A recent Harvard Business study found that increasing customer retention by just 5% can increase profits by 95%.
Statistics like this show the value of not only reaching new customers, but building on the relationships you’ve already developed with your current customers.
Jeanette Gibson, Hootsuite’s VP of Community & Customer Experience, shared her insights into how Hootsuite has found success through a strong commitment to building relationships in our recent webinar, Building Brand Love: How Hootsuite Leverages Customer Communities to Grow its Business and Build Advocacy.
If you missed out, the webinar is now available to view on demand.
Turn Content into Conversations
Marketers are in a great position to engage directly with audiences and create sincere, enthusiastic brand advocates. And now more than ever, brands are expected to be publishers. Companies that create unique, relevant content that can be repurposed and passed along via an engaged community stand to become conversation drivers.
As Jeanette Gibson notes in the webinar, the buyer’s journey is no longer linear, and that’s the value of creating a community of involved and engaged followers, customers, and, over time, brand ambassadors. Using the Get Satisfaction platform, Gibson’s team has seen tremendous growth in its community, and the positive sentiment that comes with creating holistic experiences for the audience.
Listen to the webinar to hear how Hootsuite uses a two-pronged strategy to solve one of the greatest community challenges—increasing engagement.
- Vision – how you communicate with your audience
- Community Vision – building lasting relationships
In the webinar audience poll 48% of respondents indicated increasing engagement is their great community challenge.
Community’s Impact on Business
It costs 80% less to retain a customer than gain a new one.
Customer forums and advocacy programs, specifically ones that are mutually beneficial, can be an effective way to nurture customer relationships. In the webinar poll, 34% of respondents don’t yet have a community established and only 20% said that they have a formal customer advocacy program in place.
By not only offering practical tips and stories, but asking your audience to share their stories, too, you set the stage for real relationships and show your customers that you’re invested in their success. Gibson talks about how Hootsuite connects with people online and offline, building momentum and then sustaining that activity. Hear about the Ambassador Program, which not only identifies customers (through listening tools) that are already sharing on social media, but provides experiences and incentives to be users in their own communities.
Find out how Gibson and the Hootsuite community team overcame the biggest challenges—finding and engaging new members—and created a successful champions program. Gibson also shares her key takeaways in building a successful community including alignment of online and offline channels. By participating in community-based events like South by Southwest (SXSW) and making connections with social thought leaders like Brian Solis, Gibson and her team at Hootsuite were able to build the brand love and make inroads into new markets.
About the Speaker
Jeanette Gibson is Hootsuite’s VP of Community and Customer Experience. Involved in tech marketing through the dot-com boom and the dark days that followed, Jeanette brings over 15 years of experience to the VP Community and Customer Experience role with Hootsuite. Having previously led the Digital and Social Marketing team for Cisco Systems, Jeanette contributes her innate understanding of building respected, loved brands to the Hootsuite team.