During a recession, ROI is obviously more important than ever. But are you also taking the time to focus on existing customers and on how they can be harnessed as brand advocates?
With marketing spends under tremendous scrutiny in the economic downturn, companies are raising their game and working even harder to secure the best return possible for their investment. Although generating brand awareness and creating interest is indeed crucial, it is also often the most expensive form of marketing. As a result, more time is being invested in market research to ensure the messages are hitting the sweet spots. A strong understanding of who your customers are, staying close to them and building customer loyalty are all imperative within marketing - and brand advocacy is without doubt brand nirvana.
Brand advocates play a tremendous role in influencing others to move along the customer journey and turning loyal customers into brand advocates is one of the most effective forms of marketing you could possibly wish for. However, this doesn’t mean you can just put your feet up once you have achieved this stage in the customer journey, as your customers will only keep saying good things about you if you keep them happy.
So how do you do that? The key to forming great relationships with customers is trust. Now people’s voices are being heard louder than ever online, this trust is crucial to achieving success. Get this wrong and you could find yourself entangled in a reputation management issue! A recent post by Aaron dived into this very issue – Beware of the Social Media Monster.
A great example of a site that integrates the element of trust and advice is Trip Advisor, which is jam-packed full of reviews from people advocating hotels and restaurants they have visited.
The great thing about Trip Advisor is that people are influenced by other people’s opinions, not by the business itself. Our client To-Tuscany have successfully integrated trip advisor in order to instill trust in their website visitors.
We have harnessed exactly the same power of referral in our own ‘meet the advocates’ section (see below) on the Propellernet website, providing honest reviews of our services to potential clients, who may be seeking reassurance before making any level of commitment (let us know if you want to become a Propellernet advocate).
Propellernet's 'Meet the Advocates' page
In fact, Propellernet have carried out several projects to enhance brand advocacy on behalf of our clients, ranging from creating facebook and twitter groups, to blogs, badges and LinkedIn company profiles.
More recently, we have focused on a brand advocacy project with one of our clients AquAid, UK suppliers of water coolers for offices, homes & schools. By donating some of their profits to Christian Aid, every water cooler they install raises enough money to bring two children water for the rest of their lives. We designed a range of badges for their customers to choose from and then place on their sites to convey their involvement in the charitable project. This in turn increases brand awareness, generates interest and encourages advocates to promote the AquAid brand.
There are many ways to get across your key messages to your target audience, but the most important thing to remember is to do this in a cost effective way which will help maximise your ROI. For this, there is no better way than to really take the time to understand, listen and engage with your customers, in the hope that they can become a part of your marketing team. A network of brand advocates promoting your brand in a positive light through word of mouth – now that’s when advocacy really does become Brand Nirvana!
Tags: advocacy, gavin willis, journey planning
