How To Build Businesses with Brand Advocates

The goal of all businesses and their marketing should be to develop and duplicate brand advocates. These advocates are not just loyal customers; they are fervent supporters who embody the essence of your brand, driving exponential value and growth.

What is a brand advocate?

A brand advocate transcends the typical customer archetype in several crucial ways.

Some are easily 10, 20 times more valuable—and every now and then, a brand advocate could be worth 100 times your average customer. 

As you can see, they’re very important. 

Here are a few qualities about brand advocates and why you need to be focused on defining, developing, and duplicating brand advocates: 

• Value-Based Purchasing: Unlike many customers who prioritize price, brand advocates buy based on the value offered. If your goods or services align with their needs, they’ll eagerly make the purchase.
• Higher Retention Rates: Brand advocates exhibit remarkable loyalty, resulting in significantly higher retention rates than the average customer.
• Frequent Purchases: These advocates aren’t just occasional buyers; they tend to make purchases more frequently, contributing to sustained revenue streams.
• Word-of-Mouth Promotion: Perhaps most importantly, brand advocates serve as a perpetual source of free advertising. Their enthusiastic recommendations spread like wildfire, continuously attracting new customers to your brand.
• Strong Brand Alignment: Brand advocates deeply identify with your brand, seeing a reflection of themselves in its values and offerings. 

When a brand tailors its communication to attract brand advocates, it not only attracts more of them but also repels individuals who may not align well with the brand’s ethos or offerings. 

While this might initially seem counterintuitive, it ultimately leads to a stream of customers who are genuinely enthusiastic about your products or services.

This might seem like a negative, but it really isn’t. 

Imagine having a constant drip of potential customers who, when they buy, are over the moon happy with that purchase and share it with others. 

Compare that to interactions with customers who don’t find the same value. It will be harder work and take longer to complete, and they won’t spend the same amount of money anyway. 

Why work so hard to get so little in return? (both in the expected value you get and the value you provide)  

So, when a brand positions itself with its communication to attract only brand advocates, the quality of prospects that come through is incredibly valuable. 

How do you turn customers into brand advocates? 

Every step of the customer journey provides an opportunity for brands to cultivate more brand advocates. 

Imagine a new customer who buys a new product from you and is fairly happy with the purchase. But then you send them a ton of valuable information, emails, and messages that help them get even more from that new product– all without asking for a sale or additional actions. 

By increasing the value you provide to your customers, you increase the likelihood that they will become brand advocates. 

You can do this at EVERY individual step of the customer journey– turning customers into happy customers and happy customers into incredibly profitable brand advocates. 

How to scale the process? 

Enter behavioral automation. By leveraging technology to target key moments in the customer journey, brands can automate the delivery of highly relevant and valuable content, fostering brand advocacy on a larger scale.

By meticulously crafting the customer journey for different customer segments and product offerings, brands can establish a continuous flow of highly valuable brand advocates.

Brand advocacy is not just a lofty ideal; it’s a strategic imperative for businesses seeking sustainable growth and success. By prioritizing the development and duplication of brand advocates, companies can unlock a powerful engine for driving value, loyalty, and expansion.