Brand Advocates Should Be Cultivated

Every bank talks about customer loyalty and advocacy, but many find it difficult to define what a brand advocate is, or what the value may be to their bank.

According to a study just released on the actions, motivations and influence of brand advocates conducted by Dr. Kathleen Ferris-Costa at the University of Rhode Island for social networking leader BzzAgent, brand advocates are 83% more likely to share information about a product than typical web users and 50% more likely to influence a purchase. Since they enjoy solving problems and helping other to make purchases and decisions, they are also 75% more likely to share a great experience and three times more likely to share their opinion with someone they don't know (they are also more likely to share a bad experience). In other words, this segment of your customer base acts and thinks very differently from your typical customer and should be searched out and cultivated.

According to the study, brand advocates thrive on social networks and in all types of social media communities. When researching products, they turn to social networks first and fully understand how to leverage the web for insight. When sharing product information, they recognize the power of social media to spread their messages to a wide audience. In fact, brand advocates write more than twice as many communications about brands as the average Web user. As for content curation, brand advocates forward between two and three times more of other people’s online communications about brands. Bottom line, they are not shy and they want to be recognized as a good source for advice.

To better understand the dynamics of the brand advocate, BzzAgent developed a Field Guild to Brand Advocates to illustrate the findings from their study as well as the infographic shown below.

Finally, brand advocates also want to be good stewards of the brands they promote and want to be recognized by the brand for their efforts. So how can a bank find advocates and promote their efforts as part of the overarching marketing communication strategy? You need to find them where they discuss your brand - on Twitter, Facebook, discussion boards or even personal blogs.

In an interview for this blog of Jeff Stephens, CEO of Creative Brand Communications, most banks think they already have “good word of mouth” or advocacy when, in reality, what they have is reactive word of mouth which really isn't advocacy. The real goal, according to Stephens, is to create and encourage proactive word of mouth. "With proactive WOM, a customer would eagerly approach another person on their own and say 'have you heard of Acme Bank? You have to check them out!' With proactive WOM, there's no prompting required for the referral."

The key thing to remember is that while Word of Mouth Marketing (WOMM) is related to and can integrate with traditional marketing, the thought process required to develop WOMM strategies has some key differences. According to Stephens, with traditional marketing, the question is “what can we say to the target market to get them to pay attention?” In WOMM, the question is, “what can we give people, that they will find so interesting, they can't possibly keep it to themselves?”

Not only should you provide good products for the advocate to share, but for those who utilize the web for positive word of mouth, you need to provide strong content which is of interest, special offers for 'friends' and 'followers', exclusive videos and items of interest that are easy to find and share. Find a way to reward those who spread the word (focus on quality as opposed to quantity) and measure your results. Using an online referral program can assist in this process. As Jeff Stephens says, "The key to a successful WOMM strategy lies in a simple principle: if you want people to talk about you, you have to be worth talking about".

Most importantly, it is imperative to look at your WOMM and advocacy efforts as an ongoing commitment as opposed to a program or campaign remembering that advocacy is difficult to achieve, but very easy to lose if not cultivated and nurtured.

A Little Note From BankSimple

After hearing about the vision of BankSimple several months ago, I decided to see if the development of another new online bank would be different. To begin with, I accepted their invite to be part of their beta test once the bank officially launched some time in 2011. Yes, I accepted an opportunity to be on a waiting list to potentially open an account.

As a lifelong bank marketer, I also followed the story of the bank's founders and the development BankSimple (The Buck Stops Here). I was intrigued by the fact that BankSimple would not really be a bank at all, but instead, simply provide a better front-end experience with a myriad of banks being used behind the scenes to generate the highest returns (and lowest costs) for their customers.

According to their web site, the bank was going to require only a single account and one card, use simple language, treat customers as people and not account numbers, eliminate surprising fees and provide a heightened level of customer service. They would provide online, ATM and mobile access to their accounts and would provide financial tools to help a customer manage their money. Sounded good . . . but not much different than almost any bank promise.

Today, however, BankSimple set themselves apart from any of my current or previous banks.

They sent me a personalized, seemingly non-promotional email from a Customer Relations Representative named Rachel acknowledging my request for an invitation to try their bank and asking for my 'story'. Rachel asked for my "loves, hates, quibbles, desires, hopes and dreams" regarding my financial life. Her email used a Helvetica type and had no fancy creative elements included (just like an email from a co-worker or friend).

Doesn't sound like an email that was developed by a committee that then went through a bank's compliance and legal departments after several levels of management approval, does it? Rachel then went on to say that the bank was committed to building the best service a bank can offer and wanted to know "what's up?" (when was the last time your bank asked 'what's up'?). The email was so personal (it was titled 'A little note from BankSimple' and allowed me to respond directly to Rachel@banksimple.com) it begged for a response as to what I would love to see from my bank.

For those who are cynical by nature and don't believe there is a real Rachel, she was just hired ONE WEEK AGO by the bank as one of BankSimple's first Customer Service Representatives with an accompanying press release.

I responded to Rachel with some of my visions of a perfect bank. I also tweeted about the email from Rachel since the experience is so unusual for a bank. I don't know if the dialogue will continue via email, but I was again surprised when I got a response to my tweet about my email (in 10 minutes at 9PM et) from RACHEL!

Interestingly, even if I don't get an email response, the bank (and Rachel) have already surpassed my expectations, and there will be part of me that will feel like my response might have had an impact on the bank's development. Not a bad way to build an affinity and loyalty before the bank has even opens it's virtual doors. And when it comes to word of mouth marketing, I think they did pretty well in my case.

Finally, if you wonder if there is a demand for another online or bricks and mortar bank, simply watch the very robust discussion on Twitter around BankSimple and the desire for a traditional bank alternative. Up to now, this new financial entity has done a lot of things right. It remains to be seen if they can perform to this level once they start to handle money in addition to PR.

What is your bank doing to build trust, dialogue and word of mouth? Does your team have a Rachel?