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Tips for Developping Customer Evangelists
Ben Silverman over at PR Fuel offers some good stories of customer evangelism and some good tips.
Tips for evangelizing:1. Offer an incentive program to existing customers that gives them free product or service in exchange for signing-up new customers.
2. Let people in the press try your product and get feedback from them - even if they're not writing about it. A few years ago, I beta tested a new online service and wrote a scathing review for the PR people. When the product launched, some of my suggestions were put into practice and I received a note of thanks from the CEO (I wasn't a member of the media at the time).
3. Reach out to your best customers. If you offer a service or product to businesses and you have key customers who express happiness with your product/service, keep in contact with these people and see how the product/service can be improved. Offer them perks in exchange for testimonials (or simply ask). When I worked for a dot-com I saved our company more than $10,000 by simply referring customers to one of our vendors. The salesman for the vendor was more than happy to give my company a discount after I helped him generate a few hundred thousand dollars in sales.
4. Create an outreach program in conjunction with your marketing department. T-shirts, hats, stickers, coupons, etc. sent to your company's biggest fans is a great way to garner some cheap attention.
5. Internally, foster a feeling of good will in the company and evangelize your own workforce. The PR department needs to act as internal barometer and help keep spirits high and the company improving. If you're outside the company, much sure your firm believes in your client. If your workers have concerns about a client, address those concerns. There's nothing worse than talking to a PR person who obviously doesn't like their client.
Of course these are exactly the kinds of things that can be communicated with e-mail newsletters and company blogs.
June 28, 2004 in award winning blog, award winning magazine, award winning newsletter, Award winning publications, blog publish, Brand enhancement, Building B2B Relationships, Building Customer Community, Building Customer Intuition, bulk email marketing, business credibility, Business Marketing, Business newsletter, Business publications, Business relationships, CMO | Permalink
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