Let’s be very realistic. On every customer email list, there are three distinct groups:

1. the people who love you
2. the people who like you
3. the group who are just hanging in there

Let’s start the year on a nice positive one and focus purely on the people who LOVE you. Is love a strong word? Not in a world proliferated with social media terms like friend, pal and buddy. For the purposes of our little chat, let’s call them “brand loyalists.

How do you sort the “love” from the “so what” in your email list? Easy, let’s give you:

5 Ways To Find Your “Brand Loyalists”!

1. They actually read 80% of your emails Brand loyalists are on the look out for what you say, how you say it and why you say it. When you appear in the inbox they’re curious enough to open and at least take a skim through your message. They will do this regardless of their interest in your product or service.

2. They almost always click, read, or buy You see brand loyalists use and love your products, services, and content, they do more frequently click on your email offers, read your articles, watch your videos, and purchase than any of your average customers. However, don’t just expect your brand loyalists to respond or buy from you every time. You will notice them respond in some form to exclusive or competitive offers more often because they know what a good deal from you is when they see it. Almost because of this alone they will not want to miss one. They will be paying attention to specific specials and savings, things like free shipping or your clearance or January sale. Once they see these at the right time, and then strike when the iron is hot!

3. They share your emails for you They are your strongest advocates. They love telling their friends and family about you, your service, and your offers! Imagine that, you have someone loving you enough to do the pre-sale work on their friends for your business for free. Not bad. They tend to use your “social share” buttons whether you encourage them to or not. If your intention is to share give them a reward for doing it, make it a contest or reward.

Also, give them a real prize! Something they can hold, show their friends, you can inscribe and is worth talking about. The prize is the promotion and the viral aspect long after the competition is finished. Find a prize worth getting excited about and they’re likely to go a little nuts! On the other extreme, ensure you put some reasonable limits in place. You don’t want to turn this group into a collection of SPAM artists!

4. They’ve friends with you on social media This is where the deepness in a relationship takes place, they have invited you into their online “home”. The place where they share their daily gripes, their funny stories, their coincidences etc etc. They love you this much. They don’t want to miss a chance to receive your special treatment and insider information from anywhere, so they’ll follow you on Twitter, friend or “like” you on Facebook, and subscribe to your blog.

The most important element of these relationships is that they may also try to talk with you, so make sure you’re listening!

5. They recommend you to their friends and followers on social media Social networks create multiple conversations in various directions of influence. You true brand loyalists won’t just try to talk with you; they’ll also talk about you to their friends, followers, and connections within social media. This is pure gold, good or bad. You have the invite to join the conversation, add value to it or just solve a problem.

The strongest relationships are built from solving the hardest problems, because they see how you deal with problems. Who mentions that, let alone demonstrates this in a sales meeting? If you love to see your community talk about you then make it easy for them to do so. Add more of those share buttons in the right emails and on blog posts. Even reward the ones who do so routinely, then talk about it, or better still encourage them to! When you’ve related your social-media audiences to your email-list members and coded your email list to track response and sharing behaviours, it’s easy to see who the loyalists are.

The question is, once you know this what will you do differently, that’s just for them?

Take BrandMail for a free email trial and uncover your brand loyalists!