As you develop your B2B marketing plan for 2021 along with KPIs, don’t overlook the impact of employee advocacy. It’s a cost-effective element in your marketing plan that will boost reach, traffic, conversion, leads and revenue. Here’s proof of how employee advocacy can help you achieve success in 2021.
Reach
At the top of the funnel, start off right by reaching more of your audience. By having your employees consistently reach out directly to their contacts, reach expands dramatically. Social media messages shared by employees reach 561% farther than those shared by company channels.
According to Neal Schaffer's blog, brand messages are shared 24 times more when distributed by employees rather than the brand itself. Employees also collectively have social networks ten times larger than the social accounts of the firms they represent. Research shows that there’s little overlap between employee and brand social networks, so employee advocacy brings in new, incremental audience members. As a result, 79% of firms reported more online visibility after the implementation of an employee advocacy program. 65% reported increased brand recognition.
Traffic
You’ve probably tried every free or low-cost SEO and content marketing tactic to increase traffic to your site. For 2021, make employee advocacy your secret, super cost-effective weapon to boost web traffic. It results in five times more web traffic.
Conversion and Leads
Following the marketing funnel, employee advocacy also drives conversions. Employee shares on social media typically see a click-through rate 2 times higher than when their company shares the same content. Your sales team will be interested to know that employee advocacy drives 25% more leads. Also, leads developed through employee social marketing convert seven times more frequently than other leads. And according to LinkedIn’s research, organizations that are socially engaged are 57% more likely to increase sales leads. The more your employees share company news and messages, the more socially engaged the organization.
Final Thoughts
Make 2021 the year that you meet and exceed your marketing goals with employee advocacy. By adding this increasingly important element to your B2B marketing plan for 2021, you’ll boost awareness, conversion and, yes, revenues. Companies with employee advocacy programs have a 26% increase in year over year revenue.
Not sure how to incorporate employee advocacy in 2021? Discover how marketers are using employee advocacy today, and learn more about how Please Share, a Slack app, can help you create a brilliant, simple and fun employee advocacy program.