How to Evangelize Customers: Beyond the Bottom of the Funnel Posted on April 22, 2016August 12, 2022 by Jessica Lunk The process of gaining customers and generating sales is long and time-consuming – especially for B2B companies with a long sales cycle. By the end of a closed sale, it can be easy for both the sales and marketing teams to figuratively “wash their hands” of the customer and move on to closing the next batch of leads. But there’s a problem with this approach. The problem is that some of the greatest value generated from a customer comes after the close—or beyond the funnel. Entrepreneur and business leader Rory Vaden explains it like this in his article, The 7 Stage Customer Evangelism Lifecycle: You don’t need customers who are pleased with their experience and so they tell no one. That’s neutral and neutral is negative. What you need is customers who are so on fire about what you have provided to them that they have no choice but to take to social media and spread the positive love to all of their friends in the same way they would tell them about a great movie. Here’s how sales and marketing professionals can create go beyond the funnel to evangelize customers and boost revenue: Provide Excellent Customer Service It may be obvious, but the first step to evangelizing customers is to provide great customer service. Customers are much more likely to come back if they enjoyed their purchasing experience – that’s a no-brainer. After they have purchased, however, there is even more you can do to bring them back for future purchases: Offer special discounts: Your customer’s purchase history indicates which products and services they are most interested in. Email customers when the things they normally purchase from you are on sale or in season, or reach out to customers when their renewal or anniversary date comes up. Reward their loyalty to your business with special customer-only discounts or perks. Follow-up: A follow-up call or email ensures that everything went well with their first purchase and gives your business the opportunity to nip and issues in the bud before your customer turns to social media to voice any frustrations. Following up also keeps your brand top of mind and reinforces your relationship with the customer. Survey: It’s easy to develop products and services in a vacuum, but you don’t know for sure how they will be received until you listen to your customers. Collecting anonymous survey data can help you pin-point areas you can improve to make the customer experience better. Taking time to listen to customer feedback can turn one-time purchases into repeat business and referrals when your customers tell their friends and connections about their exceptional experience. Generate Customer Referrals Acquiring a new customer takes a lot of time, money and hard work. That’s why customer referrals are so important to your business. Consumers are much more likely to invest in products and services when a peer makes a recommendation – here’s how to boost your customer referrals: Ask for referrals directly: Getting referrals can be as easy as asking a question. After speaking with happy customers, a member of your team can simply ask the question, “would you recommend our product to others?” The worst they could say is “no.” If they answer, ask them who you could call about the product. You can also create a simple email that asks your satisfied customers for referrals – after all, sometimes the happiest customers are the ones you never hear from. Keep a list of references: Sometimes a reference from a happy customer is the final incentive a prospect needs to do business with you. Ask your happy customers if they would be willing to be a reference so you have a running list of folks you can reach out to and a moment’s notice. Try to build a list that includes references from each vertical – for instance, try to have a reference in each industry you serve so you can tailor the reference to the prospect’s unique perspective. Collect testimonials and reviews: A simple email campaign to satisfied customers can help you gather testimonials for your website or reviews for industry review sites. Tip: Don’t bombard your customers with too many asks at once – they’ll get burnt out. Track your communication so you’re only reaching out quarterly or yearly. Tap into social media: Peer-to-peer referrals are most widely generated by social media. Reward your customers for tweeting or posting about their experience to their social network. Using social media networks, you target your customers’ acquaintances or partner-companies and offer the same results you gave your customers. Make sure it’s easy to share your message. This includes social share buttons on your website and in your emails. When it comes to post-close success, the greatest achievement you can make is to create product evangelists out of your customers. These customers will actively invite others around them, whether in person or online, to try out your product. They become mini-salespeople and also your most valuable relationships. A successful sale takes work. An evangelized customer takes even more work, but the rewards are well worth it. Apply the principles above to ensure your customers keeping giving you value well beyond the bottom of the funnel.
Springtime is The Right Time to Grow Your Customer Base Posted on March 8, 2016May 27, 2016 by Jessica Lunk Aaahh, spring. Buds on the trees, birds singing and ground ready for planting. Springtime (or anytime, for that matter) is the perfect time to plant the seeds for customer growth. With the right nurturing—feeding, fertilizing and yes, even weeding–those seeds will sprout and grow and in the process, they will also help your small business grow. You don’t want to plant any old seeds, you want to cultivate the types of plants and flowers you really want to grow. It’s the same with growing your customers base. You want to nurture relationships with the right type of customer, one that not only comes back again and again but spreads their love through word-of-mouth recommendations, social media mentions and positive online reviews. Here’s how to plant the seeds that will lead to great customers: Get the ground ready. Strategically growing your customer base means you don’t aim for everyone who could potentially be a customer, instead, you think about the customers you really want to target. In the same way you wouldn’t buy every variety of tomato seed at the store, it doesn’t make sense to try and reach everyone who could, potentially, be a customer. Be more strategic about it, considering which folks are likely to need or want what you offer and are also likely to want it more than once. Are they active on social media? Will they interact with others who might need or want what you’re offering? These are all attributes that make for a quality customer. If you can hone in on a niche group that you feel will be especially receptive to your offerings, so much the better. Rather than using a plant-every-variety approach, narrow your target market and zoom in on one group of potential customers that you believe will be an especially good fit. Now plant. Reach out and engage with those potential customers, that’s how you plant the seeds of a relationship with them. There are many ways to do this—you can use social media, traditional advertising, discounts, special offers and gifts. As soon as someone visits your site, store or makes a purchase, you can send an automated email either asking if they could use some help, if they would like call from a sales associate, or just thank them for being a customer. Lead magnets are a great way to start a conversation with potential customers who are visiting your site. Planting the seeds of a relationship today ensures you’re set to harvest new customers tomorrow. Water, feed, fertilize. The best way to grow your current customer base is through referrals and word-of-mouth, and you can grow revenue by getting current customers to come back and buy more, upgrade their service or extend contracts. First and foremost, you’ve got to be communicating regularly with your base. It’s the water—and nothing grows without it. A solid email marketing program keeps new and old customers in the loop: Lets them know about special deals and discounts Keeps them apprised of product updates Shares with them valuable articles and how-tos that make their life easier This is where your engagement marketing platform becomes essential, the backbone of your cultivation efforts. That ongoing engagement helps build a solid and lasting relationship with your customers. Don’t waste their time though, only communicate when you have something of value to offer, whether that’s advice, news and information or discounts. Be attentive. Any garden needs continuous monitoring and weeding, and your new customers want to know you care about them. If they comment on your Facebook page, reference your company in a Tweet or hashtag you in an Instagram—respond. Show your customers you know where they live and you live in that same world. And you can use technology by asking customers what they need. Run surveys on Facebook or send a two-question survey out in one of your engagement emails to see how your customers feel about products and services. If you’re an ice cream shop, for example, and you’re thinking of introducing some new flavors for summer, ask customers what they’d prefer. You’d be following the advice of marketing guru Peter Drucker, who said, “The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well, the product or service fits him and sells itself.” Reap the harvest. You’ll reap many benefits from carefully planned and strategic marketing efforts. As those seeds you’ve planted sprout and grow, their seeds will become your brand’s evangelists, carried by the wind to places beyond your garden. And that will help your customer base grow both intentionally and organically.