Every brand manager strives to acquire raving fans for their product or service. She wants someone who will buy their product and share their passion. But acquiring passionate fans is no small task. Best-selling author David Meerman Scott and his neuroscientist daughter Reiko Scott have written a marketing playbook that explains how to make this happen. They call this approach of tapping into an audience’s passion, Fanocracy.
Fanocracy is ripe with sweet examples and tactics to achieve this objective.
This father and daughter team argues that customers can easily leave a brand, and they won’t share their passion with like-minded friends. So what’s the best way to build loyalty and meaningful connections?
Human connections are at the core of this book. Online connections are too superficial and can leave you without the deeper experience that comes from proximity. People want human connections – not just the gloss of a shiny image. Most of all, they want to connect through common passions.
It is in the relationship that companies build with customers that can be more important than the products and services they sell.
Hegerty Insurance
Here is my favorite example from their book Fanocracy.
Who loves to buy car insurance?
Not many people.
But Hegerty Insurance found a different way.
CEO McKeel Hagerty knew that classic car owners were a passionate audience. He determined that he didn’t have to create an audience for classic car insurance; he had to tap into the passion of classic car lovers.
Millions subscribe to his Hegerty Insurance Company’s YouTube channel. Think about that idea. Millions are watching content from a car insurance company.
Hagerty creates video series that attract exactly the target he wants to reach. His video viewers are for passionate car lovers. By tapping into this pre-existing market, he can easily reach them to sell classic car insurance. Read the full story within Fanocracy but here is a little snippet from Hagerty’s YouTube Page:
Hagerty’s YouTube Page
Welcome to our YouTube channel! Do you like cars?
Well, so do we — a lot. We like driving cars, fixing cars, and finding old rusty ones in barns and fields. With our popular Barn Find Hunter series, you’ll get to ride along with renowned automotive author Tom Cotter as he scours the countryside for forgotten classics and digs up everything from Porsches, Corvettes, and Mustangs to Packards, Hudsons, and the occasional Ferrari.
Like things a little more fast-paced?
Check out our Redline Rebuild time-lapse videos that capture every step of a complete engine rebuild and compress it all down to a high-energy, 5-7 minute video of pure automotive awesomeness.
Need some tips on rebuilding that carburetor or getting that rusty bolt to come loose? We have you covered with our DIY series of helpful tips, tricks, and how-tos. There’s all this and so much more. But the first thing you have to do is SUBSCRIBE! So do that right now.
Seriously. Click here: https://goo.gl/nujcFJ
Classic Marketing Lessons
What people like Hagerty understand is that if you start with a passionate audience, your marketing job will be much easier.
“I didn’t have to create the category. I just had to tap into the passion of millions of members.” McKeel Hagerty
From The Marketing Sage
- Find a passionate audience to serve.
- Create valuable, helpful, and entertaining content for them as a member of the community.
- Don’t try and control the audience – become a helpful member offering something of value.
Does your business need a marketing coach, guide, or sherpa? Are you generating enough leads? Is your marketing underperforming? I can help.
You can set up a time to chat with me about your marketing challenges using my calendar. Our initial conversation is free. You talk, I listen. Email me jeffslater@themarketingsage.com or call me. 919 720 0995. Visit my website at www.themarketingsage.com Let’s explore working together today.
Book photo courtesy of the authors. Youtube copy and image from Hagerty Insurance. All rights reserved.
