Client Advocacy for Your Online Marketing
There are several stages to the customer journey in your marketing, but the final stage could be the most important. It all starts with Awareness, then Appointments (conversions) followed by Retention and ends with Advocacy. This fifth stage, Advocacy, is all about turning your clients into brand ambassadors. Most of the time we always focus our marketing effort on Awareness and Conversions, which is good, but try leveraging some time and money into the end strategy of better Advocacy. If you work to optimize the final journey of your customer experience this is where organic referrals will soon began to grow.
We know that word of mouth marketing today relies heavily on digital channels. Therefore it is important to recognize and actively encourage the following tactics online:
Reviews
Strive for positive online reviews. Reviews of your business posted online whether you like it or not is infinitely better for your business. Because of the reach and impact of these review websites, knowing when and how to respond to every type of review is more important than ever before. A review could be the first thing a potential new clients sees online and this can swing their decision immediately. Also, review ratings have an effect on your google rankings and search placements.
Testimonials
Ask all happy clients for a testimonial. This is supercharged content that you can use across all your channels and is one of the best marketing tools in your portfolio. A good testimonial can leverage and speak volumes for your brand.
Social Connections
Encourage all happy clients to acknowledge and connect with you on social media platforms, such as follow, like, share or tag you. This will help get you seen by many of their friends and neighbors and give you some word of mouth marketing. Today almost all forms of communication from pier to pier is on social media. It’s the most important marketing tool for your business.
Engagement
This is where you become social on social media and keep your brand top of mind for all your followers and brand ambassadors. Engage with your posts and communicating back to followers will help lift the reach and exposure of your content. So, the important thing to remember is to actively seek to engage with your clients and do a great job participating in those social conversations.
In conclusion, following these best practices and applying some effort in the final marketing journey can drive new leads and help boost your online presence.
Contact us if you have any questions about branded marketing or social media marketing for your business.