All of these examples of people I am connected to, have paid money to, and religiously follow have one thing in common… they’re all engageous!

Engageous is my term that means “perpetually engaging without pause.” It’s the idea that in order to build a true following or community, you must constantly be engaging your followers, customers, fans in constant communication and interaction. Now this doesn’t mean every second of everyday, but it does mean that in some form or fashion you try to engage your audience daily. If letting them know that you will not be available still can engage them. Give them something to talk about while you’re away!

How They Pulled Me In

I learned about Brian Clark’s “Teaching Sells” online membership site through a professional connection. I was already following him on his blog at Copyblogger, and read all the hype about this new upcoming service. Constantly being engaged by his concepts in his posts and the free information given at Teaching Sells, I was almost instantly sold and was one of 300 people who actually got in the first year’s enrollment that sold out in 24 hours. I paid $1,000 for that access and it has been invaluable!

Chris and Julien did this through Twitter, Facebook, and their own blogs to both conduct research for and promote their book Trust Agents. That’s how they sucked me in. I followed a tweet that took me to the Trust Agents landing page, that took me to Facebook where Chris and Julien were constantly updating the followers there as to the status of the book. On top of that they asked engaging questions and created open discussions about the topic of trust, being a trust agent, and the changes in this new trust economy. Guess what, that only made me want the book more! As of this writing, it’s sitting on a UPS truck waiting to be delivered to my door! HURRY UP!

Pamela Slim is a new person in my little world. I heard she was visiting Charlotte for a week and was invited to an event of thought leaders around the topics of entrepreneurship, new media marketing, social media, and connectivity. After sitting down with her in a fantastic discussion about supporting entrepreneurship in the Charlotte area with other business owners, professionals, and public officials, I became an instant follower and bought her book, followed her on Twitter, and read her blog.

Still Think Social Media Cannot Generate Sales?

These are just a few examples of people I have exchanged money for what I deemed valuable from them. But what each one of these had in common that pulled me in was this, they were engageous. They knew it was about the conversation not the conversion.

Are you engageous? If you are, share your story with me. What are you engaging people in?

In my work with small businesses, the concept of customer evangelist is always at the forefront of any marketing strategy being contemplated. Why? Because word-of-mouth referrals is still the #1 way to convert prospects to customers. Not to mention, with these businesses oftentimes having a much smaller ad budget, the idea of something that can generate free advertising is very attractive!

5 Steps to Connect and Grow Customer Evangelists

It’s amazing to me that when this concept is first brought up in my work with my clients, that it is oftentimes viewed as one of the most difficult and time-consuming activities. In reality, its actually quite simple to find and engage your customer evangelists. The difficulty comes in how you interact and how you build your relationship with them.

Here’s five simple steps to connect and grow your customer evangelists:

1. Identify your customers who reflect the traits of an evangelist

These customers are the ones who have shown the most passion towards your brand, your product, or service! They tell everyone about how you helped them in some way and why they think you are the best. Take note, these may not be the customers who have spent the most with you! To find them, perform a Google search on your company, product, or service. FYI, they’ll be the ones talking about you! Capture as much information about them as you can with the focus being on how to contact them.

2. Get to know your customers better by getting them together

Plan an event to bring together your top customers in a smaller, more intimate setting where you can focus on getting to know each one individually. These will include both the current “evangelists” you found in step #1 as well as your top customers based on sales. If your customers are all over the United States and it would be difficult or too costly to bring them all together at one location, find a way to either have multiple local events or create an online portal where you can interact using multi-media tools (web conferencing, phone conferencing, instant message, etc.) We prefer and recommend that this event be in-person at your facilities or local meeting facilities.

3. Give your evangelists deeper access to your organization

You need to create an “evangelist support team” who act as exclusive points of contact for these individual customers and who offer additional access to information than what you would publicly share. People love exclusivity. It makes them feel a part of a special group and much more likely to continue engaging your organization. Having more information and access to write about will ensure your evangelists continue talking up your offerings.

4. Routinely engage your evangelists to provide more insights and request feedback

There is nothing worse to evangelists than when the organization they support seems to cut all lines of 2-way communication. You can’t stop engaging them or else they will quickly lose trust in you. Keep engaging them. Whether it be by planned conference calls, online communities, or emails, be sure to continue reaching out to them for feedback (and listen to it) and share with them new insights into the organization.

5. Repeat these steps to create new evangelists

Once you have one group of customer evangelists, it’s not time to stop! Things can happen in the lives of these individuals and some may fall away. Some may run away due to how you’ve treated them or if your product failed them, miserably. Always continue reaching out and connecting to a new group of evangelists. Doing so can increase your geographical reach, continually reinforce your value offerings, and maybe even open up new lines of revenue. You never know what one relationship can bring! So don’t stop creating them!

How have you created customer evangelists?

Now it’s your turn. Tell me how you have created customer evangelists for your organization? What did you do to connect with them? How did you empower them to share with their network of relationships?