Often times, the hardest thing to see is what’s right under your nose. This is especially true when it comes to the best ideas for what to include in your sales and marketing materials, customer-facing email, social media pages and website. 
The reality is the things customers want you to talk about most are actually hiding in plain sight. What’s better: They’re things you already have a pretty good handle on — no research required!
They are:
1. Your history
A lot of companies have some pretty amazing stories about how their company began — or what their founder did in a past business life.
These are the kinds of stories customers want to hear. And the perfect places for those stories are your “About Us” and Facebook page.
Facebook in particular is tailor-made for stories about your company’s past. Its new Timeline format makes it easy to go back and fill in dates corresponding to company milestones — as well as post old photos of your business and the leaders behind it.
2. Why?
Two questions potential customers would love to hear answered:
- Why does your business exist (other than to make money)? and
- Why do your customers care about you (or why should they care about you)?
Explain the reasoning behind why your company does what it does. Of all the things your company could do, what brought it here?
In addition, lay out the reasons customers give (not necessarily the ones you give) for why they chose to spend their hard-earned money with your company.
3. Ideas that didn’t make it
What product ideas have you trashed before they went to market? What was the biggest flop your company produced? What sketches or product designs never even made it to the test phase?
It’s OK to make fun of yourself a little bit. Self-deprecating humor plays well with customers.
Topics like these could be what keep customers coming back to your website or social media page. Customers may even present some ideas of their own on how to tweak dead product ideas to give them new life.
4. New product ideas or prototypes
What’s on the horizon for your company? Give your social media fans or blog readers a sneak peak. It’ll give your readers the feeling of exclusivity — like you’re letting them in on a secret.
Once again, customers may even provide ideas on how to improve future products or services.
5. New uses
Has a customer found a new use for one of your products — one that other customers may be able to benefit from? Or perhaps someone’s just doing something wacky with one of your gizmos that others would find interesting — even if not all that useful?
Example: Innocent, a UK-based smoothie company, takes the cards and pictures customers send in and posts them on the company website. Most of what’s on display features the company’s smoothie cartons used in artwork, but it’s a great way to show off customers’ appreciation for the the company, as well as clever uses of its packaging.
6. Your culture
Once you’ve explained why you do what you do, customers want to see what goes into doing it.
What’s your mission statement? What’s it like to work at your company? Who are your employees? What are their interests? What special talents do they have?
Pull back the curtain. Show off what makes your company tick.
7. Your causes
What does your company care about? What organizations does it support? Where do your employees volunteer their time?
But don’t stop there. Tell the stories behind why your business and its employees support the causes they do.
