How brand advocacy programmes are proving to be the best investment your business can make
In the digital age, with fleeting customer attention, businesses and brands are looking for new ways to engage with their customers, keep them loyal and prolong their customer/brand relationship. Loyalty cards are no longer enough.
Customers want to engage with their brands of choice in a multi-dimensional, informative and interactive way. Marketing professionals realise that an engaged existing customer presents a better ROI than forever filling up the sales funnel with new customers.
Digital advocacy programmes just may be the solution.
How an advocacy programme can benefit your brand.
Advocacy programmes are used by brands across sectors to stay in touch with customers, to deepen relationships and to increase loyalty. What’s more, advocacy programmes go beyond loyalty, to create long-term advocates who not only purchase your products and services, but also recommend them to their customers, communities and friends.
What does an advocacy programme consist of?
No two advocacy programmes are the same, but all well-structured and successful advocacy programmes probably include content at their core. Critical to all advocacy programmes, though, is personalisation. Each user needs to feel like the programme is created especially for them as they receive personalised content delivered to them at the right time and to their preferred means of communication.
Quality content deepens advocacy
At the heart of most advocacy programmes is good, engaging and informative content that keeps users interested, informed, invested and most importantly drives them to recommend your products and services. Your advocacy programme may include a mix of the following:
- Long articles
- Short articles
- Infographics
- Newsletters
- Videos
- Case studies
- Polls and surveys
- Interactive experiences
Interactive methodology deepens results.
Smart advocacy programmes make use of tried and tested methodologies to initiate, ignite and reward users for engaging with the programme, and importantly keep them coming back for more. Unlike websites that users may visit once or twice, advocacy programmes are designed with the primary objective of recurring communications and engagement. Smart advocacy programmes may make use of the following strategies:
- Surveys
- Questionnaires
- Gamification
- Rewards and incentives
- Points
- Tests
- Comments
Deep data, smart actionable insights.
Beyond building meaningful and lasting relationships with customers, advocacy programmes provide marketing professionals with deep insightful data, that surpasses any other communication channel.
Advocacy programmes and their applications.
Despite prevailing belief, advocacy programmes offer value across industries and sectors. Both B2B and B2C brands have seen rapid success using advocacy programmes for the following,
- Internal programmes
- Customer acquisition
- Customer retention
- Customer recommendations
Here are the top 7 reasons why you should consider advocacy.
- Stay in touch with customers with personalised, relevant content that adds value, builds trust and creates loyalty.
- Acquire new customers.
- Reward customers for their loyalty with giveaways, special offers and exclusive experiences.
- Engage with customers via challenges, experiences, learning opportunities and keep them coming back for more.
- Position your brand as thought leaders.
- Prove a strong return on investment and increases brand value.
- Most importantly, drive advocacy and recommendations as customers share their experiences with friends, family and their social community and recommend your brand.
Advocacy programmes are proving to add massive ROI to brands and marketing professionals across industries are seeing the short- and long-term results.