What is Brand Advocacy and how can you create your Brand Advocates?
Updated: Mar 14, 2021
Brand Advocates? Is that even a term?
Think for a moment, wouldn’t it be just awesome, that someone loves your product so much, that they actually go through the entire process of promoting it themselves?
No, I am not referring to influencers that your brand can get on board, pay a hefty fee and then generate goodwill.
I am referring to consumers who genuinely love your brand and are willing to talk about irrespective of you asking them for it or not.
Who are these people?
They are, what marketing refers to as Brand Advocates.
In this blog post, we cover all there is to know about Brand advocates, and we will be answering the following questions
1. What are Brand Advocates?
2. What is the importance of having Brand Advocates?
3. How can you measure your Brand Advocacy potential?
4. How can you turn your clients into Brand Advocates?
What are Brand Advocates?
Brand advocates are people who are involved in promoting your brand through the concept of word of mouth marketing.
These are people who have used your brand, liked your brand, and liked your brand to the extent that they want their friends, families, or even strangers to use your brand.
For this, they take that extra effort to spread the word about how good your brand is. The extra effort includes leaving a positive review about the brand on an online shopping website, posting about their user experience on social media, or even creating content around your brand.
So is this the same as having a Brand Ambassador? No, not really.
A brand ambassador is someone your brand takes on board officially and is also paid to talk well about your brand.
On the other hand, a brand advocate is someone who has invested in your brand and wants to talk good about it, without you having to tell them to do it.
Mr. Madhavan hails from Chennai, he lives in his 3bhk house with his two children, his mother, and his wife.
He works in an I.T company and is tech-savvy.
This summer he decided to purchase an AC for his living room. He looked up and compared a lot of companies to finally go ahead with ‘Super Cooling’.
The company had very good reviews and he thought it was perfect.
Within 2 days of placing the order, the AC was delivered to his house.
Within an hour, the installation salesman had also come in.
The overall experience was extremely smooth.
The installation man also gave Mr. Madhavan his number to contact if there is any help needed later.
It had been almost a month when Mr. Madhavan received a call from ‘Super Cooling’, this was a routine check to know if he was happy with the purchase and if he had any feedback to provide.
Mr. Madhavan was very happy with his purchase, he decided to spread the word.
He knew his friends were also planning on buying an AC this summer, he personally messaged them to consider this brand, talking about his own experiences.
He also provided positive reviews on the shopping website, highlighting the amazing after sales experiences as well.
Mr. Madhavan became the brand advocate for the company ‘Super Cooling’.
What is the Importance of having Brand Advocates?
Having your own brand advocates is extremely important, simply because as a matter of fact, consumers are more likely to believe other consumers as against brands. Besides that, brand advocates are beneficial because-
1. They are free
You have seen this in the case of Mr. Madhavan, the publicity that Mr. Madhavan created for Super Cooling was free of cost. All that the brand had to ensure was to provide him with the best of the services.
2. Powerful reviews
As marketers, you can invest a lot of money in advertisements, irrespective of what will work for your brand better is when people leave positive reviews. Brand advocates help you with this!
3. Connected with friends and followers
When you have a brand advocate, you are not really taking into consideration a single person. This person has his/her own set of friends or followers who are also linked to your brand.
How can you measure your Brand Advocacy potential?
By now we know that having brand advocates is great.
And of course every brand would be running around the same, but can everyone get them on board?
To turn this answer into a yes, you need to ask yourself the following questions:
1. How good is my brand?
As they say in the blogging world, content is king.
How good is your brand, should be the first question you ask yourself, because you need to know why would anyone like what you are sharing?
This will help determine your advocacy potential by giving you an idea about consumer liking and preference.
2. What are you doing to keep your customers happy?
Getting customers is one thing but the bigger difference is created when you do something to make that relationship last.
How are your services creating a lasting impression?
You may not have the answers to these directly, but it’s important to keep these in mind.
Turning your clients into advocates is definitely not going to be easy, but here are a few things you can consider:
1. Make your customer the hero
All your communication needs to be customer-centric, only then can you expect the advocates to come forth and talk about your brand
2. A sale is not the end
For most of the brands, the end of the marketing journey is when a customer buys your product. Whereas, the most crucial step begins after the customer has bought your product. When Mr. Madhavan received the after-sales feedback call is when he realized how much the brand actually cares, and hence he became an advocate
3. Be Thankful
In the end, it’s all about communication. If your advocate is promoting your brand, acknowledge their efforts, thank them, make them feel special. This will only lead to more advocates in the future