A brand evangelist loves a brand so much that they rave about it and promote it all the time to other people, participating in as many events and conversations as they can that involve that brand.
Not only do you want your customers to be brand evangelists, but you want your employees to be too. When employees love and promote your brand, that enthusiasm spreads to customers and creates an indestructible internal work environment.
You can make employees brand evangelists by becoming the best place to work. And you can make customers brand evangelists by offering quality products that meet a real need and providing the best customer service.
How to Turn an Employee into a Brand Evangelist
I’m starting with employees because what they do in any role impacts customers. If they hate your brand, your customers will too. And if they don’t like working for you, they won’t go hard for your business. Low-quality products and bad customer service follow. And that treatment ultimately has a hand in persuading customers to become brand evangelists or not.
The core of turning an employee into a brand evangelist is making your company the best place to work. The other part is maintaining a company that really does for its customers.
Here’s exactly what to do to turn an employee into a brand evangelist:
Become a customer-centric brand. The people who work for you want you to treat them well. But they also pay attention to how you treat your customers. It feels good working for a business that really prides itself on being there for its customers. Treat customers poorly, and you’ll surely get the side-eye from employees rather than their praise.
Chick-Fil-A is one of those customer-centric brands. They’re so focused on providing the most pleasant experience for customers, down to the “My Pleasure” response.
Create high-quality products that eliminate customer pain points. Listen to your customers when they give you feedback and actually use it. Make sure that your brand respects the same things your customers do. And handle customer service like you would a newborn: gently and with care.
Train HR. Like really train them to take care of your people and be the bridge to leadership for lower-level employees.
You mainly want them to recruit well and onboard new employees with a program that walks them through each week for the first couple of months. You want them to take complaints seriously and ensure each is satisfactorily resolved. You also want HR to continuously come up with ways to bring teams together, like quarterly workplace awards ceremonies and skills workshops.
Make it easy for employees to live. It still amazes me that we live in a world where people can go to work for 40 hours a week and still not make enough to pay bills. And those companies wonder why their employee turnover rate is sky-high.
Generally speaking, when employees are compensated well (and I mean above fair), have sufficient paid time off and aren’t shamed for taking it, have employer-paid medical, dental, and vision benefits, and some sort of retirement in the making, they’re able to live comfortably. Add a flexible schedule, manageable workload, and a position they’re naturally good at into the mix, and they’re sure to brag about where they work.
Recognize what your employees do. No one is hyped about working for someone who takes all the credit. Mind you, not recognizing your employees’ work will burn them out. Thank you’s and shoutouts for hard work and good results should be a given.
Work big incentives in, like an awards event at the end of each quarter, team dinners at good restaurants, or extra time off. Apple’s been known to offer its employees cash bonuses and stock options.
Recognizing what your employees do also means recognizing when they’re struggling. It’s not about shaming them or putting pressure on them to do better. It’s more about finding out how to better use what they’re already naturally good at and shifting their role or responsibilities so they can use those skills.
Help your employees advance. People can’t say enough about the companies that helped them keep moving up. Stagnant employees don’t become brand evangelists. So, make sure yours aren’t.
Take each position you have in your company and detail a plan for how someone could get to that position. For example, if someone wanted to become general manager, they’d need experience in every position leading up to that. You’d write that down in the development plan and detail what they’d do and need to learn in each position.
How to Turn a Customer into a Brand Evangelist
When I think of brand evangelists, I think of the Beyhive, Beyonce’s devoted fan base, or Nicki Minaj’s fan base, The Barbz. People are so touched by their music and who Beyonce and Nicki are that they go hard for them and show up to everything.
You’re looking for that with your customers. To turn them into someone who loves your brand so much that they regularly promote it to others, you have to offer the best products for their needs, treat them really well, and build actual relationships with people that resonate emotionally.
Here’s exactly what to do to turn a customer into a brand evangelist:
Offer products that fill a real need. Your customers have challenges they’re trying to resolve or needs they want to honor. That’s why they’re visiting your store or considering your services. Offering products that speak to those needs or pain points is what makes someone feel seen. And it’s so easy to make a deep connection with someone, or in this case, a brand, when you feel like they see you.
This is a really basic example, but McDonald’s filled a real need for people. They wanted low-priced, filling meals that they could pick up quickly, and that’s exactly what McDonald’s gave them, hence why they’re so successful.
Before you create and offer the products, you need to understand who your customers are. Website analytics data is good for demographic information and to figure out what kind of content people are consuming. But a glimpse into the mind and emotions of customers is more valuable. Social media comments, one-on-one interviews, and forums like Reddit are good places to find that and information about needs and challenges.
Then, you can create, or get high-quality products from distributors, that fill those real needs.
Handle the bad stuff really well. Customer service has a lot of money in this fight for brand evangelists. But I don’t want to talk about the good side of it, meaning providing customers with this awesome experience. I want to harp on how you handle the bad stuff.
Returns. Product issues. Bad reviews. A social media post that’s gone viral for the wrong reasons. I think a lot of brands just rush by these experiences and don’t give enough thought to their resolutions. You should because people remember who treated them well in an uncomfortable or negative situation. They give a lot of props for that and stick with those brands.
Take your time with every customer issue and don’t stop until the person is satisfied with the outcome.
Encourage and post UGC. There are people who love your brand, and people who love your brand enough to do unboxing videos and posts reviewing their latest purchase from you. Encourage that UGC and post it on your page. It’s exciting for people to see themselves on a big brand’s page. And they realize you actually care about their opinion. Then, they get even closer to becoming a brand evangelist.
Sephora’s got this Beauty Insider community gallery page that has a ton of pictures of women who used their products. You click on a pic, and it tells you the exact products they used.
Let customers submit UGC on your website. Or, tell them to post it on their own page with a certain hashtag, and you’ll reach out to them for permission to use it.
Look for the customers within your online community who consistently interact with you, tag your brand in posts, and stand out from the crowd. They’ve got the UGC you’re looking for. When they submit it or give you permission to use what they’ve posted, send them a couple of free products as a thank you.
Create a customer loyalty program. A person could become a brand evangelist after just one experience or purchase. But for most people, they’ll need quite a few interactions with your brand to become a genuine brand evangelist.
That’s where a loyalty program comes in. It prompts people to come back. The more they come back, the more they experience your brand. And if every experience does something good to their soul, they’re likely to become a brand evangelist.
Jersey Mike’s has a really good one that’s super simple. Buy subs, get points for doing so, and redeem those points for free food. You also get exclusive discounts and promotions sent to you.
LoyaltyLion and Kangaroo are two of the best loyalty program software. Kangaroo is super affordable with plans starting at $59 a month, while LoyaltyLion does pricing based on how much order volume you have each month.
Actually implement customer feedback. Yes, you want to gather and listen to customer feedback. But while most businesses stop there, you need to actually use what customers are telling you.
Again, feeling heard and seen makes people really respect brands and like them. So, collect feedback. Surveys are okay. But look at social media comments, UGC, and reviews to get the real.
Create a central repository to filter all that feedback to. Then, review and organize it based on how many people are saying it. Choose the most popular feedback and sit down with your team to develop a way to make shifts using it.
You want people to eventually experience the feeling of “I love this brand because I gave them a suggestion and they actually took it. As big a brand as they are, they still listened to little ‘ol me.”
Do You Need Brand Evangelists for Your Business to Thrive?
My answer to this is a resounding yes.
Brand evangelists help you build the trust you need to get people to buy from and support your business. They encourage other people to engage with your brand, and they expand your reach by advocating to their personal networks, which increases overall sales. Brand evangelists also help you take advantage of the best kind of marketing out there, organic word-of-mouth marketing.
How to Spot a Good Fit as a Brand Evangelist
The best brand evangelists have these qualities:
- They’re super authentic and passionate
- They’ve made more than three purchases
- They come to more than half of the events that you host
- They engage with your online community
- They defend your brand in forums
- They’ve given you feedback more than a few times
- They’re always tagging your brand in posts and doing UGC
- They have a solid support system complete with friends, family, coworkers, and fans
- They actively share their experiences with your brand with their network, whether in person or online
Do Brand Evangelists Get Paid?
The most genuine brand evangelists aren’t paid. They share their experiences because they want to and have truly enjoyed them. This makes their opinions and advocacy a lot more credible to people.
That said, a lot of brands thank brand evangelists in ways other than money. For example, they might give them early access to new products, freebies, invitations to exclusive events, discounts, or public shoutouts on social media.
The Difference Between a Brand Evangelist and a Brand Ambassador
Brand evangelists are regular people who are just passionate customers, while brand ambassadors have to sign up for a company’s brand ambassador program to be recognized as one.
Brand ambassadors are typically paid, either through a steady salary, an hourly rate, or commissions. Brand evangelists, on the other hand, aren’t usually paid and do what they do out of pure love for your brand.
