Turning Fans into Customers and Customers into Fans

David Meerman Scott is an American online marketing strategist and author of several books on marketing, including The New Rules of Marketing and PR. David has a truly global mindset born from ten years working in countries outside of the U.S. and as an international speaker in over 40 countries and on all seven continents. His marketing expertise is backed by real-world experience building businesses, running marketing and sales teams, and advising highly successful companies.

In this video we will be discussing David’s new book; Fanocracy: Turning Fans into Customers and Customers into Fans.

David Meerman Scott and his daughter Reiko are very different – one is a baby boomer business strategist, the other a millennial medical student. But both noticed that the kind of enthusiasm they once reserved for pleasures like the Grateful Dead (David) and Harry Potter (Reiko) now extends to all sorts of companies and organizations. So they teamed up to explore a big question: Why do some brands, even in supposedly boring categories like car insurance and enterprise software, attract not just customers but raving fans?

Expert insight interview with John and David covers the below points:

These days, communication has become very superficial. So how do you know if you are communicating with the body?

Nowadays, people want to be treated as humans and want to have more connections. So what are David’s views regarding this concept?

How does a company rise above all of the superficial noise and be able to project enough authenticity that people want to connect with that company in a way and they want to connect with their favorite sports game or anything else?

“Fanocracy” features a wide range of examples, including…

• The surfboard maker that invites customers into its workshop, where it reveals its proprietary processes.
• The underwear startup that’s “empowering people to live a life of boldness.”
• The teenager who turned eggs (the ultimate commodity) into a unique and delightful brand.
• The nonprofit that works closely with musicians to encourage their fans to register and vote.
• The battery company that wins loyalty by giving away its products during natural disasters.

The key is creating what they call a “fanocracy” – an organization that puts the needs and wishes of fans ahead of every other priority. It can be scary, at first, to focus on intangibles like community, generosity, and fun, rather than squeezing every penny from each interaction.

Our Host

John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.