Employee Advocacy: The foundation of a successful inbound marketing strategy

Inbound marketing has transformed the way businesses attract and engage customers. Unlike traditional outbound marketing, which pushes messages to a broad audience, inbound marketing focuses on creating valuable content that naturally draws potential customers to your brand.

HubSpot introduced this concept, which defines inbound marketing as a strategy based on content marketing, SEO, and social media engagement to generate and nurture leads.

However, one crucial element is often overlooked: collaboration within the organization itself. Inbound marketing is frequently managed entirely by the marketing department, but if a brand truly wants to establish a strong external presence, structural collaboration with colleagues is essential. And that’s where Employee Advocacy comes in.

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Starting point for inbound marketing

In May 2019, I discussed the future of inbound marketing with HubSpot. Their view? Employee Advocacy is an essential addition to any inbound strategy.

Over the past 12 years, I have seen many inbound marketing strategies managed solely within the marketing department. While this seems logical, it often results in a narrow and isolated approach. Valuable knowledge exists at all levels of an organization—from sales and customer success to HR and leadership. This collective expertise is a powerful asset for attracting new customers, strengthening the employer brand, and engaging employees and prospects.

However, Employee Advocacy is much more than just asking colleagues to share social media posts. When implemented correctly, it creates a structured way of working together, ensuring that content flows both top-down and bottom-up:

1. Top-down: Marketing and recruitment provide direction, strategy, and content.
2. Bottom-up: Employees contribute insights, stories, and expertise, making the brand message more authentic and relevant.

This continuous flow of content is a fundamental building block for an effective inbound marketing strategy.

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Behavioral science as the foundation

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Behavioral scientist BJ Fogg emphasizes that the process must be as simple as possible if you want to drive behaviour change. For Employee Advocacy, this means:

• Clear triggers – Employees need reminders to participate actively.
• Easy execution – Submitting or sharing content should require minimal effort.
• Support and guidance – Employees should feel confident about what they share.

This is where marketers play a crucial role. Employees often don’t fully understand the content strategy and may feel uncertain about posting content themselves. That’s why it’s essential that:

• Marketers provide pre-structured content with room for personalization.
• A content approval process is in place to align posts with the brand strategy.
• AI and automation tools make content creation and curation more efficient.

By organizing Employee Advocacy in a structured and accessible way, companies ensure that employees contribute continuously rather than occasionally.

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Building an effective employee advocacy structure

Companies can either design their structure or use a proven framework. A strong structure includes:

• Clear roles and responsibilities – Who creates, collects, and manages content?
• Targeted content groups – Teams organized by brands, locations, languages, or product lines to ensure relevant content distribution.
• Regular training and guidance – Helping employees build confidence in content creation and social media use.

A well-structured advocacy program ensures that the right content reaches the right employees, increasing engagement and effectiveness. Once the structure is in place, it can be optimized and expanded, helping employees gradually become more independent in creating and sharing content.

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Employee advocacy as the foundation of inbound marketing

With a strong structure, Employee Advocacy becomes the foundation of inbound marketing. Instead of relying solely on the marketing team, organizations continuously receive relevant content from employees across all departments.

The impact

• A steady flow of authentic content to distribute across multiple channels.
• An engaged network of employees actively amplifying brand messages.
• Higher trust and credibility, as employee-generated content is perceived as more authentic than corporate messaging.

The result? Inbound marketing goals are achieved faster and more effectively. By combining authenticity and structured content creation, businesses build a marketing strategy that truly resonates with their audience.

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Tips for a strong structure

Want to implement Employee Advocacy as part of your inbound marketing strategy? Keep these tips in mind:

• Start with a small group of ambassadors – Choose employees who are active on social media and enthusiastic about the brand.
• Make it easy – Ensure employees can quickly and effortlessly share content. Use tools and AI to support this process.
• Offer training sessions – Help employees build confidence in social media use and show them how to create valuable content.
• Encourage storytelling – Personal stories and experiences work better than corporate messaging. Motivate employees to share authentic content.
• Measure and optimize – Use analytics to determine which content performs best and adjust the strategy accordingly.

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Companies successfully using this approach

More than 200 companies and 1408 marketers across 27 countries have integrated Employee Advocacy into their marketing and recruitment strategies. Some examples of companies that have established a strong structure include:

• AON – Globally active in risk management and HR, with a strong focus on thought leadership.
• Canon – Engages brand ambassadors across different countries to promote the brand authentically.
• Hoppenbrouwers – Uses Employee Advocacy to attract both new employees and customers.
• Shimano – Activates retailers and employees as brand ambassadors.
• Driessen – Uses Employee Advocacy to strengthen employer branding and recruit top talent.

These companies demonstrate that Employee Advocacy supports the marketing department and is a broadly supported strategy that contributes to growth, visibility, and brand trust.

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The next step

Are you ready to use Employee Advocacy for inbound marketing? Inbound marketing only works if you create valuable content people genuinely want to read and share. But this can’t be done by the marketing team alone. Employee Advocacy is not just a tactic, it’s a strategic shift that aligns marketing, sales, HR, and leadership to create sustainable growth.

Are you already leveraging Employee Advocacy within your inbound marketing strategy?

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