Sumit Lakhani, Awfis writes about the rising trend of brands relying on their large pool of employees to tell their stories representing the brand’s values, becoming influencers & ambassadors in their own right.
A motivated workforce translates into higher productivity, better reputation, and can boost a company’s bottom line. Staff ambassadorship programs complement traditional marketing efforts and help build a strong brand name using modern communication channels. Motivated employees are a company’s best resource, mainly when they are inspired to use trusted channels to reach an audience and deliver a powerful message that reinforces the key values of a company and its brand.
In fact, customers perceive staff as more trustworthy than corporate marketing, and a brand ambassador is usually given more credibility and authenticity than organizations, as customers can identify with them at a more personal level.
Staff also benefit from participating, as they can widen their professional network, gain valuable skills that are in high demand, and find new career opportunities. Businesses are more likely to enjoy higher retention rates and are more efficient at change management strategies that allow them to adapt their approach to the changing needs of the market.
Here are a few ways organizations can organically buildtheir employees into their company’s brand ambassadors, to build not just brand affinity but also establish themselves as the employer of choice among a young and new pool of talent.
Engage them consistently
As brand ambassadors it is imperative that employees are involved and consistently informed of the company’s milestones such that they feel a stronger affinityto your organization. Keeping your employees in the loop helps them feel like a part of that achievement and they are more likely to share it within their social circle, be it online or offline. This helps garner brand visibility, organically without having to opt for paid mechanisms of content seeding which may often seem inauthentic to a modern consumer.
Employees can be consistently updated via regular emails, newsletters, townhalls and announcement led celebratory meetings, which also translate to great organic social media content.
Train them to represent your values
Ambassadorship programmes should train teams and bring them on board with brand values while also not being overbearing and allowing employees to maintain their personal views and values. For eg – At Google, most of their trainings are run through an employee-to-employee network called “g2g” (Googler-to-Googler). The “g2g” learning program is created to offer first-hand knowledge in different fields, from employees to employees. What makes the program so successful? Summed up in one sentence, it promotes a culture that values learning.
This training can be made more compelling through storytelling and by highlighting the human factor which is a key aspect in advocacy led marketing.
This story appeared in the 5 January , 2021 issue of Social Samosa and is authored by Sumit Lakhani, CMO, Awfis. This article was originally published at : #Opinion Showcasing brand love Inside Out: Leveraging employees as brand ambassadors – Media Samosa