Marketing to your Audience with a Conversation, Not an Announcement

Many times, people see marketing and public relations as an opportunity to broadcast their key content messages and share the good news about their company. But as you release that information through various marketing tactics, do you ever feel like you are missing something?

Take a second to think about your key audiences. If you cannot instantly think of who those groups are – you should definitely take some time to get to know your customers. What they like, what they don’t like and the way they buy your product or service – how your product or service enhances their lives. 

One way to get a glimpse of your customers is through social media, known as social listening. Take a second to check out your followers on Twitter or those that like your Facebook page, what is important to them? Interact with them socially and determine how they feel about your product or service.

Now, take a closer look.

Which of your social media followers or fans are promoting your pages or products already and which of them have a lot of followers or friends themselves? These people are considered “influential” social media followers because their content reaches the most people, especially if they are already promoting you organically.

These people are your “brand ambassadors.”

Imagine if they reposted or shared your message to their social media followers, lets say 5,000 or more. Even if only 15 turn around and share the social media content from your brand ambassador, that multiplies the impressions of your content by the number of followers that those 15 ‘sharers’ have. You can imagine where I am going with this, with social media just as an example.

Businesses spend so much marketing money pushing their messages, announcing information about the brand, rather than having a simple conversation with brand ambassadors and including them in conversations that shape products or services.

While there is definitely a place for wide-reaching marketing tactics, the purpose of this post is to encourage businesses and brands to take time to nurture relationships with brand ambassadors to learn more about what your audiences need and allow them to promote your product. Let go of a little control and let them use their influence. Sometimes these brand ambassadors are bloggers, moms or dads, community leaders or just regular people.