Employees are a company’s heartbeat. They’re your biggest asset and the reason why you’re still running. For that alone, they’re already an invaluable resource. Every business should view their workforce as an integral part of why and how they exist.
But the benefits of a healthy workforce don’t end there. If you’re thinking of pushing public relations efforts for your brand image, guess what? Your employees could be the answer that you’ve always needed all along. We’re talking about employee advocacy.
What is Employee Advocacy and Why Does it Work
Employee advocacy is a PR strategy that taps into a business’s workforce to promote branded content or positive brand messaging. Think influencer marketing but this time using individuals within your workforce to do the promoting for you.
And it works because it banks on transparency, authenticity, and trust.
We trust what other people say about a company or brand more than what a brand says about itself. When it comes to a brand or company, we trust what people on the inside say more than what CEOs and business owners do.
That’s because employees humanize a business, making their message more relatable and trustworthy.
In fact, messages shared by employees have a 561% greater reach than content published by companies through official channels, like their social media pages or websites. This means you don’t actually need to look far for the perfect brand ambassador to promote your brand. Your own employees are the advocates you’ve always needed.
Employee voice can:
- Reduce PR and marketing costs. Let’s face it. Paid marketing can take a big chunk off business budgets. With employee advocacy, you don’t have to pay influencers or hire brand ambassadors to amplify messaging about your company.
- Attract top-tier talent. Offering a unique insider look into a business can help draw attention from the right kind of talent. When existing employees can only say good things about your work environment and culture, that’s powerfully attractive. It shows that you’re doing something right, and people will naturally want to take part in it.
- Work as expert recommendations. Every employee has their own sphere of influence, which can be tapped to turn employee messages into recommendations that are viewed as trustworthy by their own network.
- Elevate engagement. Employee advocacy can level up your brand’s reach and ignite higher engagement across different online channels. When content about your brand gets shared and re-shared, it invites conversation, increases qualified leads, and even impacts sales.
What’s more, 89% of consumers find word-of-mouth recommendations from people they relate to and trust more credible than branded content. So if you’re still allocating bigger budgets on paid advertising than towards a solid employee advocacy campaign (and, conversely, better employee benefits and an employee-friendly working environment), you’re missing out on a huge marketing potential that’s just sitting inside your office.
Strategies for an Effective Employee Advocacy Campaign
So let’s remedy that missing link in your PR efforts by building an employee advocacy campaign. Here’s how:
- Take care of your people. Employee advocacy works on the principle of trust and authenticity. So if you want its benefits, you have to start by digging deep in your work culture to find out how best you can boost employee morale.
Happy employees make the best brand advocates. They will naturally talk about positive experiences even if you don’t tell them to. Also, the majority (if not all) of your workforce is most likely already on social media, and chances are they’ve already posted something about their work experience.
The best thing to do is not to leave to chance what people are going to say. Give them good reasons to speak positively about the company and their work experience.
A great example of this is business outsourcing company TDCX Philippines, which bagged HR Asia’s Best Companies to Work For Award for two consecutive years. The award was thanks to positive feedback from its workforce because of the company’s laudable response to the global pandemic that hit in 2019.
During one of the most turbulent times for the company, TDCX quickly transitioned to a remote work setup, which maintained job security for its employees while reducing health risks and adjusting to the nationwide lockdown. The company also provided wellness seminars and other engagement initiatives to keep employee morale up.
Needless to say, TDCX’s efforts paid off. Aside from the Best Companies to Work For Award, the company also received the Best Employer Award in 2021, which placed TDCX among the few Asian companies that received the recognition. That’s great PR in itself!
- Set clear goals for the campaign. When involving employees in your PR strategy, make sure to let them know what the goals are. Employees who are engaged and that believe in your brand are most likely going to want to support your mission. But you can also help them further embrace the campaign by tying it to a value or mission that your employees also uphold.
For instance, a makeup brand can create buzz by tying a campaign to the value of diversity in beauty or promoting a beauty standard that’s inclusive of all cultures and ethnic backgrounds.
- Incentivize campaign participation. If your employees are happy, they will naturally advocate for your business. But they will be even more excited to do so when there are incentives to be had. The best part? They don’t even have to be monetary.
You can encourage participation by using something as simple as team shoutouts, a mention on your social media page, or recognizing them during team meetings.
- Personalize branded content. While it’s helpful to provide materials, such as copy and other content, that employees can easily share, it’s crucial to emphasize that employees can make changes to the copy to add their personal touch and provide commentary when they share content so people see their own opinions.
Your employee advocacy campaign can be an informal project that you do on the side. But leveling it up to a formal campaign can give you better results, with 64% of advocates saying formal campaigns are key in attracting new business and increasing revenue. No wonder 31% of fast-growing firms are now adopting formal programs.
Need help with driving your employee-led PR home? A trusted PR agency can walk you through crafting employee advocacy campaigns that tell your story, deliver targeted results, and amplify brand messaging that adds value to your business.
