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The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show Episode 23: Your Fans Are the Cool Kids

Hey y’all! In this episode of #FanDamnShow, I talk about how your fans drive sales by encouraging non-committed customers to try your brand.  I also reference a study done by a Princeton professor who wanted to learn if a product’s popularity was driven more by quality or positive WOM.  The results might surprise you, and I talk about the study and what was uncovered in this episode.

Here’s the NPR episode that talks about the study and interviews the Princeton professor that conducted it.  Just fascinating!

Here’s where you can download and listen to the episode directly.  And if you can, please subscribe to The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show on iTunes, and I would *love* it if you could review the podcast on iTunes as well.  Also, #FanDamnShow is now available on Stitcher as well!

Also, don’t forget that sponsorships are now available for The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show. This page that has all the information on how your brand can sponsor #FanDamnShow and the rates. Please note that the sponsorship slots for May and June are on hold.  All available sponsor slots (starting with July) will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis, so please email me if you are interested in sponsoring #FanDamnShow.

We’ll talk again next week!

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The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show Episode 21: From Rants to Raving Fans

Hey y’all! Welcome to the 21st episode of #Fandamnshow! Today I talk to you about how to respond to complaints from customers online and turn them into raving fans of your brand! This topic is SO misunderstood by brands, so I wanted to spend an episode walking you through the process for not only responding to an angry customer, but doing so in a way that converts them into a passionate fan of your brand.

Show notes:

2:00 – Understanding the mindset of the customer that’s complaining about your brand.  Understanding what’s motivating their behavior is vital to your brand responding to them correctly.

2:50 – How does the average customer handle a problem they have with a product or service?  What’s their response?

4:00 – By the time the customer complains about your brand online, they are already aggravated, and here’s why.

5:50 – What every customer that complains about your brand online wishes you understood about WHY they are complaining.

6:20 – The seven steps you should take to respond to an angry customer online, and convert them into a passionate fan of your brand.

 

Here’s where you can download and listen to the episode directly.  And if you can, please subscribe to The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show on iTunes, and I would *love* it if you could review the podcast on iTunes as well.  Also, #FanDamnShow is now available on Stitcher as well! BTW, thank y’all SO much for helping to grow #fandamnshow, the podcast had over 1,500 downloads in March at it looks like it will easily top that in April.  As a result, I’ve started to get requests for sponsor #FanDamnShow so I’ve created a custom page that has all the information on how your brand can sponsor #FanDamnShow and the rates. All available sponsor slots will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis, so please email me if you are interested in sponsoring #FanDamnShow.

We’ll talk again next week!

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Marketing Your Customer’s Passions: How Pedigree Invests in Happier Dogs

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Pedigree isn’t marketing dog food, it’s marketing happier dogs.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post talking about how smart brands don’t market their products, they market the passions of their customers.  Red Bull isn’t selling energy drinks, it’s marketing and investing in extreme sports and activities.  Or what happens after you drink its product.  Patagonia isn’t marketing its clothing, it’s marketing the beliefs and passions of its customers, such as sustainability, being active outdoors, and protecting the environment.  Both companies are smart enough to focus on their customers’ passions, moreso than just their products.  Any marketing done for its products is done in a way that relates and connects with the passions of its customers.

Pedigree is another company that taps into its customers’ passions with its marketing efforts.  Pedigree is marketing to dog owners.  Obviously.  But dog owners don’t just love their dog, they love all dogs.  They care for all dogs and want all dogs to live happier and healthier lives.

Pedigree does too.  Of course, Pedigree markets that its dog food helps dogs live happier and healthier lives.  But that’s not going to resonate with customers, because all dog food manufacturers market that their dog food will improve the life of your dog.  So when Pedigree says that it loves dogs like you do, it doesn’t resonate because it sounds like marketing.

But that’s not all Pedigree does.  The dog food manufacturer actively invests in creating better lives for dogs, especially shelter dogs.  Pedigree is committed to helping shelter dogs live happier and healthier lives, and here’s three ways they follow through on this commitment:

1 – The Pedigree Feeding Project.  Pedigree partners with shelters across the country to provide them with free dog food.  The idea is that by getting better food and a better diet, these shelter dogs will be healthier, more active and energetic, which will increase their chances of being adopted.  Plus, it helps alleviate the costs of running the shelter for the owners, allowing them to spend more time and money on finding parents for their dogs.

2 – Pedigree Shelter Renovation Project.  Pedigree has partnered with GreaterGood.org and country music superstar Miranda Lambert to renovate dog shelters around the country, giving dogs places to play, and free dog food.  The idea again being that happier and healthier dogs will be adopted faster.

3 – Pedigree Adoption Drive.  This is the effort you are probably the most familiar with from Pedigree’s commercials.  The message is simple, adopt a dog.  You see commercials like this featuring Echo, who isn’t adopted:

And then he is….

 

By actively investing in initiatives that help dog shelters and make it easier for shelter dogs to be adopted into caring families, Pedigree is communicating to its customers that it shares their passion for happier and healthier dogs.  This makes the brand more interesting (and trustworthy) to customers because its rooted in larger ideas and themes (dog adoption, helping dog shelters renovate, helping shelter dogs get adopted by loving families) that the customer is passionate about.

It’s not about marketing the product.  It’s about marketing the larger passion that the product is a part of.  That larger passion is what customers care about.  Customers don’t care about your product until you help them realize how your product connects to the larger idea/theme/belief that they are truly passionate about.

If you can do that, then your customers will become just as passionate about your brand.

PedigreeAdopt

 

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The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show Episode 17: Customer Acquisition vs Customer Cultivation

TheCommunicationGap

This is a graph I drew to give you a visual representation of The Communication Gap between most companies and their customers.  The blue shading on the left represents the desired level of communication from the company’s side.  The company wants to communicate with almost all new and potential customers.  The number of existing customers the company wants to communicate with falls sharply, and the company makes little effort to communicate with its customers that have some brand affinity, and its brand advocates.

On the right side, the red shading represents that customers that do want to communicate with the company.  It’s almost all brand advocates, some customers with brand affinity, then a sliver of existing and new customers.

But note the purple sliver at the bottom.  This represents customers that want to communicate with the company, and that the company is communicating with them.  Also note that the company tries to communicate with its customers when they aren’t looking for communication (new and existing customers) then when they are wanting to connect (when they develop some affinity for the brand and become advocates), the company stops trying to talk to them.  It’s completely backwards and creates a huge communication gap in the middle of the customer’s journey from being a new customer to becoming an advocate.

When it comes to communication there’s a massive disconnect between what customers want and what companies are giving them.  The reason why is because companies are focused on customer acquisition when they should be focused on customer cultivation.

And that’s what I’ll be talking about during this episode of The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show!

Show Notes:

0:40 – The disconnect between customer acquisition and customer cultivation.

1:00 – Companies focus on acquiring new customers, but do little to cultivate existing customers.

1:30 – An explanation of The Communication Gap graph, which is posted above.

4:15 – Most of us do not want to talk to brands that we have no affinity toward.  ‘Your brand is not my friend.’  But if I am an advocate for your brand, I do want to connect with you.

5:00 – There needs to be a balance between focusing solely on acquiring new customers, and cultivating existing ones.  Customer cultivation helps transition existing customers into advocates for your brand.

6:10 – Can your company connect with me on a bigger level than simply your product?

6:40 – Notice how the orange shaded area almost perfectly overlaps the customers that rock stars focus on.  Rock stars do the exact opposite of companies, they focus almost solely on marketing to current fans, vs new customers.

7:45 – The Communication Gap is basically a hole where customers leave you.

9:00 – The value of creating a communication plan that focuses on the differing communication needs of each type of customers, to help new customers transition to eventually becoming brand advocates.

11:00 – We trust fellow customers more than we do a brand we have no connection with.

 

Here’s where you can download the episode directly.  And if you can, please subscribe to The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show on iTunes, and I would *love* it if you could review the podcast on iTunes as well.  Also, #FanDamnShow is now available on Stitcher as well! Thanks for listening!

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The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show Episode 16: Building Better Word of Mouth

Hey y’all! Welcome to another episode of The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show.  This is the business podcast devoted to helping your company create and cultivate new fans, as well as helping you better connect with your existing fans.  Today’s episode talks about Word of Mouth, and the different types of WOM.  Did you think that all WOM, even all positive WOM is the same?  It definitely is not, and this episode talks about how WOM is different based on the customer and how to cultivate the best WOM among your fans.

Show notes:

1:00 – The business value of Word of Mouth

1:20 – Different types of Word of Mouth created by customers

1:45 – Better Word of Mouth is more effective WOM.  But what constitutes ‘better’ Word of Mouth?

3:00 – Customers that have more in-depth knowledge of your products can create better Word of Mouth about your products.

5:10 – Most companies leave their ‘high-level’ fans alone, but these fans create the best WOM, and should be encouraged.

6:10 – What can you do to improve the understanding and WOM generated by your customers that only have a basic understanding of your products and how to use them?

8:00 – There are levels to Word of Mouth. Fans that have a better understanding of your products create ‘better’ WOM.  Think of 101 level understanding creating 101 level WOM vs 401-level understanding creating 401-level WOM.

9:00 – What can you do to move the 101-level fans up to 201, then 301 then 401-level?

 

As always, #FanDamnShow’s amazing opener and closer is produced by the fantabulous Kerry O’Shea Gorgone.

Here’s where you can download this episode directly.  And if you can, please subscribe to The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show on iTunes, and I would *love* it if you could review the podcast on iTunes as well.  Also, #FanDamnShow is now available on Stitcher as well! Thanks for listening!

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‘Badass: Making Users Awesome’ is the Best Business Book You Can Buy in 2015

I could not be more excited to be holding this book!  Badass: Making Users Awesome is the best business book you can buy in 2015.

Period.

Badass starts with a simple challenge: Create a bestselling product.  Without marketing, without competing on price.  The book challenges you to think about what makes a successful product?  Why did this social media book become a New York Times Bestseller and this one did not?  Why did this software suite from Adobe sell a million copies while this one from Roxio was a bomb?  What makes Product A successful while Product B (that has the same or very similar features, and pricing) is not?

“The key attributes of sustained success don’t live in the product.  The key attributes live in the user.” (page 21)

Bam! It’s not about making a better product, it’s about making a better user of your product!  It’s about making your users and customers be Badass, and Kathy teaches you exactly how.  Not only does she teach you how to create badass users, she shows you why so many companies fail to create badass users.  She shows you how the new user becomes the badass user.  How they change along the way, how the way they use your product changes, and how they view that product and your brand changes.

Perhaps the biggest marketing takeaway from this book is the difference between how most companies market their product versus how most customers want to use your product.  Most marketing is focused on the product, or tool.  But most customers are more interested in what the tool allows them to do.  It’s not about the DSLR camera, it’s about me being able to take amazing pictures.  It’s not about the chemical composition of the carnauba wax, it’s about me being able to give my red car that gorgeous ‘wet’ wax look.  The best marketing isn’t about your products, it’s about the larger context that your products lives in, that I am passionate about.

That passion is what can drive me to be Badass.  And if your company is creating Badass users, it’s ensuring its long-term success.

Now, a word about the actually book itself: This is a simply gorgeous book.  First, it’s printed on very slick and high-quality paper, which feels far superior to the standard newsprint-y paper stock that most business books use.  Second, the book has literally hundreds of visuals, graphs and charts that enhance learning, and add to the value of the book.  Here’s an example:

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So colorful and a very welcome break from the walls of text you see in too many books.  And for fans of Kathy’s Creating Passionate Users blog, these graphs and visuals are right in line with what we’ve come to expect from Kathy.

As you know from reading this blog, I was thrilled to have Kathy agree to write the foreword for my first book, Think Like a Rock Star.  What you may not know is that Kathy co-created the Head First series of programming books, published by O’Reilly.  This series has been so successful that Kathy’s books have sold over one million copies.  Yeah.  A big reason why these books have been so successful is because of how Kathy organizes the information in her books to help facilitate learning.  It even includes worksheets and spaces for you to create your own formula for who your ideal Badass user would be, what they would be able to accomplish if they were Badass, etc. She was kind enough to help me greatly with the structure of Think Like a Rock Star in this regard, but of course she did a much better job with her own book 🙂  Which is one reason why Badass is going to be a hit.  The bottom line is if you bought and enjoyed Think Like a Rock Star, you absolutely will love Badass, probably moreso.

“You have the chance to help people become more badass not only at using your tool within a meaningful context, but badass at life.” (page 282)

Word. Badass:Making Users Awesome is the best $20 you can invest in your business this year.  Buy it right now at Amazon.

(Disclosure: Kathy is a friend and so are you.  I believe in helping my friends be awesome so that’s why I want you to buy this book.  Now, go!)

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The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show Episode 15: Sometimes the Customer is Wrong

Hey y’all!  Welcome to the 15th episode of The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show! In this episode we will delve into the idea that ‘The Customer is Always Right’, and look at two examples when this might not be the case.    If you enjoy this episode then please subscribe on iTunes!

Show Notes:

1:00 – Why we say ‘The Customer is Always Right’

1:45 – There are certain cases where the individual customer can be wrong

2:05 – Sometimes a customer may demand a free product or service and threatens to complain online if you don’t give them what they are asking for

3:00 – How to handle this situation correctly

6:30 – Your fans view themselves as owners of your company and brand

7:15 – Some fans demand that you not only listen to them but act on their suggestions, even if they aren’t feasible or possible

10:00 – How to respond to fans that believe you have to do what they are suggesting, ‘my way or the highway’

 

Here’s where you can download this episode directly.

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The Best Marketing Isn’t Focused on Your Product, its Focused on My Passions

Did you notice something about the commercials for this year’s Super Bowl?  Besides the fact that this was a pretty weak crop of ads, the few that did stand out had something in common.  These spots weren’t really about a product as much as they were about passions and beliefs.

Self-image, especially among young girls.

Online bullying.

Caring and loving others.

Think about your passions.  The things, ideas, people and beliefs that you care about. These are the things that move you, that don’t just hold, but arrest your attention.

The vast majority of the marketing in this country is aimed at promoting products.  But the small percentage of marketing that breaks through the clutter and grabs your attention typically has one common trait:  The best marketing isn’t focused on a product, it’s focused on the passions of its customers.

Watch this Red Bull commercial and ask yourself “What product is Red Bull selling here?”

I would argue that this spot isn’t designed to sell Red Bull’s energy drink.  It’s designed to sell what happens after you drink it.  Freedom.  Individual accomplishment.  Pushing your personal boundaries and reaching goals that you thought were out of reach.

These are themes that many of us are passionate about.  Very few of us are passionate about an energy drink, and Red Bull knows that.  So instead, the company focuses its marketing on the ideas, themes and beliefs that its customers are passionate about.

And in turn, that helps Red Bull’s customers become more passionate about Red Bull.  The key to successful marketing isn’t to promote your product, the key to successful marketing is to promote the passions and beliefs of your customers that your product fits into.

Patagonia is another company that markets its passions moreso than its products.  In 2011, Patagonia launched a ‘Don’t Buy This’ campaign encouraging customers to think twice about whether or not they really needed a new coat or jacket.  Or if they decided to buy one, buy used versus new.  The campaign from Patagonia was at attempt to combat materialism and consumerism.

And it didn’t work.  Patagonia’s sales spiked 30% as a result.  Why did this happen?  Because customers felt that Patagonia’s beliefs and passions were in line with their own, and as a result they felt that Patagonia was trustworthy, so they bought from the brand.  Patagonia’s marketing resonates with customers because it’s clearly focused on the company’s beliefs, not the company’s products.  Customers that share those beliefs, are drawn to the company’s marketing as a result.

If you want to grab my attention, stop focusing on marketing your products and instead focus on my beliefs.  More specifically, craft your marketing messages so that you explain to me how your products relates to the ideas, beliefs and themes that I am already passionate about.

Do that, and you’ll win my business.

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The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show Episode 14: Segmenting Your Fans to Better Engage Them

Welcome to the 14th episode of #FanDamnShow! Today’s episode is how to stabilize or build your social media engagement by segmenting your fans online to better engage with them. If you enjoy this episode then please subscribe on iTunes!

Show Notes

0:50 How engagement around social media content seems to be falling

3:00 Our behavior has shifted from engaging with content to simply creating and sharing content

3:50 If your engagement is falling, then most engagement will come from the people that know you and have an existing relationship with you

6:00 How to segment your fans and easily stay engaged with them on Twitter and Google Plus

12:45 Results of my January goal for total downloads and whether I hit that number

14:05 The two things I learned from doing #FanDamnShow in January

 

Here’s where you can download this episode directly.

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Giving Fans Backstage Access: How Paper.li Is Embracing Its Users

All InAlmost a year ago, my friend Kelly Hungerford contacted me about working with Paper.li to help the company build structures to help it more efficiently connect with its users and create value for them.  Paper.li has a pretty devoted userbase, and a big reason why is because of the personalized customer service (or ‘customer care’ that Kelly calls it) that Paper.li has given its users.

But Paper.li’s team is like many growing companies in that team members are often required to wear many hats.  Which presented a challenge for Paper.li: How do you scale having individual relationships with users when the userbase expands from a few thousand to a few hundred thousand users?

So we started out by asking and answering those two questions that I mentioned in the last episode of #FanDamnShow:

1 – What does Paper.li get from this?

2 – What will Paper.li’s users get from this?

 

We came up with some very specific goals that we were shooting for on each end that I don’t want to get into here.  The bottom line is that Paper.li wanted to create programs and structures that help it better connect with its users, and give those users more value and more input into its marketing, product design, and feedback, moving forward.

Many of Paper.li’s planned projects are still in development, but you’ve already seen one, the #Bizheroes chat on Twitter.  This chat is run primarily by Kelly and Magda.  The topics are chosen based on a simple question: “What business and life skills would be beneficial to Paper.li’s users?”  Paper.li brings in experts each week to discuss and teach about a particular skill.  Kelly, who transitioned from Paper.li to start her own consulting business late last year, is working with Paper.li in an advisory role now with the chat.  It’s a wonderful chat that happens each Tuesday at 1pm Central, in fact the participation numbers are often at or better than #Blogchat’s levels!

Another initiative that Paper.li has just rolled out is called Backstage at Paper.li.  Paper.li believes as I do that your passionate customers hold incredible value for your company as a feedback channel.  From our first discussions, we explored the idea of creating a way to let Paper.li users not only give us feedback on existing features, but also input and opinions on possible future features, products and marketing.

To that end, Belinda Sadouk, Paper.li’s new Marketing and Communications Manager, is spearheading the launch of Backstage at Paper.li.  This is a new place that will not only give those who signup an advance ‘sneak peek’ at new features and products from Paper.li, it will also be a feedback channel to better incorporate the ideas, opinions and expertise of Paper.li’s users into future offerings.  The idea is to create a place where Paper.li can connect with its users in a deeper way, allowing them to be able to get early access to new products, features and initiatives, so that their feedback can be applied throughout the development process.  This will not only improve the quality of the ideas and products that go through Backstage, but the users will become more invested in helping those ideas be successful, since they had more input in their direction.

Paper.li CEO Edouard Lambelet talks about this on Paper.li’s blog this week, but the Paper.li platform has allowed the company to collect massive amount of data, especially around content.  What type of content resonates with users, for example, and this is user-generated data.  So part of the goal of Backstage is to take this data and give it back to the users so it can benefit them as well.  By combining the intelligence created by Paper.li’s data along with input and feedback from users, Paper.li hopes to create products that make a more positive difference in the lives of its users.

If you are a Paper.li user (or just curious!) please signup here to join Backstage at Paper.li.  I will say this: Within the next few weeks members will be given an advance look at a new app that Paper.li will be rolling out that many of you reading this blog will want.  You can find out more information on Paper.li’s blog.

One Final Takeaway

Your most passionate customers, call them fans, advocates or ambassadors, are more than simply ‘volunteer salespeople’.  Yes, fans create cash, but your fans are also a treasure trove of valuable feedback and insights into how to improve your business processes.  It pays to reach out to your most passionate customers and invest in creating stronger connections with them that drive real business growth.  I’m looking forward to seeing what Paper.li has in store for creating deeper connections with its users.