Social media gave the public a voice and an exponentially large audience with which to share their opinion and influence their decisions. But unfortunately, most consumer-generated content doesn’t reflect the brand’s essence. For brands that are naturally protective of their public image, this means a loss of narrative control. As a result, brands that have spent decades and large sums of money carefully cultivating a brand identity and set of values that resonate with the public are now at risk.
Instead of fearing public opinion, brands need to embrace the public’s desire to share their thoughts, but channel them more constructively. A lot of time is spent educating employees about what the brand stands for, and the need to educate consumers on how to talk about the brand is often overlooked. If you want the right words to be associated with your brand, you need to listen, educate and motivate your consumer on how to communicate your brand.
Here’s why brands need to educate their consumers about proper communication
Research has shown that 92% of online shoppers trust content from friends and family above all other forms of brand communication. Therefore, when these educated consumers present the brand to their circle in a way that best represents it, they convert their peers into potential buyers and increase organic brand awareness.
When brands get good at explaining what they do to their consumers, they rise above the competition in a crowded aisle. Therefore, educate your consumers to such an extent that when people talk about your product’s features, they use the right adjectives to describe your brand, highlighting your product’s USP over your competitors who sell the same.
Brands are good at rewarding customers for buying their products. However, most brands do not reward their customers for positive word of mouth that leads to their friends buying the product. Instead, brands must motivate their customers to become familiar with their principles. This will make the word-of-mouth high quality, increase the chances of brand recognition and improve the effectiveness of referral marketing. In addition, incentives make customers feel valued, encourage them to describe the brand correctly, and make the public associate it with the words used in the campaigns.
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