5 Tips for Building a Strong Visual Brand
Getting your employees to promote your brand is a great way to boost engagement with consumers. Here are three reasons why they should want to speak up.
Your employees are powerful tools for promoting your brand. They offer your company the potential to connect with clients on a deeper level. They also put a face on your brand, which they know from the inside out. But to help your employees advocate for your brand, you need to know why they would want to in the first place. Here are three reasons why employees want to tell your brand’s story:
1. Pride
People who see their company as an extension of themselves talk about their work. How many times do you hear someone who loves his or her job say I love my job! Or, I have the best job ever!? (All the time.) How do you make employees feel like they are a part of something they want to talk about? You give them a voice and get them talking. One way to do this is by creating in-house social networks where employees can share ideas and voice concerns. This creates a sense of community in the office and boosts moral. There is no better endorsement than a genuinely good experience. These employees tell your story without having to tell it, they simply live it.
2. Recognition
Your best employee advocates are those who truly want to rep your brand. But there are plenty of ways to reward employees who are acting as ambassadors without killing intrinsic motivation. Give a shout out to an employee advocate in a company meeting. Recognition is a great motivator. Or offer employee perks like company tickets to a baseball game, or access to a conference. Rewards like these stir up motivation among employees to hit their networking sites. They also boost morale and keep the positive energy flowing at work, in a way that cash incentives do not.
3. It’s Easy
To get enough employees talking about your brand to see real returns you need a formulized program. Chances are your employees want to talk about your brand, and when advocacy becomes an institution at work, employees are more likely to participate. A brand advocacy program provides this. It also tells employees that higher ups want and expect them to promote their brand, while making it easy.
Chances are the majority of your employees are connected to networks that trust them. By motivating them to advocate your brand within these networks and beyond, you leverage a powerful opportunity to connect with potential clients. Developing a culture of brand advocacy takes some work, but it is a small risk endeavor with huge gains.
This article by Russ Fradin was originally published on Clickz.
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