Turn Your Customers into Brand Advocates
A brand advocate is a customer or person who talks favourably about your brand or product and passes on positive word-of-mouth messages about the brand to other people. Brand advocates are great as they build your brand and business, attracting new customers, leading to an increase in sales and revenue.
In the marketing world, it’s no secret that it costs more money to generate a new customer than it does to market to an existing one. To make the most of your marketing budget, take steps to turn your customers into brand advocates.
Start with your employees
The best place to start when building brand advocates is to focus on your employees. If your employees don’t believe in the business or support the brand then you don’t have much hope for converting your customers. Find ways to engage your employees in the business and help them to embody the company culture. Your employees’ enthusiasm and trust in the brand will rub off on your customers.
Empower your employees
If a customer experiences an issue with the business’ service or products they are usually looking for a quick resolution or some kind of reimbursement. If employees are unable to resolve the issue straight away customers may feel like they have been neglected. It’s then a good idea to empower your employees to take necessary means to make customers happy and resolve the issue quickly. This may involve offering a discount or refund on products or services. Exceptional customer service leads to happy customers who are then more likely to tell their friends about their great experience or recommend your business.
Delight your customers
Ensure that when your customers become a part of your business, you fulfil on the brand promise and over deliver on their experience. This will lead to expectations being exceeded and they will have no option but to tell others how good your business is.
Separately, put in processes to surprise and delight existing customers. Define a trigger to give them a gift, lunch or discount on their next purchase. This will ensure they remain brand positive, plus decrease your chances of customer churn.
Connect with customers on social media
Social media is an effective channel to build a relationship with your customers. You can keep your customers informed about the business, communicate with them and encourage them to engage with the brand. Social media also encourages the sharing of content, which means customers may be more likely to share your content with their networks and effectively disperse your message to a wider audience. People are also more likely to read content that is recommended by a friend then content a business posted about itself.
It takes time
Creating brand advocates won’t happen overnight. It takes time to build a relationship with your customers and to grow their trust in the brand. Once you have a good relationship customers will be more willing to promote the business. To build your customers’ trust you can offer exceptional customer service, provide them with relevant helpful information, answer their questions and always be friendly.
Want help in turning your business into a brand advocate machine? Get in touch with the team at Brio today on 07 3368 3136.
