Eluma's VP, marketing & business development outlines the benefits of community building via the desktop.

If you're like most marketers, you'll agree that loyalty pays. Numerous studies have shown that loyal customers have a direct effect on the bottom line. For example:

• An increase in customer loyalty of one percent is equivalent to a 10 percent cost reduction (Bain & Co.)
• The probability of selling something to a new prospect is only about five to 20 percent; the probability of selling something to an existing customer is 60 to 70 percent (Marketing Metrics)
• Customer loyalty accounts for 38 percent of margin, 40 percent of revenue growth and 38 percent of shareholder value (Accenture Research)

So, what are brands doing to engender this level of customer loyalty? 

Some brands are cultivating customer communities. Savvy marketers realize that there is great brand-building power in bringing together customers who share a strong affinity for a brand's product or services. The more you bring your customers together to connect with one another around your brand -- to share information, swap ideas, seek recommendations, and so on -- and the more valuable you make this experience, the stronger your brand becomes.

Marketers now have a variety of web 2.0 technologies and social networking tools to choose from to facilitate community building, which can be applied at various levels of customer engagement. For instance, rating and tagging (like Digg) and sharing bookmarks (like: deli.cio.us) are valuable when trying to cast a wider net and attract more users to your brand. Blogs, forums, talkback comments and the like are great for creating a more engaging experience for individuals who already frequent your site.

To develop and maintain tighter connections with your <I>most loyal customers<I>, marketers would be wise to take their community building efforts to the next level-- to the desktop. Extending your brand to the desktops of your best customers (we have found that those who generally download a desktop application are the most loyal five to 10 percent of users) provides a trusted environment for these customers to interact both with other loyal users, and with you-- around your brand, with benefits that extend beyond those of traditional online communities. 

A desktop community enables you to: 

Create and maintain an always-on connection to the customer
 Instead of having to rely on your customers visiting your website to participate, a desktop community is always on, increasing the likelihood and frequency of use. What's more, a desktop community provides you with a constant connection through which you can stream relevant information, messages, et cetera. Because this is information that you know is important to your loyal customers and speaks directly to their interests, it's content they want to receive.

Reward your most loyal customers
A desktop community offers you a unique and effective way to augment your current customer loyalty programs. Companies reward their loyal customers in any number of ways. Airlines offer special fares and check-in privileges to their frequent fliers. American Express offers loyal card holders early access to concert and theater tickets. Why not extend these initiatives by inviting your loyal customers to join your desktop community and use this channel to provide special perks such as premium content, special discounts or promotions, ready-access to informative chats and forums, et cetera?

Constantly reinforce your brand
With a desktop community, your brand is constantly displayed, whether it's a permanent home for your logo in the system tray, the toolbar, the start menu, et cetera. For every minute customers are using their machines, you're serving up your brand. There is no other online marketing strategy that rivals this level of brand exposure. 

Gain valuable insights from loyal customers
Who knows you better than your loyal customers? Engaging in an ongoing dialogue with them provides you with immediate, unfiltered and continuous customer feedback. After all, within the community your customers are talking to one another, often about their experiences with your brand. The insights that emanate from these candid discussions are inherently more genuine and authentic than those revealed via traditional forms of marketing research, and even from "drive-by comments" on your website forums. 

Add revenue opportunities
Because the online activities of your loyal customers take place within the desktop community, your ability to serve ads to a captive audience is far greater than via email, or on your website. Delivering your message is no longer dependent on clickthrough rates, website stickiness and the like. What's more, because your customers actually segment themselves via their involvement within the community, you can personalize your messages to their specific interests. As such, you can continuously deliver the most timely, targeted information and ads directly to your customers-- thereby increasing the likelihood of action. 

For marketers who are looking for a new way to create a stronger bond with their loyal customers, the next frontier may be closer than you think. It's their desktops. Using the latest web 2.0 tools and technologies to provide connectivity, peer collaboration, collective intelligence and brand presence -- all within a secure and easy-to-use desktop application -- is an optimal way to forge stronger bonds with your most loyal customers.

Joe Lichtenberg is vice president, marketing & business development for Eluma.  Eluma provides the only brandable desktop application that drives customer loyalty and incremental revenue through the power of communities. Read full bio.