How to secure long-term visibility by creating an effective brand advocacy strategy

What is Brand Advocacy?

Truly successful brands will aim to inspire, encourage, and reward brand advocacy on every platform, and at every opportunity. So what is a brand advocate, and how are they different from a brand ambassador or influencer marketing?

Brand advocate: a satisfied customer, employee, retailer or user who voluntarily shares a testimonial or positive review.

Brand ambassador: a long-term representative of a brand who is paid to consistently promote a product or service, usually under a contractual agreement

Influencer marketing: a strategic paid collaboration with an influencer: a public figure with an active audience of varying size

The biggest, most noticeable difference with brand advocacy is that the individual shares their positive experience by choice, with no expectation of financial reimbursement. Such content is authentic, organic and usually performs extremely well. It can also be reshared alongside your paid campaigns in a more diverse content strategy.

Can you use Brand Advocacy in your marketing plan?

Companies of any size or sector can (and should) prioritise Brand Advocacy in their marketing plan. As we’ve already mentioned, this free type of promotion should be nurtured consistently for the following reasons:

1. Brand awareness: more promotion equals greater awareness. Whether a positive review is shared in-person or online, consumers are more likely to choose you over a competitor because this endorsement comes from someone they already know, like and trust.

2. Encourages loyalty: a customer who is so delighted with your product or service that they immediately share their experience with someone else, is likely to keep returning again and again. What’s more, they are also likely to consider being an ambassador for your brand in the future, creating a long-term partnership.

3. Boost content production: a brand advocate is creating content for you, without cost. Every time they share a picture, reel, video, blog or review, they build your brand’s credibility, and create content that can be reshared

4. Find new audiences: they might have a reasonably small audience, but this will often include their nearest and dearest, likely creating new opportunities to reach a totally different demographic

5. Increasing demand: according to Power Reviews, “Recent studies show that 60 percent of shoppers seek visual UGC, like photos and videos, before committing to a purchase.” The demand for visual content is increasing, and it’s being consumed at an incredible rate. To keep up with your content schedule, you need more content to be produced

It’s great to receive this kind of content on a regular basis, but you need to have a clear plan to maximise impact. This is where a brand advocacy strategy becomes really important.

Types of Brand Advocacy

Brand advocates post or share positive reviews by choice. So, which customer groups are likely to share content about your brand, and how are they doing it? Here are some of the main advocate groups for you to focus on:

Customer Advocacy

How to turn loyal customers into passionate brand advocates through reviews, referrals, and user-generated content.

Employee Advocacy

Encouraging employees to share their positive experiences and promote the brand via social media and networking events.

Influencer Advocacy

Leveraging influencer relationships to boost brand credibility, ensuring alignment with brand values for authentic promotion.

Social Media Advocacy

Tapping into social media platforms to engage advocates, amplify brand messages, and create viral moments.

Creating a strategy to encourage the free promotion from each of these groups will build a constant pipeline of reusable content. So how can you create an effective strategy for long term success?

How to Create a Brand Advocacy Strategy

1. Create Outstanding Customer Experiences: Build trust and satisfaction at every touchpoint.

2. Conduct Customer Research: Gather data to understand behaviours and preferences.

3. Choose the Right Advocacy Programme: Decide between customer, employee, or influencer advocacy programmes.

4. Set Clear Criteria for Participants: Determine who qualifies as an advocate and their role.

5. Provide Exclusive Access and Perks: Offer rewards such as discounts, VIP events, and early product access.

6. Develop a Simple Referral Programme: Make it easy for advocates to refer others and track rewards.

7. Promote Your Advocacy Programme: Ensure visibility through multiple channels and direct engagement.

8. Measure Performance and Collect Feedback: Use key metrics to assess programme effectiveness and refine strategies.

Are big brands using Brand Advocacy?

Yes! And it’s easy to see why. According to research published by MarketingCharts, brand advocates are 50% more likely to influence a purchase. Big brands who recognise “word of mouth” as an important endorsement to boosting sales and spreading brand awareness make this part of their marketing strategy. Here are just 3 examples of brands that are maximising the impact of brand advocacy:

• Adidas (adiClub): Creates a community with rewards, exclusive offers, and special member-only experiences.
• Tesla: Relies on customer referrals and loyalty credits, with advocates earning credits towards product enhancements.
• Starbucks: Uses a rewards programme that offers exclusive perks and personalised customer experiences.

Challenges and Common Mistakes in Brand Advocacy

So far, we’ve written about brand advocacy from a very positive perspective, because, why not? However, when we analyse the performance of brand advocate content and the way that brands use or interact with this type of content, there are a few things to be aware of:

• Inconsistent messaging: leading to diluted brand identity. You are not giving the creator of this content a brief, and you have no control over the message they share in connection to your product or service. Consider carefully what is being reshared and whether every piece of content aligns to your brand values. This might mean reviewing their account before resharing
• Failure to measure results: making it difficult to assess ROI. It’s impossible to guarantee that each creator will consistently share the right type of content. It could well be only a one off review. Therefore, make sure you review the content shared by multiple accounts that tag your brand, and do not rely solely on this type of content
• Lack of engagement: causing advocates to lose interest. If you do not engage regularly with individual users, reshare their content, or react regularly to each post, they will stop creating content

Top tip: Maintain clear communication, track key metrics, and foster continuous engagement.

In summary

Having a strong brand advocacy strategy strengthens customer relationships, builds trust, and drives long-term success. By engaging and rewarding advocates, brands can create an organic and sustainable marketing engine.