Evangelism Marketing, For Promoting Your Business Through word of mouth

Introduction of Evangelism Marketing |Word of Mouth Marketing

A form of advanced marketing, evangelism marketing is the form of marketing which depends on word-of-mouth marketing. Evangelism marketing develops or is employed by companies where customers are responsible for spreading the word about the products of companies, voluntarily due to their strong belief in that company’s product or service. In this kind of marketing, the customers themselves become voluntary advocates of the products or services of companies. Evangelism marketing is not similar to word-of-mouth marketing but is rather an advanced form of that kind of marketing. The companies develop a product or service and are capable of convincing the consumers that they need to at least try the product or service or they need to have it. Evangelism marketing depends on reliable marketing from well-known or credible individuals. Guy Kawasaki is considered as the father of evangelism marketing as he popularised the term evangelist for the individuals who were the advocates of the Macintosh computers of Apple Inc. back in 1984. The specific customer who believes in the product or service of the company so mush thus ends up being the marketing advocate and convinces others to try the product or service too.

What are the types & Benefits of Evangelism Marketing

There are various types of evangelism marketing, but generally there are three different kinds, brand evangelism marketing, chief evangelism marketing and product evangelism marketing. Chief evangelism marketing consists of the person talking about the company would support the associated brands, policies and businesses. The brand evangelism marketing consists of the individuals spreading positive information about a specific brand and its products. The product evangelism marketing consists of the individual preaching about a specific product of a company.

The benefits of evangelism marketing include it being economical as it involves no financial costs at any stage of the marketing process as the individuals are advocates voluntarily and businesses do not need to pay for the advertising. This kind of marketing builds trust as the individuals are sharing positive experiences and hence enables mutual trust between consumers and the businesses. It also fosters customer relationships which are inadvertently the cause of better customer satisfaction. The evangelism marketing process is potentially viral in nature as rapid momentum is gathered within a short period of mouth and the loyalty of the customers are gained. The evangelism marketing ensures that it boosts other forms of marketing, as it strengthens the traditional marketing strategies, and increases the chances of a product or service being sold at a decent profit margin. It enables businesses to come to the spotlight better than other expensive marketing campaigns.

What are the Problems in Evangelism Marketing

Despite the many merits of evangelism marketing, there are certain drawbacks in this kind of evangelism marketing. The evangelism marketing is not measurable as it presents with no way to ascertain whether it was effective. The evangelist advocates might also not be truthful about the claims and the brand or the companies might suffer due to untruthful marketing. Evangelist marketing is also hard to control considering it might be result of improper communication and other contributing factors might affect the brand image. This kind of marketing is difficult to control or monitor and any negative impacts are also harder to monitor or control, once and if they occur. The evangelism technique of marketing demands extra time and effort considering it does not produce results within a short period of time and evangelist are not paid for their advocacy. Evangelism marketing yields results but the companies have to be patient and put in considerable effort and time. Evangelism marketing is not effective for all businesses as not all companies or products or services have the time for marketing that evangelism requires. The evangelism marketing only works best when a company or business already has made a name for itself and the evangelism marketing is an added advantage that is effective at that point.

What are the Examples of Evangelism Marketing?

One of the prime examples of evangelism marketing is the marketing strategy of Apple Inc. This brand does not need mush advertising as its products almost sell by themselves. The company has a strong range of evangelists who do not charge anything for advocating their products. This company utilises the neuromarketing system to market, develop and position the brands and hence it has carefully crafted the brand image while appealing to the right audience. Apple has been able to do so by creating a widening gap between its users and non0users as the gratification and desire to belong to the elite group who utilise its products have been itself been an excellent evangelism marketing since the users turn the non-users into prospective customers, themselves. Another brand which has utilised the evangelism marketing strategy is the education technology conference created and held by Discovery Education. The company created its own product evangelists by engaging with educators across the world and invented a party atmosphere for prospective students so that when the party attendees returned to their schools, evangelism marketing would ensue.

How to develop an Evangelism Marketing strategy?

The primary step of developing an evangelism marketing strategy is the establishment of a connection with the consumers by starting a dialog themselves, Market research with online surveys and such is to be conducted to create a comprehensive portrait of what constitutes as the brand image. The next step would be the identification of the mainstream customers who would be the potential evangelists. The feedback generated from these customers would thus enable the business to turn the criticism into praise and redesign the product or service as required. Sometimes, converting the employees into the evangelists might also be beneficial. The experiences of the customers are to be prioritised since it is this experience that would have an impact on them and thus turn them into evangelists. Providing excellent service, reaching out to the customers through social media, are other strategies that can be employed to ensure evangelism marketing.