How to Turn Your Customers into Brand Advocates
How to Give Your Trade Show Attendees and Customers the Tools to Sell for You
Word of mouth is a proven and effective way to spread awareness of your brand and reach new customers. Studies have shown that recommendations from friends, coworkers and colleagues influence people’s decisions to attend specific trade shows, work with certain vendors, and purchase particular products. If you can reach the folks who are passionate about your brand in a meaningful way and keep them engaged, they in turn will be more likely to become an advocate for your brand and let others know about you and spread the word.
Identify Your Core Customers
Surveys and social media are a great way to gain insight into who your serious supporters are – once you know who to engage, give them the tools to promote you. Get your core customers involved by giving them the option to sing your praises on social media sites, give them code to post a badge on their site that links back to yours, write a feature about them for your blog, or let them guest post on your blog.
You want to create a buzz and get your core customers to reach out to the people in their social network and the people who visit their website, because this market potentially holds more customers for your brand. People who like or follow your customers are likely to support you, too.
Promotional Products Help Spread the Word
It is also key to hand out swag – create promotional items that clearly and vividly identify your brand and make sure to get it into the hands of your biggest supports. Reusable bags, bamboo pens, BPA-free travel coffee mugs and more eco-friendly, reusable options are ways to reinforce your brand with your customers while also spreading awareness of your brand.
Create a promotional product that makes your marketing message shine – eco and sustainable materials, full color printing and a custom design will grab people’s attention and add a functionality that will make the item something people use again and again all over the world. You want your fans to use your custom promotional product in a high profile way and drum up additional support. It may even be worthwhile to pass along some extra promotional gear to your top supporters and ask them to help spread the word. This will show your customers that you value their opinion and judgment which will further solidify their loyalty to your brand, but it will also help expand your reach and your customer base.
Listen to Your Customers
Your customer can have some great insight into your product or brand, so ask them what they think about a new product or release or what new services get them excited. Use this feedback to help steer your future release and marketing decisions, so you retain this invaluable customer base. Happy customers will sing your praises and market your brand in an extensive and cost effective way. You certainly want to retain the customers you have, but in order to grow your brand you need to pick up new clients along the way. Enlisting your existing clients to reach out to their friends and colleagues is a great way to strengthen the bonds you have with your clients while also reaching out to new customers.
