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Why Having a Brand Evangelist Increases Conversions, Customer Satisfaction and Profits

February 27, 2012 · 37 comments

Brand Evangelist

Image Credit MarketingFAQ.net Click image to read Who are evangelists & what do they do?

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:

Solutions that are highly beneficial to small businesses such as:

Brands that sell products Small Businesses need:

Coops and consumer supported agriculture (CSAs) organizations such as:

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:

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!

National umbrella groups that enable local groups such as:

Local groups such as:

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:

About GrowMap:

Have questions or ready to get started? Use our contact information to reach us.

Tagged as: brand evangelists, influencers, small business, social media marketing


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{ 35 comments… read them below or add one }

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Twitter:
April 16, 2012 at 5:19 am

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Reply

Doug who writes about inbound vs outbound marketing
Twitter:
April 4, 2012 at 7:29 am

People will evangelize indirectly in social media. This is the platform where they will espouse the values of a brand or an experience. It’s sort of indirect as the brand doesn’t attempt to instigate – which comes off phony. But it is another reason to pay more attn to social marketing.

Reply

David Sneen who writes about motivational plan
Twitter:
March 11, 2012 at 2:02 pm

I agree that the local dollar spent is the best dollar for the community. When corporations displace local stores and they leave, they are killing the community. Even in larger cities, the local stores need and deserve our support.

The brand evangelist is a great asset! What businessman wouldn’t want an influential person steering the consumers in his/her direction? As a blogger, working with dedicated evangelists is a dream of mine!

Reply

Sean R. Nicholson
Twitter:
March 4, 2012 at 9:03 pm

While the rule of 7 was tried and true in the olden days of marketing, I think it’s old-hat in the age of the Web and social media. Nowadays, people turn to their friends and family and make buying decisions based on their experiences. If a couple of bad experiences are reported, the chances of any marketing message or brand ambassador having an impact is slim to none.

In the end, brands are going to have to take a clos look at their products and services to make sure they are valuable to the consumer. Rule 1 in the age of the empowered consumer is to have a good product. Without it…forget it.

Just my $.02…

–Sean
Sean R. Nicholson would love you to read ..The Secret Formula To Social Media Success (shhh…don’t tell)My Profile

Reply

growmap
Twitter:
March 5, 2012 at 2:44 am

Hi Sean,

I agree that if friends and family make recommendations they carry more influence than ads or other views. But the bottom line is that people don’t act until they see something repeatedly and that holds true online or off.

Brands are facing a challenge they never had before and probably really don’t like: that consumers can avoid their bad products based on online reviews and social networks and email making it easier to solicit input and more discussion prior to purchase.

That doesn’t matter to me because I firmly believe we should spend every penny we can with independent small businesses and take every penny we can away from multi-national corporate brands. I explained why in my post that covers the impact of local spending on the economy.
growmap would love you to read ..MUST HAVE Social CRM Nimble Brings All Your Contacts and Major Social Media Activities TogetherMy Profile

Reply

Danica Green who writes about Shopping Bags
Twitter:
March 4, 2012 at 9:21 am

Although the rule of seven is old it doesn’t mean that it is outdated. It still works at the present time and will remain as one of the fundamentals of marketing.

Reply

Eddie Gear who writes about SEO for Blog March 4, 2012 at 3:28 am

When people with good credentials in the world of internet marketing talk about you or your website and keep talking about it, people start to show more attention towards your site. it kinda makes them your personal brand ambassador.
Eddie Gear would love you to read ..You Should Definitely Be Blogging for Your Local BusinessMy Profile

Reply

Daniel Rose who writes about key 11 consulting
Twitter:
March 3, 2012 at 3:05 am

Great! An excellent overview of why brand advocacy works and why evangelists are needed. What’s best? The customer is the evangelist.
Daniel Rose would love you to read ..Management Development — Trends in 2012My Profile

Reply

growmap
Twitter:
March 3, 2012 at 4:14 pm

Hi Daniel,

Yes – but THAT is the fallacy of word of mouth marketing. Most customers WILL NOT evangelize. They simply will not. Most people are passive consumers of what streams by them and do NOT even retweet as simple as that is!

There is ample proof of this. Even when people love a company or product how often do they bother to write a review or recommendation versus how many will complain?

The reviews and recommendations are written by people like US not the general public. How many readers do you have compared to how many who comment regularly or even EVER comment?

Anyone who is waiting for their customers to be their best evangelists is going to be sorely disappointed unless they can find some REALLY creative way to get them to share – like having an exceptional video they will pass along.

For most brands that is NOT going to work. It just won’t. And the sooner they realize that and start doing what will, the sooner they can start doing what they MUST do to survive.

The economy is NOT going to get better. It can’t because the value of the dollar is going to keep going down so even if everyone had the same good paying job they always had they will have less and less to spend – or worse – will take on debt that will really hurt them.

The solution is supporting small businesses, creating strong local communities, and taking every possible penny away from the multi-national corporations and banks that are destroying our economy – and economies around the world – intentionally.

Fiat currencies ALWAYS result in creating “money” out of thin air that created debt that results in printing more and more money (or creating it in computers or ledgers) which causes inflation which WILL inevitably be followed by ecpnomic collapse. ALWAYS. Nothing else can possibly happen.

That is why there are now people willing to speak out. They can see the bridge is out and the train is about to hurtle off the cliff and the wise ones are going to GET OFF before it is too late.
growmap would love you to read ..Why Having a Brand Evangelist Increases Conversions, Customer Satisfaction and ProfitsMy Profile

Reply

Daniel Rose who writes about key eleven consulting
Twitter:
March 3, 2012 at 6:16 pm

You know, I think it is very industry dependent. You’re right that some customers simply won’t become evangelists at any point. Particular, consumer based products and services where they are low cost, low engagement. Commercial and B2B type products and services of high cost, and higher than usual engagement typically generate some serious goodwill and generate some serious buzz. Not a replacement for using a brand evangelist however.
Keep up the good work & appreciate your reply!
Daniel Rose would love you to read ..Do You Know Your Value Above Competitors?My Profile

Reply

Personalized Construction Hats October 15, 2012 at 5:32 am

Hi daniel,
i would like to ask one question… When this B2B products and services can get focus for customers?

Reply

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