The Power Of True Fans
Fans, Avatars, Buyer Personas, Ideal Customers - however, you want to slice or dice it - this exercise is one of the most important ones you will ever go through in your business journey - truly identifying the people you serve.
I always like to ask people to take it a level higher, to create Advocates.
By definition, Advocates are customers who publicly support or recommend your business, product, service, brand.
On the spectrum of Customers, Advocates are your cheerleaders, your super fans.
They are the lifeblood of your business - your unofficial marketing team that directly and indirectly PAY YOU over and over again [their Life Time Value is MUCH higher than a typical customer]
Create an army of advocates, and your business has the best foundation possible, not to mention all of the other people they bring along with them.
Get to know them, and allow them to get to know you.
Side Note - this is an epic article about Advocates, and how it is easier than we think to create an army of 1000 True Fans
So, why is this important?
Well, more often than not, you are NOT the only person delivering a product/service in your field, in your region.
So why should people care about you and your business?
If we take ego out of the equation, there can be a lot argued that there is actually little variance in the delivery of a service or product itself, ALL of the positive emotion is usually around the experience provided, and how you communicate and connect with them.
As Maya Angelou famously said;
“People will forget what you said,
People will forget what you did,
But people will never forget how you made them feel.”
When you break it down, your marketing is really just a curated amplification of word of mouth, and if it’s not… then you’re going to run into problems.
That is, if you are preaching a message that your actual customers don’t endorse, you are in the completely wrong place.
You need to position your messaging so you add the right fuel to the fire, otherwise, instead of igniting a spark, everything will go up in flames.
People will pay to revisit positive emotion.
People will PAY for solutions that solve their problems, and pay even more for providing an EXPERIENCE (which does start before the sale, and doesn’t finish at the purchase point either, by the way).
Deliver on this experience, and the right customer will never question your value (or the dollar signs attached to it).
If you spend the time honing in on their needs, and give them an experience worth raving about - they will bring that back to you tenfold.
From there, you just need to continue to manage expectations and deliver on your promise.
Easy enough...
People want to receive an experience, consistent with their expectation, and what they are willing to pay, is adjacent to the value they receive.
So WHO do you want? WHY would they benefit? And HOW are you going to curate a campaign to deliver this CONSISTENTLY?
Remember, every THING is Marketing - every interaction.
Going through this exercise will become the core of your message, marketing, and offerings. Your future advocate is the filter through which all the other elements of your business will flow through.
Zac