The era of self-service is upon us. Today, customers no longer wish to ‘wait’ for assistance. They prefer finding answers by themselves. In fact, research by Statista claims that a staggering 88% of US customers expect companies to provide an online self-service support portal. To top it off, 79% of the customers have tried their hands on a self-service portal for customer service.
Even on the B2B side of the spectrum, 86% of the B2B executives prefer using self-service tools as opposed to dealing with a salesperson when reordering. Clearly, self-service is becoming more and more mainstream as the customer experience (CX) becomes digitized. One tool that is lending a helping hand in transforming the self-service-led CX is Acquire knowledge base software. In this blog, we will look at how a knowledge base software can double up as effective customer service as well as a sales and marketing tool.
Top-4 Tips on How to Use a Knowledge Base Software As a 360-Degree Marketing Tool
1. Empower your sales approach to be fact-driven.
Knowledge bases have already been in use for driving internal collaboration and communication among the company’s employees. However, this informative tool can be used to boost your sales and revenues. Here are a few ways in which a knowledge base software drives informed, fact-driven decision-making and marketing:
- You can analyze past user interactions and conversations that center around your product/service and tailor your sales initiatives accordingly.
- You can gauge which particular product is the most commonly referred to within your knowledge base and build content that promotes the said product. Dyson’s knowledge base support page uses product images to help users to get to the root of the problem immediately. Users can also insert their product serial number and get relevant information within seconds:
- You can understand where your knowledge base lacks in terms of the content and create more content that better caters to the user’s needs and addresses their pain-points.
- You can also use search usage analytics to understand which content has no clickthrough rates and strategize on how to improve the content readability.
2. Create valuable content that can boost SEO rankings.
Did you know that FAQ-type knowledge bases are the most commonly used self-service options available today? This makes sense as most customers are familiar with the Q and A format and can get answers to most of their questions instantly. This is why businesses should look at creating educational, SEO-friendly, and organized content that can cater to the customer’s needs and increase your website’s SEO rankings. How so? Here are a few hacks to get you started:
- Integrate the right keywords and phrases into your knowledge base content. Basically, keywords are terms that customers use when searching for information online. There are various tools available online that provide a list of handy keywords relevant to your industry/product/service.
- Interlink your knowledge base content so that your readers will be better motivated to navigate through the knowledge base articles, and Google can better understand the relevance of your articles with what the users want. Here’s an example of a comprehensive knowledge base that onboards customers in a warm and friendly manner:
- Work on structuring your headings by using header tags. This allows Google to review the primary topics in your knowledge base articles more effectively. Here’s an example of a knowledge base with neatly structured content that’s categorized into user-friendly headings:
3. Extend effective customer support and scale your marketing efforts.
It is common knowledge that retaining customers is way more profitable than gaining new customers with data claiming that over 65% of a company’s business is derived from its existing customers. To top it off, a mere 5% boost in customer retention can skyrocket profits by 25% to 95%. This is why providing an extraordinary customer experience should be every company’s priority. And one of the time-tested strategies that work in this regard is leveraging the power of a knowledge base that can:
- Provide agents with all the necessary information at their fingertips. Here’s an example of a knowledge base used internally:
- Empower agents to make changes to the data in real-time. This, in turn, can reduce the agent training time as well as associated costs.
- Using artificial intelligence, preempt the customer’s needs and recommend personalized content that factors in touch points such as user behavior, conversation context, interaction history, etc.
All in all, by combining the expertise of live agents and the automated knowledge base software, you can wow your customers at all stages of their user journey (with the brand).
4. Establish authority and leadership in your industry.
Let us set the record straight: If your knowledge base is not comprehensive and in-depth, it might as well be inoperative. At the end of the day, you want customers to get all the information they need in one centralized place. Consider the following example for inspiration:
This is why creating a complete knowledge base becomes crucial. This gigantic effort also allows you to establish yourself as an authoritative figure within your industry and build a powerful, positive brand image.
Additionally, a well-crafted knowledge base also acts as a proof worthy marketing tool–one that elaborates on the efficacy of your products/services and generates confidence and trust in the user. As you can imagine, this can boost customer loyalty, sales, and revenues–a win-win for everyone.
Final Words: Knowledge Base Is the Best Marketing Tool Your Brand Can Leverage
To deliver a superior customer experience that’s characterized by speed and ease, you should invest in a rock-solid knowledge base software. Customers today are willingly embracing self-service options so that they can find solutions to their problems quickly and effectively.
So, to wrap up, embrace the following four expert-approved tips to build a knowledge base that works double-time as an effective marketing tool–one that can help your business:
- Empower your sales approach to be fact-driven.
- Create valuable content that can boost SEO rankings.
- Extend effective customer support and scale your marketing efforts.
- Establish authority and leadership in your industry.
Long story short, if you wish to stand apart in a sea of sameness, start building a knowledge base that educates, engages, and entertains users.
About the Author
Ashwini Dave is passionate about Business, Entrepreneurship, E-commerce, emerging technology and Digital Marketing. She is working with Acquire as a digital marketing expert. She is a free soul and adventurous scholar who spends her free time with herself, loved ones, music, as well as watching & playing sports.
