We’re in a recession and everyone’s hurting… awesome. You’ve got a few customers, but what are you doing to keep them loyal? Have you convinced them to recommend your product? Your current customers are the most important consumers. They will help you survive the recession and find new customers to grow your business.
Consider a pyramid; the larger you want it to be, the larger the base has to be. These days, that same fundamental idea applies to your business marketing.
Word of mouth, viral marketing, and recommendation marketing all require brand evangelists. People who had a great experience with your product and are willing to share it.
If you don’t have a base and your consumers aren’t crazy about your product, they won’t go out and share your stuff with the world. They won’t take the effort to write a review of your product on Amazon, or tag your store on Google Maps.
It’s important to remember that consumers that have already bought your product are biased towards you already. They’ve bought something from you and they trust you. Offer them exceptional service and watch how they talk about your company.
Social media has made it easy for people to share their favorite products, write reviews, and recommend stores. The more we get to rank things, the more important a fan base becomes.
Having brand fanatics is what will help you get ahead in social media. Building this kind of loyalty should be the first step of any social media campaign.
It’s not that easy though. You can’t just say “we’ve got fans, a certain percentage of them will be crazy about us”. No, you have to reward them. Give them insider information, invite them to beta test new products. Cultivate brand loyalty by making them a part of the marketing process. Let them create a new ad, be a part of product creation, or innovate new things that they want from you.
Build a following and they’ll recommend your product. The more people crazy about you, the more people will hear about it. Consumers are beginning to experience ad blindness to online ads, fast forwarding tv ads, and not reading print ads. They want to hear from their friends what’s good and what’s bad.
Savvy companies will stop promoting their own product, but cultivating an environment where others promote for them.
