Your customers could be your biggest brand advocates if you play your cards right. This is all about building a circle which works: your customers come to you via referral and like what they see. They like it so much that they share it, thus creating more referrals. These 7 ideas can help you to create those brand advocates effortlessly.
1. Create shareable content
Content marketing is huge in business, and there’s a good reason for that. Why should customers come to you instead of the hundreds, or perhaps thousands of competitors out there? Because of your great content. If you create content that is interesting, emotive, and high quality, then people will want to share it. This builds more leads for you immediately.
2. Be an expert
You also should try to establish yourself as an expert. You can do this through your content, by explaining to customers certain things about your industry or giving them advice. Showing that you know everything that there is to know on a subject establishes you as an expert, which makes you a better candidate for business. It makes you the person that they send their friends to when they have a question.
3. Be customer-friendly
Give your customers the products and the services that they want by expanding what you offer and being flexible to their needs. You can run surveys if you are not sure about what your customers want. Sometimes, they just want someone to listen to them – which could mean that your survey does the job even before you act on the results.
4. Use user-generated content
User-generated content can be anything from customer reviews to testimonials to social media posts. Ask for permission to use their content, or simply ask them to create some, and see what happens. Users love it when a brand shares their Instagram photo or highlights their review on the web page. It makes them feel important and increases brand loyalty. They are also likely to share your page again just to show all of their friends that they were mentioned!
5. Aim for excellent customer service
You can’t gain more customers if you are losing the ones you already have because they are dissatisfied with you. Make sure that your customer service experience is exceptional. Give them what they want and when they want it. If something goes wrong, put it right as soon as possible, and offer additional rewards as compensation without having to be asked. Put the customer first at every step and they will soon be sharing you with their friends.
6. Offer incentives
Want your customers to really start advocating your brand? Offer them an incentive. This could be something like free credit when they invite another paying customer, or free gifts. It could be a points system which is raised whenever they post on social media. You could even offer a prize yearly or monthly for your best customer. This will make them want to get sharing more.
7. Be the best
Finally, give customers a reason to become advocates of your brand without all of the above: be the best out there. If you have the top product or service in your niche, with the best quality and the most reasonable price, then they will be happy with their experience. This means more natural shares and better reviews without even having to ask.
With your customers as your advocates, you will find that referrals and conversions soar. We trust the word of a friend more than an advert, so this is the most effective form of marketing out there!
About the author
Cindy Parker is the professional writer and Content Specialist. She loves to write about small businesses, education and languages. Currently, she works for Learn to trade (https://www.learntotrade.com.au/) – a currency trading education company based in Australia.