A strong brand will get you all the positives you need for your business to thrive. The good news is that there are no negatives. The better news is that you can build a strong brand with various strategies. The best news is that your employees can contribute to building a strong brand.
Several businesses tend to focus on external factors like marketing strategies, consumer satisfaction, and the like. However, you can build from within the establishment. In fact your employees play a crucial role in strengthening your brand.
You need all the help you can get to build a brand that stands the test of time, challenges, and slip-ups. Some contributing factors include trust, loyalty, consistency, and community. The external and internal sectors must work together to achieve this goal. Let’s take a look at the role of the internal sector which is employee advocacy.
Authentic Voice
Your employees remain the most credible advocates of your brand’s products or services. Their knowledge of your brand's ins and outs makes it a key element in building trust. When they can share positive remarks about your brand, it confirms your authenticity to others. An authentic helps to develop trust. With trust from both your employees and customers, you are on the path to building a strong brand.
Word-of-mouth marketing
Word-of-mouth marketing is very effective in lifting brand image. Most times, this marketing system is between close friends or families. People mostly engage in word-of-mouth marketing with people they know and trust.
When your employees voluntarily take the role of advocate, they effortlessly share the good news about your brand with others. They are happy to share the good news, stories, upcoming trends, development strategies, etc. Here is the good part; the close friends of these employees also engage in the same marketing and spread your brand image using a positive ripple effect.
Social Media Growth
Your company’s employees are often the first to know about your social media activities. While you wait for your consumers to engage and take part in this social media post, your employees can be the first set of engagement. When you incorporate employee advocacy, everyone in the company helps to spread the good news about your services on social media.
They share company news through various means that increase awareness. Employee advocacy is also useful when increasing engagement. Consumers will do the same when your employees engage in your social media posts.
Building Employee’s Community
There are two types of communities associated with a brand. They are the external consumer community and the inner employee community. Employee advocacy can help to improve the image of your inner community. Your employees give the outside world an idea of what you want in your company. This helps to attract top talents that resonate with your idea, vision, and goal.
Employee advocacy makes it easy for new members or those interested in working with your brand to understand what is required. They showcase the brand’s working culture, and values. The new members seamlessly enter into the employee’s community
Elite Customer Services
Employee advocacy contributes to your brand's success through excellent customer service. Customer service is a major factor that influences the success of a brand. All your marketing strategies come down to giving your consumers an experience that will make them choose your products time and again.
This goal is only achievable with excellent consumer services. With your employees in charge of responding to consumers' questions and complaints, you need all the help you can get. When your employees are passionate to the point of being advocates, they effortlessly go beyond what is required. Their passion creates a unique experience that fosters loyalty in the consumer group.
Brand Consistency
Employee advocacy also enhances your consistency across different brand strategies and marketing tricks. Brand consistency is important if your brand is to maintain its image or build an unforgettable perception. While it is demanding to stay consistent in your endeavors as the brand owner, your employees can fill the gap. They are also a representative of your brand and they help to reinforce the brand identity.
How to Cultivate Employee Advocacy
Your employees can be your biggest fan but it takes conscious efforts from the brand. The employees' welfare has to be included in your growth strategies. So while you direct your marketing efforts outward, some of these efforts should go to improving the employer-employee relationship.
Here are some practical steps to achieve employee advocacy:
Employee Engagement Culture
The company should create an atmosphere that makes it easy for employees at all levels to engage with the company. This engagement should be in the form of open communication; both lateral and vertical communication. Your employee should be free to make contributions to the brand's growth.
Build Advocacy Programs
Advocacy programs give your employees a reason to be a part of the brand. Training programs, resource provision, and incentives improve the general mood of employees. They gain more in value and worth. In return, they are eager to sing the praises of the brand.
Employee as part of Brand Storytelling
Your brand storytelling strategies should include your employees' stories. It could be their achievements, growth, success, experiences, and testimonials. When you share your employees’ growth as part of the brand’s journey, the employees are more inclined to associate with the brand.
Celebrate Employee Community
When you have successfully created a community of employees with like minds, values, and goals, the next step is celebration. Celebrate any achievement within the community. This achievement includes milestones including record sales, or traditions like a yearly celebration. It can also include the admission of a new employee. All these help to build a great community and foster brand advocacy.
Conclusion
Employee advocacy is important in building a strong brand. Improving the employee community is a proven way to create loyal ambassadors for your brand. By empowering employees to become brand ambassadors, companies can amplify their brand message, build trust and loyalty, and attract top talent. Ultimately, the brand will enjoy organic success.
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