Advocacy programs have become increasingly important to organizations in a wide range of industries, from education and healthcare to social justice and the corporate world. Advocacy programs are collaborative strategies designed to engage and empower individuals, communities, and organizations to take action on shared issues. They can be used to influence decision-makers, foster public awareness and education, and mobilize support for specific policies and initiatives. Advocacy programs can take many forms, but all include components of research, communication, and engagement. This blog post will provide an overview of what advocacy programs are, how they work, and the types of advocacy programs available. We will also discuss the benefits of having an advocacy program and provide some tips on how to get started. By the end of this blog post, readers will have a better understanding of the value of advocacy programs and how they can be used to make lasting change.
Reasons to create a brand advocacy program
Launching a brand advocacy program attracts repeat business from devoted customers, which increases your company’s profitability. Due to the popularity of personal recommendations and referrals, consumer-to-consumer marketing can be more successful than traditional advertising. When a customer recommends your brand to a friend, the personal touch may persuade them to try your goods or services. You gain credibility by encouraging customers to represent your brand as brand ambassadors. By increasing sales through the use of a brand advocacy program, businesses can increase their profits.
What is an advocacy program?
An advocacy program is a tool used by companies to build relationships with their customers by fostering trust and motivating customers to promote our brand. These marketing strategies, also known as “customer advocacy” or “brand advocacy,” encourage customers to serve as brand ambassadors for your goods or services. A customer advocacy program modifies the conventional advertising strategy by focusing on a peer-to-peer exchange for happy customers. Customer advocacy programs primarily rely on digital technology platforms to allow users to share their interactions with a product or service’s brand.
How to create a brand advocacy program
Customers can serve as persuasive brand ambassadors for your company, giving it credibility and trust. You can increase your marketing efforts and potentially increase sales by developing your own brand advocacy strategy. Follow these steps to start your own customer advocacy program:
1. Know your brand
Utilizing customers as brand advocates requires an understanding of who you are as a company. To do this, identify your brand personality. This is the image you present to customers and how they perceive the messaging and imagery for your company and your products. As you prepare to launch this program, evaluate your brand personality by considering the following:
2. Expend resources
Plan how you will launch the initiative, handle customer information, and distribute rewards before you begin a program. Establish a staff group whose sole focus is on maintaining the program. Allocate funds for staff to use along with other resources. Create a strategy that outlines the rewards and details how customers can earn them. Including advocacy rewards in your budget, either quarterly or annually, is a good idea as well.
3. Analyze customer data
Finding out where customers hang out and where they talk about brands is another essential step in starting an advocacy program. This might be a social media platform or e-commerce website. Analyze the types of behaviors that users on the platform engage in. Develop strategies to incorporate these behaviors into your advocacy plan once you are aware of how consumers share and search for information online. For instance, if customers promote your brand through reviews, incorporate this into your program by offering a discount code or product gift card to customers who reach a certain threshold for reviews.
4. Connect with the right consumers
To increase the effectiveness of your advocacy program, look for ways to build connections with potential brand ambassadors. Look for influencers who have a well-established presence on platforms like blogs and social media. Your objectives can be furthered and your initiative can be more successful by developing a brand advocacy program with customers who have a digital presence. When these clients promote your brand, you immediately attract a crowd of potential customers.
5. Determine your rewards
Rewards are an important factor in creating an advocacy program. They encourage consumer buy-in and give brand ambassadors a reason to participate. Typically, businesses will use one or more of the following four types of rewards:
It’s crucial to explain in detail how customers benefit from their efforts to promote the brand. Businesses may design a system of tiers with levels of advocacy within the program or just give devoted brand ambassadors one kind of reward.
6. Create a community
Providing advocates with a space to interact with consumers is another way to keep your brand connected to consumers. An online forum or social media group may be used for this. React to the posts and content of your brand ambassadors to engage with them. Sharing their message on your channels generates original content and strengthens their advocacy voice.
7. Use customer feedback
Use consumer feedback from surveys, help desk inquiries, and comments from emails or other sources before launching your customer advocacy program to understand how customers feel about your product. After launching your program, solicit feedback from customers and consider their comments seriously. Inform the team members who can change things for the customer about their feedback. Encourage brand ambassadors to discuss new or existing products with their knowledge.
8. Follow through
Include customer advocacy in your company’s core principles and long-term marketing strategies. Include this, along with other campaigns, in your marketing strategy once you’ve determined how to use the program most effectively. Utilize data to assess the success of your strategy, and modify the program in light of your findings. It’s a good idea to consider how you can monitor brand advocates’ activity to determine whether your efforts were successful. Choose which metrics you can use to link sales directly to messages from customer advocates to ensure your program is worth the resources.
Tips for creating a brand advocacy program
Here are some suggestions to assist you in developing an efficient customer advocacy plan:
Understanding Advocacy and Action
FAQ
How do I create an advocacy program?
- Adidas’ Creator’s Club.
- Lululemon’s Ambassador Program.
- Glossier’s Brand Advocacy Strategy.
- Tesla’s Referral Scheme.
- Monica Vinader’s MV Family:
What are the 3 types of advocacy?
- Identify an advocacy challenge or opportunity.
- Determine the key audiences.
- Find out what those audiences currently know or perceive.
- Determine how each audience receives its information.
- Establish measurable objectives for each audience.
- Define message points for each audience.
What is the purpose of the advocacy?
Promoting someone’s or a group’s interests or cause is called advocacy. An advocate is someone who makes an argument for, suggests, or backs a cause or policy. Advocacy is also about helping people find their voice. Self-advocacy, individual advocacy, and system advocacy are the three types of advocacy.
