Thanks to Dorie Clark, who wrote this for Forbes.com about my new book, Evangelist Marketing.
They’re exactly the kind of customers you want – engaged, excited, and thrilled to tell others about your company. But can you actually convert customers into evangelists for your brand, or is it all just luck? Alex Goldfayn, author of the new Evangelist Marketing: What Apple, Amazon, and Netflix Understand About Their Customers(That Your Company Probably Doesn’t) is convinced there’s a formula that savvy businesses can follow.
A former technology columnist for the Chicago Tribune, Goldfayn draws on his extensive experience in the consumer electronics industry – but argues that any industry, from lawn care to banking, can successfully cultivate evangelists. In a recent podcast interview, Goldfayn shared his tips for building relationships with “hyper-repeat customers” who will “basically do your marketing for you.”
- Focus on mainstream customers. Too many companies, especially in the tech world, try to out-geek each other, competing on the basis on cool new technologies. But early adopters represent only 2-3% of the market, and when you’ve optimized a product for their needs (and marketed it as such), it probably won’t work that well for everyone else. So focus on the regular moms and dads, says Goldfayn, or else “you’re volunteering away the other 97% of your market.”
Read the rest of it over at Forbes, here.