Comments on: How to Acquire Customers by Marketing “Heroes”

By: Emily Merkle Snook

Emily Merkle Snook — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 11:39:06 +0000

To optimize your heroes, I've found this to be helpful:
1) identify your potential heroes by culling data from your CRM – number of contacts with clients with which you have had success, subjective data from client-facing individuals who have developed real relationships with the successful clients
2) investigate your heroes and rank-order them in terms of how “influential” or how much “reach” they have – look at the companies they work with, LinkedIn profiles and contacts, social networks, etc.
3) focus the love and cultivation on influential, successful, loyal clients who have wide reach
4) don't be afraid to ask for their support; engage them and make them feel like a special part of your marketing effort (they are)
5) turn about is fair play – ask your heroes what you can do for them – introductions, elite care, recommendations to their superiors, etc.
6) always reward your heroes' efforts and elicit their feedback & suggestions on how you can help them more to reach mutual success together
7) point your heroes in the direction they can be most effective
always be on the lookout for more heroes!

By: Williamberville

Williamberville — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 12:31:31 +0000

I liked very much this article. Testimonials could be of much more help than one has ever imagined. When we want to buy a new product and can't decide between two or three brands that seem to offer almost the same thing, at almost the same price, we check for opinions, usually on forums. They're the opinions of ordinary people, people like us, that have tried the product and love it. Having testimonials on the main page of our website is even better, people say what exactly they appreciated about the product or service and we try to find common features that would satisfy us as well. For example, if you are looking for capital and you have heard there are some investor lists on the internet, software you can download but you're supposed to buy it first, how do you make the final decision? You check the free trial download of some sites, you may like two or more...then you check the testimonials and if people say the database helps you move fast, save time and expenses, has all the contact details of the business investors, has helped them find capital, so they've become "business heroes" and you want to become one as well... What matters most, testimonials coming from VIPs -with pics and everything or those from common people, with small local businesses?

By: Brian C

Brian C — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 04:46:19 +0000

Excellent post. One of the best I've read in a while. This actually neatly sums up many of the sales successes and failures my company has gone through in the past few years. With the innovative early adopters, we succeed fabulously. With the people looking for the “standard” (or cheapest quoted price), we don't do as well. It is fun to watch our early adopters becoming more mainstream though.

By: Alex Fair

Alex Fair — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 05:55:36 +0000

yup, definitely a Chicken AND the Egg problem rather than a Chicken OR the Egg.

By: Neil Capel

Neil Capel — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 02:01:02 +0000

Excellent points. Promoting heroes as a means of pushing the adoption curve is good advice at pretty much any stage along the curve. We always advise our customers to look for and take care of these heroes or brand ambassadors, and there are lots of ways to do this. Their testimonials are valuable as social proof, but more important, people who love your brand often relish the opportunity to sing your praises. Finding clever ways of giving back to them–whether through discounts and incentives or through clever marketing ideas (like sending a camera so they can tape a “commercial” that talks about your service) can add a multiplier effect to that social proof effect.

By: Sailthru

Sailthru — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 02:00:12 +0000

By: Derek

Derek — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 23:09:55 +0000

As PT Barnum once said, “Nothing draws a crowd like a crowd.” I read the book The Influentials by Jon Berry and Ed Keller, which attempts to identify who makes the decisions that others in their community follow (the “heroes”, per se). The authors didn't do a great job. I enjoyed the Cialdini quote. Influence is on my list of books to read.

By: Senith @ MBA tutor

Senith @ MBA tutor — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 22:06:32 +0000

Great stuff. I run a tutoring service mostly for MBA students. Most of them dont want to share their positive experience with other fellow students. So getting them to give us a video testimony or use their photographs is a big challenge. But one that we are always trying to overcome!

By: jim

jim — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 18:34:03 +0000

It's like if OPPO digital read this before designing their Blu-Ray player!

By: Jacksparrow111

Jacksparrow111 — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 20:40:03 +0000

Great post!