Church of the Customer: Books archives
May 02, 2013
Monster Loyalty is now available!
I am excited to announce that Monster Loyalty is now available!
This is a book that I am extremely excited about because it argues that Lady Gaga didn’t become the success she is today based solely on her talent. She did so by engendering immense loyalty from her fans – not just through her music – but through the message she embodies and the community she has built around that message. In four short years, Lady Gaga has built an army of passionate fans that numbers in the tens of millions around the globe. My book explores how she did it, uncovering seven loyalty lessons and providing a playbook for building this kind of loyalty in any organization.
I’m big on inspiring examples and this book is no exception. With examples from businesses such as MINI, Fiskars, and Maker’s Mark, Monster Loyalty offers a complete case study that can be modeled in companies large and small to build, maintain, and expand the core customer base central to their success.
My hope is that by studying and employing Lady Gaga’s intuitive customer strategies, readers will be equipped to improve their customer loyalty.
Monster Loyalty is available on Amazon, B&N, 800-CEO-READ and anywhere books are sold.
For those who read the book and enjoy it, I would so appreciate it if you would consider writing a review for the book on Amazon and sharing your thoughts via social media.
In addition, I’d love for you to consider a simple question: when have you either exhibited profound customer loyalty? I’d love for you to share an anecdote about the time (and why it occurred) on your blog, Twitter or even Instagram. Tag the post #monsterloyalty (My post is here.)
Thanks for sharing in the excitement of this launch—I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the book!
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April 08, 2013
Exclusive online Q&A on customer loyalty when you pre-order #MonsterLoyalty
With more than 35 million Twitter followers and 56 million Facebook fans, the woman previously known as Stefani Germanotta is now one of most well-known pop stars in the world. Without a day of business school, Lady Gaga has cultivated the kind of passionate following that businesses dream about.
Now you can learn exactly what it is that Gaga does to build her following, and learn how to apply those lessons to your own goals. On May 2nd, you’ll be able to buy my book Monster Loyalty: How Lady Gaga Turns Followers into Fanatics and read the 7 concepts that any customer-focused industry needs to know.
But, if you pre-order 20 copies or more before April 29th, you’ll have access to an exclusive, one-time-only, online conference with me on April 29th at 1pm CT where I’ll discuss what I learned while writing this book. Plus, you can ask me any questions you have about customer loyalty or Gaga’s business savvy. I’ll try to get to as many as I can.
What You Need to Do:
1. Go to your favorite bookseller’s website (some links below).
2. Order 20 copies or more of my upcoming book, Monster Loyalty: How Lady Gaga Turns Followers into Fanatics before 2 AM CT on April 29th.
3. E-mail your receipt to IWantMonsterLoyalty@gmail.com. We’ll send you an invite to the web conference shortly after that, along with instructions for joining the chat.
4. Clear your calendar for April 29th at 1pm CT for your exclusive early-access web conference with me.
Questions? E-mail IWantMonsterLoyalty@gmail.com.
April 07, 2013
Monster Loyalty giveaway contest
This contest is especially for all the Lady Gaga fans out there!
There are a million reasons to remain a loyal fan to Mother Monster, and I want to hear yours. Pre-order my upcoming book Monster Loyalty: How Lady Gaga Turns Followers into Fanatics (Portfolio, May 2) and send your receipt to monsterloyalty@gmail.com, along with the reason you’re an unwavering Gaga fanatic, and you could win one of these prizes:
1st PRIZE:
- 5 copies of Monster Loyalty: How Lady Gaga Turns Followers into Fanatics
- 2 Lady Gaga art prints by rock and roll pop artist Kii Arens, signed and numbered
2nd PRIZE:
- 5 copies of Monster Loyalty: How Lady Gaga Turns Followers into Fanatics
- 3 Lady Gaga prints designed by Kii Arens (unsigned)
3rd PRIZE:
- 5 copies of Monster Loyalty: How Lady Gaga Turns Followers into Fanatics
The contest ends Tuesday, April 30th at midnight PST*. The winners will be e-mailed individually and announced on May 2nd on this blog
Good luck and paws up, little monsters! #monsterloyalty
Suggested retailers:
* One entry per person.
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February 07, 2013
Want to be part of the Monster Loyalty book tour?
My forthcoming book, Monster Loyalty: How Lady Gaga Turns Followers into Fanatics, ships May 2, 2013. I'm planning a book tour and I'd love for you to help determine the tour schedule.
From May through June 2013, I will visit 10 companies, association chapters, member groups, or what-have-you anywhere in North America to deliver a 60-minute, informative keynote presentation about how Lady Gaga has built a worldwide passionate fan base that number in the tens of millions, and the lessons that businesses can learn in engendering loyalty in their own customers.
I'll explain the methods behind Lady Gaga’s success and isolate the seven strategies businesses can learn from her, including how Gaga focuses mainly on her “one percenters.” She spends most of her efforts on just 1% of her audience, the highly-engaged superfans who drive word of mouth. I'll explain how Gaga leads with her values: she is consistent in her message of being yourself and loving others for who they are. That type of display of values creates a deep emotional connection with customers. I'll unpack how Gaga constantly gives her One Percenters something to talk about. Whether by wearing a meat dress or ‘dying’ in a pool of blood onstage, she knows what will get people talking. I'll share these lessons and more from Gaga on how to create intense loyalty in your customer base.
If you want me to speak at your event, just purchase at least 200 books for attendees, pick up my travel expenses and I'll be there. The tour dates are first-come, first-serve. Once 10 dates are booked, they're gone. (Outside of May and June, normal speaking fees will apply.)
If you're interested, email me asap at jackie [at] jackiehuba.com. The first group to have a signed agreement for a date gets it!
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January 27, 2013
New news about my upcoming book: Monster Loyalty
Readers of this blog have been hearing about my upcoming book about Lady Gaga's loyalty lessons since last fall. A lots has changed in the last few months and I can finally announce some new news.
The book has a new publisher, a new title, a new cover and a new availability date. My initial plan was to self-publish my book on Lady Gaga's loyalty lessons for creating a passionate fan base. I soft-launched the book at the WOMMA conference in November. Since we last chatted, I have sold the book to Portfolio, one of the best business book publishers around and home to authors such as Seth Godin, Guy Kawasaki, and Don Tapscott. The new title is Monster Loyalty: How Lady Gaga Turns Followers into Fanatics and it will be available May 2. You can see the new cover below. It is now available for pre-order. More info here. I am super excited for you to read it!
P.S. News about the book tour coming soon.
January 02, 2013
How high will you fly in 2013?
Seth Godin wants you to fly closer to the sun.
As a marketer, I've been inspired over the years by Seth's advice on permission marketing, being a Purple Cow, building a tribe and other customer-related activities. In recent years, I've watched Seth morph from marketing guru to the "Oprah of Business." Seth wants us to be the best people we can be and make a difference in the world with our work. The title of Seth's new business self-help book, The Icarus Deception, refers to Greek mythology and story of Icarus. Icarus' father built him wings constructed of feathers and wax and instructed him to not fly too close to the sun as he escaped the island of Crete. The wax would melt and he would fall into the sea and drown. As Icarus was excited and curious about flying, he did fly too close to the sun, the wax melted, and he did drown in the sea.
In his new book, Seth says that today, in the connected economy, we must not fall into the trap of flying just in our comfort zone. Those who want to make a difference with their work (or art, as Seth calls it) must use bravery, insight, creativity and boldness to challenge the status quo. Seth says that creating ideas that spread and connecting the disconnected are the two pillars of our new society, and both of them require the posture of an artist. He says that art isn't a result but a journey, and the challenge of our time is to find a journey worthy of your heart and your soul.
This book really hit home for me regarding my lastest project. I will admit to you that when I thought about actually writing a business book about Lady Gaga, I was fearful. I had previously written two...how should I say...more conventional business books, and with a coauthor. Could I do the next book by myself? Would businesspeople take a book about flamboyant Lady Gaga as a case study seriously? I procrastinated on the book idea for months, hating that I didn't have the balls to just do it. Finally I realized I was going to regret not putting something into the world that I was so passionate about. I hired some great people to help me with the book: brilliant publishing consultant/agent Todd Sattersten and amazing editor Kate Sage. The book will come out in May, and regardless of how well it does or doesn't do, it is a piece of art that that I felt compelled to create and I'm glad I did.
I think this is what Seth is talking about in this book. Take action. Make a ruckus. Create art. Make connections to others.
As you are thinking and planning for this year, you should definitely read this book. I hope you will be as inspired as I was reading it. I'm already thinking of my next project. And it's a doosey : ) Thanks Seth.
BONUS: Here's the video trailer for The Icarus Deception:
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October 08, 2012
My new book: Monster Loyalty: How Lady Gaga Turns Followers Into Fanatics
I want to tell you about a new project I have been working on.
After coauthoring two books on customer loyalty, I have decided to write another one, this time as a solo effort and from an angle that you wouldn’t expect.
The new book is called Monster Loyalty: How Lady Gaga Turns Followers Into Fanatics.
Why Lady Gaga? Because she is quite frankly one of the best loyalty marketers I have ever seen.
I first wrote about this topic in February 2010 for this blog with a post entitled “Loyalty Lessons from Lady Gaga.” It was the most retweeted and passed-along post I had ever written in my seven years of blogging. When celebrity gossip blogger Perez Hilton retweeted it, I realized that I was onto something.
I began adding Gaga as a case study in my keynote speaking and got a terrific response from my audiences. People told me that they did not realize all of things she was doing to engage fans and that learning about her as a person and what she has accomplished helps them think about their own customers in a different way.
I was intrigued by the fact that some of the largest consumer companies in the world, like Coca-Cola, are benchmarking Gaga's engagement with fans and are bringing her manager, Troy Carter, to their companies to speak with their about her strategies.
After I became well versed in Gaga’s fan loyalty, BBC Radio in London interviewed me about her marketing abilities when her third album, Born This Way was released in May 2011. It was then that the idea for the book was born as well. I call it Monster Loyalty, because I want to detail how to create “Little Monster”-like loyalty (“Little Monsters” is the name that Gaga has given her fans). And I want to encourage readers to create "monster loyalty" of their own.
I've been working on this book since I left Ant's Eye View in September 2011. I am excited to announce that we are doing a limited release of the book at the WOMMA Summit on November 12 where I will be doing a keynote. Full release of the book will be May 2, 2013. It is available for pre-order now.
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March 08, 2011
Two must-read books: Poke the Box, Enchantment
I'm not sure if it's coincidence but two of my favorite authors of all time just released their new books recently:
Poke the Box, by Seth Godin. The first book from Seth's new imprint with Amazon, this book is a manifesto for action. His Baldness implores us to stop talking about what we are going to do and instead just get started. Go. Try something. Experiment. Learn. Refine. What are you waiting for? As with other Godin books, you will want to buy several to give to colleagues and friends. Fortunately for us, there is a handy 52-pack.
Bonus material: Poke the Box: The Workbook, a free PDF workbook to really help you get your butt in gear.
Enchantment, by Guy Kawasaki. Guy argues that in business and in your personal life, your goal is not to merely just get what you want, but instead to bring about a voluntary, enduring, and delightful change in other people. In other words, you can be douchey, or you can be enchanting. Guy says that enchanting wins every time with customers, your colleagues and even your boss.
Bonus material: Find out how GREAT you are with Guy's Realistic Enchantment Aptitude Test.
January 25, 2010
Why it's important to be a linchpin and an artist
If you want to succeed in today's world of work, author Seth Godin says you should focus on being a "linchpin." That's the title of his new book, so we asked him a few questions about it.
Q: What is a linchpin, and why is it important to become one?
A linchpin is the part you can't live without, the thing that makes a difference. In every organization there are one (or several) people like this. It might be the brilliant inventor who creates the impossible, but it's far more likely to be the great sales rep or customer service person who makes a connection, or the marketer who knows how to tell a story that resonates.
In a post-factory world, manning the assembly line isn't so critical. Stuffing the candies into the boxes, running the punch press, following the manual... these are easily replaced roles, ones where neither the worker nor the organization gains much on the margin. If you want real job satisfaction and security, then, you need to figure out how to do the unexpected, to do work that matters and to create human interactions.
Q: You talk about linchpins being artists. What's the difference between a conventional marketer and one who thinks like an artist? Can you give an example of a marketer who is an artist?
Art, by my definition, has nothing to do with painting and everything to do with connecting with people in a generous way and causing a change to take place. A movie director is making art when she makes you cry. A product designer creates art when the UI is better than it needs to be and it creates efficiency or even joy. Marketers can find plenty of Dummies books and manuals and insider PDFs that demonstrate, step by step, how to follow the rules. That's easy and not particularly valuable. A marketer becomes an artist when she goes out on a limb, does the unexpected or the risky and makes a difference.
I'd argue that you two do art when you stand up and give a talk about the 1%. Or Biz Stone was an artist when he figured out how to launch and scale Twitter's marketing. Or Scott Monty at Ford when he does a car show rollout that bypasses the cocktail parties at AutoWeek in favor of individual interviews with social media mavens. The second time someone does something, it's a copy. The first time, it's art.
Q: We understand the concept of "physical labor" when it comes to work, but you stress the importance of "emotional labor." What do you mean by that, and can you give us an example?
I don't know about you, but I haven't gotten paid to do physical labor in a really long time. Maybe typing.
Emotional labor is the act of smiling when you're scared, or getting on a plane when you're tired. It's dreaming when you don't feel like dreaming, caring when the other person is (frankly) acting like a jerk. Emotional labor is work with your heart and your soul and your feelings. We seem to feel it should be easy, but it's not. It is, though, important.
Q: We love this quote in the book: "The easier it is to quantify, the less it's worth." Can you tell us, and our MBA friends, why this is true?
If you can quantify it, then probably someone before you figured out a why to grind it out. And if you can grind it out, someone can grind it out cheaper than you can.
On the other hand, the really valuable stuff, the stuff we pay a lot for, is unquantified. Things like creating joy or security or happiness. No easy measurements for those, thus they are art, and art is always worth more than the predicted.
We measure the quantified because we can. But we should create the unquantified because it's so rare.
Q: Our lizard brain tells us to "Shut up. Don't stand out. Don't speak out. Blend in." If we want to be a linchpin, how do we silence this negative part of our brain?
Steve Pressfield calls this the resistance. The voice in your head that destroys your art. There are a myriad of ways to defeat it. You can distract it. You can trick it. You can steamroll it. You can seduce it with small steps. I'm not sure there's one best technique, but I know for certain that it must be done. My book has only one goal: to sell you on committing to this very task.
January 18, 2010
5 new ways to compete for book PR
(Editor's note: This is a guest post from Barbara Henricks of CaveHenricks, a public relations firm for business books and authors. She's considered by many to be one of the best book publicists in the publishing industry. She can be reached at barbara@cavehenricks.com.)
I’ve been in the PR business nearly 20 years, and there’s been more change the past two years than in the first 18.
That’s created much fear and confusion. Readers are consuming content from more outlets and with a staggering number of devices-- via iPhones, computers, Blackberries, Kindles, Nooks and Sony Readers, to name a handful.
Getting a book published in 2010 is vastly different than in 2007. Advances are lower, editors are more wary of risk, print runs are shrinking, bookstores are ordering fewer copies, marketing dollars are tighter and publicists are chasing coverage in a media world that is undergoing its own transformation. That means authors today must master a new environment, relying on strategy, customization, and increased author participation.
Here are five ways for writers, authors and publishers to market in this new environment:
- A great media campaign will discard many if not all of the old notions, conventional wisdom and template approach of the past. There is no one blueprint for building a best seller. The best campaigns draw on all forms of media, with increased emphasis on digital forms. Campaigns today rely on the author’s participation beyond traditional tours and interviews. The best campaigns draw on an author’s natural strengths.
- There are no longer any magic bullets. No one single media hit can ensure a book’s meteoric rise to the top, with the possible exception of a full hour of “The Oprah Show” that features only one book, its ideas or the author.
- Magazine coverage is coming later and later, but now has the potential to prolong a book’s sales life. Not so long ago, if a magazine did not commit to coverage 3-4 months ahead of a book’s publication date, the process was over. Now, magazine editors will often take a look at finished books and post a review, an article or a bylined piece by the author in their online editions almost immediately. In some cases, if the online piece gets a lot of views, the magazine will run something in the print edition months after the book’s release, which will keep the sales alive well into the campaign.
- Bloggers are jumpstarting many successful media campaigns. For this to work, authors must be willing to become active participants – offering relevant content, contributing comments and connecting directly with bloggers themselves. It’s still the publicist’s job to do the legwork to guide authors through the vast landscape of bloggers, identifying a target group whose readership matches most closely with the book’s intended audience, but the author’s direct participation is required to make this outreach successful.
- Relationships will remain at the heart of good book promotion, but forming them will be more difficult than ever, particularly with the blog world. The best approach is good strategy – taking stories and ideas to a journalist only after very careful consideration of whether that book or message truly meets their needs. Repeatedly delivering only relevant material is the biggest relationship builder of all.
The landscape is different, the challenges new, but as always, big ideas and great books will will always find their way. As someone who cherishes her Kindle for its portability, must have the Sunday New York Times in its reassuringly weighty bundle, reads daily news online and cherishes her big glossy copy of Vogue, I know the industry will figure out how to integrate these formats into a successful mix.
Right now, it’s in flux.
