I’ve known Katrina for a while now and she’s definitely a unique character. She’s a self-proclaimed geek and a “sarcastic goober” which I absolutely love… Especially the sarcastic part. Being English myself, I do love a bit of well-timed sarcasm. Katrina is one hell of a designer and if I were to outsource the design of TMD to anyone, Katrina would honestly be the only person I’d trust to do a good job (I mean… Check out her website and you tell me if it’s not awesome!)
If you’re looking for a web designer, video/podcast editor, sale-page designer, PDF designs, a brand refresh, graphic/print design… Or even a magical hug… Katrina is your woman. And tell her LBT sent you 😉
Today Katrina is going to talk about building that perfect audience for your business. Once you start attracting the right people, you’ll find that you’ll have “brand advocates”. These are peeps who just love everything you do… And they’re great for you’re business!
And Katrina is going to explain why.
The floor is your’s Katrina…
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We ALL have this panic, and it happens over, and over, and over… and over in our businesses.
HELP! I need to grow my audience!
Great! No problem – we gotchu. Here are your options:
- Manually share your links all over your 10 social media channels
- Buy a bunch of Facebook ads
- VIDEOS!
- Pick up that stinkin’ phone and cold call
- Blog, blog, blog!
That’s it right? Absolutely not.
While these options will definitely help you grow traffic, what individuals and companies often neglect to remember is: They practically have a free and loyal marketing team already under their belt.
This team is comprised of Brand Advocates. They are the sharers, influencers and socializers of the online space. They are loyal to the products and people they get involved with because they 100% believe in them, and so they share their positive Word-of-Mouth message all over the dang place.
They are generally:
- Highly satisfied customers
- Continually purchase your products and services
- Genuinely passionate about your brand
- Trusted more by other consumers than influencers
- Here to stay, because you’re da bomb
- Don’t typically need incentives to spread the word
But what in the hell does that mean?
It means every single person your brand touches (hey now) can help you bring in the numbers, for free. But how do you turn your current audience into brand advocates to rock your business socks off?
By nurturing them. From day one of starting your business, you should be taking a proactive approach to appreciating, taking care of and surprising your audience.
NOW BEFORE I GET INTO THE HOW, I WANT TO SHARE THE #1 REASON I THINK BRAND ADVOCATES ARE SO IMPORTANT:
CUSTOMER / AUDIENCE RETENTION
Why lose customers or those in your audience, when you can instead retain them and ultimately help them to grow your audience. It seems like a no-brainer, right? It really should be.
So as you create a strategy to implement on the regular to turn your existing audience into brand advocates, you’re not only creating a solid customer base that will retain your existing customers / audience and be continual purchasers, but WILL ALSO ORGANICALLY GROW YOUR NUMBERS.
Now back to nurturing your brand advocates. Allow me to break it down into 5 simple categories for you:
- STELLAR CUSTOMER SERVICE (NO SHIT):
I can’t believe how many people don’t take this seriously. It irks me. Even outside of brand advocacy… if you want to run a successful business, great customer service should be your first priority. If you do this part right, the rest is a walk in the park. If you like doing things the hard way, just keep focusing on new customers, and not your existing ones.
- Stick to Your Word: For example, if you say you’re going to launch a new product on X date: DO IT.
- Continually Ask for Feedback: Not only does it help you gain insight on the perception of your business, what’s working/not working, but more importantly your audience feels heard
- React and Implement on the Feedback: Not only are they feeling heard, they’re feeling like their opinion actually matters
- Under promise, over deliver: Give them the unexpected and they won’t be able to help themselves in talking about your brand (I’ve been you’ve tweeted a time or two excited about an AMAZING brand, no?)
- SURPRISE THEM:
There’s nothing more exciting than getting something fun and unexpected. Is there an individual that answers every single one of your social media posts? Someone who is already brand loyal and purchases every single one of your products? They’re already shouting about your company from the rooftops? Or maybe even, there’s someone who is always seeking out your advice, even on personal level. Target these amazing people and surprise them!
- Contact them over social media, thank them for their participation and give them an individualized coupon
- Send them a t-shirt
- Send them a handwritten thank you note in the mail. Yes, I mean snail mail. With the lack of mail we get today, there’s nothing more unexpected than receiving a letter in-hand!
- Send them a sample or freebie, that isn’t yet available to the public
- MAKE IT RIDICULOUSLY SIMPLE FOR THEM TO SHARE
- Invent brand hashtags and make sure they’re well known
- If you decide to implement an affiliate program, make it so they are auto-enrolled upon purchase so they don’t have to sign into yet another program to spread the word
- Put those damn social share buttons EVERYWHERE! They shouldn’t EVER have to copy and paste a link from your website!
- CONTESTS / INCENTIVES
While the serious brand advocates will come out of the woodworks on their own without a contest or incentive, this is a great way to bring your brand loyalists onto the playing field. I advise against giving brand advocates cold hard cash, as some may actually feel insulted that you are buying-out their word-of-mouth.
- Create a contest asking your community to promote your offering. Set it up as an affiliate so you can track the shares, but make the earnings prize based. For example: The #1 promoter gets a new iPad air! Or even simpler things like, a $50 gift card to Amazon.
- Promote a free challenge and make sure your existing audience gets their hands into it! Offering free, actionable value goes leaps and bounds, and your existing audience will want to be sure to share it with their friends
- Simple enough, set up an affiliate program. Choose the % or $ amount, and make it simple for your brand advocates to get right into action
- WHAT SHOULD BE COMMON SENSE
- DON’T BE A DICK. No freakin’ shit? If you’re asking your audience to do something for you, for free, even if it will benefit them – don’t be a dick about it. Be appreciative. All this does is lessen the participation, and that’s going against what you want.
- COMMUNICATE. What? You mean I have to actually speak with my audience? Yeah, for reals. If they don’t know you, they won’t trust you. Therefore, why would they want to buy from you? Even the big boy corporations do it, you can too.
- KEEP THE CONTENT RELEVANT TO THE PERSON: It’s going to get old fast when you keep treating your long-time customer like a n00b by sending them the same n00b content all the real n00bs get. No one wants to feel like a n00b when they’re one of your rockstar clients.
- OK. I can hear some of you right now:
BUT KATRINA. I don’t really have a big audience, big list or big customer base. How in the hell does this apply to me?
EASY. You start implementing this. Right. Fucking. Now.
Make it a habit to regularly communicate with your audience. Celebrate their wins. Give them incentives. THANK them when they’re being a stellar advocate.
Your audience will organically increase, vs. you pumping out every single one of your hard-earned dollars trying to buy them in. And more importantly, they’ll stay in.
And let’s be for real. Chances are you already know PLENTY of people who listen to and cherish your advice and business sense. One of my favorite things to do is called the 10×10.
Write down 10 people you know who are happy to interact with you. Maybe they comment on your posts, they’re an old business friend, you both regularly chat in other Facebook groups… but don’t know entirely about you or your services yet. Contact all ten of those people and ask them if they’d be interested in joining your list / community for x, y, z value.
Surprisingly, a lot of people will say yes, because they’re already curious about you.
Do that 10 days in a row and whoa dawgie – look at that. You’ve got yourself a list of possibly 100 people, of which might just share with their friends.
There’s no perfect roadmap to these things, as every person’s business is different. But if anything I hope you consider this:
The value you bring to your existing audience will make your life SO MUCH EASIER. So make sure to take care of them, love on them and let them know that they are appreciated. They’ll do the exact same in return.
