Creating Customer Evangelists: How Loyal Customers Become a Volunteer Salesforce - Softcover

Jackie Huba; Ben McConnell

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0988195402 ISBN 13: 9780988195400

Publisher: Lewis Lane Press, 2012

Synopsis

When customers are truly thrilled about their experience with your product or service, they can become outspoken evangelists for your company. This group of satisfied believers can be converted into a potent marketing force to grow your universe of customers.

Authors Jackie Huba and Ben McConnell explain how to convert already loyal customers into influential and enthusiastic evangelists. The year-long research project that led to Creating Customer Evangelists outlines the framework for developing evangelism marketing strategies and programs. The ultimate goal is to create communities of influencers who drive sales or membership for your company or organization.

From their research into the best practices of some of the most forward-thinking companies with legions of evangelists who spread the word, Huba and McConnell outline and explain the six basic tenets of creating customer evangelists:

* Customer plus-delta: Continuously gather customer feedback
* Napsterize knowledge: Make it a point to share knowledge freely
* Build the buzz: Expertly build word-of-mouth networks
* Create community: Encourage communities of customers to meet and share
* Make bite-size chunks: Devise specialized, smaller offerings to get customers to bite.
* Create a cause: Focus on making the world, or your industry, better

Huba and McConnell profile highly successful companies to illustrate these tenets and prove how solid customer relationships build and sustain companies through good and rocky times. These in-depth company profiles provide real-life examples of evangelism marketing at work, including the opportunities and pitfalls of specific campaigns.

Creating Customer Evangelists explains how organizations as diverse as Southwest Airlines, Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, The Dallas Mavericks, IBM, and others successfully built their customer base and created targeted marketing programs to involve their biggest fans. These programs have produced legions of unofficial salespeople and a cost-effective and powerful marketing force.

By deepening customer relationships, successful organizations create communities that generate grassroots support and value for their products and services. Creating Customer Evangelists focuses on this ultimate marketing approach. Huba and McConnell demonstrate how you can convert good customers into exceptional ones who willingly spread the word.

About this title

From the Inside Flap

"...the entire world is drenched and debauched in content and advertising, and we need evangelism even more.... The next step is fueling the fire of customer love, and this is what this book explains.... I wish I had written this book...."
—from foreword by Guy Kawasaki, CEO, Garage Technology Ventures

Turn Buyers into Believers!

When customers are truly thrilled about their experience with your product or service, they become outspoken "evangelists" for your company. Savvy marketing professionals are discovering that this group of satisfied believers can be converted into a potent marketing tool to grow their customer universe.

Authors Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba know how to take your company’s best customers and build them into influential, loyal, and enthusiastic evangelists. In Creating Customer Evangelists, you will learn how to develop evangelism marketing strategies and programs that will create communities of influencers who can drive sales for your company.

From their research into the best practices of some of the most forward-thinking companies, McConnell and Huba outline and explain the six basic tenets of creating customer evangelists:

· Customer plus-delta: Continuously gather customer feedback.
· Napsterize knowledge: Make it a point to share knowledge freely.
· Build the buzz: Expertly build word-of-mouth networks.
· Create community: Encourage communities of customers to meet and share.
· Make bite-size chunks: Devise specialized, smaller offerings to get customers to bite.
· Create a cause: Focus on making the world, or your industry, better.

McConnell and Huba profile eight highly successful companies to illustrate these tenets and prove how solid customer relationships build and sustain companies through good and rocky times. These in-depth company profiles provide real-life examples of evangelism marketing at work, including the opportunities and pitfalls of specific campaigns.

Creating Customer Evangelists explains how organizations as diverse as Southwest Airlines, Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, The Dallas Mavericks, IBM, and others successfully built their customer base and created targeted marketing programs to involve their biggest fans. These programs have produced legions of unofficial salespeople and a cost-effective and powerful marketing force.

By deepening customer relationships, successful organizations create communities that generate grassroots support and value for their products and services. Creating Customer Evangelists focuses on this ultimate marketing approach. McConnell and Huba demonstrate how you can convert good customers into exceptional ones who willingly spread the word.

About the Author

Jackie Huba is the coauthor of two books on customer loyalty: Citizen Marketers: When People are the Message which documents the emerging world of social media and how brands should begin to embrace a participatory culture. Jackie's first book, Creating Customer Evangelists: How Loyal Customers Become a Volunteer Sales Force explains how companies convert customers into evangelists who spread the word about products, benefits or value propositions. ;Creating Customer Evangelists has been translated into six languages and has become a strategic focus for companies around the world. Her upcoming book, Monster Business: Loyalty Lessons from Lady Gaga will be released Spring 2012.
Named as one of the 10 most influential online marketers, Jackie co-authors the award-winning Church of the Customer blog. With more than 100,000 daily readers, it's ranked as one of the most popular business blogs in the world. Her work has frequently been featured in the media, such as the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, BusinessWeek, and Advertising Age. She was a founding Board Member of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association.

She is an 11-year veteran of IBM, a graduate of Penn State University, a Pittsburgh Steelers fanatic and resides in Austin, Texas.
Ben McConnell is a Managing Director at PwC and the coauthor of two books on customer loyalty: Citizen Marketers: When People are the Message, which documents the emerging world of social media and how brands should begin to embrace a participatory culture. Ben's first book, Creating Customer Evangelists: How Loyal Customers Become a Volunteer Sales Force explains how companies convert customers into evangelists who spread the word about products, benefits or value propositions. Creating Customer Evangelists has been translated into six languages and has become a strategic focus for companies around the world.

Edition details

• Publisher: Lewis Lane Press
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0988195402
• ISBN 13: 9780988195400
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 242