Thanks to brand evangelists, you can have the praises of your product or service being sung almost constantly. Once it goes on for long enough, you could potentially reduce spending in your marketing budget, too. Keep reading to get some insight about how to make your customers want to loyally promote your brand wherever they go.
Be Responsive
There are plenty of ways to monitor what people are saying about your brand on social media sites like Twitter. It’s a good idea to use those, but don’t just gather information without doing anything about what’s being said.
Jet Blue Airlines is a good example of a major company that has people to monitor social media feeds and respond accordingly, whether feedback is positive or negative. When a person feels there’s truly someone who cares about a particular situation, he or she will be much more likely to become an eventual brand evangelist.
Know Who Your Most Likely Customers Are
Your efforts to create brand ambassadors might be largely useless if you spend too much time marketing to people who aren’t likely to use your products anyway. The popular streaming music service Spotify realized that at the beginning of this year when they recruited university students to help spread the word about their service.
College students are characteristically much more media-savvy than some older people, and many individuals who are attending universities are often very likely to stream music rather than buy physical albums.
Help People Use Your Products in Better Ways
Information can also be a tool in building brand evangelists. That’s especially true if you sell very specialized products that may require training in order to use safely. Empire CAT is one company that does that very well by offering access to training portals that are open to both customers and employees. The site also offers ways to track equipment and find service technicians. When people are able to go to a single site and access very specific information, it gives the impression that the company responsible for launching the content truly cares about giving clients the best product experiences possible.
Give Them Something For Their Efforts
Emerging musicians and filmmakers have been successfully creating brand ambassadors for years, usually by asking interested persons to become part of “street teams.” As the name suggests, participants literally “hit the streets” to tell others about a product, which, in this case, is a form of art. In return, people can get goodies like advance copies of albums or free tickets to a screening. Even though fans see those as rewards, the artists often consider them promotional tools. Once people see a truly great movie or hear a stunning piece of music, they’ll naturally want to eagerly share it with others, so the process becomes cyclical. Think about giving small tokens of appreciation when people offer to help build momentum for your brand. It could really pay off by encouraging feelings of loyalty.
Make Sure Your Product is Worthy
All the tips you’ve just learned will only be helpful if the brand you’re trying to strengthen is worthy of notable attention. If it has a reputation for products that are faulty or not practical for the intended user base, think about fixing the most glaring flaws before even thinking about reaching out to potential future brand evangelists.
Doing this not only shows that you care about making the items in your brand as appealing as possible, but also that you’re aware of negative perceptions and are willing to do what’s in your power to change them.
Urging people to become evangelists for your brand is not usually something that happens quickly, but if you take your time and depend on the tips above, the results could help you see substantial long-term gains and happier customers.
