Marketing from the Inside Out 5 Rules for Creating Customer Evangelists By Justin Foster – Tricycle Consulting With the declining influence of traditional advertising and the plethora of media options for consumers, word-of-mouth as a marketing tactic is popular again. Of course, it is well-known that the best form of advertising has always been word-of-mouth. In fact, the principles that drive of word-of-mouth have been around since, well … people have been around! Yet business owners and marketers tend to think that word-of-mouth is accidental or hard to influence. What we are learning is that word-of-mouth can be influenced through the process of creating “customer evangelists”. I first heard the term “customer evangelists” when I read Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba’s book “Creating Customer Evangelists”. Ben and Jackie outline 6 steps for creating customer evangelists – many of these steps really have nothing to do with “marketing”. This phenomenal work put credence to the concept that there indeed is a methodology for using word-of-mouth as a viable marketing tactic. I strongly recommend that every business owner and marketer read this book. “Customer evangelists” have also been called “raving fans”, “brand influencers,” and other terms. In short, these are the people that are most excited about your product or service. So excited, in fact, they pro-actively tell their friends, defend you in the marketplace, and may even create their own home-made advertising to support you. Most customer evangelists are just everyday people, but with technology like e-mail, social networking, and video sites, they are now empowered to spread the “gospel” of your product and service much faster. As Ben and Jackie outlined in their book, there is a process for creating customer evangelists – some fast and easy, some a bit more difficult. For the purposes of this article, I want to give you some simple things you can do right now to create your own raving fans. So here are 5 “rules” to get you started. These are in order of importance, but they should all be implemented. 1. Start with your employees. This is pretty simple. If your employees aren’t excited about what you are doing, how can you expect your customers to be? Your employees don’t need to be salespeople out regurgitating the company line. They just need to believe in what your company is doing – and believe in the product. 2. Survey constantly. I don’t mean a 2 page questionnaire where you have your customers and employees rate on a scale of 1 – 10 their “satisfaction”. What I am talking about is having a steady stream of dialogue; of two-way conversations. Short, open-ended surveys are the easiest way to do this – as are suggestion boxes, feedback areas on your web-site, and just going out and talking to your audience. Keep in mind that the very act of asking is a form of marketing – and you might learn something you need to improve on! 3. Be unexpected. Remember the excitement you had as a kid when trying something new? As grown-ups, we don’t get to feel that way very often. In fact, our expectations can be pretty low – especially when it comes to buying something. As such, it is critical that you not just “exceed expectations” – you have to be unexpected. Unexpectedness isn’t being shocking or provocative. It isn’t being lavish, either. It is just doing things that your customers don’t expect – sort of a “random acts of kindness” approach to business. Bill’s Automotive in Caldwell, Idaho (my mechanic) does this – vacuums out your car, puts a few gallons in the tank – something different every time. 4. Be transparent. Business should be done in a glass house. Not in the sense of revealing confidential business information, but just removing the mystery of the process. I love restaurants where you can see the kitchen. Ideas like this not only let your customers go “behind the scenes”, it also shows that you have nothing to hide; that you are what you are. In era of hype and glitz, this can be refreshing and maybe even be your #3 (above). 5. Tell stories. Businesses are made up of people – owners, employees, customers, vendors, etc. And people have stories. Stories are how customer evangelists talk about you. They don’t use well-crafted marketing messages. They don’t hand out your brochure. They tell stories. Obviously, the first thing is to have stories worth telling. Assuming that, you need a way to publish them. The simplest and least expensive is a blog. A blog can be integrated into your existing site, or you can create a separate blog. In fact, a blog can be your primary site! As I mentioned, the principles of customer evangelism have been around forever. The difference is that we are now in a consumer-driven economy. Customers have thousands of choices, so this puts them firmly in control. As such, they rely much more on each other for advice on where to shop, what to buy, etc. In other words, they are relying on customer evangelists – often more than any other information source. By turning your customers and employees into evangelists, you will not only see an increase in sales; you will be creating a great and long-lasting brand. And this is the very thing companies are striving for! Justin Foster is the co-founder of Tricycle Consulting, a Boise, Idaho-based Brand Management Team and creator the 1000 Year Brand model. His blog is at www.brandmilitia.com. Or visit www.thetricycle.com.