Author: Rebekah Mechtensimer
First let’s define advocate marketing! Advocate marketing (or advocacy marketing) is an extension of word-of-mouth marketing, which has been around for way longer than I’ve been alive. The whole premise of this style of marketing is to leverage the networks of industry influencers to promote your brand. By doing this, you’re able to not only extend your audience reach but generate greater brand recognition.
It’s 2020 so we’ve all been served an online ad for something that interests us. Say you get served an ad for a grill, and you just so happen to be in the market for a new one. The offer looks great, but it’s a company you’ve never heard of, so you’re unsure if you should buy it. Now imagine you tell a friend about it and they say “oh I love that brand!” Odds are, that statement is going to solidify for you that ‘Yes!’ That will be the grill you’re going to buy. Boom! The power of advocate marketing.
According to HubSpot, “Advocacy marketing is a marketer’s dream — cost-effective and high-yielding. Did you know that on average, brands see a 650% ROI for every dollar invested in advocacy marketing? This method is one of the best ways to attract new customers and increase revenue at a very low cost.”
Every company is going to sing their own praises and tell you that their product and/or services are the best thing since sliced bread. Consumers know this. Having a third party who is a leader in your industry space to showcase your brand and all of the great things that you’re doing creates more trust for your target audience and puts confidence in their buying decisions.
This translates the same on social media. Being promoted by other companies out to their own social networks further enhances the number of people seeing your posts and ideally following your accounts and liking/sharing your content out to their networks creating a ripple effect. It’s about building a network of brand advocates and when done successfully, your business will prosper from it.
Another added benefit of advocate marketing is that it enhances your SEO initiatives. According to Influitive, “Authentic word of mouth about your brand online is a must for search engines. Your advocates can lend their authority and identity to help your web pages get found for the right reasons.” Having links back to your website on reputable sites further increases your search engine ranking and it a great and easy way to organically make a difference for not only your website but your credibility as a brand.
Advocate marketers give you another resource to support your marketing team. You can and should use them and their expertise as a tool to get creative and strategic with what you want to accomplish. As a brand advocate, it’s our role to not only promote your brand but also to support your marketing goals and initiatives.
Have questions about advocate marketing? Want to find out how we can help support you with brand advocacy? Reach out to us today!