Brand Advocacy: Everything Your Company Needs to Know

Everything Your Company Needs to Know

Learn everything you need to know about brand advocacy, being a brand advocate, why it matters, and what you can do to amplify your brand.

When it comes to marketing strategies and creating a good plan to grow your business, branding is and should be part of any plan.

Of course, when initiating and engaging your marketing efforts, brand visibility is usually being developed within your content, social sharing, advertising, etc. initiatives.

Yet, even after all those marketing activities and push, branding can still be completely lackluster for your company.

It’s pretty frustrating and without brand visibility, it doesn’t matter how great your product or service is because no one knows who your company is or why it matters.

That’s why a larger effort needs to be focused in the space of brand advocacy.

I know what you might be thinking.

Just when you think marketing and growing a company could not get more challenging, there is another piece that your teams need to focus on.

This, however, will continue with the power of the internet and emerging technologies that shift the way your company becomes a recognizable brand.

And without having a solid brand strategy that compliments your company marketing efforts, you’re basically a hidden asset hoping for attention and that someone will notice your brand.

In order to understand why this matters for your company, it’s important to cover what brand advocacy is and define some key elements.

Brand advocacy definition

You can probably take a solid educated guess at what brand advocacy is, but it’s important for us to have a clear definition to keep everyone on the same page.

Brand Advocacy simply means that people who love your brand will continue to support your company and promote your services or products to new customers organically.

Thus, helping your brand become visible to larger audiences and increase revenue without having to spend on advertising or other traditional marketing initiatives.

Now, of course, other marketing efforts like paid advertising can boost your company brand as well, but it can be seen as a compliment to your advocacy efforts.

Focusing on brand advocacy strategies can help save your company advertising money.

Instead of spending so much money for those paid placements, you let people handle the marketing of your brand in an organic way.

The reason it’s important to get people supporting and pushing your brand is that people generally trust recommendations and content from colleagues, family, and friends over other forms of marketing.

According to statistics, 92% of online consumers trust recommendations from their social circles.

So while traditional marketing will still work on your audiences, people like and trust the familiar human touch over large or corporate companies promoting their own services or product.

Additionally, a main aspect of brand advocacy is finding your dedicated advocates of your brand and then ensuring the advocacy continues by nurturing their success.

What is a brand advocate?

So now that you understand the definition, we move on to the brand advocates themselves.

A brand advocate is a customer or employee of a business who proactively shares about the company to their networks via social, word of mouth, email, or through content without any incentive other than their love for the brand.

You may have also seen or heard the term “brand ambassador,” which is a pretty interchangeable meaning with a brand advocate.

But a brand advocate or “brand ambassador” will rep your brand, show support, and even influence the buying habits of others.

 Customers & Clients

Customers or your clients are the most important part of brand advocacy and are your biggest cheerleaders.

If they chose your product or services and love your company, they will go above and beyond recommending you to others.

They trust your company and the value you provide them, thus helping you increase your brand and revenue growth.

It’s a big part of how EveryoneSocial started growing initially.

We ensure our clients love our product and we value customer success, which then leads those clients to recommend us to other companies they have contact with.

Additionally, when employees leave for another company, we’ve had quite a few recommend us to their new company as well and generated new business.

This is exactly why your customers or clients are a major part of brand advocacy.

However, without a great product and building a trust with your customers, you won’t be building your brand naturally.

It’s one reason we focus heavily on our customer happiness and value their feedback so much at EveryoneSocial.

Employees

Over the years, employees have also been even more of a focus to brand advocacy and marketing strategies.

Just like the stat mentioned in the intro; people trust friends, colleagues, and family over anything other forms of marketing.

If employees are sharing content and consistently championing the company they work for, it can reach more businesses and people.

Your employees help the brand and messaging grow exponentially, while also turning your employees into thought leaders and knowledge magnets.

A win-win situation for employees and the company.

This is what we call employee advocacy, which is an extension of brand advocacy.

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