Superfans by Pat Flynn teaches how to build a dedicated fan base for your brand, drawing from Flynn’s personal experience as a successful podcaster, blogger, and entrepreneur. He emphasizes the importance of cultivating emotional investment in your customers, rather than solely focusing on quantity. Throughout the book, he shares the strategies he used to build his own devoted following and how they contributed to his business success.
Our guide summarizes these ideas in two parts.
Part 1, “What Are Superfans?”, defines superfans according to Pat Flynn, explains their advantages for your business, and explores how individuals become superfans.
Part 2, “Strategies for Cultivating Superfans”, delves into Flynn’s five main strategies: adding value, establishing personal connections, building a community, creating unforgettable experiences, and involving fans in your company.
Additionally, we supplement Flynn’s methods with practical advice and psychological insights from experts.
Part 1: What Are Superfans?
According to Flynn, superfans are vital for your business. In this section, we’ll explain the definition of superfans, their advantages for your company, the process of becoming a superfan, and the different stages of fandom that individuals go through.
Superfans and Their Benefits
Flynn defines a superfan as someone who deeply identifies with a brand and incorporates it into their daily life. They attend live events, purchase large amounts of merchandise, keep up with online updates, and engage in a community of like-minded enthusiasts.
Flynn emphasizes that companies like Apple, LEGO, and Harley-Davidson can have superfans too and that they are a crucial asset for your business. Just 100 loyal superfans can bring long-term success to your brand by serving as brand ambassadors, providing valuable feedback, standing up for your brand, and contributing to the company’s longevity.
Benefit #1: Superfans Ensure Your Company’s Longevity
Superfans don’t just make one-time purchases; they continue to support your business year after year, even during difficult economic times or when products don’t perform well.
By cultivating a loyal fan base, you can safeguard your revenue against the fluctuations of the business cycle. Thus, investing in superfans is an investment in the long-term success of your company.
Benefit #2: Superfans Are Your Greatest Brand Ambassadors
Superfans go beyond making purchases and actively promote your brand to their social circles with genuine enthusiasm. Their word-of-mouth advocacy has the potential to attract new customers who may not have otherwise known about your brand or trusted it based solely on advertising.
Benefit #3: Superfans Will Stand Up for Your Brand
Superfans are known for being protective of their favorite brands. They can be relied upon to defend your company’s reputation against negative comments or criticism from outsiders. In online forums and social media channels where your fan community interacts, superfans will also step in to counter harmful or offensive content. This helps to maintain a positive brand image and creates a welcoming environment for potential new fans.
Benefit #4: Superfans Deliver Valuable Feedback
Your most dedicated fans are often the ones who provide the most genuine feedback. They are more likely to participate in surveys and engage with your social media, and they are quick to bring any issues to your attention because they deeply care about your brand.
As we’ll delve into later, they may also eventually join your company and become your top-performing employees, as they are already committed to your company’s mission.
How People Become Superfans
According to Flynn, superfans are not created overnight. Fans gradually move through different levels of connection with a brand as they repeatedly have positive experiences. In this section, we’ll discuss these levels: discovering customers, interested customers, connected customers, and superfans.
We’ll also explore the kinds of repeat experiences that encourage fans to progress through these levels.
Level #1: Discovering Customers
This group of customers is your largest and they are at the initial stage of discovering your brand. They might have just stumbled upon your company through a search engine or heard of it from someone. Although they are interested in your products or services, they lack personal investment or trust in your brand.
Level #2: Interested Customers
These customers are aware of your brand and have made a purchase, but they are not yet loyal. They are willing to consider new products and services but may not necessarily buy from your brand again.
Level #3. Connected Customers
These customers are loyal to your brand and make frequent purchases. They have a strong preference for your brand over competitors and actively engage with other fans on social media and online forums. They are also likely to attend your live events and contribute to building a thriving community around your brand.
Level #4: Superfans
Superfans are the top tier, a small group of highly devoted customers who make up less than 5% of your customer base. They buy everything you offer and eagerly seek out new products and updates. Superfans attend live events, serve as brand advocates, and take on leadership roles within the fan community, such as organizing events, networking, or leading social media conversations.
How To Turn Customers Into Superfans
According to Flynn, customers progress from discovery to superfandom through repeated positive experiences with the brand. It’s not enough for customers to simply buy and like the products; becoming a superfan requires more. While some customers may start off skeptical or disengaged, a series of meaningful experiences can lead them towards increased engagement and loyalty.
Part 2: Strategies for Cultivating Superfans
Let’s explore Flynn’s five strategies for building a devoted base of superfans: create value, offer personal connections, build community, provide memorable experiences, and involve your fans in your company.
Strategy #1: Create Value
According to Flynn, the initial step in providing positive experiences for your customers is by offering genuine value through your product or service. Your marketing and social media presence won’t matter if customers don’t find value in what you are selling. Flynn suggests four ways to create value for your fans: solving real problems, aligning with their long-term goals, delivering fast results, and providing great customer service.
Value Add #1: Solve People’s Problems
To create a positive first experience with your brand, Flynn suggests identifying the problem your product or service can solve. Look for online discussions about challenges and difficulties that your target audience faces and design your offering as a solution. For instance, if you want to start a landscaping company, search for forums where people complain about lawn care problems and create a service that addresses their needs.
Value Add #2: Align Your Business With Your Fans’ Long-Term Goals
To create long-term value for customers, Flynn suggests highlighting how investing in your business can lead to a better future for them. Show customers the potential future with and without your product/service to demonstrate the value you can provide. For example, if you’re selling dental insurance, show how your product can lead to healthy teeth in old age, versus the alternative of uncomfortable dentures.
Value Add #3: Provide Fast Results
Flynn suggests that offering quick and easy wins can provide immediate value to customers and create a sense of excitement and success. For instance, instead of pitching a long-term budget strategy, a financial advice company can help customers save money by identifying common areas where people tend to overpay. This quick win can be promoted through accessible communication channels like newsletters or blog posts to attract new customers.
Strategy #2: Provide a Personal Connection
Flynn believes that fans will have a better experience with your brand when they feel a personal connection. This means that they feel understood, welcomed, and appreciated as individuals. By creating a more personal relationship, fans are more likely to return and have positive experiences. To achieve this, Flynn suggests four strategies: learning their language, sharing authentically, reciprocating when people reach out, and getting to know your regulars.
Connection Creator #1: Learn Their Language
Flynn’s first tip for building a personal connection with customers is to use their language and word choice. By researching and using the same terminology your potential customers use to describe their problems, you show that you understand and relate to them.
This helps create a more personal connection, making it easier to market your product or service. Look for patterns in the language people use online when discussing the problem your brand solves, and try to use their terms to signal that your brand understands and cares about their concerns.
Connection Creator #2: Share Authentically
Flynn suggests that sharing your genuine self and interests online can build a strong personal connection with your customers. By sharing personal information, even if it’s unrelated to your brand, customers are more likely to find commonalities and view their relationship with your brand as a personal one.
Examples of personal details to share include your hometown, high school extracurriculars, or favorite childhood movie.
Connection Creator #3: Reciprocate When People Reach Out
Flynn emphasizes the importance of acknowledging customers who reach out to your brand. Responding to them shows that you value their attention and fosters a personal connection.
This can be as simple as a handshake, an email response, or a social media “like” or comment. As your brand grows, you may need to hire staff to help manage the load, but it’s important that they don’t pretend to be you as this can betray your fans’ trust.
Connection Creator #4: Get To Know Your Regulars
Flynn advises identifying and learning about repeat customers to strengthen their connection with the brand. Remembering and recognizing loyal customers can make them feel valued and create a positive personal connection, potentially leading to higher levels of fandom.
Whether running a physical store or an online business, paying attention to frequent engagers and finding ways to remember regular customers can make a difference.
Strategy #3: Foster Community
Flynn suggests creating a vibrant fan community to foster personal connections among fans, which he believes can be more important than their connections with the brand itself. Such communities provide a sense of belonging and meaningful relationships based on shared interests.
Building a strong community also draws customers into deeper engagement with the brand. Flynn recommends two strategies for building communities: hosting a live event and giving your fan base a name.
Community Builder #1: Coordinate a Live Event
Flynn recommends using live events to connect your fans with each other, providing an opportunity for them to meet, share common interests, and bond over your brand.
These events generate excitement and stimulation, making them a positive experience. Whether it’s a conference, Q&A session, concert, or festival, the type of event should align with your brand.
Community Builder #2: Give the Fan Base a Name
Flynn recommends giving your fan base a name to deepen their sense of community and make them feel like they’re part of a team. This creates a shared sense of identity and belonging and gives fans a reason to root for the company’s success. For example, Flynn calls his fan base “Team Flynn.”
Strategy #4: Create Memorable Experiences
Flynn suggests that creating memorable experiences can instill positive emotions in your fans, leading to a stronger connection with your brand. To achieve this, he suggests breaking up routines, providing challenges, and offering exclusive perks. By doing so, fans will have fond memories of engaging with your brand, making their investment feel more meaningful and incentivizing continued investment.
Experience Creator #1: Break Up the Routine
Flynn advises to add variety to your fan engagement strategies. Without variation, even the most effective strategies can become boring. To shake up the routine, try new things and be spontaneous.
Examples include hosting a fan art contest, incorporating humor, letting customers vote on a new product, or testing a new content format. Even unsuccessful trials save concepts from growing stale via repeated repetition.
Experience Creator #2: Give Fans a Challenge
Flynn suggests that challenging your fans can create a memorable experience that they will find rewarding. When people have to push themselves to overcome a difficult challenge, it can activate their motivation and create a feeling of success that they will remember.
For instance, a bookstore could start a book club where customers have to read a new book every week, or a gym could create a rigorous training challenge.
Experience Creator #3: Offer Exclusive Perks
Flynn suggests that offering exclusive perks to your most invested fans can create positive and memorable experiences. This makes fans feel special and important, and elevates their status.
Exclusive access to spaces or personal meetings with celebrities are some examples. Such occasions not only leave a lasting impression but also inspire followers to develop a stronger bond with the company and spend more money thereupon.
Strategy #5: Get Your Fans Involved
Flynn recommends involving fans to deepen their attachment to your brand. Four ways to do this are: letting them make decisions, offering a behind-the-scenes look, sharing the spotlight, and hiring superfans.
- By letting fans make decisions, they feel a sense of ownership and valued.
- Sharing behind-the-scenes glimpses creates an emotional connection with the company.
- Showcasing fans on websites, ads, and social media makes them feel like part of the team.
- Hiring superfans can result in committed employees and demonstrates the importance of fan contributions.
I’m founder and director of The Digital Agency; a certified Google Partner and Shopify Partner digital marketing agency operating in London and Istanbul. The Digital Agency has a solid track record of delivering high growth in eCommerce, Facebook & Google advertising, social media communication, search engine optimization, eCommerce and website production through 16 years of experience with 140 brands in 500 projects. Visit The Digital Agency here