Referrals always work in any business. Why? Because someone close to us referred to opt for it. That’s what advocacy is. The marketing funnel of any contemporary business should extend beyond sales, and into advocacy. Your customers’ positive experiences should motivate others to spread the word about your product, and build relationships on behalf of your company. That’s why advocacy marketing is a type of marketing that focuses on getting your current customers to talk about your brand and products through tools such as testimonials, reviews, and social mentions. Since over 88% of shoppers research online before buying, brand advocates help new customers make decisions about the products that they buy. Instead of looking for powerful voices to amplify your company’s message, advocacy marketers enable and encourage their existing customers’ voices helping in audience management.
What are the benefits of advocacy marketing?
- Builds brand loyalty – Brand advocates are often present to have a say in their brand’s influence over social media. The immense loyalty that customer advocates have towards a brand is another reason why firms are pursuing customer advocacy.
- Increases brand value – Customer advocacy and social media promotion will connect consumers and strengthen branding. For example, Apple is one company that has leveraged customer advocacy extremely well to increase its brand value.
- Increases retention – Companies need to listen and pay close attention to what advocates are saying and make necessary changes for brand awareness. Loyal customers are more likely to initiate an advocacy campaign before the rest of the sales team passes them on to customer success.
- Goes beyond Business Customer Acquisition – Once a solid customer advocacy strategy is in place, it’s time to consider referral marketing. The right customer advocates can help companies engage new customers along the sales journey with the right platform and strategy in place; it can drive new leads, increase ROI and improve brand reputation.
How to get started with advocacy marketing?
- Make your brand advocates as content creators: 76% of people say they’re more likely to trust content shared by “normal” people. Using a brand advocate grows brand visibility since brand advocates share your message with natural passion to help increase product marketing. The idea here is to get your social media followers to generate and contribute to discussions on your social media pages. You may reward them in return for their contributions too.
- Start with user-generated content: Sometimes people talk about your brand on social media – even when you are not running a campaign. For instance, your customers can tag their friends and comment on your brand. Always participate in the conversation. You can even make client-friendly testimonials and reviews out of it. Be a person of your customers, whether you are social media active or just actively sharing and following their posts.
- Develop a customer-first and always mentality: A customer-first mindset means thinking constantly about your customers. Thanks to new technologies and increased brand awareness driven by digital media, many companies recognize the importance of a customer-first mentality. Publish blog posts or social media content that reflects how your company is instating certain customer suggestions. Add questions to your FAQ or knowledge base that are asked by real customers.
- Increase your customer delight: Customer delight is the process of exceeding a customer’s expectations to create a positive customer experience. Add the latest offers, loyalty programs, coupon codes, and attractive sales to make your customers happy from time-to-time. Communicate with them through DMs, comments, and messages to know your +s and -s. If such things are not implemented and managed well in a timely manner, negative comments can have an adverse effect on brand reputation.
- Make use of customer testimonials: Testimonials are the rubber stamp of approval that many modern customers need to seal the deal. Customer testimonials are powerful conversion tools that you can use to reinforce your brand value. Tap into this power by adding customer testimonials for all your digital ads on all social media channels, like Twitter, Facebook and other marketing emails.
These are some strong marketing tips to do customer advocacy. Remember when you offer a top-notch product, unforgettable customer experience, and customer-first culture, it’s easy for customers to fall in love and tell others why they feel the way they do.
Advocacy marketing is not new for us and we believe you shouldn’t be left new to it too. The more exciting, dynamic, and straight-out fun your campaign looks, the more your customers will be clamoring to join your advocacy marketing program. That’s what we do at Let’s Goo Social. We help brands build scalable systems that drive internal and external customers through a “wow” worthy buyer and customer journey towards advocacy. If you need help or would like to start with a well-planned advocacy strategy, reach out to chat with our social media experts about how we can help take your growth to the next level.
