How to build your online community of advocates

Did you know, according to Neilsen's data, 8 out of 10 people will trust the recommendation of their friends when it comes to their purchasing decision?

Of course, people trusts people. People developed a distaste with ads and the transaction between brands and influencers also lessen their trust towards "influencers". 

They therefore rely to their friends for recommendation. In conclusion, people value authentic and real advocates. 

In marketing, we call this as advocate marketing or word-of-mouth marketing. As a small business owner, you need to capitlize on this. 

For one, this is the cheapest form of marketing. It requires zero ad spent and zero influencer budget. 

However, unlike ads and influencers, building your advocate marketing strategy takes time - you need to build a community around the brand. 

HOW DO YOU BUILD A COMMUNITY AROUND YOUR BRAND. 

The surest way to start this process is by making sure that you put out good content in your pages. 

This is why we always push everyone to post contents that are 1) valuable to your audience and 2) relatable to your audience. 

Posts tutorials. Post your lessons in this entrepreneurial journey. Post not only your successes but also the failures in your journey. 

This way, your audience will relate to you in a deeper level. This way, you can transform your audience from just supporters to brand advocates. 

During our live classes in our Penguin Program, we've discussed different strategies to improve your contents. 

We will not discuss it here so if you are interested in the program, just click the link above and join our class. 

Aside from good content, another way to improve your word-to-mouth marketing is by improving your retention strategy. 

IMPROVE YOUR RETENTION STRATEGY

How many of your existing clients are repeat clients and how many of them are new clients?

In our community, we advise that you focus on your repeat clients. Nurture them. Give them incentive to stay. Interact with them as if you are friends. Connect with them on socials. 

If you rely on getting new clients every month for sale, then expect a higher cost. Remember the strawberry rule (ichigo); new client costs 5 times more than old clients. 

In our Penguin class, we have discussed different ways to strengthen your retention strategies but let me share some here. 

• Create a VIP group for your loyal clients - make them interact with each other to create a sense of community. 
• Treat your VIP as your ambassadors. Give them xdeal packages or discount coupons. Treat them as the celebrity of your brand. 
• Establish an affiliate program so they have incentive to invite friends. 
• Offer discount everytime they post about your product. 
• Connect with them outside selling. 

Why invest money on celebrities and influencers who does not trust your brand nor uses whatever you send them. If you have the extra cash, spend it first in pampering your VIPs. After, then you can spend money on influencers. But, expect that client turned advocates will create more sales than your well-known influencers. 

Influencers bring authority and traffic yes but they do not guarantee sales. Brand advocates on the other hand bring more sales. They might not create as big of a traffic than a celebritiy but the traffic they bring are quality leads - they stay and they buy. 

In conclusion, this short article discussed two ways on how you can build your community. Mainly, this is about encouraging you to make more human-touch contents and strengthen your retention strategy. 

With these two, you can start building your community of advocates for your business. 

Keyword: Advocacy marketing, word-of-mouth marketing, content marketing, community building, online community building