MackCollier.com

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Tiny Love Spaces – Why Smaller is Often Better in Social Media

I wanted to talk about three distinct groups of friends I’ve followed over the last year or so. The first is a group of friends who are frequent business travelers, and we share stories and purchase suggestions in a group on Facebook.  The second is a group of friends who are fellow members of Adobe’s Insider Group, and we stay in touch via a Twitter group DM and Slack channel.  The third group of friends are people I have met on, of all things a phone game, and we have a group on messaging app Line.

These three groups are almost completely distinct (a few of my friends in the Facebook group are also in the Adobe Insiders group DM), and have formed around three very different social apps/platforms.

In fact, someone recently asked me what my favorite current social media site or app was and I immediately said ‘Line’. But I quickly realized that there’s nothing really spectacular about Line, I just thought of it first because that’s where my newest group of friends are.

These examples cover two trends that will be relevant to social and digital media over the coming years that I wanted to discuss.

1 – We are long past the saturation point in social media content. Notice I said social media CONTENT. Originally, social media sites and tools were used for communication. Over the last few years, social media sites have morphed into content distribution platforms first, with communication happening a distant second. As a result, user behavior has changed. Some people have adapted their social media usage, and have started sharing more content on social media sites. I certainly have. Others have changed their behavior by spending less time on these sites as the experience has shifted.

Yet another way that users have adapted to the content sharing saturation on social media sites is by creating small groups or clusters of people who can more organically interact with each other. The three examples I mentioned above; Facebook groups, Twitter group DMs and Line groups, represent this idea of going back to when we could connect and interact with our friends and peers on these sites. I also wonder if we might see this happening more on blogs, as bloggers try to re-cultivate reading communities on their sites. It’s about self-creating a way to cut through the clutter and get back to having a small group of friends or people that share a common connection or interest.

2 – People use social sites and apps based on whether or not their friends are using them. A few months ago I started playing a phone game and as soon as I did, everyone in the game told me “You have to get on Line!”  So after weeks of needling about not being on Line, I finally joined.  And the app itself is nothing that spectacular, but I enjoy using it because it gives me a way to stay in touch with the friends I’ve made while playing the game.

I think this is something we all do, we don’t pick a social app or site based on form and functionality as much as we do because we want to stay in touch with the people we know. Ten years ago there were far more social media sites and apps vying for eyeballs, and as a result many of those sites offered their own quirky user interface or functionality elements to try to attract attention.  Today, there are far fewer successful social media sites, and most of the mainstream ones share many of the core functionality elements. So functionality isn’t really a deciding factor in social media usage as it might have been a few years ago.

 

I’ve written about this before, but I think we are seeing a move away from a decentralized social web back to centralized, smaller groups or clusters of people organized around a common theme, belief or idea. I also think marketers need to understand this shift, and prepare for it.  This is why you are seeing companies move from working with influencers with huge followers, to working with T-Shaped or micro-influencers that have smaller followings, but a much deeper connection to those people.

What made social media so amazing in its earliest days was that it gave us an easy way to build deep connections with small clusters of people.  Over time, that’s morphed into having very shallow connections with as many people as possible.

I don’t think that’s ideal, or sustainable. Smaller and deeper groups of friends are preferable than having everyone on a site, and not really knowing anyone.

 

PS: I wanted to say thanks to BuzzSumo for including me in its list of the Top 100 Digital Marketing Influencers for 2019, at #20. A wonderful honor, check the list as there are a ton of smart people to follow.

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The Factors That Drive Brand Loyalty in 2019

Wikibuy recently surveyed 5,000 people to learn what made them loyal to a particular brand. You can find the research here, but I wanted to go over some of the findings:

Product Quality is the Top Driver of Brand Loyalty. 40% of respondents identified product quality as the attribute most likely to make them loyal to a particular brand. What this means is that social media will not save you from having a shitty product. We can talk about social media, content marketing, digital transformation all we want, but if the product is crap, nothing else matters.

So if you have a product that isn’t considered to be high-quality by your customers, how do you change that? The starting point is in better understanding what your customers value and view as being a quality product.

In the past couple of years Voice of the Customer programs have become en vogue at many companies as a way to have a structured plan in place to better solicit then act on feedback from customers. Whenever I am advising companies on building a brand ambassador program, I try to see if there’s a way to create a Customer Advisory Panel as an offshoot of this effort.

Regardless of the name, the end goal of better understanding your customers can greatly improve product design, functionality, and quality. Remember, quality is a subjective term. If you better understand your customers, you also better understand what they view as ‘quality’ in regards to your product or service. By incorporating and acting on customer feedback, you can improve the quality of the product in the eyes of the customer, which increases the chance of creating brand loyalty.

27% of Customers Who Are Brand Loyalists Will Buy Another Product From That Same Brand. This is an interesting finding as it says that loyalty for a brand can transfer across products for 27% of your customers. The study also found that over half of respondents recommend products and services from their favorite brands to other customers.

This ties into another study that found that less than 5% of your customers generate 100% of your Word of Mouth. What we can take from these two studies is that your most loyal customers are generating new sales and they are also the most engaging and active customers you have. As a result, new customer acquisition should flow through your current, loyal customers, instead of through advertising. This is a disconnect that many brands can’t get past.

 

There’s a common thread running through both this points and it is this: Leverage your most loyal customers to improve product design, marketing and sales. Some of the most successful (and bravest) companies leverage their current, happy customers, to drive growth and acquire new customers. Many companies see the value in leveraging current customers to promote their brand, but the true value in working with your current customers comes from leveraging them as a feedback channel. Customers are more trusted than brands when it comes to product promotion, which means we value the opinions of our friends and family more than we do brand advertisements.

Let’s say Tom is in the market for a new car. Based on his situation, he decides he wants a sedan. He would probably start by doing research on the internet, consulting websites and blogs to get a sense or what the most highly-ranked sedans are.

After that initial round of research, he settles on 5 different models. One of which, is a Ford Fusion. His co-worker, Lisa owns a Ford Fusion, so Tom decides to talk to her about her Fusion. Another of Tom’s models being considered is a Honda Accord, and his brother-in-law Hank has an Accord, so he also asks Hank his opinion on owning an Accord.

The feedback Tom receives from Lisa and Hank will likely go a long way toward determining which model car Tom decides to get. Note that the majority of the information Tom uses to make his decision is NOT coming from Honda or Ford. It’s coming from other customers and third-party websites and bloggers.

But what makes the interactions with Lisa and Hank so valuable for Tom is that they both know and understand Tom and what he wants from a vehicle. Tom really likes how Hank’s Honda Accord looks, and believes it has better features than the Ford Fusion.  He’s almost sold on the Accord, and mentions this to his co-worker Lisa.  Tom and Lisa are vendors, and their jobs require them to spend a lot of time visiting retailers in their sales district.  So they are both spending a lot of time driving. Lisa tells Tom that she actually considered buying an Accord, but opted for the Fusion for one reason only.

“It’s a more comfortable car. The drivers seat is wonderful, and as you know Tom, that makes a big difference given how many miles we have to drive every day”, Lisa explains to Tom. Since Lisa understands Tom, she can give him customized feedback that’s more relevant to Tom.

Guess which automobile Tom will likely buy? And if Ford were working with Lisa in an ambassador program, Lisa could relay that feedback to Ford, and perhaps Ford could tweak its marketing communications to highlight how comfortable the seats are in the Fusion, especially on longer drives.

 

So if you want to brand loyalty in 2019, focus on improving product quality, and also on leveraging your current, satisfied customers, as a way to acquire product feedback that will help you improve product quality.

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Research: How to Create Loyal Customers and Reduce Customer Churn Rate

Yotpo recently surveyed 2,000 American shoppers to learn their views on brands and brand loyalty.  The results gave some interesting insights into brand loyalty in 2018, so I wanted to highlight some of the findings:

Despite the growing importance of customer experience, product is still both the point of entry and departure for brand loyalty. 55.3% of consumers are brand loyal because they love the product, and poor product quality is the number one reason why a brand would lose a loyal customer (51.3%). This echoes the success of modern direct-to-consumer brands that rose to fame thanks to “hero products,” including UNTUCKit, Quip, and Away Travel.

Second to poor product, sub-par customer service will drive away 23.5% of loyal customers, meaning that even for brands with ground-breaking products, the surrounding experience is still paramount.

No big shock here, great products drive higher levels of loyalty. Or put another way, a great social media strategy will not save you if you have a terrible product.

However, I don’t think it can be overlooked that every touchpoint between the brand and customer impacts loyalty. The product may have the most bearing on driving loyalty, but if the customer also receives an exceptional brand experience along every touchpoint, that will also greatly impact how favorable the customer views the product.

88% of Customers Say They Need at Least Three Purchases Before They Feel ‘Loyal’ Toward a Brand

The survey further revealed that the bar for brand loyalty is high — a repeat purchase or two doesn’t mean you have a new brand fan. In fact, 37% of consumers say that it takes five or more purchases for them to consider themselves loyal to a brand.

Bringing back a customer five times is no small feat as consumer demands grow: 67.3% of shoppers expect 24/7 customer service, while 71.0%  anticipate more frequent discounting and 58.4% seek out free shipping in exchange for their loyalty.

Of the respondents:

  • 37% said five or more purchases were necessary before they were loyal to a brand
  • 33% said brand loyaty took three purchases
  • 17.67% said brand loyalty took four purchases

To me, these figures seemed a bit high.  I know from my personal experience, if any brand can get me to buy its product for the third time, I consider myself to be loyal to that product enough to continue buying it. On the other hand, if my first experience with a product is subpar, and very unlikely to buy it again if I have other options.

The Benefits of Loyal Customers

The survey also had three key findings for the value to brands of loyal customers:

1 – 60% of respondents will promote their favorite brands to friends and family (creating additional Word of Mouth)

One of the things I always advise clients to do is to give your advocates the tools and training to better promote your brand. When we find a brand we love, we want to share that love with others.  It’s like discovering something cool and wanting to share it with others, not only to help them, but to feel good about sharing something useful. Happy customers tell other customers about you.  Give them the tools to more easily do so.

2 – 52.3% of loyal customers will join a rewards program

This makes complete sense. Loyal customers want to be rewarded for their loyalty, so it follows that they would be more likely to join a rewards program. However, what most brands don’t realize is that reward programs members are often good candidates for your brand advocacy efforts. Whenever I work with companies who are interested in building a program for advocates, the first thing I ask is if they have a rewards program. That’s because the most active and passionate members of your rewards program are often good candidates to participate in a brand advocacy or customer advisory group that your brand may be considering. This also makes the whole issue of finding and identifying potential advocates much easier. So if you already have a rewards program, start there in your search for your brand advocates.

3 – 39.4% of respondents will continue to buy from brands they are loyal to even if cheaper options are available

Loyal customers are trusting customers. They trust their favorite brands and want to SUPPORT those brands. Price is less important to them, they are willing to pay a bit more for a product from a brand they trust and believe in. This is why it’s so important to create a situation where customers are more likely to become loyal. For instance, combine this with the above data concerning how many purchases are necessary for the customer to consider themselves ‘loyal’ to your brand. If you know that four purchases is the magic number for your brand before loyalty is attained, then you need to think about what you can do to convince the customer during those first three purchases to commit to another one. Think of it as identifying the point at which customers leave The Loyalty Funnel. Find the hole, and plug it!

 

A lot of interesting information and data from the study, which you can find here.

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Creating Fans Through Storytelling

One of the best ways that brands can create fans is through storytelling. Specifically, through telling stories that relate to the brand, but that also tie into themes that are important to the customer. When done effectively, storytelling also helps the customer get a better understanding of what the brand is about. Think of it as pulling back the curtain and giving us a ‘backstage pass’ to see what goes on within the brand.

Last night I talked to the Advanced Social Media class at the University of Wisconsin – River Falls, and one of the examples of creating fans through storytelling was what Robert Scoble did years ago with Channel 9 videos while he was still at Microsoft. He would take a small camcorder and just go up to the cubicles of his co-workers and ask them to explain who they are and what they do. This was wonderful storytelling because it helped us understand more about the people who worked at Microsoft, and the culture at the brand. It made it a bit easier for us to relate to the brand once we could see the faces of the people that work there, and understand more about WHY they loved working there.

More recently, look at what Whole Foods did with wiping out its Instagram feed to raise awareness of declining bee populations around the world. This was powerful storytelling that tied into themes that relate to the brand (protecting the bees that help create the foods we love), while also giving us greater insights into what the brand is passionate about. Anything that a brand can do to help its customers better understand what it stands for, will always aid in creating fans.

Another instance of storytelling is what Maersk did with its archival photos. Kerry did a wonderful podcast with Maersk’s former head of social media, Jonathan Wichmann. Wichmann explained that when he took the job, he discovered that Maersk had an archivist who had thousands upon thousands of photos associated with Maersk and its shipping containers over the last century. He asked why no one ever used the photos and the brand’s response was ‘who would care?’  So Wichmann started posting the photos on Instagram and other social media sites and they were an immediate hit. These photos helped tell the story of the brand, and also helped us understand what they do, and for how long the brand has been doing it.  All of this also made it wasier to trust the brand, especially when you consider how long they have been providing the same services.

If your brand wants to experiment in creating content that helps tell the story of your brand, think about what stories you can talk about that tell what’s important to your brand, but that aren’t entirely focused on your brand.  Whole Foods talked about why we need to pay attention to declining bee populations.  Maersk by sharing its photos was also telling the story of why the work it does is so important. Yes, the pictures were mostly about the brand, but those pictures are also the history of shipping on the sea. It helps us understand what Maersk does, and what role in plays in global commerce.

And also, think about how you can lower your guard a bit and help us understand a bit more about what your brand does and who it is. Show us the people behind your brand, like Scoble did at Microsoft. GE does this with its employees, encouraging them to go on social media and talk about the work they do, as a way to increase the quality of job applicants. People better understand the culture at GE and why people love working there, and they are more likely to apply for open positions.

Above all, this is a potential competitive advantage for your brand. By engaging in storytelling with your customers, by opening your brand to them, you make it easier for your customers to better understand your brand, and relate to it.  Which makes it easier for your customers to TRUST your brand.

And when your customers trust your brand, then they can advocate for it. Interactions lead to Understanding which leads to Trust, which leads to Advocacy.

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The Difference Between Passive and Active Fans of Your Brand

I'm thrilled that Troy Janisch asked me to speak to his Advanced Social Media class at the University of Wisconsin at River Falls tonight. His class has read Think Like a Rock Star and I'll be doing a Q&A with the students. 

One of the students asked if it was possible for a brand to have different degrees or types of fans.  It's a great question and I think it definitely is.  Let's talk a bit about some basic differences among your brand's fans. 

Your fans are as unique as your customers, but for the purposes of this post, let's break your fans down into two groups; Passive and Active.

Passive Fans - These fans love your brand, but typically will not proactively share that love. They will promote your brand, but typically they need an opening to do so. For instance, if a passive Ford fan is asked if his Ford Edge has been reliable, then he would happily endorse the vehicle. But otherwise, they aren't going to promote your brand if there's not a natural reason to do so.

Active Fans - Active fans are more 'passionate' about your brand. The active fan who owns a Ford Edge would be trying to organize a local car club just for Ford Edge owners. These fans are more motivated to act on the brand's behalf, and more likely to view themselves as being 'brand owners'. 


Perhaps the easiest way to identify the difference between passive and active fans is that passive fans are often happy to work with your brand if you contact them, whereas the active fans will typically contact your band first. They will want to know what they can do to help your brand (which they really view as THEIR brand). 

So why are some fans 'active', and others are 'passive'?  

It could simply be that some fans are introverts and some are extroverts. Introverts by nature are more likely to be passive promoters, and extroverts are more likely to be active promoters. 

Another reason for the difference between passive and active fans is the level of loyalty and devotion that the fan feels toward the brand. If the loyalty and passion a fan has for the brand is mostly rooted in the products it sells, then they may be more likely to be passive fans.

On the other hand, if a fan is loyal to the products the brand makes AND the brand itself, they could be more likely to be active fans. For instance, Patagonia makes very high-quality clothing and outdoor wear, but they also support environmental causes that Patagonia customers are very passionate about. This could motivate Patagonia fans to be more devoted to the brand and more active in promoting it.

This topic of different degrees of fans is a fascinating concept to think about. You could break it down further but you have to be careful to do so in a way that's still useful and helps explain the underlying concepts without being too confusing.  

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This is Why a Brand Ambassador Program is Your Best Way to Acquire New Customers

In 2013, Forrester did a study into which forms of content were most trusted by American shoppers. In short, Forrester found that if content originates from a customer or 3rd-party source, it is far more trusted than any content that originates from a brand.

The most trusted form of content was product recommendations from friends and family (70% of shoppers trusted).  Second was professionally written online reviews (55%) and third was consumer reviews (46%).

Communications directly from the brand were far less trusted:

  • Text messages from a brand – 9%
  • Ads on websites – 10%
  • Information on mobile apps from brands – 12%
  • Social media content from brands – 15%
  • Emails from brands – 18%

Clearly, the most trusted forms of content originate from the customer, the least-trusted forms of content originate from the brand. So why do most brands spend billions on creating the least-trusted form of content, while all but ignoring the most trusted form (content from customers)?  Why don’t more brands let their marketing messages flow through their customers?

In my experience, there’s two main reasons why most companies don’t leverage customer to customer communication:

1 – Most brands prefer to advertise for customers because they want total control over messaging. It’s that simple. Even if the messaging is far less effective (driving up costs exponentially), most brands will pay more to have more control over what the message is and how it is delivered.

2 – Most brands don’t understand their customers well enough to trust them to communicate on their behalf. Almost all interactions that the average brand has with its customers flow through customer service, and then it is a numbers game. Get the customer off the line as quickly as possible and move onto the next call. A wonderful chance to better interact with and understand its customers is often lost.

 

So the most trusted content originates from customers, the least-trusted content originates from the brand.  How does your brand manage this disconnect?

By building a brand ambassador program that lets you manage the message that your customers share with other customers. A brand ambassador program is a program that allows you to have an ongoing working relationship with your most passionate customers. This comes in many forms, but one of them includes working with your customers to help them better promote your brand. Your best customers are already promoting your brand naturally, by working with them directly you can give them the tools and guidance to improve their efforts and make them more effective and efficient.

Which also improves your ability to acquire new customers, since customer recommendations are the most trusted form of content, by letting your customers engage with other customers, you gain new customers. And the best part is, the customer acquisition comes at a much lower cost than if your brand invests in traditional advertising. Plus, a brand ambassador program allows your brand to have more control over its marketing messages between customers.

Look at Patagonia’s Worn Wear program that we discussed here yesterday. Think of the positive word of mouth that this program creates for Patagonia. Patagonia has created a way to connect directly with its customers, and during its road trip stops, it also gives Patagonia customers a way to connect with each other and share their love of the Patagonia brand.

This is a great example of why it makes sense to create a customer-centric program like a brand ambassador program.  You bring your customers in touch with the brand, and with each other. Those connections spark understanding, which sparks trust, which sparks advocacy.

And that creates word of mouth. Which means your happy customers are acquiring new customers for you.

Want to create happy customers by optimizing your digital and content strategies? Check out my Digital Optimization Playbook!

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Let’s Take a Closer Look at Patagonia’s Worn Wear Road Tour

Several years ago, Patagonia started its Worn Wear program. The program was based around Patagonia’s corporate values of extending the lifespan of every garment it creates. The Worn Wear program will repair your Patagonia clothing, and if the clothing is beyond repair, it will recycle it for you.

A few years ago, Patagonia decided to take it’s Worn Wear program on the road, literally.  The company loaded up in a wooden truck and with a couple of seamstresses in tow, toured the country, repairing clothing along the way.  All for free, and not just Patagonia clothing either, any clothing you had with a rip or a ruined zipper could be mended by the Patagonia team.

Here’s a video Patagonia created to give you a sense of why they take the Worn Wear program on the road:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7muOgpX8vaQ

As you might guess, this program has been wildly successful, and has expanded to stops outside the US, and within the US the Worn Wear road trip has grown to have it’s own tour of colleges. This is a very smart move by Patagonia because it lets the company connect with millennials on college campuses that will likely be even more receptive to the company’s reuse and recycle culture.

This is the one aspect of the Worn Wear road trips that’s always fascinated me.  It’s a wonderful opportunity for the company to connect directly with its customers in a one-on-one setting, and convert them into brand advocates. As the employees are repairing the garments (for free), they are also talking to the customers about why they have the Worn Wear program, and why they believe so passionately in the value of repairing old garments rather than simply throwing them away and buying something new. It’s an incredibly powerful tool that Patagonia has to spread its culture and mission to other people, and win them over as advocates for those causes.

I recently came across a great case study that Amp Agency did as they helped Patagonia organize the road trip portion of the Worn Wear program.  Here’s some key takeaways (These numbers appear to be from just one US tour, 21 stops):

  • 88% merchandise sell-through rate during the road trip. Patagonia takes used clothing as part of the tour and sells it during stops on the road trip.
  • 11,075 tour attendees
  • 68,481 visitors to the Worn Wear landing page

What I love about the Worn Wear road trips is the ability it gives Patagonia to connect directly with current and potential customers.  The seamstresses get to hear stories from the customers about how they ripped their Patagonia coat and what it means to them.  In the process, those Patagonia workers get to give the customer back their coat almost as good as new, and along the way they get to explain what the Worn Wear program is and why it’s so important to Patagonia.

The Worn Wear road trips should be viewed as a way to build a long-term relationship with Patagonia customers who believe in the Worn Wear cause, and who will willingly spread it to other people. I’m not sure what Patagonia gives customers that have their clothing repaired during these stops. But at minimum, the brand should focus on ways to give these customers the option to mobilize on behalf of Patagonia and to tell other customers about the Worn Wear program.  Customers who have their clothing repaired by Patagonia (for free) during these Worn Wear stops are going to naturally be very appreciative toward the brand for helping them. They will be very receptive to the Worn Wear message, and will be open to telling more people about what the program is, and why it exists.

If you go to the Worn Wear landing page, you do get a pop-up invite to get email updates:

If I were advising Patagonia, I would suggest they view the road trip portion of the Worn Wear program as a way to find like-minded customers who will champion the ideals of the Worn Wear program. I would even set aside a small area where Patagonia employees can talk to customers about how they can help nurture and grow the Worn Wear program. This is a message that many people who come to the Worn Wear road stops would be receptive to. These people would want to know how they can help Patagonia grow the Worn Wear program, and Patagonia should think about how they can better give these people an opportunity to help, during these road stops.

If your company is trying to decide how to create an initiative as successful as the Worn Wear road trip, you have to understand why it works.  The Worn Wear road trip stops aren’t focused on promoting the Patagonia brand, they are focused on helping Patagonia’s customers, and communicating Patagonia’s core values to its customers.

It’s worth noting that even though this initiative isn’t specifically build to increase sales, it will do just that.  It drives sales during the events, but also gives customers who have had their garments repaired an incentive to spread positive word of mouth about the brand.  This will result in additional sales, and additional positive PR for the brand.

By putting its customers and values first, Patagonia will realize increased sales as well. What a novel idea!

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Marketing Conferences; Here’s What to Look For on Post-Event Surveys From Attendees

Marketing conferences, for the most part, are divided into two seasons; Spring and Fall. The Fall season began earlier this month, with a few big events already happening, and more on tap for October and November. So I thought this would be a good time to talk a bit about the post-event surveys that all these conferences will send out to attendees.

For the most part, these surveys are boilerplate, you answer a series of questions about the event from a scale of 1 to 5.  At the end, there will typically be a “Are there any additional comments you’d like to leave?” chance for attendees to get one last chance to speak their mind.

Typically, the feedback given in these open-ended answers falls into four catergories:

1 – The attendee talks about the event

2 – The attendee talks about themselves

3 – The attendee talks about the venue

4 – The attendee talks about the organizers

 

Obviously, there can be some overlapping among those four areas of potential feedback, and often is. But the question becomes, “Which type of attendee feedback is best?”

The answer is simple; You want your attendees to talk about themselves. You want them to tell you that attending your event sparked a positive change in their behavior.

Here’s an example of the type of feedback you want: “I had hit a wall in implementing a digital marketing strategy at my company, but the sessions at your event helped bring clarity to my efforts. I came to your event hoping to learn more about measuring results, engaging customers online, and generating better content. Three sessions stuck out in my mind, Kami Huyse’s session on Digital Marketing ROI, Mack Collier’s Think Like a Rock Star session (customer engagement) and Andy Crestodina’s session on Building Better Content. I got so much value from these and other sessions that I actually took a break from the conference on Thurs to go back to my hotel room and have a GoToMeeting session with my team to share some of the things I had learned so they could immediately start implementing those changes. I will be leading an All Hands meeting next week at my company and cannot wait to share everything I have learned. This was money well spent and I will be returning next year.”

This is the perfect post-event feedback. Note that throughout this comment, the attendee is detailing how your event made a positive impact on their work. This is what you want to see, it’s not enough to have a great event with great socializing at a cool venue.  That stuff is WAY too easy to copy and improve upon.

What’s much harder to do, is send your attendees home having solved business problems they were facing. If your event can do that, you’ll not only win their repeat business, you will get them to bring you more attendees the following year(s).

So when you realize that the best type of feedback from attendees is when they talk about themselves (ie you helped them solve their business problems), then how could you change the structure of your event so that you increase the chances of getting that type of feedback from more attendees?

For instance, you could go to your speakers and stress to them the need to focus on solving specific problems for attendees.  Have them create their presentation so that it solves particular problems, and that it clearly provides those solutions to attendees.

Another thing you could do is have one on one consulting sessions with attendees. I know the Marketing Profs events have done this in the past. Maybe schedule them for the last day as a sort of catch-all, if an attendee came to the event needing certain questions answered and still didn’t get a solution by the last day, then schedule a quick consulting session with an expert.

What about having a designated ‘note taker’ in each session who takes detailed notes and captures takeaways from each session?  Then at the end of the day/event, the summaries for each session are made available to all attendees. Or better yet, ask the speakers to provide these beforehand to give to attendees.

By focusing on trying to elicit a particular type of feedback from attendees, you can completely restructure your event in a way that provides much more value to those attendees. If you would like to work with me to improve your event in 2019, please email me as I am happy to help either in a consulting or speaking capacity.

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How Much Does a Brand Ambassador Program Cost?

cost of a brand ambassador program

Organized brand ambassador programs are becoming more popular with companies, but there’s very little information out there about the prices companies can expect to pay for creating and maintaining a brand ambassador program.

So I wanted to give you some information on pricing with this post.  Let me state up front that the prices you see in this post are intended to be used as a guide and a starting point for your research.  The prices you are quoted might be completely different, or they could be exactly in line with what’s listed here.  The prices listed here are based on my experience working with companies on  similar programs, information gained from talking to industry peers and from good old-fashioned online research.

First, let’s start with a definition of a brand ambassador program for the purposes of this post:

A Brand Ambassador Program is an ongoing business initiative designed to create a relationship with select customers that helps the brand work with these customers to reach certain business goals.

Keep in mind that a Brand Ambassador Program is more robust than a Brand or Customer Advocacy program.  These programs typically revolve around engaging with fans to help promote the brand and spread certain messaging about the brand.  A Brand Ambassador Program typically has a self-promotional element for the brand, but it’s also focused on other key business drivers, such as customer feedback, customer service and generating sales.

It’s also important to note that the brand ambassador program is ongoing.  Often when companies think of a brand ambassador program, they are considering something closer to a brand advocate outreach program, or an influencer outreach program.  Both of these are closer to a campaign in structure in that it typically has a starting and ending point.  A brand ambassador program is an ongoing effort.

Since a brand ambassador program is ongoing, there are two major considerations:

1 – Startup and maintenance costs are typically higher

2 – Business gains realized from the program are typically higher

So the answer to the question ‘How Much Does a Brand Ambassador Program Cost?’ is typically ‘it depends’.  Let’s look at the factors that influence the costs of launching a brand ambassador program:

1 – Determining the strategy and desired outcomes from the brand ambassador program.  Answer the ‘what will success look like?’ question.  What needs to happen as a result of this brand ambassador program in order for it to be deemed successful?  You’ll need to do an audit and strategy creation for the proposed program.  This is also where you can decide if it’s financially feasible to go forward and launch your brand ambassador program.

2 – The scope of the program.  Will your program have 5 members initially or 500?  The size of the program at both onset and over time will play a huge role in its cost.  Also, what type of relationship do you want to have with your Ambassadors?  Many brands are excited about the idea of launching a Brand Ambassador program because they like the idea of having passionate customers spread the brand’s message.  Brand promotion is only one way that ambassadors can help grow your brand.  Since ambassadors are constantly in direct contact with other customers, besides selling directly to them, your ambassadors can collect valuable feedback about your brand.  This feedback can then be applied to improve your brand’s existing marketing. design and customer service efforts.  These improvements can lead to a real decrease in business costs that should be considered when calculating the return of having a brand ambassador program.

3 – How many employees will be required to work with the program?  This ties into the previous point.  Keep in mind that the costs associated with this point and the previous one are typically far less when the program is launched, but will likely increase over time as the program matures.  However, as the program matures and grows, it will self-fund any additional staff that’s necessary to the program.

So as you can see, there are a lot of moving parts in place and it is difficult to get exact dollar amounts on the cost of your brand ambassador program.  A good rule of thumb is to shoot for breaking even during the first year of your brand ambassador program.  What I mean by that is have the costs associated with launching the program at least equal the amount of revenue/business value generated from the program’s first year.  Keep in mind that these projections should be included in the strategy plan and audit that’s created in the first point above.  Also keep in mind that in the first year you’ll incur some startup expenses that won’ be a factor after the program is up and running.  So once you factor in program growth and running it more efficiently over time, if you can break even during the first year, you’ll be in good shape.

So What Are the Actual Costs to Launch and Run a Brand Ambassador Program?

First, let’s look at the cost of the Brand Ambassador Audit.  This will give you the strategy for your proposed program, and help you decide if it is financially feasible to launch.

For a Small Business (Up to 500 employees) – cost for the Brand Ambassador Audit is typically $1,500 – $5,000.

For a Medium-Sized Company (500-10,000 employees) – cost for the Brand Ambassador Audit is typically $3,500-$25,000.

For a Large Company (Over 10,000 employees) – cost for the Brand Ambassador Audit is typically $10,000-$50,000

In short, the bigger the company the more extensive the audit required.  This audit is a one-time fee paid before you launch the program.

Next, let’s look at training and ongoing maintenance.  This is where you work directly with your chosen ambassadors to train them on how you want them to engage with customers, and what they should be working to accomplish.  Also included is time devoted to working directly with your ambassadors.  Keep in mind that, as mentioned above, the scope of your brand ambassador program is critical when calculating ongoing costs, as well as returns.  For example, many brands are simply interested in a program that helps them use fans/advocates for self-promotion.  To that end there are plenty of vendors that are focused on helping brands ‘activate’ their brand advocates, such as SocialToaster, Zuberance and Social Chorus.  However, if you also want your program to focus on other areas such as customer feedback, improved customer loyalty, etc, then additional costs will be accrued.

Monthly training and maintenance costs:

Small business – typically $500-$2,500 a month

Mid-sized company – typically $1,000-$10,000 a month

Large company – typically $5,000-$25,000 a month

Again, the main factors here are number of ambassadors (fewer means less cost) and scope of the program (more limited means less cost).

Employee and Ambassador Compensation Costs

Let’s look at the third major area of expense in a Brand Ambassador Program, the costs to compensate employees and ambassadors.  First, keep in mind that you should expect to compensate your ambassadors if you are asking them to perform certain functions on behalf of the brand that they normally would not do.  You will not only spend time training them, you will also be asking them to spend actual time working on behalf of your brand to connect with other customers.  They deserve to be compensated for their time.

This expense will be difficult to nail down, especially at first.  As the program matures you will get a much firmer handle on how much time is needed from both your employees and brand ambassadors and can budget accordingly.  Also as your brand’s ambassador program matures, the amount of time required for training and maintenance per ambassador will decrease to a degree as your processes become more efficient

In short, this expense fluctuates wildly based on what you expect from your brand ambassadors.  Also, keep in mind that you may not need to pay all ambassadors (In fact, paying ambassadors money is often the worst way to compensate them).  In general, if you are asking ambassadors to let you train them, or to jump on regularly scheduled conference calls, or in any way adjust their normal schedules to accommodate an ongoing relationship with your brand that benefits your brand, then you should consider paying the ambassadors.  But if all you are asking your ambassadors to do is hand out a coupon to any customer that expresses an interest in your brand’s products, then maybe not.  It’s a fine line between working with your brand’s fans to do what they want to do anyway (spread their love of your brand), and asking them to invest more time than they would normally.  In short, if it feels like you are asking them to work for your brand, then you should pay them as if they are workers.

For purposes of this post and to give you some numbers to use as a guideline, assume that 10% of your ambassadors will be paid at a rate of 5-10 hours a week.  Also assume that your employees will spend 10 hours a week managing your first 50 ambassadors, and 15 a week managing from 50-100.  Amount of employee time per ambassador will decrease as you add more ambassadors to your program.

So for example, if you have 100 ambassadors in your program, you would pay 10 of them 5-10 hours a week, and your employees would spend 15 hours a week managing the program.  That would total 65-115 hours a week for your brand ambassador program.  And again, this is just an estimate to give you an example of how you could budget time and how many hours compensation the plan would need.  Your actual hours required could be more or less.

So lets now total up the costs:

For a small business, the expenses are:

Brand Ambassador Audit (One-time fee) – $2,500 – $10,000

Monthly training and maintenance – $500 – $2,500

Monthly employee and Ambassador compensation (estimated) – $250 – $1,000

Total Year One costs for a small business to launch a Brand Ambassador program – $11,500 – $52,000

Yearly ongoing costs for a small business to maintain a Brand Ambassador program  – $9,000 – $42,000 each year

For a mid-sized company the expenses are:

Brand Ambassador Audit (One-time fee) – $5,000 – $25,000

Monthly training and maintenance – $1,000 – $10,000

Monthly employee and Ambassador compensation (estimated) – $1,000 – $5,000

Total Year One costs for a mid-sized company to launch a Brand Ambassador program – $29,000 – $205,000

Yearly ongoing costs for a mid-sized company to maintain a Brand Ambassador program  – $24,000 – $180,000 each year

For a large company the expenses are:

Brand Ambassador Audit (One-time fee) – $10,000 – $50,000

Monthly training and maintenance – $5,000 – $25,000

Monthly employee and Ambassador compensation (estimated) – $5,000 – $15,000

Total Year One costs for a large company to launch a Brand Ambassador program – $130,000 – $530,000

Yearly ongoing costs for a large company to maintain a Brand Ambassador program  – $120,000 – $480,000 each year

And again, let me reiterate that all of these numbers and figures are not absolute and should be considered a guide or starting point.

Now that you have the numbers in place based on the size of your company, you can take those numbers and compare them against the projected benefits from a brand ambassador program to decide if such a program makes sense for your brand.

For example, let’s say that you are a mid-sized company that, based on the above formula and numbers, decides that it will cost your brand approximately $50,000 in Year One, and $40,000 annually thereafter to create a brand ambassador program.  Now that you have a handle on the costs of the program, you can then look at the projected benefits from the program and decide if it makes good fiscal sense.

This is why it’s important to understand that in order to get the budget necessary to fund a brand ambassador program, you are going to need to be able to show that the program will generate more than it will cost.  So if you go to your boss with a plan to start a brand ambassador program that will cost $25,000 a year and generate $15,000 annually in sales, you won’t get that check signed.

Here’s a real-world example:  When Fiskars launched the Fiskateers brand ambassador program, it had two key goals:

1 – Increase product sales by 10% in 4 specific cities within 9 months

2 – Increase online mentions of the Fiskars brand by 10% within 9 months

With these specific goals, Fiskars can track the profit it would make from these sales as well as the sales generated from the increase in online mentions, and compare that to the cost of the program, and know if it makes sense.  BTW according to the book Brains on Fire, the Fiskateers program doubled sales in those 4 cities within 9 months and increased online mentions by 240% in the first 4 months.

Again, keep in mind that these numbers are a guide, and your figures might vary greatly.  For example, former Maker’s Mark CEO Bill Samuels Jr has claimed that it cost the brand $2 Million to launch its wildly successful brand ambassador program.  That program is now rumored to have over 500,000 ambassadors, all of which consider it their job to promote the Maker’s Mark brand.

On the other hand, let’s say your brand would love to launch an ambassador program, but you simply don’t have the budget to outsource the creation of such a program.  Here’s an excellent recap of how Paper.li is launching its brand ambassador program in-house.

UPDATE: Kelly Hungerford, who is spearheading Paper.li’s Brand Ambassador program, left a fascinating comment with more information on its program, make sure you check it out.

 

Are you considering launching a Brand Ambassador Program for your company and want to know what it would cost?  I’ll be happy to help answer any questions you have, simply email me!

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This is Why Social Media is Making You Scared to Talk to Your Customers

There’s that guy in your office. You know the one, the guy that always wants to talk politics.

You do not like to talk politics. You also don’t like when this guy tries to talk politics with you, because inevitably, it ends up in a loud argument that attracts several of your co-workers that you really want no part of. So you tend to avoid the ‘politics’ guy because you know if you talk to him, an argument that you want no part of is going to be the result.

In many ways, thanks to social media, your customers have become that ‘politics’ guy in your office that always starts loud arguments that you want no part of.

When businesses began experimenting with social media about 10 years ago, many of us saw this as a breakthrough. Thanks to these ‘social’ tools, companies now had the ability to interact on an individual level with customers, and vice versa. The potential implications to customer service, brand loyalty, customer engagement and marketing in general were massive.

 

Customers Control the Interactions Between Most Brands and Their Customers, and It’s Not Pretty

Unfortunately, 10 years later, most customers are far more willing to use social media to interact with brands than most brands are to use social media to interact with customers.

And when most customers want to interact with brands, they typically want to complain to brands.

Check the average brand page on Facebook for example, and the majority of the time you will see the same thing.  You will see updates from the brand trying to promote itself and its products and services, then you will see that customers have taken over the comments to complain about issues and problems they are having with those same products and services.

For many brands, Facebook has become the place where their customers come to complain about them. The irony of ‘social’ media is that customers will complain about brands on social media, because they know that brands will be more likely to respond quickly, because if they don’t, it looks bad for the brand and the other customers notice.

Let me be clear: This is not the customers’ fault, it’s your fault as the brand. You have ceded control of the conversation with your customers, to your customers. As a result, those customers are going to act in their best interests, which means they are only going to talk to you when they want to talk to you.

Which means the only time most of them will talk to you, is when they have to. Like when they have a problem with your product or services.

Last week I spoke to a group of rural telecoms and electric providers in Huntsville. I presented Think Like a Rock Star, and part of that talk revolved around how rock stars proactively seek out interactions with their customers whereas most companies only interact with their customers when they have to. I was talking to a friend of mine who leads Customer Care for a global brand that you’ve all heard of about this, and she agreed that most companies only talk to their customers when the customer is complaining about something. The brand itself has little to no desire to initiate interactions with their customers.

Since rock stars proactively engage directly with their customers, they have a better understanding of who their customers are, and what they want. Rock stars then leverage this knowledge to improve the experience for their customers. This completely changes the conversation that rock stars have with their customers. Rock stars and their fans understand each other, so the conversation is more open and enjoyable for both parties. On the flip-side, most companies don’t understand their customers, and most customers don’t understand the companies they buy from, so it’s no wonder that the conversation between most brands and customers is completely one-sided and difficult!

This is the very simple framework that rock stars use to create fans. Note that every step in this process is deliberate, and applies to BOTH the rock star AND their fans:

1 – Interaction: Rock stars seek out ways to interact directly with their customers, and invite their customers to interact directly with them. These interactions lead to….

2 – Understanding: By interacting with their customers, rock stars begin to UNDERSTAND who their customers are and why they buy the products that the rock star makes. At the same time, the customers begin to understand who the rock star is, what drives them, why they write the music they do, what their stories are. The rock star becomes more relate-able to their fans and the fans become more relate-able to the rock star. And that understanding leads to…..

3 – Trust: When you understand who your customers are, then you can trust them. When your customers know who you are and why you are doing what you do, then they can trust you. And that trust leads to…..

4 – Advocacy: When you know someone and you TRUST them, you will advocate for them. This happens with customers that know and trust your brand, they tell other people about it.

 

Take Control of the Conversation You Have With Your Customers

But this process always starts with interactions. Your brand interacting with its customers and your customers interacting with your brand. This is why I am so passionate about helping companies better connect with their customers. I don’t want the only interactions you have with your customers to be when they complain about you on your Facebook page. I want your company to embrace a culture of curiosity about who your customers are.

Additionally, I want your brand to take control of how you interact with your customers. You’re going to have to interact with your customers anyway, so why not be proactive and engage with them first, and then apply what you learn to improve your business and marketing processes? The end result is that more you proactively engage with your customers on YOUR terms, the less you will have to engage with your customers on their terms. The less time you will spend fielding complains and problems.

So how do you go from only engaging with your customers via complaints on social media or calls and emails…to something more? By giving your customers more opportunities to interact with your brand, but on terms that your brand controls. Here’s some simple starting points:

1 – Surveys. Ask your customers who they are, what they like, what they dislike and more. This can be done via your website or email newsletter or even social media. Frame the survey as a way for you to better learn about your customers so you can offer them a better experience. Then make sure you take what you learn from your surveys and apply it to your ongoing communication efforts.

For instance, look how Marriott Resorts is leveraging #ParadiseChat as a way to better learn about its customers:

Also, note the engagement numbers: They are getting a LOT of comments on these tweets. This type of content is also proven to do the best job for brands in driving engagement. Content that is from the brand but not ABOUT the brand, instead it’s about how customers would interact with the brand and its products and services.

2 – Feedback from Customer Service. Every day your customers are calling/emailing/tweeting your customer service department. Make a point to actually note and catalog what your customers are saying when they contact you. There’s a tendency in customer service to handle as many customers as quickly as possible. But in ‘handling’ your customers, don’t simply discard what prompted their contact to begin with. The source of the contact should be noted so you can identify trends and prioritize how you respond. Make sure you are using a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) package that offers this functionality.

3 – Open Rates on Newsletters. If you’re utilizing email newsletter, pay close attention to each issue’s open rate. Specifically, you want to see which topics resonate with your customers. The topics that drive higher open rates indicate topics that are important to your customers, and you can also use this to better understand what’s important to your customers.

4 – Engagement on Social Media Content. Closely watch what types of content your customers are more likely to engage with. I’ll save you the suspense: Content that’s focused on your customers, who they are and how they would use your products and services, will always always ALWAYS get better engagement than content that directly promotes your products and services. Look at the Marriott Resorts example above; They aren’t promoting their resorts directly, they are creating content focused on how its customers would behave if they were at their resorts. This results in content that’s more interesting to the customers, and it provides Marriott Resorts with better insights into how and why their customers come to their resorts.

5 – Always Thank Customers For Complimenting Your Brand. This is so incredibly easy to do yet I see companies every single day that whiff on this. Whenever a customer compliments your brand, thank them. It doesn’t matter if they compliment you via email, phone call, social media, handwritten note, or carrier pigeon. Thank them. When you thank a customer for complimenting you, it signals to that customer that you APPRECIATE them enough to take a few seconds to thank them. That also ENCOURAGES them to CONTINUE to compliment your brand AND it encourages them to PROMOTE your brand. Yes I am going overboard with the ALL CAPS because this is VERY IMPORTANT! Also, you are signalling to all your other customers that if will respond to them and thank them if they compliment you.

Additionally, you are helping to shape and change the conversation around your brand, and you’re making it more positive. Which is always a good thing!

 

The reason why you don’t like talking to your customers is because the only time you DO talk to your customers is when you have to.  And that’s when they are yelling at you. This is precisely why I work with companies to help them build programs like outreach, loyalty and brand ambassador programs that help companies better connect with their customers.

Because I want your company to take control of the conversation you are having with your customers. If you give up control to your customers and only respond to them, your conversation is doomed to be nothing more than your company constantly fielding complaints from your customers.