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Marketers often fail at customer loyalty because they focus too much on finding new customers. That's exacerbated by salespeople who play the sales-driven numbers game in their ceaseless hunt for new customers, like slaying a gazelle on the grasslands.

New customers are scarce. Successful marketers work with salespeople to service their existing customers with gusto, generating super-charged loaylty. Witness the emotional -- and profitable -- brand loyalty for Harley Davidson motorcycles, Apple Macintosh computers and Krispy Kreme doughnuts.

To get you started on your customer evangelism proram, take a look at the six components that make up a customer evangelist approach and how some leading companies are using them effectively in selling their products and services.

1. Customer plus-delta
2. Build the buzz
3. Napsterize your knowledge
4. Create community
5. Make bite-size chunks
6. Create a cause

1. Customer plus-delta

To convert your customers into evangelists, you need to know what they love about your brand and your product. How? By talking to them. Find out:

* What are the commonalities?
* Are they consistent across differing customer segments?
* Do the commonalities consistently show up in specific segments?

Once you have identified the commonalities, you have the basis to begin your evangelism marketing program. (If the commonalities are not clear, then clearly you need to improve your product!)

Not only should you know what your customers love about you, you must know what they dislike about you. Avoid the Vigilante Consumer who converts his/her dissatisfaction into evangelizing against you. Studies by the U.S. Office of Consumer Affairs shows that the very dissatisfied customer may tell as many as 11 people about her disappointment, and each of them will tell others.

A consistent, focused customer dialogue program helps resolve problems quickly and is the basis for building strong, sustainable customer relationships.

2. Build the buzz

Traditional, mass-media advertising is not working. A study by advertising giant Euro RSCG Worldwide released in June 2001 tells the story: For generating excitement about products, word-of-mouth is 10 times more effective than TV ads and print ads.

"The message for technology marketers is that their budgets would be better spent on creating 'buzz' - positive word of mouth - and brand building than on traditional advertising, online or off," the report stated.

Creating buzz is about sending information through natural networks to get people talking. As described by researcher and author Emanuel Rosen, buzz usually starts with "network hubs" - people who love to tell others about the latest products in your category. The natural networks of these influential trendsetters include co-workers, friends and family. The networks listen and trust the hubs before buying something new. Make a list of the network hubs. Then reach out to them like a good friend. Introduce yourself and your product. Ask them to try it for free. Reward them for their feedback.

This type of buzz building works because there's energy and sincerity from a personal referral that traditional advertising can't match. Since networks are easily created through email and the Web, this kind of buzz building can quickly become viral.

Avoid dedicating huge amounts of marketing dollars to old-school advertising. Even the advertising agencies are saying it doesn't work anymore. Build the buzz.


3. Napsterize your knowledge

Napster is the program that allows a large community of users to share data with another. (In Napster's case, it is primarily digital versions of songs.)

The explosive, grassroots growth of Napster and its spin-off technologies (namely, peer-to-peer networking), are beginning to change entire industries by introducing a new distribution system for knowledge and data. Chances are, parts of your industry could be "napsterized" because in the customer-led economy, the perceived value of your products and services is becoming more dependent on open standards.

For professional services firms and technology companies, here's the upshot: The more you "Napsterize" your intellectual capital or technology, the faster it will be absorbed into the marketplace. The next step, we believe, is to sell services based on your intellectual know-how.

4. Create community

Part of the secret in creating customer evangelists is building a community of customers. In a community, you have gathered like-minded people who share something in common: You. Your community has a vested interest in your success. Your products and services have brought them together; now you can deepen your relationship with them.

If your customers get together, they often help solve each other's problems. Both Cisco Systems and Dell Computer Corp. successfully employ this as a strategy to cut down on technical support costs.

Whether your customers meet in person or over the Internet, they experience a deeper connection with you when you provide a common forum. General Motors' Saturn division successfully organizes an annual picnic each summer in Tennessee for thousands of customers.

As members of a community, your customers are much more likely to tell others about their neighborhood. And they might even invite their friends, family and colleagues to come and hang out. These new people may be your new customers.


5. Create bite-size chunks

Do your customers have ways to understand your products and services without making significant resource investments?

First-time buyers are hesitant to buy from an unfamiliar company if your technology is new or your price point is high. You're confident of the quality of your product, but how can you bridge the chasm of trust?

Try providing a "bite-size chunk" for an easy introduction to your product. A bite-size chunk can consist of a small training seminar, a reduced-feature or limited-use product.

The goal is to reduce the risk for decision-makers in purchasing from you. Extend the value and reap the rewards. This is a maxim for professional services firms and technology companies.


6. Create a cause

Does your organization have a cause? Does it rally customers to a vision? Are you working to clean up the air, save the sharks, improve education, help the homeless? Are you working to improve how people get along in the world, to make life more convenient and safer?

For-profit companies see themselves as furthering a cause and build community around their efforts. Both Harley Davidson and Southwest Airlines view themselves as symbols of freedom, one for the open road the other as freedom for making air travel affordable for the majority of Americans. For both companies, rallying both employees and customers to unite under the umbrella of their causes has been extremely effective.