In this article:

• Creating a community of evangelists
• Integrating online and offline community activities
• What every business can learn from a Christmas toy drive

Let’s not call them “virtual” communities anymore.  The people interact, they speak with passion, many create friendships, and their strength together can create action both offline and online.

Virtual communities are real communities built online.

And in a time when many more people are in need, online communities are calling people to action in the real world in ways that are faster and more effective than just traditional word-of-mouth, speaking engagements and mailers.

Case in point, the vibrant online community at Willow Glen 2.0, which is made up of over 500 residents of this San Jose suburb (total population 46,782) has called its supporters to action for the local Toys for Tots drive at the Garden Theatre in downtown Willow Glen.

This community has done what many businesses that have opened online communities haven’t been able to do: succeed.  The fact is, according to Deloitte’s Ed Moran as published in the Wall Street Journal, most online communities fail.  And the main reason cited is that “businesses are focusing on the value an online community can provide to themselves, not the community.”

For Oracle, in the early part of this century, I started one of their first online communities and signed up members from over 5,000 companies around the world without an extensive budget in marketing or technology.

I’ll talk about some of the approaches we used and the lessons we learned that contributed to our success — and how all businesses can learn a thing or two from the integrated marketing done by in Willow Glen 2.0.

Read the rest of this article »

In this article:

• Determining the lifetime value of a customer
• Choosing the right customers to focus on
• Developing higher value customer relationships (CARLA)
• Building an effective referral system

Earning the business of a new customer is six to seven times more expensive than retaining an existing one according to Bain & Company director emeritus and author of The Loyalty Effect, Frederick Richheld.  So it makes sense to focus marketing efforts, not only on new customer acquisition, but also on increasing the lifetime value of your existing customers.
Read the rest of this article »