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Now I Get Why Everyone is Excited About NFTs

For the last 6 months or so, I’ve been trying to wrap my head around NFTs, the Metaverse, crypto and all things web3. I decided to jump into this space because I suddenly saw that a LOT of smart people were moving toward these emerging technologies. Then I began to notice a huge talent drain; People at top positions in web 2.0 companies were leaving to join web3 startups.

All of this told me there was ‘something’ going on here that I needed to pay attention to.

So I dove in. When you start learning about web3, one of the first spaces to examine is NFTs. Honestly, it’s probably not the best entry point to learn about web3, because NFTs are so easily misunderstood. People are actually paying MILLIONS for a jpeg on their computer? How is this revolutionary?

I heard people say ‘Oh but it’s not just a file, you can get perks, you get access to a community!’ and all that sounded good, but in most cases it seemed like the NFT was mostly about the token itself. Whether that was a bored cat, a lazy dog, whatever.

And all of it looked like overhyped junk, if I’m being honest.
Then I saw this tweet from MetaFansNFT:

With Metafans, it’s not about the NFT, it’s about the experiences that unlock for you if you own a Metafans NFT. This tweet is from a Formula One race in Miami that MetaFans NFT holders were given special access to, just for owning a MetaFans NFT. MetaFans lets its NFT owners unlock special sporting experiences just for having an NFT from their collections. Sometimes they win a big discount on tickets, other times they win tickets and VIP access, all for being owners. The current calendar of events shows events in auto racing, The Preakness, and the MLB.

To me, this is a game-changer, and it shows the true potential of NFTs: As your entry point to both specialized experiences and a community of people interested in those same experiences.
And if you think about it, this could expand the concept of an NFT as your ticket to experiences to all areas of your life.

MetaFansNFT unlocks sporting experiences. But you could also have NFTs associated with:

  • Socializing/Dating
  • Work
  • School
  • Entertainment
  • Hobbies/Interests

We could, at one point in the near future, have an NFT associated with every major area of our lives. And this would allow us to have special access to not only customized experiences associated with that area, but access to a community of people who have the same interests and viewpoints as we do. And the NFT could unlock it all.

To me, this is getting back to the true potential of the internet. To give us the ability to interact with people that we could otherwise never talk to. If web 2.0 was about bringing everyone together (centralized) then web3 is about distilling us into smaller, more purposeful groups (decentralized).
Here’s an example: Let’s say you are obsessed with exploring caves in North Carolina. Sure, you love exploring caves in general, but there’s something about the caves in North Carolina that cannot be matched for you.

If you could join an online community that was focused on exploring the outdoors, would that interest you? Maybe.

What if you could join an online community that was devoted to exploring caves? Ok that’s got your interest.

But what if you could purchase an NFT that would unlock not only access to a community of 1,000 people who are devoted to exploring caves in North Carolina, but the NFT also unlocks your ability to JOIN community members on expeditions to caves in North Carolina? Of COURSE you would jump at the chance to be involved!

So keep an eye on the evolution of NFTs as a way to unlock specialized experiences and community access. I think this will be one of the areas that will be big for NFTs in the future.

 

PS: This post originally appeared as an issue of my newsletter Backstage Pass.  Backstage Pass is where I pull back the curtain and detail how companies are using emerging technologies to deliver amazing marketing and customer experiences.

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Case Study: Lego Ideas

Let’s talk about Lego Ideas. Whenever I work with companies on designing customer advocacy or brand ambassador programs, I always stress the need to incorporate customer feedback into the program. Members of any type of advocacy or ambassador program are hand-raisers.  They are your most passionate customers, and they feel a sense of ownership in your brand, and want to see it succeed. So they will happily provide your brand will plenty of feedback on what it’s doing right, what it’s doing wrong, and what it could be doing.

That’s why I love what Lego does with it’s Lego Ideas program. This is an initiative where Lego customers submit ideas for future playsets. Other customers can then vote on and provide feedback on each idea.  Submissions that are popular enough, go to market.

Other brands have tried similar programs, such as Starbucks My Starbucks Idea or Dell’s Ideastorm, and it’s always a big win for the brand and its customers.

Lego Ideas

Why is Lego Ideas a good idea?

In short, Lego Ideas gives Lego a way to let its customers design new products for the brand. Take this submission for the creation of a playset for the Nautilus from Jules Verne’s book 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. First, everyone can rate the submission and leave comments. This means Lego can get detailed feedback from its customers on what they like and dislike about the submission. If Lego decides to eventually make the set, it can make the set incorporating the feedback it received from customers.

Additionally, if the set ever makes it to market, Lego has a ready-made customer base ready to buy the set. Also, if Lego does decide to produce a submission, 1% of the royalties from the set go to the designer.  Not a bad deal, and this gives fan designers an extra incentive to submit ideas.

The Power of Giving Ownership to Your Most Passionate Customers

Lego Ideas works because Lego understands the connection that its most passionate customers have with the brand. Customers with high degrees of loyalty to your brand often view themselves as owners of your brand.  They view it as THEIR brand as much as it is yours! So these passionate customers will act in what they perceive to be the best interest of the brand.  Their brand.

Lets say you just purchased a brand’s product for the first time.  So far, it’s been a pretty meh experience for you.  Not a great product, not a terrible one.

What if, tomorrow, a product manager calls you and invites you to join a product design program for the brand. Where you will be required to submit new product ideas, then spend the next 6-12 months promoting and engaging with other customers about the product, fleshing out the design and creating a model that’s ready to go to market. The brand will then take your idea to market, and give you 1% of the royalties.

What would be your response? You’d probably tell the brand to take a flying leap, right?

But what if this was a brand you adored?  A brand you evangelized to all your friends, buying every new product the brand offers.  If that brand, which you are insanely loyal to, offered you a chance to join a program like Lego Ideas, how would you react?  You would probably jump at the chance, right?

Customers that are loyal to a brand want more ways to be involved with the brand in all facets, from product design, to product feedback, to product promotion.

They want a program like Lego Ideas. And that’s why it’s a winner.

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New Research Uncovers the Drivers of Customer Loyalty

customer loyalty

I recently came across a new research study from Cheetah Digital (via MarketingCharts) that uncovers the reasons why customers have a ‘favorite’ brand. The study surveyed over 5,000 customers worldwide to determine the factors that drove brand loyalty. I wanted to cover the top seven drivers of customer loyalty:

The Top Seven Drivers of Customer Loyalty

Provides a Consistent Customer Experience (80%) I think an important caveat is that the brand provides a consistently GOOD customer experience. The experience is part of the brand, and according to this study, it’s the top driver of brand loyalty.

If a brand makes the effort to create a good experience for the customer, that communicates to the customer that they are valued and appreciated. You will see that valuing and appreciating the customer are common themes on this list of drivers of brand loyalty.

 

Rewards Customers For Their Loyalty (78%) This is the where most brands make their biggest mistake in attempting to cultivate brand loyalty. Most brands confuse rewards and incentives in the context of brand loyalty. A reward comes after the purchase. An incentive is given before the purchase in an attempt to change customer behavior.

A reward creates loyalty to the brand, an incentive creates loyalty to the incentive itself. For example, look at the classic punch card, designed to ‘reward’ the customer with a free purchase afer a set number of purchases are made. Maybe Pizza Hut has a deal where if you purchase the lunch buffet 10 times, you get a free purchase.  This is an incentive to change behavior, and it builds loyalty to the OFFER, not to the brand. You will be more likely to continue to purchase the lunch buffet at Pizza Hut UNTIL your punch card is filled. When you claim the free lunch buffet, then you have to start again at zero.  And your loyalty to the incentive resets to zero as well.

As I explain in this post; If you want to build loyalty among your customers always remember: Loyalty is built by saying ‘Thank you!’ for existing behavior, not by offering coupons as incentives for new behavior.

 

Uses Customer Data In a Way That Makes Them Feel Comfortable (74%) Data privacy is top of mind for all customers. Most customers are very concerned over how their data can be used, or misused by brands. Transparency is imperative to building trust with consumers, and that’s especially true when it comes to customer data. Brands that are clear and forthright with how they collect and use a customer’s data are more likely to build trust with customers, which is the prerequisite for building loyalty.

 

Treats the Customer as an Individual (74%) This speaks to the desire that customers have for a personalized experience. Every customer has different wants and desires, and when a brand can give us a personalized customer experience, the brand is communicating to us that we are worth communicating to as an individual. It shows us that the brand appreciates us enough to put forth an effort to customize its communications with us.  That communicates respect and appreciation, and it makes it easier for us to adopt those same traits back to the brand.

 

Strives to Develop a Relationship (71%) This is one of the biggest misconceptions that brands have when communicating with customers. Most brands attempt to develop relationships with NEW customers, but ignore CURRENT customers. This thinking is completely out of phase, new customers typically have no interest in building a relationship with a brand. On the other hand, repeat customers are more likely to be loyal to the brand and more likely to be open to developing a relationship with the brand. Additionally, repeat customers can better serve the brand as they have a better understanding of its products/services and can better promote the brand to new customers.

 

Surprises Them With Rewards They Don’t Expect (64%) Unexpected rewards communicate appreciation. But remember, an unexpected reward is a ‘thank you’, not an incentive to make a future purchase. Sending a customer an email with discount codes for a ‘secret sale’ isn’t an unexpected reward. It’s an incentive to make a purchase, and your customers will see it as such. But a handwritten note from the manager thanking the customer for their business and delivered with a small box of gourmet cookies, that’s an unexpected reward and the customer will love and appreciate the gesture.

 

Treats Them Like a VIP (58%) This ties in with the previous point. The brands that do the best job of cultivating advocates understand the importance of their current customers and treat them as the special customers that they are. A good way to treat current customers as VIPs is to appreciate and reward them for what they are doing to help build and promote your brand.  Say ‘Thank you’ with no expectation of future purchases, but as appreciation for past behavior. Communicate to your customers what impact they have on your brand and thank them for it. You will find that by doing so, your loyal customers will work even harder for your brand.

 

Want to learn more about how to build a brand that cultivates customer loyalty?  Here’s every article I’ve written on brand loyalty.  Have questions about how to implement these strategies for your own brand?  Feel free to email me and I’ll be happy to answer any questions you have.

 

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What is Your Product’s ‘Job to Be Done’?

job to be done Whenever I talk with clients about positioning a new or even existing product or service, I stress the need for there to be a clear benefit to the customer, that the customer can clearly understand. The customer needs to understand how a product or service will fit into their lives, and immediately make a positive impact.

Some would argue, that the ease of collecting data about modern customers can actually make it more difficult to correctly identify the value that a product can create for a customer. Sometimes, customers simply buy a product for reasons that are their own, that really aren’t easily uncovered by simply looking at data or demographics.

Let me give you a couple of examples:

1 – I never chew gum UNLESS I am about to board a plane for a flight. If I am at an airport, one of the last purchases I will make will be to run into a gift shop or Hudson News and grab a pack of chewing gum. I want the gum because chewing the gum as the plane is taking off and climbing helps lower the chance of my ears popping! So I never need chewing gum UNLESS I am about to board a plane, then it’s a purchase I always make.

2 – I am currently playing a war game on my iPhone. The game includes chat functionality, and in playing the game, you can chat with other players and get to know them. I was talking to a player recently who said they enjoyed playing this game. They went on to explain that one of their parents had just died, and they were having to deal with the stress and worry associated with a parent’s death. They added that playing the game gave them a very welcome distraction that helped them get their mind off their real world issues.

 

I recently came across a wonderful article in the Harvard Business Review that explains this concept as buying a product for it’s Job to Be Done. For me, chewing gum bought at the airport has a job to do: Keep my ears from popping during takeoff. For my friend, playing the phone game had a job to do: Provide escape from their real world problems.

Here’s an example from the article: A consultant was hired by a Detroit building company to increase sales of its condominiums. The condos were positioned to retired couples that were looking to downsize from a larger home to a smaller condo. The units were given features designed to appeal to downsizers, and they even consulted focus groups to uncover any additional features they might have missed.

But sales were disappointing. The units generated prospective buyer visits, but struggled to close the deal. There was a bottleneck, something holding back the prospective buyer from becoming an actual one.

So the consultant decided to switch gears, and went back and started interviewing the people that had bought the units. The interviews were designed to help drill down on what prompted the person to commit to the purchase.

It turns out, it was the dining room table. Or rather, what the dining room table represented for the prospective buyer; Moving on from a home they loved, to a new condominium that had none of the attached memories.

As the article explains:

But as Moesta sat at his own dining room table with his family over Christmas, he suddenly understood. Every birthday was spent around that table. Every holiday. Homework was spread out on it. The table represented family.

What was stopping buyers from making the decision to move, he hypothesized, was not a feature that the construction company had failed to offer but rather the anxiety that came with giving up something that had profound meaning. The decision to buy a six-figure condo, it turned out, often hinged on a family member’s willingness to take custody of a clunky piece of used furniture.

This helped the company understand the Job to Be Done of its condos. It wasn’t about giving them a new place to live, it was about moving their lives into a new phase. The dining room table represented family, tradition, history. So the building company changed its offerings around the condos to reflect a better understanding of what was holding prospective buyers back from becoming actual buyers. They expanded the dining area to give more room to accommodate a larger dining room table. The company also added storage facilities to help buyers have a place to store items until it could decide what could be kept and what needed to be given away.

All of this goes back to simply understanding the customer. And with the ‘job to be done’ line of thinking, you are also thinking about ways to incorporate unpredictability into the lives of your customers. Every day, your customers are receiving unexpected good and bad news. In both cases, behavior patterns, either in the short or long-term, will immediately change.  They will suddenly need new products for new reasons to fulfill new ‘jobs’ for them.

Think back to the last two years and the impact that the covid pandemic has had on the world. If you will remember, one of the constant themes I have stressed here is considering how the pandemic would change the purchasing behavior of your customers. Some of the changes are big and easy to predict, such as a shift toward takeout from restaurants over dining in person. But other changes are harder to detect. But you need to be able to account of the possibility of changes and the resulting shift in purchasing behavior.

Here again is the link to the HBR review article detailing the theory of ‘job to be done’.

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Here’s the 1% of Your Customer Base You Should Grow

In 2005, Alabama football started the season with an unexpectedly strong showing. The Tide, coming off a 6-win season in 2004, jumped out to a 4-0 start and #16 ranking heading into an October 1st matchup against #5 Florida. The game was in Tuscaloosa, and the excitement was palpable. Adding to the intensity, was the fact that all week heading into the game, the fact that Alabama had never beaten a Top 5 opponent in Tuscaloosa was repeated endlessly.

As you might expect, ticket prices for the game were through the roof, but I decided to go to the game just to be on campus and soak in the experience.  Due to traffic I got to the stadium a few minutes into the game. Outside the stadium there were multiple televisions set up so fans could watch the game. The game was being broadcast on CBS, and I began to circle the stadium heading toward the nearest television so I could watch the game.

The game was in the first few minutes of the first quarter. As I was walking, I could hear the roar of the crowd, it was very loud. A play started, and I then heard what almost sounded like a gasp from the entire crowd then what can only be called an explosion of sound. The sudden roaring of the crowd was so loud, that I could literally FEEL the audio waves coming from the stadium as I walked outside it.

This is what was happening inside the stadium at that moment (volume UP):

 

In 2018, Twitch streamers Nickmercs and Aydan were competing in a Fortnite tournament, and one of the perks was that if the team could eliminate a certain number of players in a specific time they could collect a $30,000 prize bonus.

As the duo got closer to winning the Make It Rain bonus, they were having trouble concentrating because debris from the ceiling kept falling on them as they was playing.

The crowd’s roar was so loud as Nickmercs and Aydan kept eliminating players that the ceiling was vibrating, and it was causing debris to fall down on the players.

 

We all start at zero

I’ve always been completely enamored with how entities and personalities in music, entertainment and sports/esports can create fans that are as passionate as the fans you see in the above two clips. One of the reasons why I wrote Think Like a Rock Star was to help companies understand how these fans are created, so those businesses can also create passionate fans.

One of the biggest misconceptions businesses have about creating fans is the belief that fans just ‘happen’ for people and companies in certain industries like sports, music, and entertainment.

Nickmercs is one of the streamers in the above video.  He’s also one of the hottest streamers in the world right now, and a few weeks ago he had over 400,000 viewers for one stream.

But recently, he tweeted out a reminder that in 2014, he was celebrating the fact that he had hit 170 viewers on a stream:

And he was excited about having 170 viewers, because he started with 0. All Twitch streamers do.

All businesses start with 0 happy customers. We ALL start at 0.

Reverse-engineering the Roar

Another huge misconception businesses have is that they can’t create fans like Alabama football does, or like Taylor Swift does or like Nickmercs does.

Let’s go back to the first example in this post of the Alabama football game. It’s easy for your business to look at that and think, “We could never have fans like that!”

Are you SURE about that?

Let’s break down that example. How many people are there that would claim to be Alabama football fans?  I have no earthly idea and it would be almost impossible to measure. For the purposes of this post, let’s say there are 10 Million people who self-identify as being Alabama fans.

The above Alabama-Florida game had roughly 80,000 people in attendance. Let’s say there were another 20,000 fans outside the stadium and in the area.  So for the purposes of this post, there were 100,000 Alabama fans who were passionate enough about the Crimson Tide to come to Tuscaloosa to see that game.

100,000 is 1% of 10 Million. So that means that only 1% of Alabama football fans were passionate enough about the Crimson Tide to come to Tuscaloosa on October 1st, 2005, to see them play.

So all the passion and electricity you saw in that video above, that wasn’t Alabama football fans.  That was the 1% of Alabama football fans who are the MOST PASSIONATE about the Crimson Tide.

Think about your business. How many customers do you have?

Let’s say your VP of Marketing wants to create a conference just for your customers.

Could you get enough customers to attend to make the event viable?  Maybe not.

But do you think you could get 1% of your customers to attend?  Yeah, that’s a possibility.

Then how is your business different from Alabama football or NickMercs or Taylor Swift when it comes to creating passionate customers that love you?

It isn’t. The difference is, Alabama football and NickMercs and Taylor Swift do a better job of ENGAGING their fans than your business does.

 

Excitement breeds excitement

Let’s say your business has 1,000 customers. 1% of 1,000 is 10. So you have about 10 customers that absolutely love your business.

Who are those customers? You should know who they are, their names, what they do. Your business should be in constant contact with them. Your business should empower those 1% of your customers to tell others about your business.

Let your most passionate customers be your best salespeople. Let them sing your praises to others. They are already doing this (because they love you), your business just needs to be smart enough to give them better tools to do what they are already doing.

That will lead to more customers for your business. And once your current customers see how you are engaging with, embracing and empowering your 1%, it will make them want to join that 1%.

What if your business could grow its customer base by 10% a year, and increase its 1% of customers that love you by another percentage point every year?

So start out with 1,000 customers and 10 customers who love you.

The next year, you have 1,100 customers and 20 customers who love you.

The third year, you have 1,210 customers and 30 customers who love you.

The fourth year, you have 1,331 customers and 52 customers who love you.

The fifth year, you have 1,462 customers and 73 customers who love you.

 

So in just 5 years, your customer base could grow by almost 50%, and the number of customers who love you could increase over sevenfold.

Think of the impact that amount of growth could have on your business. And it’s not just growth, it’s cumulative growth, fueled by engaging just 1% of your customers, and letting them spread their passion for your business to others.

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Introducing High Octane: The Word of Mouth Accelerator Program For Your Company

High Octane Word of Mouth Accelerator Program
The value of positive Word of Mouth to your business is proven. Up to 19% of a business’ sales come from Word of Mouth generated by customers. Yet almost no businesses have a dedicated strategy in place to generate or accelerate Word of Mouth. Or an option for creating such a strategy.

Until now. Introducing High Octane, the first Word of Mouth Accelerator Program for your business. The High Octane Word of Mouth Accelerator Program allows you to improve the volume, tone and impact of the Word of Mouth that customers are creating around and about your business. An increase in Word of Mouth, especially positive Word of Mouth for your business also means an increase in sales.

Here are the key features and benefits of High Octane:

Features:

  • Assessment of the current drivers of Word of Mouth for your organization. Identifying who your promoters are, what types of content they are creating, and how it relates to your brand. A comprehensive plan will be created and executed to amplify the ability of your promoters to create positive content around and about your business.
  • Assessment of any negative content being created about your business, what’s driving the behavior of your detractors, and how convert that negative content into positive Word of Mouth.
  • All Word of Mouth pertaining to your business will be processed and analyzed as it happens. The information gained will be delivered to your customer support and service teams so that they can deliver improved experiences to your customers.
  • Dedicated testing and analysis of your business’ Word of Mouth will allow you to measure your progress in creating and cultivating Word of Mouth.

 

Benefits:

  • Amplifying your business’ promoters results in more positive promotion of your business.  Your best marketers are your happy customers, and working with them to accelerate their ability to promote your business generates more sales.
  • By tracking and responding to the content created by detractors, your business is able to manage its online reputation, and improve the tone of conversations around and about your business. This improves customer sentiment.
  • Giving customer service and support access to feedback from both promoters and detractors allows your CX department to function more efficiently. This also reduces time spent on CS issues, which saves your business money.
  • Constant Word of Mouth analysis allows your entire organization to see where progress is being made, as well as the opportunities for further growth. This also increases buy-in across your business, which accelerates the positive results your business will realize from the program.

 

Your customers have never had the content creation tools they have today. If I go into your restaurant, and have a wonderful meal, within minutes I can post a positive review of your restaurant across my social media accounts, and within minutes over 100,000 people could have seen my review. By the end of the day, the amount could easily be a million people.

That’s enormous power, and all it takes for your customers to harness that power is a few clicks on a phone. The reality is, your customers have far more ability to create content around and about your business, than your business does. As noted above, up to 19% of your sales will come from Word of Mouth created by your customers.

Is your business achieving 19% of its sales via Word of Mouth?  Would you like to?  Then contact me today and myself or a member of my team will be in touch with you ASAP to discuss implementing the High Octane: Word of Mouth Accelerator Program for your business!

 

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A Key Marketing Lesson That Most Businesses Completely Miss

When I wrote Think Like a Rock Star, I spent a lot of time researching how rock stars connected with their fans, and the marketing strategies they employed. One of the biggest lessons I learned is that most rock stars are excellent at understanding this key lesson to building a successful business:

Reward the behavior you want to encourage. 

Rock stars love their fans, but they also view every fans as a potential driver of business. They know that every fan they have will promote them to their friends and family. As such, every fan will help drive ticket sales, merch sales, and album sales. Rock stars trust their fans and empower them to market for them.

Rock stars want fans to engage in particular behaviors: Such as promoting them online, and offline. So rock stars go out of their way to connect with their fans directly, because they know this connection will build trust and admiration for the rock stars, and will encourage them to promote the rock star to their friends and family. And it also serves as the reward for fans that have already done so.

Every year as part of the CMA Music Awards, country music stars will participate in a Fan Fair. It’s a chance for fans to meet their favorite artists and get a picture taken with them or an autograph signed. Typically, an artist will stay for a couple of hours, maybe a bit longer. In 2010, Taylor Swift stayed for an incredible 13+ hours to sign autographs for her fans, occasionally stopping to perform music for them.

But that pales in comparison to what Garth Brooks did in 1996 at Fan Fair. In 1996, Garth Brooks was the face of country music, and one of the biggest music stars on the entire planet. He was not scheduled to attend Fan Fair in 1996 and wasn’t promoted as being there. During the middle of Fan Fair, he showed up, unannounced, and went to an unmarked tent to start signing. He stayed for a staggering 23 hours straight signing autographs for every single fan that showed up. He never left the tent, not even to use the bathroom. Security at Fan Fair tried multiple times to end the session so Garth could leave, and each time he told them no.

Rock stars view their fans as promotional partners and they trust them enough to empower them to market for them. As a result, they act differently toward their customers, and they treat them differently after they engage in the behavior that they are trying to encourage.

 

Now, how does this apply to your business?

Think about the types of behaviors that you would like to see your customers engage in.  Such a list for most businesses would probably look something like this:

  • I want customers to buy from my business
  • I want customers to continue to buy from my business and become repeat customers
  • I want customers to increase the amount of every order
  • I want customers to generate positive Word of Mouth about my business

 

Now think about your marketing strategy in terms of:

1 – What can I do to get my customers to engage in these behaviors?

2 – What can I do to reward my customers for engaging in those behaviors?

 

Many businesses focus only on getting customers to buy. But if you look at the above list of desired customer behaviors, there’s a natural progression, isn’t there?

You want customers to buy from your business. Customers that buy more than once become repeat customers. Customers that buy repeated from a business tend to purchase more from that business, because they trust them. Customers that trust your business, will promote you to others, generating positive Word of Mouth.

So if your business had a mechanism in place to reward customers for engaging in the behaviors that you desire, that would not only encourage them to CONTINUE to engage in those desirable behaviors, but it would also encourage them to move to the next stage of desired behavior.

Let’s look at a couple of examples:  One of the desired behaviors above is “I want customers to continue to buy from my business and become repeat customers”.  Then create a Loyalty Program. A loyalty program would not only encourage customers to become repeat customers, it would reward customers for engaging in the behavior of making repeat purchases.

Another example: One of the desired behaviors above is “I want customers to generate positive Word of Mouth about my business.” Then create a Customer Advisory Panel. Dell did this in 2010, they identified customers online who were creating content around the Dell brand, and invited them to come to their world headquarters in Austin, TX. This happened again in 2011, and I was lucky enough to work with Dell to facilitate and moderate both events. During the 2011 event, the customers that attended were surprised when CEO Michael Dell joined briefly to say hi to the group and answer questions.

Introducing CEO Michael Dell to the DellCAP group

By holding this event, and having Dell’s CEO and CMO speak to the group, it communicated to the customers that Dell valued their time and feedback. This improved the customers’ perception of Dell the brand, and rewarded them for engaging in the behavior that Dell desired, and at the same time encouraged the customers to CONTINUE to create positive word of mouth about the brand.

So much of marketing for many businesses is simply focused on getting a sale. Just get someone to buy once, that’s it. Few businesses think about what happens AFTER the purchase. How do they ensure that the customer is satisfied, maybe even thrilled with the purchase? What reward is given to them for engaging in that behavior? How do you encourage the happy customer to continue to engage in the behavior that you want them to?

:What happens after they buy?” is a question every business should be asking. What do you WANT to see happen? Do you have the process in place to make sure your desired outcomes are met?

Shouldn’t you?

 

Are you subscribed to my newsletter, Backstage Pass? If not, now is the perfect time to get on board. Backstage Pass is delivered straight to your inbox every Friday morning. I’m working on this week’s issue right now and I gotta say, it’s gonna be a gem! I will be covering how your company can create an educational system for your employees to boost their skills, productivity, and keep them longer at your company. Such a vital process that very few companies make the investment in. I’ll give you the roadmap to do so, along with examples of companies and organizations that have done so successfully. Want in?  Just click the image below!

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Monday’s Marketing Minute: All Eyes on Clubhouse, Kroger’s Smart Shopping Cart, B2C Marketing Priorities

Happy Monday! Hope you’re ready for an amazing week, off to a rainy start here, but at least it’s not bitterly cold! By the way, a quick thought, I know a lot of us are really worried about everything that’s happening in the world right now and even locally. A few weeks ago I was driving and listening to the news and just felt overwhelmed with all the ‘bad’ news and stories. Suddenly, I had this thought come into my head ‘You are responsible for your own happiness”. That thought has given me a lot of comfort and calm since, as well as a feeling of empowerment! I hope it does for you as well!

On with the news…

 

So I’ve always had this rule when it comes to ‘new’ social media tools; I usually wait a month or so to try them out. This is because marketers being marketers, we want to overhype every new social media tool, each tool or site immediately becomes the new Facebook killer or the new Twitter killer. So I generally wait a while for the hype to die down, then see if anything sustainable is left.

But I’m jumping in a little faster with Clubhouse simply because the tool offers a different experience than most. If you aren’t familiar with Clubhouse, in a nutsell, it’s an app (only for iOS currently) that has audio chat rooms. You pick a chat room and LISTEN to everyone, you don’t chat by typing. The app is super hot, even though it’s in closed beta and you can only join if given an invite, it still has over 2 million users. I think this speaks to how we are hungry for new offerings in the social media space. 10 years ago, it seemed like a hot new social media tool came out every 3-4 months that everyone gushed about. We haven’t seen that environment in a long time, but I think the pendulum may be swinging back. Clubhouse has some obvious monetization issues to work out both for itself, its investors and hosts, but the future looks bright. For now.

 

Ok I would love this if it came to Wal-Mart, which I only shop at when I have to. The biggest reason why I can’t stand Wal-Mart is going to checkout and seeing those massive lines. But a new ‘smart’ shopping cart that Kroger is testing could make the buying process in grocery stores so much easier! It lets you scan items as you place them in the cart, link up your loyalty cards and coupons, even pay with your credit card! That would help eliminate the biggest detriment most people have to grocery shopping, the checkout line. It’s all about finding and addressing the pain points that your customers have.

 

This always blows my mind. I saw this story from Marketing Charts on top priorities for B2C marketers in 2021.  The top three priorities are: 1 – New customer acquisition, 2 – increasing engagement, 3 – increasing customer loyalty. These are pretty standard, and new customer acquisition is almost always the top priority for all marketers. Yet the same marketers that plan to focus on customer acquisition, loyalty and engagement typically won’t invest in the customer advocacy programs that drive all three. These same marketers could deliver on all three by investing in advocacy programs such as Voice of the Customer, Brand Ambassador and Customer Loyalty programs. And the hell of it is, such advocacy programs are much easier to create, execute and measure in a B2C environment.

So those are some stories that caught my eye on this Monday! Hope you have a wonderful week, check back tomorrow, I’ll have a new post up on how the push to decentralize social media is underway, and look at two people that are making it possible. One you will expect, the other will definitely surprise you! See you tomorrow!

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Hire Mack Collier for Content Strategy, Content Creation and Content Execution

So before we talk about the consulting and training solutions I provide for companies that need help with their content, digital or marketing strategies, let’s talk about your experiences.

If you’re reading this, the odds are you’ve hired a digital agency or two in the past that promised you that they would get you a first page Google ranking for the keywords/phrases related to your business. And maybe they were able to do so.

But you never saw the conversions you needed, right? You got the rankings, you got the jump in search traffic, but it didn’t translate into engagement with the customer.

That’s because most agencies and consultants create content that’s relevant to search engines, but they have no idea how to create content that’s relevant to the customer.

I can do both. In fact, it’s far more important to create content that’s relevant to your customers, than it is to create content that’s relevant to search engines. The reality is, that over time, smart SEO consultants and agencies can figure out search engine algorithms and have a pretty good idea of what type of content will do well with search engines.

But it’s far more difficult to understand customers. They aren’t always rational, they aren’t algorithms that can be deconstructed. You have to put yourself in their shoes and divorce yourself from what’s best for the search engine, and focus on creating the content that customers want and need.

I work with companies like yours to help them create customer-centric content. I do this in three ways:

Content Strategy Creation and Optimization: I work with your company to either create a comprehensive Content Strategy for you, or if you already have a Content Strategy, I help you optimize it to maximize your results. If you are a Chief Content Officer, Director of Content Strategy or Chief Marketing Officer that needs help creating or optimizing your Content Strategy, please email me. I can provide strategy creation or digital training for your senior content team on how to improve your current content efforts.

Content Strategy and Tactics Audit: I work with your company to audit your current content efforts and give you recommendations on how to improve your efforts. I analyze all areas of your current Content Strategy and tell you what’s working and if something isn’t, I detail how you can improve those efforts. This results in a report that is typically 15-30 pages in length, and includes a followup 1-hour call with your team to discuss my findings so you know exactly what steps to take next. If you are a Director of Content Strategy or Content Marketing Manager that wants to have an content expert analyze your efforts, please email me to get a custom quote for your content strategy audit.

Content Creation Training: I work directly with your company’s content team to train them on how to create content that connects with your customers, and encourages them to take desired actions that help your company’s bottom line. I will go through existing content and walk the team through how to improve and edit the content to make it more effective. I will also work with your team to create new pieces of content so they get hands-on experience learning how to create better content. If your Content Marketing Manager and their team needs help learning how to create better content, please email me for a custom quote.

 

You can learn about the results I have achieved for select clients (including Dell, Adobe, Paper.li and Cision).

If you need help and don’t see your desired service listed above, please email me and let me know how I can help you and we can go from there.

If you would like to work with me and simply don’t have the budget, I understand completely, 2020 has been very hard for so many of us. Just sit tight, keep reading my articles here, and I will teach you how to improve your content marketing in order to get more satisfied customers who will help you grow your business. And if you have a particular topic that you need help with and you want me to write an article on it, please email me and let me know what you need help with. If you need help with a larger content creation project, please use the contact form below:

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How to Create Customer Loyalty After the Product Purchase

Let’s say for every product you buy, there are one of three outcomes as far as your satisfaction with the purchase:

1 – Indifferent. The product does what you expected it to do, no more or no less.

2 – Upset. The product doesn’t meet your expectations.

3 – Excited. The product exceeds your expectations.

 

If you are indifferent toward your purchase, the odds are that you aren’t likely to praise or criticize the purchase to other customers. Likely, it was an inexpensive purchase, and you really didn’t have high expectations for it to begin with. For instance, if your purchase cost a dollar and was a complete disappointment, well you are only out a dollar, so you are less likely to be as upset with the quality of the product.

If you are upset or excited with your purchase, then that means you want to talk about it.  You want to share your experience with others. Interestingly, Guy Winch has found that 95% of the time when a customer is upset with a purchase, they will tell other customers, and won’t tell the company that made the product! According to Winch:

“Research has found that 95% of consumers who have a problem with a product don’t complain to the company, but they will tell their tale to eight to 16 people,” he says. “It’s unproductive because we’re not complaining to the people who can resolve our issue.”

Venting also floods the bloodstream with cortisol, the stress hormone. “We tell ourselves that we need to get it off our chest, but each time we do, we get upset all over again,” he adds. “We end up 10 to 12 times more aggravated.”

Isn’t that fascinating, in a depressing sort of way? But it makes complete sense that retelling a negative experience with a product to other customers would make us more upset with the purchase. And the customers we are talking to would likely want to be supportive and sympathetic toward our anger, so they may say they agree that the company was in the wrong, which would make us even MORE upset with the purchase!

Which is honestly a bit unfair to the company, when you think about it. Because we didn’t reach out to them and give them a chance to help us with our problem.

Let’s come back to this in a moment and talk about what happens when you are excited with a purchase. You tell other customers, right? We know this is true from our own experiences for many reasons. We want to share with others what worked for us. Also, we probably want to ‘brag’ on ourselves to a degree by sharing what a ‘smart’ purchase we made.

The point is, we talk to others about our purchase in either scenario. But if you think about it, even when we have a positive experience with a purchase, are we really that likely to reach out to the company and communicate that to them?  Probably not.

So the onus, rightly or wrongly, is on the company to do everything it can to encourage the customer to give feedback on the purchase. If the customer is indifferent toward the purchase, they will likely ignore the request.

But if the customer is either very upset or very excited with the purchase, an invitation to give feedback will be greatly appreciated.

Now, many companies aren’t thrilled with the prospect of hearing from angry customers. It’s just human nature. But, if you can give a customer the support they need post-purchase, you greatly increase your chances of converting the upset customer into a happy one.

And remember, happy customers are your best salespeople. They acquire new customers for you!

So think about how you can better connect with your customers after the purchase. This will only improve and enhance your customer loyalty efforts. And if you want to learn more, we will be discussing this topic tonight during #ContentCircus on Twitter, starting at 7pm Central. Follow me on Twitter, and watch my tweets, the topic will be How to Create Content For Each Stage of the Buyer’s Journey!

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