Flip the Funnel: How to Use Existing Customers to Gain New Ones

BLOGGING BELONGS TO YOU

The good news is that you’re not completely shut out. You do have the ability to join your customers’ conversations—with consideration and permission, of course. And there’s no reason you shouldn’t establish a direct dialogue with your customers in return. A 2008 Burson-Mars-teller study revealed that only 15 percent of Fortune 500 companies corresponded with their customers via blogs. That’s a disgraceful 74 out of 500 that made any kind of attempt to establish an open line of communication with their most prized possessions.

Although this number is somewhat dated and will no doubt continue to rise exponentially, it does give you a pretty revealing snapshot of corporate fears, reluctance, and inability to meet customers halfway or on their own turf.

There’s a noticeable imbalance when it comes to using the same tools that have become second nature to our customers; in fact, there are countless individuals with more subscribers or communities than billion-dollar global multinationals. Case in point, it’s bizarre that I have more people following me on Twitter @jaffejuice (approximately 14,000) than are following Motorola’s @MotoMobile (2,892), Super Bowl advertiser, eSurance (684) or Anheuser-Busch’s @budweiser’s (338), but then again, it also confirms the problems plaguing corporations today:

• Companies’ “virtual” presences can be (ironically) highly fragmented. When you take the number of brands under their corporate umbrella and multiply them by ...