How do you create a feedback loop with customers and target audience to ensure that your messaging is hitting home?

At Glassdoor, we have a not-so-secret secret weapon… we have a Head of Market Insights within the product marketing org that is at the center of what we do from influencing product roadmaps to positioning and messaging, and enabling our GTM and marketing channels. One of the biggest things being established is a customer advisory board (both in B2B and B2C) to create a feedback loop to ensure that messaging (and our product!) is “hitting home”. I have seen the success of these types of programs in previous companies I have worked in including Granular (farm management software) with farmers and their seed reps to Zenfolio (portfolio websites and e-commerce solutions for photogs) and Richard Photo Lab (photography services) with photographers direct.

Get in front of customers any chance you have! I will rarely say no to an ask to present a roadmap, speak at an event, support a pitch, or join a voice of customer session. This gives me opportunities to hear their concerns/desires and subtly test messaging. I might swap out a standard pitch deck for a draft I'm working on, or ask leading questions to test out new messaging – all of these insights don't just validate our messaging, but help us to refine and improve our messaging. 

Additionally, our paid demand gen and organic content teams are amazing sources of feedback – messaging only matters if it is seen, so using traffic, clicks, and conversion events as proxies for resonance is a strong source of data for validating messaging. 

Feedback loops across various sources allow PMMs to learn what works, what doesn’t, and where we need to improve our message so it “hits home.” Continue leveraging the aforementioned qualitative and quantitative methods for message testing as channels for ongoing feedback collection as well. I’d recommend supplementing the learnings gathered through these channels with sentiment monitoring across social media, review sites and press coverage. Another often underutilized resource is the customer-facing teams within your organization. Customer support agents and sellers hear directly from dozens if not thousands of customers on a daily basis. Use this immense wealth of knowledge they build up over time to your advantage by finding ways to incorporate their insights and reporting into any feedback loop systems you establish. Once you’ve compiled feedback across all of these sources, look for patterns and trends in your findings and map out an action plan accordingly. Implement those new plans, test, and measure again. It’s called a feedback loop for a reason.

There are a few ways to do this

1. Conduct surveys or focus groups with customers and audience members to gather their thoughts and opinions on the messaging.
2. Monitor social media and online reviews for feedback on the messaging and response from customers.
3. Implement a system for collecting and tracking customer feedback, such as a customer service hotline or email address.
4. Attend industry events and conferences to network with customers and audience members and gather their feedback in person.
5. Collaborate with other departments, such as sales and customer service, to gather insights from customer interactions and feedback.

To gain opt in for these exercises

1. Talk to Sales and Customer Success to get you audience with customers.

2. Use survey agencies if you have the budget to build audience committees.