In the race to reach the top, businesses and organisations go lengths and beyond to achieve targets and promote sales. The markets are harsh and punish brands irrevocably if they aren’t doing well. In the effort to keep the momentum going, businesses often make the mistake of hiring unwanted professional help. Every business stresses on and is ready to invest huge capital in “marketing”. This is a resultant effect of not knowing why they are hiring someone and what role the hired personnel plays in sustaining their brand.
What most businesses don’t understand is that they don’t need to hire people for promotions every time. One such commonly known, but vastly misunderstood area of expertise is “Brand Evangelism”. It may sound like a highly technical term, but let’s break it down to understand closely how well it works for the promotion of any brand.
Who is a Brand Evangelist?
Brand Evangelists don’t just sing praises from the top of mountains. Yes, they are highly satisfied customers (fans of the brand) who endorse the brand anywhere they go. But there is more to it. Brand evangelists are efficient marketing assets who live with the tag as their lifestyle, not simply a job description.
What does a Brand Evangelist do?
The role of an evangelist should never be limited to a specific type of work. They need to get out of their comfort zone, out in the market, promoting and endorsing a brand that has given them a prior positive customer experience. One of their responsibilities is to protect the brand from being stolen, taking other forms or being duplicated.
Are Brand Evangelists any different from Technical Evangelists?
The roles are similar, but a Technical Evangelist has an added role of promoting the product from a technical standpoint The promotion could be through blogs, articles, user demonstrations or sample projects. A tech evangelist will build support for the given technology and then establish it as a standard in the industry.
Can I become a Brand Evangelist?
If you use the product daily, believe in it and are satisfied with it in the most organic way, you are already on the path to “evangelism”. The easiest example of an organisation that has employed evangelism marketing voluntarily is Apple. Apple loyalists share their experience with its platform technology in enthusiastic ways regularly.
How is Brand Evangelism planned and implemented?
The first step is to initiate a dialogue with the customers. The goal is to get customers speak openly and honestly of positives, negatives and needs. How do customers see the brand in their minds? This can be done via surveys, online information and other kinds of surveys. Once the customers start speaking about the brand, strategies for the business can be designed and effective marketing plans can be made.
How well are Brand Evangelists remunerated?
Garnering brand evangelists is the most crucial part of any marketing endeavour. How organisations wish to remunerate their loyal fans is personal opinion, but do not neglect the fact that engaging customer interests in the brand should give them some value for their time and efforts. The best way to turn customers into brand evangelists is by offering them interesting rewards like gift certificates or contributing to their community.
“Brand Evangelist” is a profession that was born circa ’84 and has ever since picked pace owing to the realisation that when a brand is promoted in this way, consumers are strongly convinced to buy it. Once customers step up to the next stage of involvement, they automatically become brand evangelists for the brand. When relevant users become loyal customers, go on to start creating their own marketing content for the brand with their own personality and individuality, it means the business has been successful in implementing its brand evangelism strategy.