"Retained customers are always far more profitable than newly acquired customers. They have a better understanding of the brand’s benefit and value, and they are easier to find and communicate with."
– Christie Nordhielm, Professor, University of Michigan Ross School of Business

Most customer loyalty programs suck.

Well, maybe I was a bit harsh. Let me restate that.

Most customer loyalty programs are backwards.

Loyalty should be about the loyalty of the company to the customer, and not the other way around. Actually, commercial loyalty is mostly reciprocal. The repeat business and loyal customers that you seek will come your way…when you put a program in place that also keeps you loyal to them. The sad thing is that most loyalty programs don’t take into account this principle of reciprocity.

More to the point, the burden of loyalty rests with the company and not with the customer. Don’t give me some program where I’m the one doing all of the work all of the time, such as clipping UPCs over the period of a year or watching for when and which points will expire so I can get enough for a pair of socks. Make it so easy for me to do repeat, rewarding business with you, that you keep track of in your own system so that all I have to do is show up, buy something and feel the love.

Better yet – make purchase an optional component in your loyalty program. Loyalty is a behavior, not a transaction and it’s about time we treated it with more respect.

Think loyalty is for "some other company"? You’re leaving money on the table. (found in the sources listed below in Where Else to Look)

• On average, existing customers spend 67% more than new customers
• Acquiring a new customer can cost up to 5 – 10X more than retaining existing customers.
• A 5% increase in customer retention results in 25-100% increases in profit.

Q&A | QUESTIONS & ACTIONS

Here are a few things that you might consider to up your loyalty to your customers, and theirs to you.

1. Think of the ways that you exhibit loyalty to your customers. Short list? Work on that first.
2. Don’t make purchase the only indicator of loyalty. Facebook recommendations, word of mouth and other non-cash interactions illustrate the loyal behavior that you’re seeking as well
3. Make it easy and keep the burden of tracking data and points on you.
4. Use the data wisely. Your loyal customers are a gold mine. Use that data strategically and you’re set for life!

Where else to look?

Customer Loyalty: How to Earn It, How to Keep It >> by Jill Griffin

The Loyalty Effect: The Hidden Force Behind Growth, Profits, and Lasting Value >> by Frederick F. Reichheld

Evidence that Facebook Works as Marketing Tool >> by Jeff Cornwall [ARTICLE]

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I know, this is really nothing new under the sun, but I rarely see it so it seems worth mentioning.

An even better execution might be a tiered approach, especially if it’s a significant product launch, where you offer something like 30% off on day 1 of 3 to the first 10 that day, 20% off to the next 20 on the 2nd of 3 days leading up to launch and then 10% off to the first 30 people of the 3rd day…

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It’s that disdain for the omnipresence of some brands that makes this story on Jimmy Winkelmann’s “The South Butt” brand such an awesome story!

Fed up at the constant presence of nonathletic college students sporting the latest North Face goods that should be better served outfitting a Sherpa than a student, Jimmy created his counter-brand called “The South Butt”. As Jimmy puts it,

The South Butt idea is simple: stay comfortable, relaxed, and always be yourself. Never Stop Relaxing

I can get behind that! The North Face, on the other hand, is not happy. They’re taking Jimmy to court…so we’ll see who wins. Actually, Jimmy was offered $1M from TNF, but he turned it down as his clothing line is turning out to be insanely profitable!

All this “south butt” stuff got me thinking.

What are the dominant brands that are annoyingly ubiquitous in other industries that one could successfully counter? More to the point – what ‘counter-branding’ measures could you use in your firm?

I can think of one that I saw recently that’s a parody brand of “Life is Good” that’s called “Life is Crap“. The shirts are funny enough and they graphics depict life’s less desireable moments with a wonderful humor. While I’m generally a positivist and have my own stock of “Life is Good” stuff kicking around, the Life is Crap message is irresistible at times.

What’s your favorite example of a parody brand or counter-brand? What can you do with this idea in your own industry? This could be fun!

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1. ‘Thought Leading’ Your Way to Premium Brand Status

Mayo Clinic developed this brand, this reputation, by primarily playing brand defense – rather than offense.  Brand defense focuses on maintaining the purity of the brand; it is analogous to the sociological phenomenon of protecting the honor of the family name. It includes preventing institutional decisions, behaviors, or relationships that would undermine the integrity of the organization and responding vigorously through legal or other means to external parties that exploit the brand.

This is admittedly contrary to what I usually say about thought leaders always “playing offense” as part of the insurgent marketing mentality that most thought leaders posses. However, Mayo Clinic is no ordinary thought leader.

In fact, there’s been a great deal of discussion about “getting to” or attaining thought leader status, but there’s decidedly less discussion on defending, sustaining and growing your thought leadership status once you’ve attained it. I’m reminded of a great saying from the cycling movie, American Flyers:

“Res firma mitescere nescit”  or, as literally translated, “A firm resolve does not know how to weaken.” and as stated in the movie “Once you’ve got it up, keep it up!”

That is literally the resolve that a thought leader requires in order to sustain a valid thought leadership position. Once they’ve got it up, they need to keep it up. Further, once they’ve got it up, they must defend it, just as Mayo does with their defensive branding strategy.

How then, when most of thought leadership is about playing offense, developing your point of view and engaging with and advocating for a change in perspective, do you shift gears to move to a defensive position to protect your brand and thought leader status?  Well, as it’s been stated before, the best defense is still a good offense. Thought leaders stay on top by, well, leading. In fact, as you’ll see in some of the instructive “brand management acid test” questions that Mayo asks (according to the article), the defensive posture is taken less with the ‘outside world’ and more with the ‘internal team’ to ensure that their endeavors meet their long-held brand standards.

The table below is one of the key features of the article. It lays out in six points the questions that Mayo Clinic asks as a defense against doing something that might be inconsistent with their brand. This struck me as a great simple test that could be adapted to create a ‘defense position for a thought leadership point of view’. You’ll see Mayo’s original acid test questions in the left column and the adapted thought leadership acid test questions in the right hand column.

What are your thoughts? How do you feel brands should defend and sustain (or, defend to sustain) their thought leading position? Or, are there a different set of questions that we should be asking here?

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When you look at the comparison of where the client company was coming from, this custom developed solution was far less expensive than what they had been doing to accomplish the same objective, so in their eyes, it was a tremendous savings. It wasn’t about off the shelf vs. custom developed (to which I’d further digress it the customization vs. configuration argument and whether or not either company has some NIH issues, but we’ll not go there today) but rather about a vast improvement for less than they were spending now. So, maybe it wasn’t the hard cost benefit analysis that sold them…then what was it?

What all of us in the meeting were astonished at was the response from the lead presenter when asked the question “so, why did the go with you, a relatively small shop and not a name brand company that does development work full time? (this was a small web-dev shop at the core)” to which they replied “Because of our passion.”. They repeated that phrase even though a few of us asked the same question a few different ways.

While we were all fairly quick to dismiss that, believing rather in the complexity of the decision process and the “right place – right time” that the fortunate web-dev company had going for them, perhaps it is about passion in some small or even some very large way.

Maybe it is about passion. In fact, when I look at my own wins, and the wins of client companies and peers that are, at least in some small way, considered thought leaders in their field (remember, you can define how large/small/who’s in the field), there’s actually very little competition and the passion for the subject, as evidenced by your thought leading point of view and the work you’ve done in the space speaks for itself, maybe it’s the whole “passion equation” that got you to the dance with the prom queen in the first place.

Now, I’m not saying that having passion for something is the only thing, or that it’s a great “strategy” to build your company on, but at the end of the day, would you rather work with the company that loves what it’s doing and revels in solving the challenges you face and emanates that love for the “game” or would you rather work with the calculating cost-benefit analysis type that brings no emotion to the game?

I’m just sayin’ here, but I’ll tell you, my money goes with the passionate revelers any day of the week!

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Businesses are encouraged to place a single, simple offer on the Rev Up the Rebound Web site. Then, spread the word among friends, family, neighbors and fellow community members to buy from the businesses providing the momentum behind Rev Up The Rebound. We’ll also drive traffic to the site through print advertising in The Business News, e-communication via the Chamber’s newsletters and radio ads on Cumulus Broadcasting.

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Get on board today by registering your business’ deal and support of Rev Up the Rebound here.

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“Eat a live toad the first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.”
– Unknown

I’ve had a few emails asking something to the effect of “so, this stuff is great, but how am I supposed to keep up?” We’ll take care of that issue today!

For the past several days, you’ve been fed a constant diet of marketing ideas, planning tips and action items. Some of them might seem out of order (like, shouldn’t we have done some segmenting, targeting and positioning somewhere in the mix here?) but I assure
you that in the order of DIY importance for every entrepreneur, there are multiple paths that you can take and this is just one version.

Let’s look at what we’ve done so far:

*** Day 1: Every Good [Marketing] Journey Starts With a Map!

*** Day 2: Does everyone know about you who should know about you?

*** Day 3: Time to work on your “number one, number two” strategy. Are you playing offense?

*** Day 4: Are you giving back enough of what you’ve gained?

*** Day 5: Friday is “make me a smarter marketer” day.

*** Day 6: Let’s talk about building your marketing database/list this weekend!

*** Day 7: 31 Ways to Build Your Mailing Database.

We’ve been through a lot already, and there’s so much more to go! I hope you’re all looking forward to a great month ahead!

There’s still time to catch up if you want to get in on the program! If you’re still not signed up, you can join the entrepreneur’s DIY marketing e-course and get the free e-book “30 Ideas in 30 Days” today. Just fill out the form below!

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Let’s make something clear at the beginning. Not every idea in here is meant to work in every business. But you can be sure that you will find several that will work in your business!

I’ve pulled together some of the best ideas that have universal appeal, but not everything will work for you. Please use what you can and discard the rest. This e-book is simply a catalyst for your marketing endeavors and business growth. The ideas herein are meant to be internalized and adapted to your own needs, your own business, your own market conditions and mixed in with your own brand of creativity and innovation. Anything less just wouldn’t fit your entrepreneurial spirit!

I know that the ideas here, and the ideas and action summaries delivered each day in the Entrepreneurs “Do It Yourself” Marketing Month e-course will get you the results you’re seeking!

The key to making marketing work for you, whether it’s an idea you read in this book, come up with on your own or pick up from another resource is to maintain focus and consistency. Don’t go overboard and dilute your efforts by trying all of these ideas at once. It won’t work, your efforts will be too diluted and it will be nearly impossible to track what worked and what didn’t.

Marketing is a daily thing. If you’re not doing a few things every day to market your business, you’re falling behind. Jay Conrad Levinson, the creator of the popular Guerilla Marketing book series, once wrote:

“One good marketing idea is a precious commodity. One good marketing idea that you can implement all by yourself is equally desirous.”

Sign Up and Download Your Copy of 30 Ideas in 30 Days Today!

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So, what does “thought leadership is not enough” really mean? Well, in short, there are really three components that make up the thought leadership marketing go to market strategy. Thought Leadership, Insurgent/Underdog Marketing and Social Media Marketing. This is cliched ‘three legged stool’ that holds up the concept of thought leadership marketing. In short, being a thought leader will not be ‘enough’ in the near future. In fact, I’d argue that it never has been, but we’ll save that for another argument. Let’s look at each of the three components:

Read the rest of Thought leadership alone is not enough…

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