Market research led to one of the oldest concepts in marketing: The Rule of Seven which states that most will not take action until they have seen your message at least seven times.
That still holds true today and the busier your target audience is the less likely they are to act – unless someone they know and trust consistently recommends you.
The more complex your offering the more true this is. Busy people usually only take action when someone they personally interact with regularly encourages them to invest their time in doing so.
Your brand advocate can also also provide tech support, write tutorials with screen captures, and use their existing connections to identify other influencers to promote your brand.
Brand evangelism can be a low cost way small businesses, non-profits and good causes can keep what they have to offer in front of their target audience without the expense of buying advertising – and direct recommendations are more effective.
Brand Evangelist Qualifications
The best evangelist for your brand is someone with influence with your potential buyers. An even better, but sometimes overlooked type of evangelist is someone who can INFLUENCE the influencers in your niche.
That is where GrowMap focuses: on building relationships with influential bloggers. We collaborate, share expertise, select the very best solutions, products and services, and then collectively and consistently promote them.
We create pillar content and set up alerts to ensure that whenever someone is searching for what you have to offer we can recommend you to them right when they are most interested.
Brands We Can Most Benefit
These are the types of brands I would love to work with as a brand evangelist:
Brands with a healthy living, sustainable, organic, Fair Trade focus including:
- Eden Organic Foods @EdenFoods
- Marcal Small Steps @MarcalSmallStep
- Seventh Generation @SeventhGen
- Dr. Bronners @DrBronner
- Aubrey Organics @AubreyOrganics
- Got Matcha @???
- Desert Essence @desertessence
- Do you know of a brand that belongs in this list? Let me know!
Solutions that are highly beneficial to small businesses such as:
- Universal Business Listings @UBLorg – EVERY business should claim their FREE ADVERTISING on major local directories including Google Places, Yahoo! Local, Bing, SuperPages, etc. AND get into the major databases that feed cell phone and GPS systems.
- Experiment.ly @ExperimentsWork
- Hubspot Marketing Solutions, Lead Generation Systems – Highly recommended
- Social CRM Nimble @Nimble
- Hootsuite Social Media Dashboard @Hootsuite – THE best tool for managing multiple Twitter accounts
- CoTweet Twitter Management Solution – The EASIEST yet still powerful tool for managing multiple Twitter accounts
- TimePicks Online Appointment Scheduling @timepicks
- Piwik Open Source Web Analytics @Piwik
- PaySimple @PaySimple
- Kickstarter @KickStarter
- Knowem @Knowem – Every brand needs to protect their social media usernames NOW!
- ReadyTalk OS independent Web Conferencing @ReadyTalk
- Volusion @Volusion – One of the very best ecommerce solutions available.
- Do you have recommendations of others who belong in this list? Let me know!
Brands that sell products Small Businesses need:
- Signazon ~ Business Signs, Car Magnets, Window Graphics, Vinyl Decals – get ideas by browsing signs by industry for existing designs you can personalize
Coops and consumer supported agriculture (CSAs) organizations such as:
- Local Harvest @LocalHarvestorg
- Organic Consumers Association @OrganicConsumer
- Texas Fruit Growers Association
- Do you have recommendations of others who belong in this list? Let me know!
Brands that sell products, services, or solutions bloggers and social media influencers use regularly
- APC @APCNorthAmerica @APCAV @SchneiderNA ~ best known for their Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS) – EVERY computer user would benefit from one ESPECIALLY BLOGGERS – If you can’t afford a large one at least get one to protect your tower or laptop from most damage.
- System76 @System76 ~ Manufacturer of Ubuntu preinstalled, optimized PCs, laptops, desktops and servers
- Feedblitz alternative to FeedBurner @Feedblitz @phollows
- TweetReach
Web Solutions and Services
The BEST Hosting companies:
WordPress related:
- WordPress: DIY Thesis Theme Framework
- WordPress: StudioPress Genesis Framework – See Ron Cripps’ @AffiliateXFiles WP Genesis Review and Kristi Hines @Kikolani Thesis vs Genesis – Comparing Premium WordPress Themes
Do you have recommendations of others who belong in this list? Let me know!
Brands that never compromise on quality
These brands are proof that you CAN still sell a quality product instead of cheap junk that fills up landfills and wastes precious resources!
- Snapper Mowers – the brand that refused to compromise on quality and one of the smart brands that said NO! to Wal-Mart.
- Master Lock – building QUALITY locks that last and last since 1921
- Does YOUR BRAND belong here? Let me know!
National umbrella groups that enable local groups such as:
- Construction Guild US
- Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE) @BALLE_Network
- Do you have recommendations of others who belong in this list? Let me know!
Local groups such as:
- Local First @localfirst
- Local First Arizona @LocalFirstAZ
- Local First Chicago @local1stchicago
- Local First Indiana @LocalFirstIN
- Local Construction Guilds
- Some types of non-profits and good causes
- Do you have recommendations of others who belong in this list? Let me know!
We will only consider evangelizing for brands we sincerely believe in and whose solutions, products and services we actually use. These are also the only advertisers we accept on GrowMap. See our Advertising Rates.
DISCLAIMER: At the time brands are added to this page they are not existing clients; however, my intention is to work with any of these who are interested. I will add those that have compensated me in any way to my official disclosure page.
GrowMap Reach:
- Each new post on GrowMap is tweeted by at least two dozen social media savvy influential bloggers. You can see GrowMap’s Twitter reach using Topsy. Typical retweet per post volume is 45-100+ which can be seen by using Topsy to see Retweets by URL.
- GrowMap and twelve of our closest collaborators were among 32 bloggers singled out in a joint Cornell University / Yahoo! Research study of Influencers on Twitter.
- This Social Media Influencers List on PeerIndex includes many of our regular collaborators.
- GrowMap is a Media Sponsor of:
- World Media Awards
- Anita Campbell’s Small Business Trends BizBookAwards
- Influence People’s Future of Engagement
- Murray Newland’s Justin.tv Future of Publishing
About GrowMap:
- GrowMap LinkedIn Profile and Bio
- Technorati:
- Gail Gardner and Her Map to Small Business Growth: Interview Part I
- Gail Gardner and Her Map to Small Business Growth: Interview Part II
- Spotlight on Small Business Champions: Profile: Small Business Advisor, Gail Gardner of GrowMap.com, A True Influencer
- Nominated and received 200 votes: Small Business Trends Influencer Award 2011
- Gail from Growmap is a Small Business Influencer
- Annual Snapshot of GrowMap Influence, Highlights and Progress (Aug 19, 2011)
Have questions or ready to get started? Use our contact information to reach us.
