Thunderbolt Digital are a local digital agency boasting years of experience in online marketing Surrey, SEM, social media management, and more! Our hard-working team are able to help struggling SMEs boost engagement and improve your online marketing strategy by working closely with you to understand your audience more clearly. In line with this, we like to look at the different types of users who might interact with our clients, and see how they can be a hindrance or a help to their online marketing strategy!
The internet, social media, and online marketing allow companies to reach a far wider audience than ever before, but whilst numbers are indeed important, there is a danger of forgetting the major importance of forging deep connections with audiences and creating fabled ‘superfans’. Superfans are those who show their loyalty to a brand by doing things like following them on social media, signing up for updates and newsletters, and personally recommending the brand to those they know (along with regularly doing business them, of course!).
The appeal of superfans, then, should be self-evident; a casual, flighty audience may be good for occasional brand engagement but may not even end up patronising the company, whereas a superfan regularly deals with their favoured business and can generate a fair amount of organic reach and business via word of mouth.
So what can be done to encourage superfans? Well, the answer is simple – rewards! Many companies have loyalty schemes set up for regular customers as an incentive for customers to come back, though – of course – this may not be suitable for every type of business out there – check out what others companies in similar industries are doing and see if you can implement something similar that can aid both you and your customers as well as staying true to your product or service.
Remember that it’s important not to neglect established superfans as well! Obviously, tracking superfans is much easier for SMEs, and ensuring that you engage with and reply to frequent contributors to your social media will make them feel much more appreciated, rather than taken for granted (which can lead to them going elsewhere!). There are of course other ways to track customer loyalty, including purchase frequency, reviews written and use of promotional codes found in newsletters; it’s important that you identify a way to measure superfans in a way that makes sense for your business.
Engagement surely is king in this age of social media, but remember to still focus on customer loyalty and sufficiently reward any superfans and brand ambassadors that crop up; their influence and importance to you must not be overlooked!