7 Ways to Turn Your Influencers Into True Brand Advocates

Every brand has a story that they want to tell, so many brands out there engage influencers. For a long time, marketers have leveraged influencers to increase brand awareness, reach new audiences and increase sales conversion. However, with the evolution of the influencer marketing sector quickly evolving, brands should look into the future and figure out what’s next. The best way to get the most out of your influencer is by converting them into true brand advocates.

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Having said this, not every brand influencer is an advocate. None of them are advocates until you convert them to become loyal followers of your brand. Turning your influencers or ambassadors into your advocates will help create a bond that can take your brand to another level.

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By creating long-term relationships with an influencer, you will be making an organic relationship with their followers. This article will explore seven unique ways to convert your influencer into true brand advocates.

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Who are brand advocates?

Brand advocates are real people who trust and believe in your brand and product and want it to succeed and use them. These people advocate for or promote your brand by leaving good reviews and creating content centered on the brand. It suffices to say that whoever loves your brand and consistently encourages it verbally is a brand ambassador. Advocates, therefore, are your most enthusiastic and loyal customers, partners or employees. 

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Brand advocates will share your product and brand without being motivated or prompted by the brand. This is because brand ambassadors love your product and brand and are eager to promote it to other people. The energy and enthusiasm shown by the advocates trigger people to check the product and brand themselves.

What is the advantage of brand advocacy?

Most people trust content shared by ordinary everyday people. It suffices to say that brand advocates are regarded as very reliable promoters of products and services. Some of the unique benefits of brand advocacy include:

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●It helps grow brand visibility organically: A typical brand advocate usually shares the product and service on their social media handles passionately. They typically require little motivation to do this.

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● It helps demonstrate brand value proposition: People are more comfortable with information from other people over corporate messages. Brand advocates offer greater credibility to your brands' value proposition and easily trigger your customers to make a purchase decision.

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● Better reach: Averagely, social media users connect with at least 400 families and friends. A brand advocate will quickly give you a way to connect to new audiences, thereby broadening the reach of your brand. 

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●Media hype: News outlets and publications generally love to work with brands with a large fan base. Brand advocates help drive your fan base and open new vistas to uncharted promotional opportunities. 

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●Helps stand above the competition: Most people view thousands of advertisements annually, which is a lot of marketing messages. A large amount of adverts makes most people ignore adverts. Most consumers are becoming more intelligent and go beyond just adverts to buy a product or service; they now investigate and ask questions. Data shows that over 80% of customers rely on recommendations from others to make a buying decision. Having a well-known and reliable advocate on your team helps you stand shoulders above the crowd. Advocates can directly connect with your target clients in a personal manner. 

How to turn your influencers to brand advocates

1. Find the ideal influencers

There are specific influencers you will not be able to turn into brand advocates regardless of how hard you try. Knowing this in time will help you properly channel your resources towards finding someone who believes in the brand and the story behind it. The best way to find the right influencer involves researching popular and relevant hashtags, running a Google search and using the geotagging tool to search for local influencers. Remember to observe and follow trending topics and look for the top content creators in that line. Also, by using vling YouTube Money calculator, you can assess the earnings of the YouTuber. If the earnings are higher than channels with similar subscribers, it can be considered an effective YouTuber for advertising. This is because earnings are primarily based on the number of views!

2. Share your brand story and vision with them

For your influencer to be converted into brand advocates, they need to hear, observe and absorb the values and stories behind the brand. Usually, it is easier working with someone who aligns with who you are and what you represent as a brand. A thoughtful way to go about this is to concentrate on the personal brand of the influencer as well as their audience and niche. By focusing mainly on influencers who share your brand traits, you will be able to convert them into lifelong partners and advocates gradually.

3. Focus more on storytelling

Although influencers using social media to promote brands is a proven lead generation strategy, it isn’t the only way. Greater focus should be on creating a functional inbound marketing approach, and the best way to do this is by deploying quality content and storytelling. One of the most innovative ways to leverage social media for your brand is by constantly creating quality content instead of just promoting your brand. However, even if the influencer is promoting time-limited deals or discount codes, ensure they do so using engaging personal stories that will appeal to the audience's emotions. 

4. Cross-platform influencers are better

Many influencers prefer to use just one platform, but many influencers are exploring other social media these days. Platforms such as Twitter, TikTok and Facebook are drawing more people. More influencers explore other platforms because their audiences consume content on multiple platforms. 

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Another strategy many brands seem to ignore consistently is influencers who have Discord, Telegram channels, personal websites and Reddit or Quora threads. More often than not, people on such platforms are enthusiasts in the focus subject area. Get your influencers turned into advocates to propagate the gospel of your brand across these platforms and capture hitherto uncharted territories. 

5. Properly motivate your influencers

Everyone needs motivation, whether they are potential influencers or clients. The easiest way to engage followers or influencers is by providing special incentives and perks. You may mandate your influencers to offer discount codes and special deals to customers via social media handles. The perks are higher for each post, free merchandise, and discounts on your products and services. 

6. Be clear on your goals

People will associate with your brand when they know the short, medium, and long-term goals. Before agreeing with an influencer, ensure you have trackable benchmarks which you can use to analyze and monitor your performance effectively. Doing this will help you track how much effort is being made and the results generated. 

7. Celebrate their inputs

It is easy to focus on the big picture that you ignore little wins. Keeping your influencer motivated is key to establishing a long-term brand-advocate relationship. Get involved in their business, sponsor their programs and events, and celebrate important milestones. Also, you should remember their important dates such as birthdays, anniversaries, and others. When you make the influencer feel like you care, you will win their loyalty and trust, which translates into a fruitful partnership.

Final thoughts

Influencers offer more than many brands know. Understanding how to leverage the potential of brand influencers and building long-term relationships with them can help drive your business’s KPIs up. Turning an influencer into a true brand ambassador isn’t rocket science because all it requires is selling who you are and what you stand for to them. Influencers get offers to promote different brands regularly, which means your brand has to have a value proposition that aligns with their goals and aspirations. An intelligent approach to getting influencers who may become brand advocates is to engage the services of  influencer marketing platformswith solid track records of excellence and results. 

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