Brand Advocacy Software 101: Why Your Company Needs It in 2024

Businesses are now turning to brand advocacy software more and more often to harness the power of organic, authentic promotion. Brand advocacy software such as Ambassify empowers companies to leverage the voices of their most loyal customers, employees, and partners to amplify their marketing efforts. 

Brand advocacy software 101

Brand advocacy software is a tool designed to manage and promote advocacy programs — which can, in turn, channel employee- or customer-driven word of mouth. These platforms enable organizations to identify potential advocates, engage with them, and incentivize their efforts to promote the brand through various channels, especially on social media.

Advocacy heavily relies on social media (even though it is not solely limited to it, as it can play out in other contexts, too). Social media is where consumers head to the most for recommendations on brands, products, or services, where they follow news on their favorite brands, and where other people’s thoughts and opinions organically influence them. This is, therefore, the go-to place for advocacy to thrive.

When traditional marketing techniques often fall short, brand advocacy brings the authenticity and trust that consumers seek. Advocates, be they customers, employees, or partners, share their genuine experiences and opinions, creating a more organic, credible, authentic, and effective form of marketing.

Benefits of brand advocacy software

• Scalability. Brand advocacy software allows for managing large numbers of advocates efficiently. It optimizes the management of such large numbers and does so automatically, allowing you to easily track the activity of each ambassador.
  
  
• Measurable results. Advocacy platforms like Ambassify provide built-in analytics to measure the impact of advocacy campaigns, from generated traffic to potential reach, clicks, and ROI. Measuring such metrics is essential to the success of your program and allows you to measure the impact of your advocates on your marketing efforts.
  
  
• Consistency. Advocacy software will ensure a consistent brand message across all advocacy efforts – whether it’s your customers’, your employees’, your partners’, or your distributors’.
  
  
• Increased reach. Brand advocacy software will help you amplify marketing efforts through the networks of advocates. Typically, employees have a network that’s 10x larger than the corporate one. You can see the advantage there, right?

Choosing the right brand advocacy software

Deciding to launch an employee advocacy program is the first big (and, mind you, very important) step to future-proof your marketing strategy and leverage the potential of brand advocates. The second step is making sure you are optimizing that program and achieving the best results: having the support of solid brand advocacy software will bring you all the benefits we’ve mentioned above. 

But as someone just getting started with brand advocacy, the first task might be zooming in on what makes an employee advocacy platform a solid and reliable advocacy software for your organization. This is still a niche space, but there are quite a few options out there, and to help you choose the best one to suit not only your objectives and goals but also your company culture and the structure of your organization, we’ve put together a list of the essential characteristics that a reliable brand advocacy software should not be missing. 

The future of advocacy

Implementing brand advocacy software comes with its challenges, such as ensuring advocate engagement and managing content. These are typical concerns in this space, and our Customer Success team has helped customers with multiple solutions. 

The starting point is ensuring you are maintaining an open line for regular communication, providing clear social media guidelines to your employees, providing training and support for them to be able to find their authentic brand voice and gain the confidence to use it, and continuously refreshing recognition programs to maintain interest.

As for content creation, innovative brand advocacy software such as Ambassify incorporates several advanced features like our  AI assistant, integration with social media platforms, and enhanced personalization — all of these features are designed to make the product fit your needs for content creation support and facilitate the management of your advocacy program.

Brand advocacy software is a powerful tool in the modern marketer’s arsenal, offering a way to amplify brand messages through trusted voices authentically. Businesses can significantly enhance their marketing efforts by carefully selecting the right software, understanding its features, and following best practices for implementation. As the digital landscape continues to evolve, brand advocacy will undoubtedly play an increasingly vital role in shaping brand perceptions and driving business success.