MackCollier.com

by

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’.

by

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.

by

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!

by

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!

by

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!

by

Content Case Studies: How Wistia and Evernote Leverage Customer Stories to Promote its Products

One of the most effective ways to market your products and services is to have your current customers share their experiences with other customers. The reality is, we trust other customers more than we trust your brand. So if you can find a way to let your customers market for you to other customers, you want to be smart enough to do so. One way to do this, is by creating case studies or testimonials from your current customers and using those in your content strategy. I have testimonials on my homepage, I have short case studies from my clients here.

I wanted to look at how Evernote and Wistia are using Customer Stories to highlight how their customers and clients are using their products and services. I wanted to specifically highlight the efforts of these two companies ,because I think both are doing some things well, and I also see some areas for improvement. If you were to combine the best elements of both efforts, I think you would have a fantastic mechanism for sharing customer experiences.

Before I show you what these companies are doing with their customer case studies, I wanted to talk for a moment about the actual value of case studies. Case studies can be a wonderful learning tool IF you use them correctly. Case studies are so popular because we want to see what works for other companies similar to our own. But the potential problem from a presentation point of view can be that the audience will take the case study and understand how the case study applies to that company, but not be able to make the connection to how the same concepts could apply to THEIR company. In other words, they may understand how your product helped Apple achieve great results, but they don’t understand how to take what worked for Apple, and make it work for their brand.

You overcome this by including abstract examples that highlight the key concepts that you want the audience to understand. You spell out the key takeaways from the case study, and help the audience understand why and how your product or service helped another company, so the audience can better understand how your product or service could help them as well. Just remember that the brain is more likely to learn a concept if you give both literal (case studies) examples of the concept, as well as abstract (here’s an example of how your company could use…) examples.

 

Let’s first look at Evernote:

Evernote has a collection of short customer case studies which they are calling Customer Stories.

evernote customer stories

Here’s what I like about Evernote’s Customer Stories: You can immediately spot the feature of these Customer Stories that I really like: They include the industry the customer is in, as well as the size of their company. This helps establish the relevance of the Customer Stories. If I have a company running a fleet of 5 food trucks in the Atlanta area, the, Guayaki story on the right will immediately grab my attention because it’s coming from a similar background as my company.

Speaking of Guayaki, let’s look at their Customer Story:

As you can see, it’s pretty short. There’s not much information here. Oddly, it does include a link on the right to Download a PDF of this page, and that version actually includes another paragraph of information and also clarifies that the company used EverNote to cut training time. I’m not sure why that additional content wasn’t included on the website.

Here’s What Needs Improvement: I’ve already touched on how short these Customer Stories are. I think some additional information, especially speaking to a business problem that the customer solved by using Evernote would be helpful. I also think that some short videos from the customer talking about how Evernote helps them in running their business, would be great. Ideally, I’d like to see some screencasts from the customer showing them using Evernote as they do in their daily routine. This would help the audience understand how they too could use Evernote successfully. Plus, video content has such high engagement levels, I think some video content from the customers themselves would really take these Customer Stories to the next level. In fact, Evernote could even do a video podcast with their customers talking about their experience with using Evernote, and then post on a video hosting site such as YouTube, then embed the video on that Customer Stories page for each customer.

 

Now let’s switch gears and look at how Wistia is using Customer Stories on its site:

wistia customer stories

Here’s What I Like About Wistia’s Customer Stories: Wistia has dozens of Customer Stories on its site. Unlike the Evernote Customer Stories, the ones on Wistia’s site are really in depth for each company. Each Customer Story includes plenty of quotes from the company, carefully explaining how it has benefited from using Wistia. And the Customer Stories also include video content! Sometimes it’s an interview with someone at the customer’s company, other times it’s examples of work that the customer has created by using Wistia. I think the Customer Stories do a great job of explaining who the customer is, what they do, but also helps the audience understand how they are using Wistia to be more successful. Wistia has done a really nice job with their Customer Stories.

Here’s What Needs Improvement: I think the Customer Stories would be more useful to the audience if they followed Evernote’s example and gave us information about the customer’s industry, and number of employees on the front page for the section. But honestly, that almost feels like nit-picking at this point, since Wistia has done such a good job with the content on each Customer Stories entry.

 

And if you are curious, I noticed that both EverNote and Wistia have a Customer Stories entry for CoSchedule. So you can check out both and see which one you prefer. Here’s the CoSchedule page on Evernote’s site, and here it is on Wistia’s site.

 

So that gives you an idea of how your company can integrate customer testimonials into your site’s content. Just remember to help the audience understand the important concepts that you want them to learn, and also make sure the customer talks about how they are using your products or services to grow their businesses. And finally, use the testimonials as a way to promote the customer. Give them some link love, let them brag on themselves a bit. After all, they are helping your company, by agreeing to give the testimonial. I think one of the companies I looked at in this post did a much better job with this than the other one. Look for yourself and see what you think.

by

The Business Link Between Customer Empathy and Brand Loyalty

The other day I was talking about mapping content and marketing to the buyer’s journey with Alexandra. Alexandra mentioned what comes after the purchase, and that’s when we began to discuss the role of creating and cultivating brand loyalty. We then had a fascinating discussion about the role that empathy for the customer plays in creating and cultivating loyal customers. I started doing some research into empathy and I wanted to do a deeper dive into the topic here.

Let’s first examine some of the drivers of brand loyalty:

  • We trust the brand. This trust can be established via a consistent experience, customer support, following through on brand promises, etc.
  • We relate to the brand. Here we feel we have common interests and values as the brand We feel as if what’s important to us is also important to the brand.
  • We feel that the brand acknowledges us and appreciates us. They listen to us, they communicate they hear our feedback and act on it. This also leads to us feeling a vested interest in what happens to the brand. We will promote it to other customers, we will defend it against criticism.

 

Now let’s look at empathy. According to Greater Good Magazine, empathy is “used to describe a wide range of experiences. Emotion researchers generally define empathy as the ability to sense other people’s emotions, coupled with the ability to imagine what someone else might be thinking or feeling.”  All of this ties into the drivers for brand loyalty; Trust, understanding, being able to relate to the brand.

Empathy for the customer is a paramount skill to have if you are working in customer service. And quite often, customer service is called upon post-purchase, by the customer. Which is also the point at which brand loyalty often is created or enhanced.

A big part of showing empathy to someone is making sure that person understands that you are listening to them, and you are being considerate of their feelings. Whenever I consult with companies on addressing customer complaints, I always stress to them that the company should never apologize unless they actually did something wrong. I tell clients to focus on listening to the customer, and making sure they know that you are listening. That’s far more important than simply saying ‘sorry’. Upset customers want to know that you are listening to them, that you have heard and understood WHY they are upset, and that you give the customer a solution for their complaint.  Starting a customer service interaction by saying “Well I’m sorry that happened to you!’ and then NOT solving their problem, can actually lead to more anger and frustration for the customer. Communicating that you are listening is more important than saying you are sorry.

Taking the time to listen shows that you DO care. It’s critical that your brand listens to its customers, especially when they contact customer service, post-purchase. It’s also important that even though the customer is very likely upset, the main thing the average customer wants when reaching out to customer service, is a rep who will listen and understand why they are upset. This communicates that the brand values that customer and their feelings.

Feeling appreciated is one of the key drivers of brand loyalty. Also keep in mind that everyone, your customers, your employees, we are all under additional pressure and stress right now. Communicating you appreciate others has never been more important. And it will never be more appreciated by others.

by

Building Employee and Customer Advocacy Really Is This Simple

Think about a brand that you love. Why do you love that brand? Most people are loyal to brands for many reasons, such as the value they create, the ideas and beliefs they stand for, they feel that the brand actually cares about them.  There are many reasons more, and they are personal.

And that word, ‘personal’ is the key. If you have a personal relationship or view of a brand, then you have affinity for that brand. And affinity leads to advocacy. You want to tell others about that brand, you feel a sense of vested interest in seeing that brand succeed. You want to play some small role in that brand’s success.

This is the simple, 4-step process for creating advocacy. It works for both your employees and your customers. And the reality is, if you don’t have employees that will advocate for your brand, it’s very difficult to create an environment where customers will.

At both the employee and customer level, it starts by initiating interactions that communicate that you care. On the employee side, instead of having 4 weekly meetings a month to discuss how your employees are progressing with their work, what if you made the 3rd meeting of every month instead be focused on helping your employees? What if that meeting was focused on discussing what THE BRAND can do to better help the employees do their job better? Give the employees a chance to discuss what’s holding them back, let them suggest changes that could make their job easier.

“I could be more productive if I could do _____”

“I wish I could devote X amount of time to personal work projects”

“I could get more done if we had fewer meetings like this”

Ok I just threw that last one in there cause I know so many of you were thinking it! But the point is, by interacting and LISTENING to your employees then ACTING on their suggestions, you signal to them that you value their opinions. Also, you are signaling to them that you TRUST your employees to come up with good ideas, and then run with them.

Want to inspire your employees? When they come to you with an idea, give them ownership to get it done. It communicates that you trust the employee, that you value them, and that you know they can do the work without your supervision. That’s incredibly inspiring to the employee.  That’s what creates advocacy.

Also, make sure your employees understand WHY your brand does what it does. As Simon Sinek says “People don’t buy what you do, they buy WHY you do it”. What impact does your brand make on the lives of your customers, and the world? Make sure your employees understand that. We all want to be part of something bigger than ourselves. We all want a vision to unite us, a larger cause that binds us as a team working toward a common goal. There’s the famous story of the time President Kennedy was touring NASA, and he was stopping employees as he met them and asking them to explain what they did at NASA. He eventually found a janitor, and asked him what he did at NASA.  The janitor replied “I”m helping send man to the moon!”  That was the vision and the ‘why’ that inspired him to do his job.

The same things apply to your customers. Interact and engage with your customers. Ask them for feedback on your brand.  What can be improved, what do they like.  Take their suggestions to heart, and follow up with them on what your brand is doing to implement the changes they want to see. This helps your customers become more invested in your brand and helps create higher levels of customer advocacy.

Interaction leads to Understanding leads to Trust leads to Advocacy. When both your employees and customers advocate for your brand, that leads to higher sales and profits.

by

Monday’s Marketing Minute: Pinterest’s Growth, B2Bs Leveraging Content Marketing

Happy Monday, y’all! Here’s a few marketing stories that caught my eye over the last week.

Social media may be taking it on the chin right now, but Pinterest is an exception. The site is benefiting from people spending more time at home, and I have to admit, I’ve spent more time on Pinterest in the last 5 months than I did the previous 5 years. The challenge ahead for Pinterest is how they can continue to give sellers opportunities to sell through the site, while not compromising the user experience. In fact if done properly, Pinterest could actually add more sales opportunities for sellers and ENHANCE the user experience. We’ll see how well they navigate this.

 

KIND bars are making an interesting move to stand out from other health bars like Cliff. The company is trying to change customer behavior and have customers eat their bars before working out and not as a snack. To this end, they offered $100 to the first 1000 people that submitted a receipt for their products OR a competitor.  The $100 is to help with fitness expenses for customers. It will be interesting to see if KIND has a strategy in place to stay connected to those 1000 customers. This could be the start of a larger and long-term advocacy effort, and it will be interesting to see if KIND is thinking that far ahead.  I suspect they are, given the amount of money spent just on the giveaway.

Mixed results on how content marketing is working for B2B marketers, according to new research from CMI/On 24 and Marketing Profs. On the one hand, more marketers (75%) are reporting that content marketing has helped them generate leads this year versus last (70%). On the other hand, the percentage of marketers who generated sales/revenue through content marketing also dipped slightly (51% in 2020 vs. 53% in 2019). You can review the study here.

 

Thank you so much for reading, I greatly appreciate it, and will see you here tomorrow!

by

Monday’s Marketing Minute: Online Holiday Sales Spike, Top Brands For Loyalty, Turn Blog Posts Into Tweet Threads

Happy Monday, y’all! Hope you have a wonderful week planned, cooler weather is here, and Halloween is right around the corner. One of my favorite times of the year!

 

This is very believable. If you sell products or services online, you need to be auditing your website to make sure the purchase process is as smooth and frictonless as possible. Also keep in mind that even after the country completely reopens, many shoppers will continue to purchase more online, so building your website to handle eCommerce sales should be a priority moving forward.

https://twitter.com/shonali/status/1315746614552801281

 

So there’s two brands that I wanted to focus on for this list of top brands customers are loyal towards; Amazon and Dominos. First, I wonder how much of the loyalty people have for Amazon is associated with the brand itself, and how much is loyalty for the fact that it offers a level of price and convenience that its competitors cannot. I ask because I am constantly hearing from Prime users that lament they dislike the Amazon brand, but keep buying from it simply because it’s faster and cheaper.

As for Dominos, we all suspected that the covid-related slowdowns and more people staying at home would create opportunities for fast food brands in particular to win big business. It seems Dominos is one of the big winners in scoring loyalty from customers.

 

This is a feature that raised some eyebrows in the blogging community. WordPress has added the ability to turn blog posts into tweet threads. Honestly, I’m not a fan of this feature. As the author of this post points out, this seems to do a better job of drawing attention to your tweets than it would the blog post that the tweets are being created from. My advice would be to test ideas for blog posts as tweets on Twitter. For instance, if you have a topic you are thinking about writing a blog post on, bring it up on Twitter first, and see what the reaction is from Twitter users. You very well may find that you can then create a wonderful blog post from the conversation that happened on Twitter.

So there’s a few stories that caught my eye over the last few days! Just a reminder that we are headed into election season, just 15 days away! Be very mindful that there will be a LOT of very unbelievable and inaccurate ‘news’ being shared. Look at everything with a skeptical eye, and if something sounds too crazy to be true, verify the information with sources you trust. Have a wonderful week, see you tomorrow!