Brand advocates are people who promote your brand thanks to the power of word-of-mouth marketing. Typically known as brand ambassadors, advocates turn ordinary customers into influencers.
Brand advocates are real people who believe in your brand and what you stand for. They want to see you succeed. They genuinely use and love your products/services.
How do you know if somebody is a brand advocate? They can be:
- Anyone who loves your brand
- Enthusiastically promotes your brand via word-of-mouth
- Employees and partners
How Beneficial Are Brand Advocates?
Brand advocates are a beneficial investment in your marketing. Advocates promote your brand on their own free will by:
- Making glowing posts about your brand to their followers on social media
- Talking about your products/services in real life with their loved ones
- Creating user-generated content that encourages action
Brand advocates usually choose to share your brand on their own, without prompting from your brand. Why? Simply because they love your brand and its products and want others to know about it. Their enthusiasm and excitement motivates others to check out the brand or product for themselves.
But there are plenty of others reasons why investing in brand advocates will pay off for your brand in the long run:
- Advocacy is free or nearly free marketing. You’re able to grow your brand organically thanks to excited brand advocates. They love your brand message and everything else about you so much that they’re more than happy to tell everybody they know about you. Whether that’s through email, social media, or word-of-mouth, your brand is being promoted without you opening up your wallet.
- Brand advocates are motivated intrinsically. They promote you for no other reason other than they love what you do. Brand advocates are not motivated to do anything for your brand because they’re getting something out of it. They do it because they want to see you succeed.
- Brand advocates are highly trusted by their friends and followers. Humans in general value and trust the opinions of others. They are more than likely to listen to another human than a company. Your brand advocates’ followers trust what they’re sharing. They know that the brand advocate isn’t going to intentionally mislead them. They are going to listen to what they have to say.
How to Turn Your Customers Into Brand Advocates
To create advocates, you’ll need to build solid foundations of customer satisfaction, with exceptional products and a commitment to stellar customer service.
- Get laser-focused on customer focus. Your business decisions should consider the needs of your target customers. What are you doing to solve their problems and answer their questions? How can you make them feel valued? Your customers deserve to feel valued and head. Deliver top-notch customer service they can’t find anywhere else. When you properly meet their needs, this will encourage customer loyalty and word-of-mouth promotion.
- Thank your customers for supporting your brand! Remember that customers don’t have to spend money on your brand. They put their money to you over a competitor because they valued you more in some way. Whether that’s a better product/service, better customer service, or better brand messaging, they chose you over somebody else. Make sure your customers feel valued and appreciated. When you express gratitude, they’re going to keep on coming back.
- Encourage customers to leave online reviews. Anytime your brand is mentioned online, you should already be invested in brand monitoring tools. But online reviews are an easy way to expand your brand’s reach. An online review is just as important as a personal recommendation. People take online reviews seriously. The more positive reviews you have, the better your brand looks.
