6 Steps to Creating Brand Advocates

Want people to recognize you, follow you, share your content, and have potential clients seeking you out instead of spending days upon days trying to sell yourself or your brand?  Produce relevant, fresh, unique and valuable content frequently and chasing down sales will be a thing of the past.  Instead being that annoying person always sending out their latest promotion you will be seen as an industry leader in your field.  You will create brand advocates that talk about you, remember you, recommend you, share your content, now you will be the person people can trust.  Below are 6 helpful steps to help you build brand advocates for your company.

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1. Create content frequently

There are several ways to create content: blogging, social media posts, eBooks, white papers, articles, podcasts, webinars, speaking events.   It is important to use channels that are the most comfortable for you.  Once you have decided on which channels are best for you and I suggest you choose a few, it is imperative that you use these channels frequently to share your content.  You should be communicating to your target audience at least once a week.  Your followers will begin to anticipate your communications and look forward to it.  Wait to long to share content and you could lose the momentum as well as your following.

2. Content should be value driven

This is not about you, your company or your need to generate more revenue.  (Well… really it is but your potential clients could care less about your profits or your need to make a sale.) This is about building your audience.   People don’t follow you because of your sales ads.  People follow you because there is something interesting about you.  You provide them with something of value that they find amusing, useful, helpful, thought provoking.  The same applies to the content you provide to your users; giving away amazing content that helps your target audience is imperative.  Relevant content builds bigger audiences, which in turn expands the reach of your brand.

3. Show them how

I know this one sounds crazy and you may think how will I make sales if I tell them how to do what I do?  Someone who is motivated can and will figure out and learn how do anything if they dig deep enough.  I learned most of what I know today via books or online research, so if I can do that so can anyone else.  Don’t be scared to tell your users how to do it or at least point them in the right direction.  Remember what I said earlier….this is not about you.  This isn’t even about you making the sale today, tomorrow, or even next week.  This is about creating prospects that become clients that continue to come back.  This is about you being recognized as an industry leader in your field.  The only way people will recognize you as an industry leader is if they are sure you know what you are talking about.

4. Be creative

There are thousands of people out there who provide the same services or products you provide.  Your target audience can have their pick of any of them to buy from; therefore, there has to be something pretty damn special about you that makes you stand out from all the rest.  This your chance to be unique, fun, exciting, sexy, quirky….. this is your time to Stand OUT… Be different.

5. Your 2 Cent really does count

While you are sharing your value driven content be sure to share your opinion because guess what… people want to know what you think.  Why do some people watch Martin Bashir and others listen to Rush Limbaugh?  They care about their opinion; their interpretation of current news.  Be authentic and tell people your spin of things.

6. Start a conversation

Use your content to get the conversation started.  Ask your target audience questions, share your opinion and ask your followers to share theirs.  Don’t be scared to be controversial as long as it doesn’t to hurt your brand.  Content should never be considered one-way communication.  By creating opportunities for conversation you will learn more about your target audience; you produce an opportunity to generate even more content because now you know your users wants, needs, and concerns, putting you in a position to assist them even further.

This is in no way an all-inclusive list but it is a means of getting you started.  I’d love it if your shared your suggestions on how to build brand advocates.  Just remember that your target audience doesn’t need another sales pitch, they a bombarded with sales pitches all day everyday.  What your target audience needs is for you to solve their problems and your content is the solution they have been waiting on.

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