Growing business today needs extreme focus and belief in building brand advocates. It’s very hard to do, highly underrated in importance, and widely misunderstood.
How do you nurture brand advocates in your business? If you think too long to answer then your ability to scale and grow is in severe trouble. You need a specific and detailed plan that aligns with your budget. Now is the time to build your brand advocate strategy and tactical plan.
Start with defining what and who brand advocates are in your business. Spiritedly include all your staff in the process to define brand advocates. Expand this working knowledge of what and who brand advocates are and could be throughout your company. Management must lead by example by emphasizing and helping evolve the business model based on building brand advocates.
In general, brand advocates are people who elevate your brand through word-of-mouth marketing. Brand advocates leave positive reviews about your product. They also refer new customers and create content on your behalf. This is the holy grail for businesses. It’s the most cost-effective and powerful marketing and sales driver. Use this general understanding to create a vivid narrative of your brand advocates. Then align these advocates with your customer personas. If you don’t have your customer personas detailed, updated, and aligned with all your staff then we have another problem. Check out this link to get help with this. Regardless, don’t hit the brakes on creating your brand advocate strategy and tactical plan that aligns with your budget. You don’t get off the hook like that. Dig in and face these mission-critical challenges with the help of the entire company. Solving problems top-down isn’t the way to go. Be the organization that communicates, listens, and empowers the staff to create solutions.
Look closely at your customers. To make purchase decisions your potential customers look for recommendations from their friends, family, co-workers, and the influencers they watch. Your own customers are a powerful resource to help you reach new audiences and drive conversions. To make the most of your brand advocates, create campaigns to incentivize them to spread your message. Create an online community or offer rewards for referrals, for example. You can also create a branded hashtag and encourage audiences to use it. Be willing to think outside the box. Be creative
Audi once took advantage of a hashtag a fan created on Twitter called #WantanR8. They surprised the Twitter user by letting her drive an R8 for a day, then used the hashtag to promote the vehicle and offer more free rides to Twitter fans.
Here’s how to get on the path to being the leader in your business at creating and growing brand advocates. Take action. The CEO has to back this as a top priority. Leadership must determine a budget to implement this. Assign a champion to run this effort. Set a timeline to hit milestones to create your strategy. This should take no more than four to six weeks. Next, start to build the tactical plan. This will take about three months to get right. Remember, include all the company in this process. Check and balance the plan with the budget and make adjustments as needed. Create a strategy that fits your unique offering and culture.
If you want more guidance to achieve these goals Renaissance Methodology can help you with the change management necessary to build consistent-repeatable processes for your plan. Remember, businesses that connect deeper with their market rise to the top. Spend less time and money chasing trending marketing tactics. Make brand advocate strategy your North Star in the journey to higher profitability.
