Brand Advocates: Turning Enthusiastic Customers into a Powerful Marketing Force

Chapter 23

Engaging Advocates

Engaging Advocates is about building an ongoing relationship with your Brand Advocates via ongoing dialogue and education.

Engaging isn't a one-time event. It's something you do on an ongoing basis.

Here's how you can engage your Advocates:

1. Ask for their opinions when you're considering a new business or a marketing strategy or program.

2. Give Advocates a heads-up when you're going to make a major announcement. (Obviously, you need to be selective about what types of announcements you share and with which Advocates.)

3. Give Advocates early looks at new products and services, ad campaigns, or other upcoming initiatives.

4. Solicit their ideas for new products and services.

5. Involve them in beta programs.

6. Hold special, Advocate-only events.

Don't Just Listen

Yes, listening to your Advocates is important. Showing them you've acted on their suggestions or responded to their concerns is equally as important.

Educating Advocates

You make sure to educate your paid sales force. You should be do the same with your virtual sales force.

Here are three topics to educate your Advocates about.

1. Company vision, mission, strategy, messages. This is especially important when you're attempting to reposition your company or brand. YouSendIt, a Zuberance customer, is repositioning itself from the file transfer category to something called “cloud-based collaboration.” YouSendIt is educating its Advocates about the “new YouSendIt.”

2. New products and services. ...