A brand advocate is a person or customer 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 for your business as they help to build your brand, attract new customers and get people talking about your business.
True brand advocates usually occur naturally, however they are some things you can do to help your customers take the first steps to brand advocacy.
PR Daily has provided some great tips to help build your customers trust and loyalty to the brand.
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 may then 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.
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.
Offer them incentives
To encourage customers to promote your brand you can offer them an incentive. Don’t always assume they are looking for monetary incentives as many brand advocates may be looking for something more from the business. You could offer them a discount, exclusive product trials, a trip to the corporate headquarters or insider access to information.
Create a community
Connect your brand advocates with each other to create a community around your brand. This is a great way to create continued engagement and make advocates feel valued by the business.
Start building a relationship with your customers and provide them with exceptional customer service because you never know who may turn into your biggest advocate.
What are your tips for maintaining a relationship with your customers?
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Sydney Public Relations Agency, CP Communications provides specialist media, traditional and online PR strategies that get amazing results. Contact us today. For more great tips visit our website www.cpcommunications.com.au.
