Whether youโre a sports fan or not, itโs fairly easy to imagine what a superfan looks like. These people are often decked out in their favorite team’s colors and actively engaged in everything that involves the team they love.
Fortunately, you can create these same types of fans who show this passion for and commitment to your business. Brand superfansย are the biggest supporters of your business. Learn more about these types of fans and why theyโre so beneficial for your company.
Why focus on brand superfans?
It’s easy to get wrapped up in checking social media statistics, website visitor totals, and sales reports. With that in mind, you might be forgetting about your company’s most important metric: its customers.
Every time your company and its employees interact with customers, you have the chance to create a superfan. You know what a superfan is, now itโs time to learn more about why itโs so important to focus on creating them.
Theyโre enthusiastic about your business
If your company sells products or services, and most do, you’ll look for salespeople with lots of enthusiasm. Someone who looks or acts bored when trying to sell a product or service isnโt likely to get great results. In the world of sales, you need excited and positive employeesย to get these same emotions from your customers.
The same goes for customer superfans: they need to be enthusiastic about you to sell your product. You donโt necessarily have to create new job postings to find these enthusiastic “salespeople,” though. If your company has superfans, youโll have an entire team of them. Brand superfans work for free to sell brands they love to others in the form of referralsย and word-of-mouth marketing.ย The infectiousness of a superfanโs enthusiasm and excitement makes it easy for others around them to start feeling the same way.
Plus, hearing about a company from a consumer is as honest as it gets. This is great for people who donโt like being pitched to by a company and its employees.
They gladly share your company with other people
Brand superfans don’t just passively like your company. Rather, they are passionate about all things involving your brand. When youโre passionate about something, you usually find ways to sneak these topics into everyday conversations.
Think about the last time a company went above and beyondย to help you. This might have been in the form of a helpful customer service callย or a salesperson taking their time to explain a product or serviceย to you. If youโre like most people, itโs hard not to tell othersย about how happy you are with this business.
One study found that 59.3% of loyal customers will refer others to the brands they love. This type of referral marketingย is a powerful endorsement of your company. Itโs also great for increasing your companyโs social media presence. For instance, research shows that 38% of survey respondents would follow a company on Facebookย if close friends or family members did the same thing.
Theyโre often big spenders
Many companies work hard to do everything possible to acquire new customers. After all, new customers mean more profit, right? While itโs true that new customers are essential for company growth, make sure youโre not neglecting the customers youโve already won over. These brand fans might be spending more on your business than you think.
One study found that 43% of customers spend more money with companies theyโre loyal to. When superfans continue showing brand loyalty through purchases with your company, theyโll often spend much more than any other customers. How much more? Recent researchย found that a companyโs top 10% of customers spend three times moreย than an average customer. It gets even better, the top 1% of customers spend five times more!
They defendย your company through any bad times
While itโs never something a business owner wants to think about, there might be times when your company is facing a bit of bad press. This can happen for many reasons, some of which might be outside of your companyโs control.
Letโs imagine youโve recently had to fire an employee. After that happens, this former employee decides to get on a social media account and publicly blast your company. Making matters worse, this person is telling outright liesย in an attempt to win the public over.
While this can wreak havoc on certain companies, itโs rarely the case for a business with lots of extremely loyal customers. If your company has superfans, theyโll be ready to defend your company at a momentโs notice.
How to turn fans into hyper-engaged superfans
After learning why itโs so important to have superfans, youโll need to learn how this happens. It indeed takes time and effort to create superfans. Fortunately, weโve created a helpful list of tipsย that are easy to implement. Hereโs how to use these tips to create hyper-engaged brand superfans.
Identify current superfans of your company
Itโs almost impossible to find your companyโs superfansย if youโre not sure of what to look for. Fortunately, there are several ways to accomplish this goal. Itโs a good idea to use social media monitoring softwareย to keep an eye out for any mentions of your company as well as its products or services.
If youโre ready to find your brandโs superfans, make sure to check out our list of 16 of the best brand mention tools. By using these tools, youโll have a much easier time searching for and finding your brand superfans.
During these searches, you might come across one or several people who continue positively mentioning your brand. These are your superfans. After finding them, itโs a good idea to like and shareย their superfan posts.ย Also, make sure you send them a message letting them know how much your company appreciates their fandom.
If you canโt find any brand superfans, itโs ok, we have plenty of tips to help you out below.
Fully interact with your customers on social media
If you want to create true superfans, youโll need to always be interacting with your followers on social media. Itโs easy to leave an occasional like or comment and leave it at that. However, this isnโt an effective way to create superfans.
Instead, your company needs to like and comment on all positive mentions of your company. Let all of your companyโs followers show just how much your business cares. In addition to leaving likes and comments, itโs also important to make sure youโre focusing on the importance of sharing user-generated content.
And, yes, you’ll also want to interact with customers who are unhappy with your company. Look at JetBlue’s response to an angry customer as a great example.
Encourage brand superfans to post user-generated content
Throughout a typical year, businesses spend countless amounts of money on marketing efforts. If youโre tired of testing various marketing campaigns with less-than-stellar results, think about having superfans create whatโs known as user-generated content.
This type of content doesnโt come directly from your company or community influencers. Instead, itโs from consumers who love a company show much they want to share it with the world. Best of all, user-generated content costs your company nothing.
A great example of how to do this comes from the coffee company Starbucks. Each year, Starbucks holds itsย White Cup Contest.ย To participate in this contest, all you need is one of Starbucksโ iconic white cups, a bit of artistic creativity, and an Instagram account.
After fans complete their works of art, they enter this contest by using the #whitecupcontest hashtag and include their images. This contest shows how dedicated Starbucksโ fans are and itโs a great way for this company to effectively promote itself on social media.
Reward superfans for their engagement
Having brand superfans is great, but itโs also important to remember to give back to them. Most companies with superfans know the importance of making these brand ambassadorsย feel rewarded.
Itโs a good idea to include additional rewards points for shoppers who leave reviewsย about purchases they make from your company. You can also offer additional reward program points for people who share your companyโs postsย on their social media accounts. Companies often like to do this when theyโre hosting social media contests.
The North Faceย does a great job of rewarding its biggest brand superfans with a great rewards program. This program rewards loyal customers while giving them several options to earn Peak Points.
Whereas certain retailers reward customers for making purchases, this company also issues reward points for those who check-in at this companyโs retail locations and take part in brand events. Being an outdoor apparel brand, The North Face offers generous rewards for loyal customers,ย including paid trips to beautiful locations around the world.
Another great example of how to reward superfans comes from the Toronto Raptors. This NBA team has had lots of ups and downs, and Raptors superfan Nav Bhatia was there to see most of them. The true definition of a superfan, Nav hadnโt missed a single Toronto Raptors home game since 1995.
How did the Raptors reward this brand superfan? By giving him his very own championship ringย to celebrate along with the team after the Toronto Raptors won the 2019 NBA Finals. In this case, it certainly paid off to spend decades being a Toronto Raptors superfan!
Real-world examples of how companies create superfans
Example 1: Jeep
If you drive a Jeep, you might notice fellow Jeep drivers begin waving at you as your vehicles pass by each other. This is the phenomenon known as the โJeep Wave”. This connection between people who drive Jeep vehicles wasn’t the result of a genius marketing campaign. Instead, it’s something that fans of this company started on their own. As these drivers wave to each other, they’re silently exchanging theirย brand super fandomย to each other.
You donโt have to be a Jeep owner to experience the many ways this company bonds with its customers. While driving, youโve likely seen drivers of these vehicles proudly displaying their brand superfan statusย with Jeep branded spare wheel covers. You know, the ones featuring a scruffy, smiley face or the name of this company in bold lettering.
Another way Jeep fosters brand super fandom is by encouraging customers to take part in Jeep groups. These groups consist of proud Jeep owners who get together and share their love for this brand.
When these brand fans get together, they often share photos of their experiences. By doing this, Jeep is also receiving the potential for lots of new user-generated content.
Example 2: Mythical Entertainment
If you spend any of your time watching content on YouTube, youโve likely seen the channel Good Mythical Morning. This channel was started by Rhett McLaughlin and Charles Neal, better known to their fans as Rhett and Link. With over 16 million subscribers, this duo is a great example of how one company can create an army of superfansย or โmythical beasts,โ a term for their fans used by Rhett and Link.
One way Mythical Entertainment creates a brand communityย is by encouraging their viewers to create introsย for โThe Wheel of Mythicality” segments of their flagship show. And, throughout the history of Good Mythical Morning, over 1,600 fans have been featured in these intros. As you can see from the image below, Mythical Entertainment makes it incredibly easyย for fans to submit their videos.
Itโs understandable to wonder how Mythical Entertainment can monetize this amount of viewers. After all, YouTube ad revenue is a lot different than television commercial ad space. Rhett and Link monetize this viewershipย with revenue from this companyโs Mythical store. This store features branded clothing, cups, and other items that Rhett and Link include on their hit YouTube series.
For another great example of how to create brand superfans, youโll want to check out the Mythical Society. The Mythical Society is a monthly membership groupย for superfans that entitles them to exclusive content and even the ability to video chat with Rhett and Link. With this membership group, Mythical Entertainment further involves fans and superfans in this continuation of this business.
The Mythical Society also provides a great example of utilizing exclusivity and harboring a tight-knit community by offering giftsย that only certain members are eligible to receive. Most superfans of Rhett and Link will want these items (including a few pictured below) that arenโt available to the public.
Example 3: WWE
Hear me out. Yes, I know that professional wrestling is all rehearsed by trained professionals. The thing is, so do most of this companyโs millions of fans. Yet, they continue to show their super fandom. If youโre wondering how to create brand superfans, World Wrestling Entertainment or WWE is an amazing case study in how to do so.
WWEโs social media statisticsย also speak volumes to how fan interaction and forming a community of fans can catapult a brand in terms of popularity. This company currently has:
- 226 million Instagram followers
- 46 million YouTube subscribers
- 221 million Twitter followers
- And more Facebook Fans than the NFL or NBA.
How do they earn these types of followers? By posting lots of exclusive social media content. This type of content encourages people to follow these brands to ensure they donโt miss out on anything important. WWE also posts lots of content that promotes interactivityย between this companyโs performers and their social media audiences.
Throughout the year, WWE hosts over 500 live events throughout the world. At these events, youโll find plenty of brand superfans vocalizing their support. Fortunately, you donโt need WWEโs budget to create these types of superfans. Think about hosting eventsย on a smaller scale that allow fans of your brand to meet up and share their support as part of a community.
Wrapping things up
In closing, one of the most beneficial things a company can do for itself is to create brand superfans. Some of the best ways to achieve this goal include focusing on fan interaction, creating a sense of community, and providing unmatched customer service. By following these strategies, youโll have superfans who champion your brandย every step of the way.