Unlocking the Power of Brand Advocacy: How to Successfully Measure Its Impact

Brand advocacy is a common practice among companies when it comes to spreading positive awareness. What’s not common knowledge, however, is how to gauge its results. In this post, discover how to measure brand advocacy while also getting employees themselves in on the action.

Brand advocacy is a powerful tool for driving results and making the public aware of your company’s presence. By leveraging the passion of your most enthusiastic customers to engage with and promote your products or services, you can reach large audiences with nothing more than a single social media post.

But beyond the instant results of clicks and shares, how can you track the lasting impact of what a successful brand advocacy program has accomplished in relationship to your bottom line? What metrics should be used?

In this blog post, you will learn practical tips to help you measure and maximize the impact of your brand advocacy efforts, while also getting your entire workforce in on the action.

What is brand advocacy exactly?

So what does the term actually mean? Good question. At its essence, brand advocacy refers to the promotion of a brand and its products by those who believe in them.

These advocates may be motivated by a desire to share their positive experiences with others, or they may get involved for rewards and other perks—obviously the former is more authentic, but both can be effective.

Brand advocacy can take many forms, such as word-of-mouth recommendations, online reviews, social media posts, and more.

The end goal of brand advocacy is to build up enthusiasm and support for the brand and its products, which in turn can boost sales, increase brand awareness, and build customer loyalty—all of which are pretty nice things for a brand to have.

Because advocates are actually people, and typically more trusted than the brand itself, their recommendations can be highly effective in influencing the purchasing decisions of others.

Basically, people tend to trust individuals more than brands. This is especially true when satisfied users promote the brand for free, creating an extremely cost-effective means of reaching new audiences and building brand equity. You can also learn about the general advocacy definition.

The importance of measuring the impact of brand advocacy

There is literally no better publicity than a satisfied customer spreading real, authentic enthusiasm for your brand. And when lots of such people are spreading the word, real magic can happen. But how do you measure the impact of brand advocacy? What should you be thinking about? Well, there are a couple things to consider.

One way to measure the impact of brand advocacy is to look at the number of referrals a happy customer sends your way. This can be tracked to an extant with promotion codes, referral questionnaires, etc. Find out how customers learned about your brand or service. Where are they coming from?

Another way to measure the impact of brand advocacy is to look at the customer’s loyalty. If a customer is loyal to a brand, that means they are more likely to stick with that brand, even if there are cheaper or easier alternatives available. This can lead to increased profits for the company in the long run.

Ultimately, measuring the impact of brand advocacy is important because it allows you to confirm that marketing campaigns are working as intended, and that customers are happy with what you offer. Both of which can be determining factors in a brand’s success.

Which KPIs to use for an effective brand advocacy measurement

We know generally why brand advocacy matters and what to look at when getting a sense of its effectiveness. But what specific, concrete KPIs should you be considering to accurately gauge your campaign’s progress? What metrics really count, and what are the best ways to measure them?

By focusing on these KPIs and charting their fluctuations, you can form a clear picture of how well your brand advocacy program is working.

Tata Consultancy Services, a leader in digital transformation, clearly identified the KPIs to track throughout their employee advocacy journey.

How employees can be brand advocates, too

When it comes to brand advocacy, people most commonly associate it with satisfied customers and consumers. Which makes sense—that’s where the loudest voices can often be heard.

However, there is another element that is often overlooked: your employees themselves. Your own workforce can become a powerful force when it comes to spreading positive brand awareness online. They can be great employee advocates.

And that’s why it’s so important for companies to foster a good relationship with their employees. It’s not just about giving them good benefits or paying them a fair wage. It’s also about making them feel like part of the team.

That means creating a company culture that is positive and supportive. It means giving them the tools and training they need to do their job well. And it means thanking them for their hard work.

When companies do this, employees are proud of their brand and what it represents—they want it to do well because they see its success as integral to their own. And they will spread the word, while increasing their engagement level.

By encouraging and supporting employee advocacy, businesses can tap into the collective influence of their employees and amplify the reach and impact of their marketing efforts. Yes, it really does work!

Defi Wind: a successful brand advocacy example

Held each year in Gruissan, France, Defi Wind is the largest windsurfing event in existence, attracting passionate windsurfers from all over the world. Yet the event’s organizers had been relying on rather traditional communication methods to spread awareness about the organization and the gathering, which limited their reach. They wanted to use the enthusiasm of both organizers and participants to spread the word online.

To accomplish this, they chose Sociabble as their digital brand advocacy platform. Together, they launched “Sociabble4Fans,” an initiative designed to facilitate the sharing and creation of content around the event, tailor-made for Defi Wind’s biggest fans and supporters.

On Sociabble4Fans, members of the Defi Wind community were able to submit their own photos, videos, and insights throughout the event—most notably via the mobile application.

Once validated, the user-generated content (UGC) was then made available to share with all other users. This UGC drove interaction among the community and allowed event organizers to tap into a wealth of posts to relay on official channels both during and after the event.

The platform also took advantage of Sociabble’s unique gamification feature, awarding points and badges to the participants who shared the most content across their networks, helping to spread the word.

In engaging Defi Wind superfans with an exclusive, dynamic, and collaborative environment, Sociabble4Fans helped to strengthen the event’s core fan base, increase brand loyalty, and build on the community spirit of this globally renowned event.

It provided new ways for fans to engage directly with the event, through content creation and idea generation, serving as a springboard for driving visibility and notoriety on social media. The event was a huge success, attracting 1,400 enthusiastic windsurfers, and engaging many thousands more online.

Sociabble as the best platform for your brand advocacy strategy

As we’ve seen, brand advocacy is a powerful tool that every company should leverage within their marketing strategies to create positive customer experiences and drive sales. Put quite simply: it works.

By understanding the importance of measuring the impact of brand advocacy campaigns, implementing leaderboard scoring strategies, and using advanced analytics tools, you can maximize the ROI of your brand advocacy program.

And when it comes to the perfect digital tool to get the job done, Sociabble is designed to do exactly this. Renault Group, L’Occitane, Coca-Cola CCEP, Primark and many other companies around the world are already using Sociabble for their employee communication and advocacy programs.

Want to learn how Sociabble can help your company’s brand advocacy program become a success? We’d love to chat!