BRAND IDENTITY
How to Create Brand Champions
We all know that creating high-quality products and services, delivering on promises, and embracing consistency all help a brand develop and maintain a good reputation, grow the customer base, and generate a profit.
And while it is important that a business puts in the majority of the effort to grow its brand, the business itself doesn't have to be the sole ambassador.
At the end of the day, what is your brand trying to accomplish?
Many people believe that the end goal of marketing is to attract paying customers. But what happens after a purchase has been made?
Should the company just give their new customer their receipt (crossing their fingers that they will return someday) and continue on with their current marketing strategy, alone, in hopes of gaining new customers based on whether or not their collection of messaging values, appearance, and offerings have been packaged neatly enough to be appealing?
If you don’t give your customers any thought after they’ve made a purchase, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity.
What is a brand champion?
A brand champion is a customer who is so impressed by your brand and its offerings that they tell others about their positive experience. Some of the more common ways that brand champions share positive experiences with others are through testimonials, product or service reviews, and social media posts.
Delighted customers are more likely to seek out friends and family members to introduce new customers to your brand and recommend that they make a purchase, turning them from customer to champion.
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The power of brand champions
Brand champions use word-of-mouth to promote your brand, which is free advertising, folks. Not only that, but the recommendations themselves generate trust in your brand: a 2012 study showed that whereas 70 percent of consumers trusted online reviews, 92 percent of consumers trusted recommendations from family and friends.
A lot of companies depend on marketing to attract new customers, thinking that self-promotion will generate interest and sales. And while that's not necessarily false, it's important that the advertising power of current customers is not forgotten. A company that only focuses on attracting new customers is going to have a higher marketing bill with not much to show for it. Why? Because the company is ignoring the resources it already has at its disposal: its current customer base.
Think about what happens when someone finds a brand that they really love: they incorporate it into their lives. They use it often, buy it again, and tell their friends and family about it. This act of sharing their positive experience is what takes them from customer to champion.
A current customer has already taken your product/service on a test-run, so to speak, and has the ability to seek out and match up the friends and family members who would benefit from them the most.
They know that their friend Jackie would absolutely love your cute little shop down on the corner, or that their other friend Sam has been complaining about how the cold air makes his hands dry and has been desperately searching for a solution, or that Rita has been looking for a leadership coach that doesn’t require her to drive three hours or pay $1000 to jump on a Zoom call with ten other people she'd never met before.
As you can see, the way that a brand interacts with its customers does more than simply encourage that first sale to that first customer - it encourages the customer to return. By going a step further and nurturing the relationship with each individual customer from the very beginning, making sure that you deliver a great product or service and a consistent customer experience, you encourage the right customer to return time and again - and to bring their friends.
No matter how loudly you shout about your products and services...you will have less success convincing a new customer to make a purchase than someone who...is currently raving about it to their friends."
How to Create Brand Champions
Give them something to talk about
Clear value proposition: your customer needs to be able to understand exactly why they should interact with your business (check out our article on Value Propositions here). This will ensure that your company attracts the right customers and that those customers know what to expect.
Confirm that you have what they need. The customer should clearly understand how your company helps them, and find themselves in the centre, with their problem behind them and your company and its solutions on the horizon.
Let's say you own a cozy cafe and want to encourage customers to spend a lot of time there sitting on the comfy couches, reading the latest hit novel, and drinking handmade lattes. If your main goal is to attract customers who spend a lot of time in your cafe reading, writing, and drinking hand-made lattes, you need to make sure to actively promote the cozy environment, make sure that that's what your customer experiences, and provide them with great service that will make them stay.
Be clear and consistent
Clear messaging: oftentimes, "messaging" is seen as related to "marketing" and "online presence", meaning that within two minutes of hearing about your brand, the customer should know exactly what you do and why you do it. Wherever people can find your brand - on your website, on social media, etc. - your customers should be able to answer those basic questions about your company.
In the case of the cafe, however, messaging can extend a lot further than the website and social media pages. If a customer walks through the cafe door, they should be able to tell if you have what they're looking for within about five seconds. Does everything about your brand support the messaging that a customer will find online?
A potential customer might be asking themselves, "Does this cafe provide ample space and a relaxed atmosphere? Is the lighting bright enough for reading yet not overwhelmingly bright?"
Do you answer those questions with your messaging online? Do you answer those questions with your messaging in person? Do you answer those questions through the experience you provide? Does your customer service support that experience?
Seamless customer experience
Seamless customer experience: your customer service experience and policies should be guided by your company values and create a seamless experience that is fundamentally identical for all customers.
Maybe you decide to make your customers even more comfortable by going around to each table and asking if the customer wants a refill on their coffee, saving them from pausing, getting up and standing in line to place another order. If you choose to do this for one customer, make sure to offer the same experience to all other customers sitting in your cafe. If you choose to incorporate this practice into your daily service, do it every day, not every fifth Monday, as long as it's not cloudy.
Show your appreciation
Ask for feedback: show your customer that you're always looking to improve yourself for their benefit. Don't be afraid to ask them what they like about your brand, what they didn't like, and how you can do better to meet their needs.
Incentives: there's a reason why sales, loyalty cards, and bring-a-friend days exist - because they work. In addition to offering high-quality products/services and a top-notch customer experience, think about other ways that you can go that extra mile to make your customer even happier with your brand.
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