Dealer advocacy is a subcategory of the more widely known employee advocacy – except that now it’s not your employees who are advocating for you and promoting your brand online, but it’s your dealer, reseller, or franchise network.
It’s safe to say that no matter what type of company you are, having an advocacy program is a very fundamental part of content marketing — one that offers endless benefits for both companies and advocates. If you’re an organization with a dealer or franchise network, dealer advocacy is the way to ensure your brand presence is consistent, providing a unified experience throughout all the available channels. And, of course, you wouldn’t be the only one who benefits from it as your dealer or reseller network will also reap countless advantages because of it.
Dealer advocacy plays out mostly on social media – as your resellers promote your company’s content on their own social media channels and pages. The overarching idea defining dealer advocacy is that by actively involving dealers or partners in its marketing efforts, a brand can expand its reach, make its message more impactful, and enhance brand presence and awareness.
On a practical level, with a dealer-reseller advocacy program, the dealer offers its reseller network a platform to enable resellers to access an online content hub, always full of pre-approved, branded, and ready-to-go content to either download and use on their channels, directly share onto their pages, or engage with in a meaningful way by liking or commenting on it.
Additionally, the Ambassify platform offers the possibility to go beyond the sharing of media and content on social media. In fact, it allows you to take your advocacy program one step further and create an actual collaborative relationship with your reseller network by launching surveys, gathering feedback, sharing documents and campaigns, ideating upcoming campaigns, and so much more.
Plus, of course, you’ll be able to track results and progress and monitor ongoing campaigns and the overall performance of your advocacy program. Ambassify has built-in analytics and tracking tools, allowing you to measure engagement, clicks, and other relevant metrics, gaining valuable insights into the program's effectiveness and progress.
Focusing on generating real engagement with your reseller network will generate valuable data and insights on your network. Every campaign you create and collaborate on with them allows you to learn more about the types of content your network likes to consume, what they are willing to share with their own network, and what gains more traction with them. In turn, you’ll quickly identify those who are most willing to promote your company as brand advocates and provide valuable feedback, and thus, the advantages that they bring you.
Remember that your competitors also see the value in focusing on generating engagement with their reseller network, creating a group of advocates who promote the company, and building a solid brand and awareness on their channels, which is why installing a formalized dealer advocacy program will put you ahead of your competition and allow you to orchestrate advocacy efforts more consistently and monitor results at the same time.
Your resellers are willing to help you improve your processes because it also benefits them — be it directly or indirectly — but they lack a platform that offers them a formalized way to voice their thoughts and facilitates the creative process. The creative process is indeed one of the sore spots for many resellers who lack either the time or the skills to put together elaborate posts to amp up sales of a specific product or brand.
By offering them a platform to share their ideas on how to improve processes, share your branded content with your branded messaging on social media, and give feedback on different company initiatives, you’ll discover new ways to further improve how your company operates, generates sales, and increases productivity.
I’ve already mentioned some of the more value-based advantages of installing a formal dealer advocacy program and thus solidifying your relationship with your reseller network to increase and enhance your brand. So now let’s sum up 3 of the more evident reasons why you need dealer advocacy in your company:
Are you ready to own your brand experience and engage with your reseller network?