Your Secret Weapon to More Referrals
One of the best ways to get more referrals for your business is by creating brand ambassadors. These are your key customer advocates, the people who love your products and services. You can harness their passion for your business and build a strong network of engagement, referrals, and visibility.
The art and science of creating, engaging with, and incentivizing brand ambassadors is known as influencer marketing — And that’s where Extole excels.
Why Your Influencers Matter
Your influencers matter because they’re another way to bring your brand to the world. Research tells us that people inherently trust recommendations from their friends more than any other kind of marketing. Brand ambassadors expand your marketing network in new and unexpected ways, getting your products and services in front of new audiences.
The 3 Types of Advocates, & How to Work With Them
There are three main types of advocates who will use your services and spread your message. From the least engaged to the most engaged, they are:
- Everyday advocates. These are the people who buy from you once or a few times, but don’t feel a special connection to your business. They might mention they like a product or service to their friends, but they’re not particularly incentivized.
- Super advocates. These are the people who like your products and services. They buy from you regularly and share your brand, products, and services with their friends.
- Influencers. These are your top brand ambassadors. They love what you do, they’ve got lots of visibility, and they regularly sing your praises and share your offerings. They’re a key part of your brand ambassador and influencer network.
It’s these last two groups you’ll want to focus on growing relationships with the most.
Influencer Marketing & Brand Ambassadors
You need to identify and cultivate your super advocates and influencers. When you incentivize them properly, they’ll spread the word about your business, encourage other people to try you out, and share your products and services with their audiences. Transforming someone from being an influencer into being a true brand ambassador is the art of a great marketer.
How Extole Can Help
So, how do you turn your super advocates and influencers into powerful brand ambassadors? It’s a simple four step process — Identify, Engage, Incentivize, Empower — and Extole can help you throughout.
IDENTIFY YOUR INFLUENCERS
The first step to creating brand ambassadors is to find out who your main advocates and influencers are. The Extole platform lets you identify who is spreading your message and referring people back to your business. You can see what they’re sharing about you, where they’re sharing it, and the impact it’s having.
ENGAGE WITH YOUR ADVOCATES
Once you know your main influencers, Extole helps you reach out to them. You can find out what they love about your products and services, talk to them, and build a mutually beneficial relationship.
INCENTIVIZE YOUR BRAND AMBASSADORS
People like to be rewarded for their effort. Incentivizing your influencers is incredibly important. Extole lets you tailor incentives, gifts, and loyalty programs so they’re perfect for everyone in your network.
EMPOWER PEOPLE TO SHARE
The final part of the process is empowering your brand ambassadors. Give them simple ways to share content, get other customers on board, and be recognized for doing so.
How People Become Brand Ambassadors
As you move through the four-step process, you’ll naturally transform people from being users or advocates into being brand ambassadors and influencers. A strategic approach to your influencer marketing helps you create and grow a strong referral network and keeps everyone interested.
Measuring Your Success
You need to measure what works and what doesn’t. Traditionally that’s been difficult in the world of influencer marketing, but our advanced tracking and reporting makes things easy. You can see which of your influencers are sharing most, the impact they’re having, and the marketing campaigns with the best ROI.
Up-to-date reports mean you can tweak things on the fly, test out new approaches, and refine your overall influencer marketing strategy.
Start Creating Brand Ambassadors Now
Remember, we make it simple to create powerful brand ambassadors. With Extole you can:
- Find out who’s sharing already.
- Engage with your super advocates and influencers.
- Give people the right incentives.
- Grow your influencer and brand ambassador network.
- Make it easy for people to share your brand, products, and services.
- Boost your sales and profits.
Take the first step, contact us today, and see how Extole can help you.
