What makes a high value WOMBAT (Word of Mouth Brand Advocate)?

It’s a fairly logical approach to say that people who already own one of your products and are proven to have had a positive experience are good advocates for your brand. But is it smarter to find those who would deliver greater impact and make even better brand wombats?

It really comes down to how you recruit new wombats and what the parameters or selection criteria are. It’s easy to find current brand advocates but it’s likely that your brand and messaging will stay only within their immediate sphere of influence.

New wombats should be recruited based on their ability to influence multiple peer groups. Dad with his camcorder is great but you might only hit his family and a couple of mates. At the same time if he’s a satisfied customer he’s already a brand advocate. No need to preach to the converted.

Find the right Dad and it can be of far greater value. Imagine Dad who runs the parents group at his kids school (more people to reach plus the bonus of opening a dialogue for the camcorder brand with the school); he’s a sales rep for a beverage company (colleagues and all his clients to reach) and plays in a regular golf group (fairway chat with a sociable closer peer group). This is an advocate with reach and a bit of oomph.

Take care of current customers and advocates for sure but if you’re looking to power up your WOM put the effort into the recruitment process... See pretty diagram below!