Advocacy Marketing: What is it and How to Do it Right
Organizations are constantly looking for new ways to generate sales. With 88% of all consumers now searching online before they make their purchase decisions at least once (a recent study by the American Association), it’s no surprise that many companies rely heavily upon word-of-mouth recommendations when building customer loyalty these days, especially since more than half will consider switching brands if unhappy with one’s service or product quality!
Maintaining current customers through satisfied clientele equals increased revenue; developing additional sources of income becomes possible as long you keep up-to-date on industry trends like social media channels which can be used effectively toward generating leads from prospects into buyers.
What is Advocacy Marketing?
It is more important than ever to have advocates for your products and services in today’s fast-paced world. Empowering employees and loyal customers to share their enthusiasm with your brand is integral in advocacy marketing. You may not be a marketing expert, but you can still go out of your way and make an impact. You won’t believe the power of advocacy marketing. It’s not a sales technique; it helps your employees and customers share their enthusiasm.
I’m a big advocate of advocacy marketing. Brand advocacy is the key to building a strong, trusted relationship with consumers, increasing your brand awareness, traffic, leads, and sales. It’s also one of the most affordable and efficient ways for businesses like yours to get new customers in an already saturated marketplace! The power of advocacy marketing is that it can be efficient and provide a high return on investment.
People love to talk about their favorite brands and companies. Do you want customers? You got them! The best way to get new ones is with advocacy marketing. It’s efficient when you have high customer satisfaction!
Nowadays, brands are not just selling themselves; they need people advocating for them. These brand advocates can help increase your company’s exposure and generate traffic with organic search trends that will lead to more sales in return! The best way organizations have found success is through an advocacy program.
How Does Advocacy Marketing Work?
Advocacy marketing is often an overlooked but powerful way to build your customer base. It will help you find and nurture advocates who can raise awareness for the excellent work done by your organization or product line in their communities – which could translate into more customers! One of the most powerful tools in marketing is advocacy. Not as well-known, but equally effective to traditional forms like advertising or public relations.
Advocacy marketing is a bit more of an art than other types of advertising. What you want is to leverage the power of loyal customers. You have to think about what kind of message you want the public to hear and how they will react to it from someone who isn’t famous or well-known like yourself. Advocacy marketing can be an intimidating and overwhelming process. However, there are some things you should know about advocacy that might help make the experience easier for yourself in these strategies.
The best way to market your advocacy campaign is with an organized, step-by-step approach that you can follow. To do this properly, it’s essential for clear guidelines and goals set in mind from day one, so they are not forgotten later on or overwhelmed by everything else around them. Still, when following these steps, every part of the marketing plan has been thought through carefully, leading to success!
It is easy to get lost in the weeds when looking at all of these different marketing techniques for advocacy. I’ve put together a list that will help organizations and businesses find their voice to connect with audiences on an emotional level!
Why is Advocacy Marketing So Powerful and Effective?
According to a report by Nielsen, over half of all consumers trust their friends when it comes to recommending products. 65% believe that an online review from someone they know and respect will be more trustworthy than what others post on social media sites like Facebook or Yelp!
The average social media user has 400 friends online. So if you only have one loyal customer willing to share your brand with their network, it can have tremendous results. Advocacy marketing is like influencer marketing at scale without the high costs.
In today’s world, it is essential to be authentic and genuine. Marketing your business or product through advocacy marketing has been proven time and again as one of the top advertising strategies out there.
What if you could get away with advertising without any money down? Imagine the possibilities of marketing your business free of charge! Advocacy Marketing allows companies to advertise and build their customer base at no cost. It’s time for advocacy marketing!
You know you’re doing something right when your friends tell everyone they can about the fantastic experience they had. The concept of advocacy marketing works! It’s so cheap to use this form of advertising, and it builds customer loyalty over time. You won’t just make your brand awareness; you will drive revenue.
A company’s advocacy campaign can benefit both its advocates and customers.
Do you want to leverage advocacy marketing and skyrocket your business growth?
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How Do I Attract Customer Advocates?
The link between thought leadership and customer advocacy marketing
There are many ways to market your brand, but some employers believe advocacy marketing is the most effective. The power of advocacy marketing goes beyond the company. Employers are increasingly encouraging advocacy marketing in their companies.
Customers should always be the focal point of any business. A customer-first culture helps your customers feel safe and secure. It helps create a natural sense of loyalty and reciprocity between your brand customers.
Never underestimate the importance of having an engaged workforce. These employees are integral parts of your company and can provide connections that make you visible. If they are disengaged, it will be challenging to grow and maintain a good business culture within an organization where everyone has equal opportunities for success! When companies invest time in providing professional development and caring about each individual’s needs, you’ll find that productivity increases by 25% – 30%.
Provide a memorable brand experience and have excellent customer service
Your customers are looking for an adventure. They want to feel like their business is the only one that exists and you’re on top of things, so your brand should go as far as making this happen with them! The goal is to create memorable customer experiences, which turn customers into advocates.
The customer is the ultimate decision-maker. If you want your product or service to sell, it needs to be about experience and not just effects on their own. You can sell an experience even if the product is bought through a website. You don’t need to be on a physical site, but offering great unboxing and user experiences will make your customers happy with what they buy! A successful sales pitch starts with delivering excellent customer service – so it’s worth investing time in training staff members or finding outsourced experts who know best.
The best, most memorable customer experiences are created by investing time in your customers. A business’ success is based on its ability to provide a unique experience for each customer. These collective memories with your company could make it easier for buyers and sellers alike because they know how much value was put into providing customers, and that’s what they wanted in the first place!
How to engage loyal advocates for your brand?
Finding current brands advocates and branding ambassadors is vital in advocacy marketing. This can be an essential puzzle piece for your strategy, so never stop looking!
Your best advocates are loyal clients who have been extremely satisfied with your offering. The top advocates of your brand are loyal clients who will tell everyone they know. You cannot mobilize them without knowing who they are, though. Some people think that standing out from the crowd is just about being creative or different. But really, it’s all about strategizing.
It’s often difficult for organizations to find the best advocates. When building your customer base, it is essential to identify the people in charge of raving about your company. One way is by using your net promoter score (NPS). NPS tracks how well a person can spread information about you, and it will show where they’re active online and what kind of engagement that person has with other people in their network.
Make it Easy to and Encourage Customers and Employees to Advocate
98% of employees use at least one social media site for private use, of which 50% post information about their company. Spend time identifying customer advocates and employee advocates using social listening websites or surveys.
Use incentives
Did you know that referrals can make any business more successful with the right incentives? Well, it’s true. Before starting a referral marketing or advocacy marketing program, make sure you think about the incentives you’re willing to give to brand advocates as well as the people they refer your company to.
How Do I Motivate My Advocates to Get The Most Out of a Campaign?
Employee advocacy is almost as important as customer advocacy. Successful advocacy is all about understanding why someone wants to be an advocate. Hashtags and UGC (User Generated Content) are great ways to build brand loyalty and enhance your product’s love.
Now is the time to implement advocacy marketing in your business!
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8 Case Studies of Advocacy Marketing Strategies Used By Some of The Best Companies
The truth about customer advocacy marketing has come to light in recent years. You must take full advantage of your ability to connect with loyal customers.
These are excellent examples of companies engaging effectively with advocate marketing. There is no one-size-fits-all strategy for advocacy, but these firms seem to be doing well: they’re creative and offer something for everyone!
Let’s look at some of the most successful advocacy programs from top brands.
Case Study #1: Lancôme Advocacy Marketing Campaign
They set up a loyalty program to reward clients with gifts when they order online or share their products online. Gift orders include limited availability items, travelers’ favorite bags, or beauty accessories such as pouches and bags. This increased engagement led to a percentage increase of completed member actions (shopping or engaging on social media) by 40%/month.
Case Study #2: Uber Advocacy Marketing Strategy
Software companies such as Uber use referral programs to spur their growth. They offer free services to its drivers as well. By sharing your referral link, you give a friend a discount and get your own. This is already built directly in Uber’s app, which benefits both partners. This is seamless for Uber because it’s very straightforward to use. It is embedded into the app to help both parties benefit.
Case Study #3: Tesla Advocacy Marketing Methodology
Tesla implemented package referrals to offer incredible rebates to both a shopper and a customer. Tesla offered existing customers further motivation – if brand advocates referred ten people, they could be provided the right to order a limited Founder Series Model X SUV, which was not sold to the public. Whoever did that received a car for free. The people who refer them are people close to the brand, and they are happy with Tesla’s products.
Case Study #4: Cisco’s Advocacy Marketing Technique
Cisco initiated the program Cisco Champions to encourage consumers to speak about the Cisco brand. In return, Cisco offered users a means to connect with peers, showcase their expertise and improve their IT skills. The program included influencers writing articles on the Cisco Blog, enticing loyal customers to create user-generated content about the brand, taking part in #CiscoChat on Twitter, and taking part in the company’s weekly podcast containing Cisco’s chief product officer. The results were outstanding – the program was able to gain access to exclusive event invitations, early access to new products, the opportunity to discuss technology-related subjects with Cisco’s top engineers.
Case Study #5: Gap’s Advocacy Marketing Framework
Gap teamed with Groupon to give a 50% discount on 50 purchases during one day. The deal brought the company more than $14 million in revenues. During this time, the brand generated lots of buzz on social media.
Case Study #6: Starbucks’ Advocacy Marketing Method
Customers were just told to Tweet the tweet #tweetacoffee handle in addition to their own Twitter handle. The first 100,000 users were also given a gift card. The campaign generated sales of about $180,000 at Starbucks. They identified both loyal fans and potential customers that could be engaged with for further marketing growth.
Case Study #7: Airbnb’s Advocacy Marketing Program
This is probably one of the most famous advocacy marketing examples out there. How does Airbnb manage to attract customers? Airbnb customers referred their friends by sending an invitation link. When a person signs up and completes a reservation referrer gets the $20 credit, and a friend gets the $40 credit.
Case Study #8: Apple’s Advocacy Marketing
One of the best examples of this strategy is Apple’s advocacy marketing. Apple and other iPhone X campaigns are prime examples of advocacy marketing. The company partnered with celebrities and influencers to promote their new phone, which had great-looking selfies taken by real people to be most effective. These campaigns have been very successful because they feature authentic content from everyday users – not just models or other edited images seen on TV commercials often these days.
How to Create a Customer Advocacy Marketing Strategy?
Rule #1 in the advocacy marketing book makes the most critical customers want to tell more about you. It doesn’t matter just how much money you spend marketing for your business. A fantastic product or service can make up for poor marketing and otherwise lousy customer experience. If what you sell offers unbelievable value to your customers, they will tell their friends. What you want is to find your most enthusiastic customers.
Build the Best Product and Provide Outstanding Customer Experience and Service
They say a top-notch product makes up for bad marketing. When customers feel that their brand treats them well, they are motivated to act on that feeling. By focusing on customers first you will build customer loyalty. There are many ways to be good at customer service.
In order to drive continuous communication with your advocacy program, it is important to understand the goal. Many employees don’t know how to become their branding advocates. A good social media policy is a prerequisite for every successful advocacy program.
Advocacy marketing remains a strategy that is incredibly important for brands and not just a “fad”. The idea of utilizing and supporting employees and customers further impacts your business positively without question.
An advocacy marketing platform makes advocating easier, more enjoyable, and more rewarding for your staff and advocates. You can use software to track who’s engaging with and advocating for your brand online. In addition, it can quickly and effectively help you determine how much value advocacy adds to your business.
What is the ROI of Advocacy Marketing?
An advocate marketing campaign gives your company an ‘on-demand’ community that can be trusted to rapidly support your marketing campaign, defend your brand, provide critical feedback and help close revenue. Marketing effectiveness will be boosted with word-of-mouth marketing. Brand promoters can increase market awareness and trust by sharing positive experiences using Facebook, Instagram, and other sites.
Get The Leaders and Your Team on Board!
When an advocacy marketing campaign works, the entire organization is called to advocate and support advocacy. If your business has a digital footprint, then why not organize that? You want to be on a constant wave-length from the marketing department to consumer services staff.
When deploying new advocacy initiatives, your company must first sell its idea. This requires proving and presenting the ROI of advertising as a medium. Without leadership’s support and trust, these projects are often destined to fail.
If you give advocates something valuable, they can return the favor quickly. Typically advocate marketing allows you to focus your efforts on the discovery, nurturing, and mobilizing advocates.
Final Thoughts on Advocacy Marketing
Your marketing efforts won’t be in vain anymore. Advocacy marketing could make an enormous difference if you use it right. Simply focus on pleasing your customers, give them a little boost in the right direction, and they’ll take care of it.
The customer referral system is one of many of the fastest-growing marketing strategies. Many organizations offer customer advocacy programs that provide unique benefits to customers who send new customers. Nevertheless, we should remember that a fantastic customer experience is an ultimate prerequisite to a successful customer referral program.
Advocacy marketing is not just a very low-cost marketing strategy where you gather customer feedback and leverage the power of a brand advocate: this is the key to growth for many businesses. If you just focus on getting better every day, you will attract advocates. All it takes is excellence, and this is how you achieve great success in advocacy marketing.
Growth Hackers is an award-winning referral marketing agency helping businesses from all over the world grow. There is no fluff with Growth Hackers. We help entrepreneurs and business owners by implementing advocacy marketing in their businesses, driving targeted traffic, generating qualified leads, optimizing their conversion rate gathering and analyzing data analytics, acquiring and retaining users and increasing sales. We go further than brand awareness and exposure. We make sure that the strategies we implement move the needle so your business grow, strive and succeed. If you too want your business to reach new heights, contact Growth Hackers today so we can discuss about your brand and create a custom growth plan for you. You’re just one click away to skyrocket your business.
