3 ways to make your staff your brand advocates

Before you start looking at ways to reach new audiences through advertising or influencers, start by looking at your internal staff and team. Employees can be your best advocates because they already know the in’s and out’s of the business, understand the brands’ values and vision, and are motivated to work towards a common goal that the company has for the business. 

Not only do your employees each have a pool of new audiences to share content with and increase your organisation’s reach, but 52% of consumers say they trust content that is created or advocated by an employee at a company. Employees are seen as credible, authentic and trustworthy, and help establish these values in a business, which is why it’s vital to encourage your team to champion your brand online and in their everyday lives.

Here are 3 tips to grow your brand through your internal ambassadors:

1. Value your employees and they will value you back

Every person likes to feel like their time, opinion and work are valued, so it’s important to make sure you value your employeesand acknowledge their efforts. You don’t need to reward them on every single task they complete, but it’s vital for employers to make their staff feel validated and that they are respected.

Make your employees feel valued by:

• Providing them with constructive feedback and keeping open communication channels between the both of you to create stronger relationships
• Working on their personal development and determining ways they can grow in the business
• Ensuring you have a company culture that they feel comfortable in and an environment they want to work in everyday
• Enforcing the importance of a work-life balance and offering flexible working options
• Offering perks such as milestone rewards, monthly team lunches or team outings to boost team morale

 2. Be transparent with your team

Transparency makes your team understand what they are working for, why they are working for it, and it provides them with insights into their progress and results. In-house transparency about news, financials, updates, culture, success, and failures is honest data you are providing to your team, which shows that you trust your employees and often leads to shared loyalty.

Also, sharing internal information (especially when it’s good) helps your employees get interested about the future of the business and makes them feel part of the plan to achieving the business’ overall goals. Try internal EDMs, monthly meetings or quarterly workshops to go over the brand’s wins and losses and work together to determine how to move forward as a team.

3. Make being a brand ambassador easy

Your employees often work 5 days a week and usually 8+ hours a day, so sometimes they don’t have the time to always think of creative ways to advocate your brand – so make it as easy as possible for them and create templates and guidelines. Providing examples and direction for your employees on how to promote your brand can help them publish the right key messages and strategic content that highlights your organisation, all the while still providing them with a chance to add their own flair to the content.

Ways you can make being a brand ambassador easy is to send a weekly email around to the team reminding staff to share (as they wish) the company’s online content (including team wins, blogs, new staff, promotions etc.), provide pre-written copy to coincide with any imagery and celebrate or incentivise employees who do share content regularly and positively.

Growing your brand is important, however humanising your brand is just as essential in order to establish your credibility, authenticity, and relatability to your consumers. Your employees can help you achieve this by championing your brand and acting as valuable resources of information to new and different stakeholders.

Read more on internal communications and strengthening your relationship with your employees here.