Every brand wants its customers to be happy, and most of them will be happy to hear that their customers love them.
But that shouldn't be the end of the work.
Positive customer feedback is important for a brand's success, but it's also important to take steps to turn customers into fans and brand advocates.This will build long-term loyalty and bring in new customers at the same time.
The White House Office of Consumer Affairs says that it costs 6–7 times more to get new customers than to keep the ones you already have.
So how do you turn customers into fans and brand advocates?
What Is A Brand Advocate?
A customer who likes to buy a product or service and then tell his friends, family, and coworkers about it is a brand advocate.
They do this to keep customers coming back.
Fans of a product or service will naturally tell others about it because they like it, and companies don't pay a dime for this.
So, this method gives companies new ways to grow in their respective fields.
Even though it depends on what "Word of Mouth" says, it is still used a lot.
Companies can even figure out who their most loyal customers are, and if they take care of them throughout the sales cycle, they can be a valuable asset for the company as brand advocates.
Customer Loyalty is in charge of marketing here.
If the company's services are good, it's possible that a customer will become a brand advocate.
Brand advocacy will help you if you work hard to make your businessa household name.
Best Practices For Turning Customers Into Fans And Brand Advocates
You can't depend on a few random good reviews or referralsfrom happy customers.
You need a well-thought-out plan to turn the good feelings of your customers into real businessresults.
Here are some ways to get it done.
Understand What Drives Advocacy
There will always be a small number of your customers who are big fans of your brand.
Most of your other customers will buy from you once or more than once, but they won't interact with your brand or talk much about it in public.
So keep an eye on the customers who do talk positively about your brand and try to figure out what makes them do it.
What do you do? There will always be a small number of your customers who are passionate about your brand.
Most of your other customers will buy from you once or more than once, but they won't interact much with your brand or talk about it much in public.
So keep an eye on the customers who do talk positively about your brand and try to figure out what motivates them.
What should you do?
- Run On-Site Surveys - A simple question like "How likely are you to tell a friend about us?" and a short explanation of the answer can tell you a lot about what your customers like about your business.
- Social Listening- Social listening means keeping an eye on people who are talking positively about your brand on social mediasites like Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, etc., interacting with them, and listening to what they have to say.
- Repeat Customers - When a customer renews their subscription, you should ask them why they did it and what you can do to make sure they do it again next time.
Knowing what motivates advocacy is important because it gives you the information you need to make a plan for your business that will work well and last for a long time.
Develop A Memorable Onboarding Process
First impressions are often the ones that stick with people the most.
This is why the way you get people to use your product has a direct effect on how many of them you keep.
Research shows that 86 percent of people are likely to keep using a product longer and even pay more than they did before if it has a better onboarding process that teaches them how touse it best.
When people really know what your product can do for them and use it to its fullest, they are much more likely to tell others about it.
How do you make a good process for getting new employees started?
- Instead of showing your customers everything your product can do at once, ask them why they're using it and what they want to get out of it. Then, show them how to use the most useful features that fit their needs.
- Give them templates they can use right away.
- Reduce friction so that your customers can start using your product's main features as soon as possible.
- Create an email sequence that helps your customers learn how to use your product in the best way.
It takes a lot of work to turn a stranger into a lead and a lead into a customer.
Don't waste it by ignoring the process of getting people to use your product.
It's a simple thing that many SaaS companies overlook.
Develop A Customer-centric Culture
The experience a customer has with your brand is the most important thing that determines whether they become a loyal fan who spreads the word about your brand or your worst critic.
This is where you make or break deals for the future.
Research shows that 55% of customers are willing to pay more for brands that put the customer first.
What is a culture that puts the customer first?
A business culture in which customer happiness and satisfaction are at the center of all decisions.
Customer-centric companies don't outsource customer serviceto just one department.
Instead, it's one of their core values, and everyone in the company feels just as responsible for making sure customers are happy.
A detailed study was done on more than 45,000 businesses in 140 countries by Zendesk, a top customer service platform.
One of the most important things they found was that 68 percent of customers didn't like it when their problems were passed from one department to another to be solved.
They also found that 70% of customers expect different parts of a company to work together on their behalf.
In other words, don't throw the customer around because of the way your company is set up.
Create a company culture in which customer issues are the top priority in all departments and everyone works to give customers an experience they will remember.
To build this kind of culture, you need the right kind of people.
Here are the most important skills for businesses to have when it comes to customer service.
Most customers won't forget a bad customer experience, but they might forget that your product doesn't have enough features or that it sometimes has a technical problem.
If you put moneyinto making experiences memorable, your customers will stay with you longer and bring in more sales through referrals.
Reward Customers For Referrals
It has already been said that when it comes to buying decisions, people today trust personal recommendations more than paid advertising.
Why not take advantage of this trend to make more sales and encourage happy customers to tell others about your brand?
A referral/affiliate program for your brand can really change the game.
It turns customers who are mostly happy with your services from passive to active marketers because they get paid for their hard work.
It's a tried-and-true way to get people to like a brand, and the biggest brands in the world use it.
A study by Forrester found that 84 percent of the more than 150 companies with at least $200 million in sales each year have active affiliate programs.
Having an affiliate program is also helpful in another way.
It lets you use the power of influential bloggers with millions of followers in different niches.
Most of them are always ready to promote a good product that pays well for referrals.
Affiliate marketingis the best way for bloggers to make moneyonline because of this.
You can make the program even more appealing by giving your customers a higher commission rate than affiliates who have never used your product before.
This would make your customers feel special and also encourage other affiliates to buy your product before promoting it.
Offer An Enhanced Loyalty Program
Loyalty programs are a key part of getting people to talk about a brand and stay loyal to it.
What does a loyalty program mean?
It is a marketing strategy that encourages customers to interact with your brand in different ways (like buying your product, buying add-ons, renewing their subscription, sharing your contenton social media, referring new customers, adding product pictures, leaving positive reviews, etc.) in order to earn loyalty/reward points.
When a customer has enough loyalty points, they can use them to get discounts and deals on different products.
This makes people more loyal to your brand, helps you earn more per customer, and makes more people buy from you again.
But it's not enough to just make a loyalty program.
According to research, the average American household is a member of 29 loyalty programs, but only 12 of them are used.
A good loyalty program is simple and easy to use (seamless conversion from points to dollars).
It also gives users rewards for anything they do that helps spread the word about your brand (not just sales).
Offer Actionable Value With Content Marketing
Content marketingis useful for more than just bringing in leads and turning them into customers.
It's important to teach your customers how to get the most out of your product, keep them as customers, and turn them into brand advocates by giving them a lot of free information they can use.
If you put out good content on a regular basis, you have more chances to get customers interested in your brand and make them feel closer to it.
Modern marketers think of it as a key part of their overall marketing strategy because of this.
Maryville University, which has been offering digital and content marketing degree programs for a few years, says that B2B companies spend an average of $45,000 per year on each member of their content marketing teams.
This is a big part of how much they spend on marketing overall.
But content marketing is worth every penny because it pays off in the long run.
The Salesforce blog is a great example of how to use content marketing to get people talking about your business.
Salesforce is a leading CRM solution, but they still put a lot of money into content marketing and publish well-researched, interesting content on a regular basis.
It not only keeps people interested in their brand, but also shows them how to use it in different ways to reach their business goals.
Encourage User-generated Content
User-Generated Content (UGC) is any kind of content that your customers make for your brand, like pictures, videos, comments, reviews, or anything else.
Getting customers to make UGC is a great way to get them interested in your brand, make them more loyal to it, and spread the word about it.
Research shows that 86 percent of Millennials think that user-generated content is a good way to tell how good a product, brand, or service is.
The same study also found that more than 80% of Millennials base their buying decisions on UGC.
How do you get customers to create user-generated content?
You can hold contests on social media or include UGC rewards in your loyalty program.
Sharing success stories from customers is another great way to get more people to talk about how your brand has helped them.
What Are The Benefits Of Brand Advocates?
If you read the introduction and the definition of brand advocacy, you should have a general idea of what it is and why it is important.
But if you look at it more deeply and as a whole, you will see that it has more benefits.
Let's look at each one on its own.
Natural Marketing
People will only spread the word about your brand if they think it has real value.
Since they have used it themselves, they are able to give their honest opinions about it.
Since their listeners hear it from a neutral point of view, they are more likely to change their minds.
No Investment
Building advocacy doesn't cost anything for a company.
It comes from how much people care about a brand and how they feel about it.
And it goes from person to person without any money being spent.
Real Life Experience
People usually get the best look at a product through paid advertisements, which are usually biased.
But advocacy marketing lets people hear about the real experiences of users.
That works much better than paid adsat building trust and turning people into customers.
By sharing real-life experiences, people turn it into a marketing strategy that is alive and moving.
Wider Reach
Companies shouldn't think that because promoting their brand is free, it won't reach as many people as paid advertising.
The average person with a social media account has about 400 people in their network.
When it becomes a chain of promotions in multi-level networks, it reaches a much larger audience than paid marketing.
People Also Ask
What Is Customer Brand Advocacy?
Brand advocacy is what people do when they love your brand and keep supporting your business by telling new customers and prospects about your products and services.
What Is A Brand Fan?
Brand fans are customers or clients who were so surprised or happy with what a business did for them that they will actively recommend that brand to other people.
What Makes A Good Customer Advocate?
Customer advocates should be honest with customers about the pros and cons of a product or service.
They should also give their customers a choice of what to do.
Don't forget that it's the job of the customer advocate to look out for the interests of the customer.
Conclusion
Brands need to stand out in a market that is crowded and full of competition.
Fans or happy customers aren't enough to get advocates to talk about you. The key is to build long-term relationships with customers that are based on trust and provide unique value.
Use the tips above to get customers to actively promote your brand after the sale.
It's the best way to get more customers for the least amount of money.