Brand advocates are customers or influencers who love your brand and actively promote it to their networks. They can help you boost your brand awareness, credibility, and loyalty, as well as generate leads and sales. But how can you identify the most influential ones among them? Here are some tips to help you find and leverage your brand advocates.
Before you start looking for your brand advocates, you need to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve with them. Do you want to increase your social media reach, engagement, or conversions? Do you want to improve your online reputation, customer satisfaction, or referrals? Do you want to launch a new product, service, or campaign? Having specific and measurable goals will help you narrow down your search and align your expectations with your advocates.
Avant d'entamer la recherche d'ambassadeurs de votre marque, il est crucial d'avoir une vision claire des objectifs que vous souhaitez atteindre avec cette collaboration. Cette étape préliminaire implique de définir précisément ce que vous attendez de vos ambassadeurs de marque, que ce soit l'augmentation de la notoriété, l'engagement accru sur les réseaux sociaux, l'amélioration de l'image de la marque, ou la génération de ventes. Une compréhension claire de ces objectifs permettra d'orienter efficacement le processus de sélection des ambassadeurs et d'assurer que leur profil et leurs compétences correspondent aux besoins spécifiques de votre marque.
You can begin by defining specific goals, such as increasing brand awareness or driving sales. By establishing clear objectives, you can target advocates who align with your brand's values and reach your desired audience. Metrics like engagement rate, audience size, and content relevance help pinpoint effective advocates. Consider the case of Nike, which excels in this by partnering with athletes and celebrities who embody their "Just Do It" ethos, thereby enhancing brand visibility and authenticity among their target demographic. Nike's collaboration with Michael Jordan showcase how aligned values and goals between brand and advocate lead to mutual growth and increased market influence.
One of the best ways to identify your brand advocates is to use data from your own channels and platforms. You can use tools like Google Analytics, social media analytics, email marketing analytics, customer relationship management (CRM) software, and online reviews to track and measure your customers' behavior, preferences, feedback, and interactions with your brand. Look for indicators such as repeat purchases, high engagement rates, positive ratings, referrals, testimonials, mentions, and hashtags. These can help you identify who are your most loyal, satisfied, and vocal customers.
Once you have a list of potential brand advocates, you need to segment them based on their level of influence, reach, and relevance. You can use tools like Klout, BuzzSumo, or Kred to evaluate their social media presence, authority, and impact. You can also use tools like SurveyMonkey, Typeform, or Qualtrics to collect more information about their demographics, psychographics, and interests. By segmenting your audience, you can create more personalized and targeted messages and offers for your brand advocates.
I would add that some of my most successful brand advocates are not the ones with the most followers. Look for the most loyalty in their community. And ensure they have a niche that complements your company brand.
In addition to the great point that Jennifer raised around quality versus quantity of followers, make sure that possible advocates can dig into the topics / areas that you'd like to as a content creator or marketing leader. If they don't have the depth or breadth of knowledge, it won't have as much impact. There needs to be clear alignment there.
After you have segmented your audience, you need to engage with your brand advocates and build a relationship with them. You can do this by following them on social media, liking and commenting on their posts, sharing their content, mentioning them in your posts, sending them thank-you notes, offering them exclusive discounts, rewards, or freebies, inviting them to events, webinars, or podcasts, asking them for feedback, testimonials, or reviews, featuring them in your blog, newsletter, or case studies, or creating a dedicated community or program for them. By engaging with your brand advocates, you can show your appreciation, recognition, and trust, as well as encourage them to spread the word about your brand.
Finally, you need to monitor and measure the results of your brand advocacy strategy. You can use tools like Google Analytics, social media analytics, email marketing analytics, CRM software, and online reviews to track and measure the performance of your brand advocates. Look for metrics such as reach, impressions, engagement, conversions, retention, loyalty, sentiment, referrals, and ROI. These can help you evaluate the effectiveness of your brand advocates and identify areas of improvement or optimization.
Brand advocates can come in different sizes. Just because one advocate has a bigger audience than another doesn’t mean they’re better for your brand. Audit each advocates’ profile. Understand if they truly fit the vibe of your brand. Look at their engagement, especially comments, to see if people take their advice seriously. If it’s within your niche, that’s even better. Lastly, know when to utilize your brand advocates. For example, one advocate may be good for awareness whereas another may be better for driving sales. Knowing your advocates in and out and how they align with your brand is critical for success here.