Turning customers in to advocates: your starter for ten

In his November 2009 PR Week essay, Mandate’s digital expert Mark Pack made the point that in the online age, your happy customers can become effective advocates – marketing your brand or product to others.

He used the example of a trip to see the Jersey Boys in the West End where, despite the show having a strong online presence, “afterwards a theatre full of happy, energised customers was allowed to simply dissipate into the night, an over-priced CD sale or two in the foyer aside”.

So here is Mandate’s starter for ten – ten ideas for how in similar situations you can turn customers into advocates. The Jersey Boys may be the example, but the lessons are applicable much more widely - even to products and services with no singing involved!

1. The start of the show: What do people do just before the start of a show? Get their phones out, often have a check of messages and then turn them off. So it is also the ideal moment for an announcement over the public address system saying where people can follow the show or theatre on Twitter.

2. The interval: And what do people do during the interval? Get those phones out again – making it a great time to tell people of the hashtag for the show and encourage them to send a tweet about how it’s going so far.

3. The end of the show: Again it’s out with the phones when a show ends. So now is a good time to remind people about the hashtag and also suggest to people they may want to friend/fan the show or theatre on Facebook.

4. The post-show hook: When people get home, many of them will then have to decide what to do with the programme: bin or keep. But whatever they do, if the programme contains another prompt – such as encouraging people to review the show at one of the high-profile review sites – then that moment when they have the programme in hand and are near their computer can turn into another review for the show.

5. The links: People can be given a further encouragement to post reviews by you linking through to a selection of reviews from the show or theatre’s website. The possibility of that mark of official interest will often spur people on to making reviews. Watch out though – the tradition of highly selective quoting on the placards outside a theatre will get heavily criticised if replicated online. But don’t worry – research shows that a mix of negative and positive reviews helps raise sales because it makes the reviews sound more authentic.

6. The draw: A different tack is to encourage people to share content from the show, such as YouTube clips, on their own websites and blogs via a widget – as the Jersey Boys did. You can give this an extra push by running a prize draw for free tickets, entering anyone who puts the widget on a site.

7. The leaflet: It may be old-fashioned, but try giving people a leaflet as they leave the theatre – encouraging them to review the site or become an online friend or fan.

8. The database: If you have an email database of people who have purchased tickets you can also follow-up electronically, sending them a similar email prompt a day or two after they’ve attended the show. Offering a prize draw for tickets can also be a powerful way to build a larger database.

9. The poll: Mix in a bit of fun with a poll. Online polls are frequently very popular, so you can run one on a question such as, “What was your favourite song from the show?” with an option for people to share their vote via social media. This spreads their love of a song to a wider audience – encouraging them to come and hear it too.

10. The relationship: And finally - why not ask your keenest fans what they would like to see done?

In other words,  we've given some examples of how, rather than having people going away simply humming their favourite tunes from the show, people can be encouraged to spread the word and bring in more customers.

Those benefits can apply to more than just successful musicals. Do get in touch if you'd like to talk to us about how they might apply to yourself.