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A formal talker program — a community, a fan club, an ambassador program, etc. — can help you stay connected to your biggest fans. Yours doesn’t have to be complicated, you’ll just need a few basic elements to get started:
1> A way to sign up
2> Benefits for participation
3> A newsletter
1> A way to sign up
You can’t have a talker program without a way for your fans to sign up. Online, simple subscriber forms on your homepage, your check-out pages, and your sidebars make it easy to get fans registered. Offline, let them sign up on receipts, sign-up sheets, comment cards, invoices, or through simple drop-boxes for their business cards.
2> Benefits for participation
Formal talker programs earn members by offering them something they can’t get anywhere else. Talkers love stuff like insider news, behind-the-scenes content, updates from the CEO, and invitations to private events. Hint: Nobody is signing up for your community to get more ads (they already get plenty of those).
3> A newsletter
A newsletter allows you to stay in touch with all of your community members. It helps keep the talker program top-of-mind for your members and makes it easy for you to share updates or timely information. If you send yours once a week, in a year you’ll have sent more than 50 personalized, anticipated messages to your biggest fans.
