The best way to tell if your inbound strategy has staying power is to keep a close eye on the number of champions you have.
There are a couple of assumptions in that sentence, so I’m going to lay them out.
- I’m assuming your inbound strategy is legit. One of the ways you can tell it’s legit is that you’ve got a documented and agreed-upon methodology for moving and converting your leads into customers and then your customers on to champions.
- The end goal of your inbound strategy is about filling your customer with delight.
Delighted customers tell their friends and relatives. Delighted customers come back and become brand champions. Brand champions aren’t born, they’re made. By you.
When you continue the relationship with your customers beyond the sale by delighting them with frictionless interactions, amazing tricks and tips, and even clever packaging, you grow champions.
And that's a good thing. When people love your brand, they're loyal, they're advoactes, and they come back again and again. When you're growing champions -- when the the trend line in the "delight" phase of your strategy is upward-- you're doing it right.
But what happens when it all goes wrong?
But if you're not growing champions, what then? Or worse, what happens when your champions are fleeing?
Here's the best advice I can offer you: It's not because your champions are doing something wrong.