MackCollier.com

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You Build Loyalty After the Purchase, Not Before

One of the key themes I cover in Think Like A Rock Star is to discuss and explain why most rock stars can create loyal fans so much easily than most companies can.  There are many reasons why rock stars so easily cultivate fans, but perhaps the biggest reason why rock stars have more loyal customers than most companies do is because rock stars focus on rewarding existing behavior, while companies focus on offering incentives to change existing behavior.

Let me say that again: Most rock stars focus on rewarding the existing behavior of their fans, while most companies focus on offering incentives to change the existing behavior of potential customers.  This also speaks to a fundamental difference between who rock stars and companies market to.  Companies seek to acquire new customers, so they create marketing strategies that are designed to change existing customer behavior.  Price-based incentives are a big part of this, such as coupons, rebates, discounts on shipping, etc.

Rock stars seek to develop deeper relationships with their fans, and as part of this they seek to reward their fans for their existing behavior.  In 2010 Taylor Swift had a special 15-hour autograph signing for her fans.  Taylor signed for over 2,000 fans over the course of nearly 15 hours on June 13th, 2010, only stopping long enough in the middle of the day to perform a 90-minute acoustic set.  All for free.  Because Taylor wanted to reward her fans for supporting her.

Yet this approach is also very powerful for building loyalty because for the fan it validates why they love their favorite rock star.  On the flipside, when a company offers you a coupon for purchasing their product, you understand that they want your business.  While this does increase the chance that you will change your behavior the next time you need to purchase that particular product, it does not increase your chance of being loyal to that brand after the initial purchase.  Brands build loyalty by rewarding existing customers, not by trying to acquire new customers via incentives.  For example, if you are a long-term Dish or DirecTV customer, you may have been upset over the last few years to see some of the incentive packages that the competing brands are offering new customers to sign up with them.  Often, the packages are better and at a lower price than what existing customers have!  This tactic works for acquiring new customers but it not only does not build loyalty among existing customers, it can actually lower levels of loyalty among existing customers!

Let’s again review the Loyalty Graph.  Companies are focused on acquiring new customers, so they offer incentives to this group, trying to win their business.  The problem with this approach is that New Customers is the group that’s the largest, but that also has little to no loyalty to that particular brand.  This is especially problematic if your brand offers price-based incentives to this group, because if another brand offers a higher discount, it will probably win that customer’s business.

At the other end, rock stars are focused on connecting with their fans (brand advocates), and rewarding their existing behavior.  Rock stars don’t have to offer incentives to their fans to encourage them to generate new sales because their fans are already engaging in this behavior.  Their fans are already going out and encouraging new customers to become existing ones.

So for your brand, that means you have two ways you can attempt to acquire new customers: By marketing to them directly (and paying a lot of money to do so), or you can connect with your biggest fans and delight them, with the understanding that their efforts will lead to new customers.

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

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Patagonia’s Marketing Plan to Keep You From Buying Their Products

For Black Friday in 2011, Patagonia ran an interesting ‘Don’t Buy This Jacket’ ad in the New York Times.  The ad kicked off a campaign by Patagonia to attack ‘consumerism’ head-on, and the brand asked its customers to strongly consider whether or not it was necessary to buy a new piece of clothing, or if an existing article they already owned was still useful enough.  Additionally, Patagonia wanted customers to think about the idea of owning things that have a purpose versus just owning something because you wanted it.

Surprisingly, the campaign actually sparked sales growth for the brand, to the tune of a whopping 33% increase in 2012.  The campaign is part of a consistent message that Patagonia has delivered to its customers:    Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.

Patagonia’s marketing works because it’s not focused on its products, but rather the ideals and beliefs that the company holds that its customers identify with.  I’ve written repeatedly about Patagonia’s marketing efforts and even included the brand as a prominent case study in Think Like a Rock Star.

And keep in mind when you read this that I don’t own a stitch of Patagonia clothing.  I just recognize amazing marketing when I see it, and want to celebrate it as such.

Another initiative Patagonia pushes is its Worn Wear program.  Patagonia will take your damaged clothing, and for a ‘reasonable’ fee, repair it for you.  The idea here is to extend the life of an existing garment versus buying a new one.

But this year, Patagonia is kicking it up another notch, and taking the Worn Wear program on the road, literally.  Throughout the year, a specially built Worn Wear wagon has been making its way across the country.  This vehicle is making stops and not only repairing Patagonia clothing for free, but other brands as well.  Additionally, Patagonia is teaching customers at every stop how to repair their own garments.

And if all this hasn’t thoroughly impressed the hell out of you, Patagonia has one more trick up its brand advocacy sleeve.  It has partnered with DIY repair site IFixIt to create a series of custom manuals and even a section for asking questions on how to repair and care for individual garments.

So this begs the question: If such customer-centric marketing and business processes work so well, why aren’t more companies copying what Patagonia is doing? There’s a couple of very important distinctions with Patagonia:

1 – Patagonia’s founder, Yvon Chouinard, is an avid outdoorsman and very concerned about the environment.  That means there is literally buy-in from the top down for Patagonia’s marketing approach to focus on the passions of the customers over the products.  Because Patagonia’s founder shares the same passions as his brand’s customers.

2 – Patagonia is a private company.  In this PBS Newshour feature on Patagonia, PBS played a snippet of a talk that Chouinard gave where he explained that “The problem with a lot of public companies is that they’re forced to grow 15 percent a year. They’re forced to show profits every quarter.”  Chouinard’s implication is that by being private, Patagonia can pursue a marketing strategy that perhaps would be far more difficult or even unattainable if the company was public.

Regardless, the idea of focusing your marketing communications on the larger context that your brand lives in, works.  Apple does it.  Red Bull does it.  Patagonia does it.  More companies should be doing it.

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Fans Have Gravity: Why Customer Acquisition Isn’t Your Best Marketing Bet

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Marketers are obsessed with size.  Especially size of market, and they often spend billions of dollars chasing the biggest market of all:  New Customers.

And yet, rock stars follow a completely different marketing path.  Instead of marketing to New Customers, they go out of their way to create experiences and engagement with their biggest fans.  Lady Gaga created LittleMonsters.com to cater specifically to her most hardcore fans.  Taylor Swift has T-Parties just for a handful of her biggest fans at each concert.  Amanda Palmer does secret shows where she usually gives away tickets to her biggest fans, even to the point of excluding ‘New Customers’ from the selection process.

Notice the complete difference between how most brands and most rock stars market.  Most brands market completely to New Customers, even to the point of all but ignoring their Brand Advocates or Fans.  While on the flipside, rock stars go out of their way to connect with their biggest fans, even to the point of ignoring New Customers.

What do rock stars know that most brands do not?  Rock stars understand that Fans Have Gravity.

Think about your favorite restaurant.  The one you always take out-of-town guests to when you want them to experience the ‘best’ your city has to offer.

How many people have you encouraged to visit that restaurant in the last year?  Your loyalty and excitement for that restaurant is attractive to other people.  Your friends and the people you talk to about the restaurant are more likely to visit it because of interacting with you.

Why does this happen?  Because…

1 – Fans are more trustworthy than brands.  When a brand runs a commercial saying they are awesome, we don’t believe it, but when a fan says the same thing, we do.

2 – Fans have passion, and passion is sexy.  Fans are genuinely excited about the brands they love, and their passion is infectious.

3 – Fans want others customers to be fans as well.  Fans love their favorite brand for whatever reason and want to share that love with others.

 

So if fans have gravity and pull other customers to them, what happens when multiple fans are in the same place?  Their ability to attract others becomes stronger.  This is why rock stars focus on connecting their biggest fans to each other.  Simply being in the same space with other people that love the same rock star helps validate that love for each fan.  It makes their ability to attract other people to them and the rock star that much stronger.

Rock stars relentlessly focus on connecting with their most rabid fans ONLY, even at the expense of connecting with new customers.  Look at concerts:  Concerts are the lifeblood of every successful musician’s career.  They are cash cows for the music industry, and always have been. Why?  Because they are events designed to appeal to the rock star’s hardcore fans only.  The person that has never heard a U2 song would think you were a fool to pay $100 for a U2 concert ticket, but the U2 fan would not only do so, he’d happily stand in line for 3 days just for the privilege.  For the fans, concerts are a way to get special access to their favorite rock star.  They can be a few feet away from them while they perform.  They can get an autograph after the show.  ‘New Customers’ of the rock star have no interest in any of this, and that’s why the rock star doesn’t market to them.  They connect with their biggest fans and create magical experiences for them.

How much money is your company leaving on the table by not connecting with your biggest fans and creating amazing experiences for them?

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The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show Episode 24: How to Create Fans Like a REAL Rock Star Does

Hey y’all!  Welcome to the 24th episode of The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show!  In today’s episode I talk about Amanda Palmer leverages social media to create and cultivate fans, and also what your brand can learn from her efforts.  I am mention a recent Forbes article where Amanda talked about some of the things she’s learned from using social media as a channel to connect with her fans.

PPC_200x200 Standard no codeBut before I get into the Show Notes, a special thank you to MarketingProfs for becoming The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show’s first sponsor!  This episode is brought to you by the Marketing Writing Bootcamp, from Marketing Profs.  The Marketing Writing Bootcamp begins on June 11th and features 13 classes with almost 8 hours of instruction!  You can learn more here about the Marketing Writing Bootcamp and if you enroll with promo code FANDAMN you’ll save $200 on Marketing writing bootcamp. Plus, you’ll get over $1,000 worth of Marketing Profs seminars, classes, and video tutorials, free – just for registering!

The Marketing Writing Bootcamp will be the sponsor of The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show for the next 2 months.  If your company is interested in sponsoring #FanDamnShow, slots are available starting in July.  You can learn more about sponsoring The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show and get rates by clicking here.

Show Notes:

1:04 – How Amanda Palmer connects with her fans via social media

3:14 – How Amanda uses Twitter as a platform to directly connect with her fans

4:04 – How Amanda used #LOFNOTC to generate $11,000 in merchandise sales in 12 hours, via Twitter

6:55 – The success of Amanda’s Kickstarter project in 2012

10:00 – Insights from the Forbes interview with Amanda into what she’s learned from connecting with her fans via social media.

10:45 – Why Amanda purposely over-delivered on her Kickstarter project

13:08 – The ‘real’ secret to how Amanda successfully uses social media to create and cultivate so many fans

16:30 – The power of being second, and how it can help your social media marketing efforts be successful

 

Here is the link to the Forbes article that I reference in this episode.  And here’s the link to learn more about MarketingProfs’ Marketing Writing Bootcamp.  Make sure if you register for the Bootcamp to use the promo code FANDAMN to save $200 on the course!

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 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 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 12: Saying ‘Thank You’ As a Marketing Strategy

Welcome to the 12th episode of The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show!  BTW before I get to the Show Notes for this episode, thank y’all for making last Tuesday the best day for downloads of the show at 66 downloads!  That’s the best in the history of the show since it was launched last May!  Thanks to everyone for listening.  I mentioned my audience goals for the show earlier this month, and while January is now the best month ever for downloads, there’s still some work to do to reach January’s goal of 750 downloads.  So any help you can give me by telling others about The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show would be greatly appreciated!  In fact if you enjoy the show please consider leaving a review on iTunes, it really helps!

Show Notes:

0:45 – Thank you to Amy Robles, Sarah Seado and Kary Delaria

1:00 – The role of saying ‘Thank you’ in building an audience

2:25 – Appreciating your customers is the great marketing equalizer

3:10 – Too many companies focus on acquiring new customers vs showing appreciation for their existing customers

4:00 – Why would you not say ‘Thank you’ to the people that are helping you reach your goals?

4:45 – The bar has been set so low that when a company appreciates us, it surprises us

 

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.

Here’s this week’s episode:

And here’s all the episodes so far:

 

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What’s the ROI of Making Your Customers Cry?

Watch this video.  Now.

Then forward it to your boss and ask her “What would our business look like if our customers loved us that much?”

Or maybe the better question to ask is, “Why don’t we love our customers as much as Taylor Swift loves her fans?”

Because you don’t.  And you should.

I love you Taylor Swift.  And it has nothing to do with your music, it has everything to do with how you go out of your way to communicate to your fans that you love them.

Successful marketing isn’t about generating sales, it’s about generating love.  Customers that love your company, who it is and what it stands for, and tell other customers why they should love you just like they do.  Because generating the love means you generate the sales.

Two points to consider:

1 – I would bet dollars to donuts that Taylor never once thought while wrapping presents to deliver to her fans, “Wait…what’s the ROI of driving to a fan’s house with presents?”

2 – Taylor’s new album 1989 was the top-selling album of 2014.

I can’t help but wonder if these two things aren’t somehow related.

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The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show Episode 9: The Art of Building and Sustaining Momentum

BigALHappy New Year. y’all!  Welcome to the ninth episode of The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show!  In this episode I talk about the power of momentum, what it allows us to do once we have it and why it proves so elusive to build and sustain.  At least it is for me, what about you?

Show Notes:

1:15 – The value of building and sustaining momentum

1:55 – How Nick Saban builds momentum at Alabama by leveraging on-field success to create a stronger recruiting pitch.

4:00 – Alabama’s record-setting crowd for 2007 A-Day.

4:50 – Saban empowered Alabama’s fans and gave them a way to contribute to Alabama’s success, he told them how a big crowd at A-Day would help the program, and the fans responded.

7:00 – The $51 Million Dollar recruiting pitch that Alabama makes to recruits.

10:00 – Why I don’t follow this advice

11:00 – Why my content creation schedule is completely uneven

12:10 – Why companies and small businesses have this same problem balancing time between doing work and doing the things that get you more work

I hope you enjoy this episode, and if you have feedback, especially on how you handle this balance, please email me and let me know your thoughts!

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.

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Why I’ll Be Spending More Time on Speaking Less in 2015

2330620934_92bb93fcc4_zI am currently in the middle of business planning for 2015.  I have three main revenue streams: Speaking, consulting/advisement, and writing.  In 2013 my first business book, Think Like a Rock Star was published.  One of the reasons why I was excited about writing a book was the assumption that it would lead to more speaking opportunities.  And it did, I have spoken more in the 20 months since Think Like a Rock Star was published than I did in the previous 5 years.  I went from speaking a few times a year to a few times a month.  I was even able to speak a couple of times in 2 different states in the same day (which sounded much cooler when I planned it).

But over the last few months I’ve realized that the actual speaking just wasn’t as interesting to me as it once was, and I have been struggling to figure out why.  So I backed up and asked myself ‘When did you enjoy speaking the most?’  I realized it was in 2011.  That year, I only spoke about 4 or 5 times during the year.  But by speaking less, it allowed me to do two very important things:

1 – Spend more time customizing and improving my talk.  I was able to spend up to 2 months working on one talk for one event.

2 – Spend more time actually connecting with the audience at the event BEFORE I got to the event!

Those two points also worked off each other.  By having 2 months to work on each talk, I was able to devote more time to the talk itself, but also more time getting to know the audience I would be giving the talk to.  I was able to customize the talk based on interactions and feedback with the attendees up to 2 months before they got to the event.  This feedback and these interactions also helped the attendees become invested in my talk.  They knew what the talk was about, and they helped promote it (and the event) to others.  So by the time I got to the event, it was literally standing room only, as everyone was looking forward to my talk, and knew all about it from reading my blog and interacting with me on Twitter and Facebook.

I loved it, the audience loved it, and the event organizers definitely loved it.  But over the last year and a half, the simple volume of talks I gave made it impossible to devote the time I wanted to promoting each event, interacting with attendees and on my talk.

So I decided to change that for 2015.  In 2015 I am going to cap the number of paid speaking engagements I will take to 8 for the year.  This way, I can spend much more time on each talk, on getting to know the audience, and on promoting the event.  It also means I can be much more selective on which events I speak at.  And when I agree to speak at an event, I can be an invested promotional partner for that event.

And yes, that’s going to obviously cap the potential revenue I can make from speaking in 2015.  But you know what?  There’s more to speaking than just arriving at an event 30 mins before you speak and leaving 30 mins after your talk ends.  I’ve had to do that a few times in the past 20 months and I hate it.  It’s not fair to the audience, it’s not fair to the event organizers, and it’s not fair to me.  In 2015 I am going to work harder and take the time to be more invested in each event I speak at, to be more invested in connecting with the audience 2 months in advance, not 2 days in advance.

So here’s to speaking less, and making a bigger impact when I do.  If you’d like to get more information on securing one of my 8 speaking slots in 2015 and my rates, then click here.  And thanks!

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This Is (Probably) Why Your Brand Ambassador Program Sucks

Every week I field calls and conversations with companies about starting a brand ambassador or advocacy program.  Almost every time, the company explains that they are excited about the idea of launching a brand ambassador program as a way to generate sales for the brand.  They tell me how they have fans and they think they need a program to better connect with those fans so the fans can sell for them.

This makes complete sense.  Then the conversation typically goes something like this:

Me: “So what’s in it for your fans?”

Company: “What do you mean?”

Me: “Well you want your fans to start going out and actively selling for you, that’s a lot to ask of them.  What are you prepared to offer them in exchange for being a part of this program?”

Company: Long pause…”Well they are our fans, I just assumed they would be happy to help us!”

Just as communities do not form around the idea of being monetized, your fans are not waiting for you to take advantage of them.  You have to give your fans a compelling reason to be involved in your program.  If they don’t care about your program then they won’t care about selling your product to other customers.

So when you create a brand ambassador program, give special thought to what your fans get from being involved in the program.  Your goal is to create a set of benefits from being in the program that are so compelling to your fans that you have so many fans wanting to be involved that you have to limit membership.

A Real-World Example of How This Works

Your company sells lawn care products, and you want to create an ambassador program for the fans of your products that are designed to kill bugs in their lawns.

From the company standpoint, you want to do things like give your fans special coupons so they can give them to customers that they meet in their day-to-day activities.  You want to have a way to collect feedback from your fans when they talk to potential customers, and you want to be able to track sales generated from your fans.

That’s all company-oriented.  So what do your fans get from being involved in this brand ambassador program?

Since your fans are already buying your products to kill pests in their lawns, it’s obvious that these customers spend a lot of time maintaining their lawns.  So your company could offer them materials, seminars, etc that help teach them how to create and maintain a more beautiful lawn.  You could teach them why certain lawns attract certain pests, and how to eliminate them.  You could partner with chains such as Lowe’s and Home Depot to offer special Fans Only workshops on lawn care.

The best part about all of this is as you are teaching your fans how to better maintain their lawns, you are also educating them on your lawncare products.  Which means you are teaching your fans a new set of skills, but you are also teaching them how to better sell your products.  Because once your fans understand why certain pests are damaging to their lawns, they will be able to better sell your product, because they will know that it eliminates those pests.

So by creating benefits for your fans you are not only increasing their loyalty toward your brand and the program, you are also empowering them to be better salespeople for your products.

When you are creating a brand ambassador program spend as much if not more time on what your fans get from being involved.  The more you offer your fans, the more you can ask of them.  Never assume that your fans will happily jump through hoops for you simply because they are your fans.  Think about who your fans are as people, and how you can give them skills and empower them to better succeed in their day to day lives.  And do so in a way that relates to your product and why they love your brand to begin with.