Brands today are looking for any way to showcase the passion behind their product or service. COVID and other global factors have given customers the power to be much more selective during the buying process, and marketing to this audience with empathy and purpose is the best way to build a strong connection.

In fact, 79.6% of respondents in PAN’s 2020 Content Fitness Report stated that adjusting the tone of their messaging & positioning would be a top priority in the second half of the year. But how can you ensure that you remain authentic during the process?

Employee advocacy is an age-old term that businesses use to describe engagement with their staff, and how that engagement can offer promotion for the brand at little to no cost. During a time when resources are thin and building emotional connections has never been more important, this is an authentic way to market your brand.

What most don’t realize is the impact that employee advocacy has on every department. Some approach an employee program as simply a retention or recruitment tool, grossly underestimating its power during a time when unemployment rates are off the charts. Your HR team may have put everything on pause during COVID, but the ROI of your employee advocacy program can have a much farther reach. Don’t just take our word for it, though.

Here is what a few industry leaders had to say about the impact of employee advocacy:

• “Many ignore the best brand ambassadors that money can’t buy, who are showing up for their brand day in and day out: their employees.” – Inna Semenyuk, Marketing Strategist and Founder, InnavationLabs
• “In this age of proliferation of review sites and social media channels, marketing is crippled without employees promoting your company’s message or customers willing to advocate for your company. User experience is key.” – Elena Filimonova, Senior Vice President of Global Marketing at CGS
• While a lot more goes into the formula of success for business ventures, the core will always remain motivated employees. Having an empowered workforce almost always results in satisfied customers, and as such, it’s well worth your time to go the extra mile for your business’ employees. To some employers, these things might seem trivial or too expensive or even unnecessary, but on the long haul, the benefits they reap are far greater than their initial cost. – May Rostom, Curator, Entrepreneur  
• “MIT research shows that enterprises with a top-quartile employee experience achieve twice the innovation, double the customer satisfaction and 25 percent higher profits than organizations with a bottom-quartile employee experience.” – 2019 Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends Report
• “If the internal team is not engaged and focused on the customer, how can the external experiences and business results possibly be successful? Rather than building a house of cards that will ultimately fall, we should focus on creating a foundation that enables team members to succeed as they push the business forward with customers, prospects, partners and others. Keep in mind: Disengagement in the workforce costs companies $1.4 trillion per year. Sounds like there’s plenty of room for improvement, in both prosperous and challenging times.” – Ian Gertler, Social Strategy, Influencer Marketing, Thought Leadership, Employee Engagement & Communications at Citrix
• “Market your company to your employees with as much passion as you use with your top customers.” – Michael Brenner, CEO, Marketing Insider Group
• “Employee experience should begin with a clear understanding of your organization’s brand, purpose and the culture you want to create. If you want to have a unique and powerful employee experience, every part of the employee life cycle should be implemented according to your distinctive organizational identity.” – Report: Designing Your Organization’s Employee Experience

These testimonials are just the tip of the iceberg. The power of employee advocacy has been proven across both B2B and B2C industries but is wildly underfunded and underleveraged. In fact, only 10% of respondents in this year’s Content Fitness Report said that employee experience would be a content marketing goal for the remainder of 2020.

Employees want more than an employer – they want experiences and a company that cares about their wellbeing. During this prolonged period of remote work, find new ways to engage with your workforce and provide them with the tools they need to succeed and you will see a lasting impact across your organization.

Have these experts convinced you that employee advocacy can deliver results for your organization? Download our eBook “How Employee Advocacy Can Impact Every Department” to learn more.