Marketing

You have spent countless hours and thousands of dollars dressing up your product. It has the perfect packaging, the product marketing team is working magic and the sales team can successfully pitch your merchandise. It’s a beautiful symphony of strengths for the future of your company.

Then you have the nightmare; your product is naked in front of all of your sales prospects. Users are highlighting the obvious beauty and strengths as well as the small blemishes, stained teeth and the bad haircut. Can you imagine Freud’s analysis of this one?

Guess what: that’s not a dream. That is reality in our age of technology.

People no longer rely on the information provided by a salesperson and a website. They are accessing detailed information on product review sites, from testimonials provided by a product’s users. Your potential clients are searching out third-party validation of the good and bad aspects of your product.

Most consumers are using this data. For example, recent data shows that 85% of tech buyers read up to 10 online reviews prior to making a purchase. The good news is that this market-change is providing you the opportunity to flip the script and embrace naked marketing.

First, naked marketing requires you to have a review strategy. Through this you can engage your customers, learn the strengths and weaknesses of your product and show the world that you are committed to providing the best product possible.

The foundation of naked marketing must be built around empowering your current users to review your product. As your total number of reviews grow, so will the number of customers who are considering your product. When you have a large number of reviews, in a buyer’s mind, you become more viable in the product category.

Newsflash: these reviews will be a smattering of good and bad. Both offer enormous value. Good reviews are easy to identify, leverage and amplify. Alternatively, negative reviews provide opportunity and are expected by customers researching your product.

Professionals expect to see both good and bad reviews. They do not trust a product with all five-star evaluations. Having a smattering of negative reviews makes your product credible.

And when you find a negative review you have an enormous opportunity for your company to shine. Publicly engaging with that user, addressing their issues and showing that you care about their experience is a terrific way to build trusting, loyal customers. Buyers love to see a company that engages with their customers to address an issue. These examples increase the likelihood that the observing customer will purchase your product.

Remember, professionals want to know what they are getting themselves into before they buy. These purchases are tied to their professional credibility and identity. They must decide what is important or not important to them and their organization. The third party assessment of your product is a helpful step in the buying process.

When you are assessing these reviews you should also take the time to learn from them. Users are transparently sharing your product’s strengths and weaknesses. Many companies spend tens of thousands of dollars for this valuable information, run with it. This information can drive strategic innovation at your company.

Finally, by adopting naked marketing you are engaging with potential customers who have realistic expectations for your product. They are also more likely to share their experience with your product. So they know what to expect, accept your product’s strengths and weaknesses and if you exceed their expectations, they are going to tell the world. The successful outcomes of naked marketing are happy customers, the right prospects and a successful business.
Adrienne Weissman is chief marketing officer at G2 Crowd.