Brand Fans
Brand Fans share positive word-of-mouth and recommend companies, products, services and people to others in person, online and when asked for a referral.
Brand Fans are like a free sales force. No, they're better than a sales force because their recommendations are seen to be unbiased and untainted. They're authentic. They're believable.
Brand Fans can be proactive in sharing positive word-of-mouth and reactive when asked for a recommendation. That may be tied to their personality type. Some Brand Fans are like extroverted evangelists and some Brand Fans are like credible resource who are the "go-to" person for others on a topic. The best Brand Fans are the people who share credible recommendations proactively and reactively.
Brand Fans
What do you need to do to create Brand Fans?
- Offer a great product or service (Nobody recommends anything that's "o.k.")
- Offer a great customer experience that differentiates your company from others
What are you doing to give someone a reason to talk positively about your product, service, company or employees?
- Brand Fan Marketing Strategy - a how-to guide
Most small businesses can segment customers in this way
- Brand Fans and Customer Advocates – customers who are loyal and recommend your product/service/company/non-profit to others. These advocates are your best and most profitable customers! They’re your Brand Fans who share positive word-of-mouth online and in person with others.
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Loyal customers– don’t buy from competitors, but don’t proactively spread positive word-of-mouth about your product/service/company/non-profit either.
- A portion of these loyal customers will not really be loyal. They have “forced loyalty,” meaning they might switch to a competitor but can’t. Some examples: kids whose mom chooses the cereal; business people who work at a company that only reimburses employees who use a company-issued credit card; people who are part of an airline mileage program who may not like, but always try to fly, on a particular airline.
- New customers – first-time purchasers. Will they buy again? Will they become loyal customers? Will they become advocates? These new customers are essentially buying “a demo” to see how they will be treated. They are vulnerable and very valuable.
- Switchers – these people buy whatever is on sale, whatever is convenient at the time and don’t have any particular loyalty. They’re often unprofitable to sell to.
- Difficult customers – take more time, complain, don’t pay on time, annoy employees, annoy other customers.
- Adversaries – these customers spread negative word-of-mouth.
- Customer Segmentation - learn more about customer segmentation and how to use it to sell more and spend your marketing budget more wisely
Next page - Brand Fans on Social Media
Customer Satisfaction & Loyalty
Social Media
Word-of-mouth
Brand Building
Sell More
- Create Customer Contact Plans
- Understand Customer Lifecycles
- Sell More to Existing Customers
- Identify Most Profitable Customers
- Customer Retention
- Treat Customers like VIPs
- Improve Customer Satisfaction
- Improve Patient Satisfaction
- Fire Difficult Customers
- Deal With Customer Complaints
- Manage Your Online Reputation
Sales
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