We are ALL organic brand ambassadors, whether we realise we’re doing it or not.
If you had to recommend ONE skincare brand to a friend of yours, which one would you recommend and why? Or, if you had to recommend using only ONE email marketing platform, which one would you speak highly of and why? This will be down to a few things – how they make you feel and how they have solved your problems.
Hello effective branding!
How many organic brand ambassadors do you think you have for your business? And by organic, I mean people you’re not having to pay to shout out about how amazing you, your services and business are? Having organic ambassadors in place for your brand means you essentially don’t have to do all the heavy lifting you would expect to do within your marketing.
This does however, depend on how you’ve set up your business’ marketing funnel in the first place. Most seasoned entrepreneurs will have an evergreen funnel in place, and/or a launch funnel in place – which one do you have? Or do you have both?
Funnel marketing is great and it can generate a lot of brand awareness for you and your brand on a large scale, but it will normally involve an exchange of money, whether that’s for Facebook ads, Google ads, web apps etc. What if there was another way you could increase your brand awareness in a more low cost and organic way?
Imagine receiving new enquiries on a weekly or even daily basis about your services and products? This is everyone’s dream, right! Well, I am here to tell you this can totally happen for you, because this happens for me on a regular basis. About 80% of my revenue for the last year has come from word of mouth referrals, 15% from google and investments I’ve made, and only 5% from social media. This doesn’t mean to say I don’t post on social media at all – far from it in fact, but it does mean I get quality leads sent my way on regular basis, which I didn’t have to spend time going out and looking for myself.
There’s a reason why I’m still active on social media, because I truly believe in, ‘don’t put all your eggs in one basket’. Those word of mouth referrals could stop at any time, so it’s good to diversify your marketing efforts and not rely on just one thing. But I do also think that having brand ambassadors in place for your business is something not to be overlooked as it can be really powerful in regards to your business growth.
Your brand ambassadors are your clients.
The difference between brand ambassadors, bloggers and influencers are blurred nowadays with social media, but essentially your organic brand ambassadors are your clients. It’s as simple as that. They are your raving, loyal fans who work with you and buy from you often, they love you and what you do. If anyone were to ask them who they would recommend for ‘x’ service (which just so happens to be a service you provide), guess what will happen? They will naturally recommend you.
And the greatest part of all? You don’t have to ask them to do this for you, and you don’t have to encourage or incentivise them to do this for you either. Hence ‘organic’ and ‘natural’.
The most effective way to create ‘organic’ brand ambassadors for your business…
It doesn’t have to be complicated, you just have to provide the best value-driven brand experience to your clients. This means taking the time to really help them, show them that you genuinely care about them and give them the best possible experience from the very first moment they enquire to work with you. This is why it’s important to think about about how your ideal clients want to feel during and after they’ve worked with you and how you can build this into the experience of your products and services.
It’s also about your brand touch points too. As soon as a potential client comes into contact with you, whether that’s at an online networking zoom call, through a comment on social media, a DM or even seeing one of your Facebook adverts – they are experiencing your brand. You’ve always got to be thinking about the first impression your want to be making – what does that look like and what does that feel like.
What if you already have a good sized client base, but you’re not receiving referrals?
- Simply ask your clients if they know of anyone who they think would benefit from your services/products. I know this can feel uncomfortable at times, but you never know who they know.
- Incentivise them through an energetic exchange to thank them for their referrals and make it known that this is available to them. This means you can either say thanks via a credit note on their account with you, or via something like an Amazon voucher.
One important thing to remember when it does come to receiving potential leads from your ambassadors – you still have to pre-qualify everyone yourself because only you will know who is the right match for your services.
In an ideal world, the most powerful way to grow your business is by mixing the two together – funnel marketing and brand ambassadors.
This is because with funnel marketing, not only will you be able to reach more people with your message, products and services, but all those people who convert into clients can become ambassadors for your brand.
Let me know below – what do you have in place and do. you have organic ambassadors in place for your business?
