Which element is the most important in your marketing strategy? Ads? PR? Social Media? Viral videos? Events? Nope.
Employee and customer advocacy is the most powerful marketing tactic.
The ability to convert is unmatched by what a person says about your brand through social media reviews or just a cup of coffee with a friend.
Customers who are satisfied with their experience and are willing to share it with others are your biggest fans and most significant assets.
A HubSpot survey found that 75% of consumers don’t believe advertisements to be accurate. However, 90% trust brand recommendations from their friends, and 70% trust the opinions of consumers.
This is why customer marketing and word-of-mouth (WOM) are now significant priorities. This is because social proof works in marketing, and traditional advertising has lost its power over consumers.
Marketers are increasingly turning to brand ambassadors, brand influencers, or motivated customers to help achieve their marketing goals. This includes building brand awareness, acquiring customers, and maintaining those retention rates at a healthy pace.
How can you get more satisfied customers to post photos of your product on Instagram and then leave a review on your company’s Facebook page? What can you do to get your customers to promote your business?
Offer incentives
Incentives work. These incentives are beneficial for building your brand advocate network. Fewer people will follow your Twitter page if other people aren’t following your Twitter page, posting reviews or different ways to identify themselves with your brand online. This holds regardless of how high-quality or valuable your product/service is.
Incentivizing social media engagement and online reviews is more common than you think. 79% of Facebook fans say that their main reason for liking a company’s page on Facebook is to receive a discount.
A worthwhile incentive can help you get more engagement. Businesses might offer discounts for liking posts or tweeting about their experiences. Small businesses starting out or just starting with their online presence can run a contest to encourage clients to write reviews in exchange for a chance to win cash or a promo offer.
Create a Referral Program
A referral Program can be used to encourage your customers to market for you. Imagine if each customer was able to bring in one lead.
Their users were able to double every three months. Dropbox’s referral campaign was successful because it focused on the offer they were giving rather than what they wanted.
Learn from customers to educate
You can share information with your market by using your content promotion.
When creating your content calendar, ask yourself if this blog post is something your customers would like to share with their colleagues or friends. Will they repost or link to your brand video if they feel it is valuable enough to share with their networks?