Advocacy Marketing 101

Customers develop brand affinity and loyalty over time through positive experiences, satisfaction with products and services, and a feeling of connection with a brand or product. More and more, brands are looking for ways to empower the voice of their consumers, and consumers are looking to their peers for insights on their purchase considerations. This is where advocacy marketing can play a significant role for brands and consumers alike.

What Does Advocacy Mean?

When the term ‘advocacy’ is used, it can carry slightly different meanings depending on the context. Speaking broadly, however, advocacy is the act of publicly demonstrating support of (or on behalf of) another person, place, or thing. While most tend to think of advocacy in relation to political issues or causes, it can also be a powerful tool to leverage within marketing, advertising, and generally demonstrating the value of a product or service.

What Is Advocacy Marketing?

Advocacy marketing is a form of marketing that encourages existing customers of a business to share their experiences with (and opinions of) the company and/or its products and services. This feedback may be publicly available in the form of reviews, leveraged by the business itself within marketing materials and content, or simply peer to peer by word-of-mouth. Regardless of the format the customer feedback is presented in, it serves as social proof for prospective customers.

When customers begin to promote or vouch for a business, through any method, they transition from the primary role of a customer to a brand advocate. While brand advocates are generally not officially affiliated with the business, they can be highly influential in sharing their authentic experiences with others. Since brand advocates are often loyal customers themselves, they likely have knowledge around the business’ products and services, personal experiences, and can offer informed recommendations to others.

The process of generating advocacy marketing may look different depending on a business’ strategic approach. However, effective advocacy marketing is rooted in the development of relationships with customers and clients and the value that they perceive in doing business with a given company.

Why Is Advocacy Marketing Important?

Advocacy marketing is important for a number of reasons, but when done well it is a reflection of a healthy business and happy customers. Brand advocates are incredibly valuable for any consumer-facing business through the sheer influence and trust that is tied to their recommendations. One report from Nielsen suggests that 83 percent of consumers trust recommendations from their friends and family the most. So while advertising and marketing from brands themselves is crucial for awareness, peer groups that include customer advocates actually have more influence when it comes to making decisions on purchases. 

What Are Examples of Advocacy Marketing?

Advocacy marketing can show up in many forms and channels, but here are some common instances where feedback from advocates are commonly found or leveraged for marketing purposes:

• Online Reviews and Ratings
  
  Positive ratings and reviews are crucial for any consumer-focused business. Reviews allow prospective customers to obtain unbiased recommendations, and compare and contrast customer feedback amongst competitors. The common consumer practice of checking for customer reviews undoubtedly plays into purchase decisions.

• Testimonials
  
  By displaying positive customer testimonials on their website and other forms of outbound communication, businesses can appeal to their audience with higher effectiveness. When the content is genuine and reflects how good a typical experience that customers have with a product, it can make a meaningful difference in where potential customers bring their business.

• Case Studies
  
  By utilizing customer surveys and relevant information gathering, a business can demonstrate the overall satisfaction levels that a customer base has with a product or service. This could include ratings, frequency of purchase, level of improvement of related issues, and more.
  
  
• Influencer Collaborations
  
  Brands with a pulse on their advocacy marketing presence can identify customer advocates with a substantial online presence. By working directly with these advocates in a more formal relationship, there is an opportunity to reach new customers in an authentic and relatable way. One marketing study from Tomoson reported findings that businesses are making $6.50 for every $1 spent on influencer marketing, making for a dramatic return on investment for these types of marketing efforts.
  
• Word of Mouth
  
  Word-of-mouth marketing occurs when businesses have delivered an experience, product, or service that their customers deem worthy of recommending to others. This is extremely valuable as consumers have higher levels of trust in their peers, and it has been reported that those who have been referred by other customers have a 37% higher retention rate. Word of mouth can happen directly through in-person social interactions as well as digitally via social media, articles, videos, comments, reviews, ratings, and more. Regardless of the medium, feedback from peers can influence purchase decisions.

What Is an Advocacy Marketing Strategy?

When considering how to enhance advocacy marketing efforts for a business, it is essential to have a defined strategy behind it. An advocacy marketing strategy may be multi-faceted and often identifies areas of focus and general principles for generating advocacy marketing activity. This can be broken down into two pillars: customer experience and tactical strategies.

• Customer Experience:

A key component in creating customer advocates is through general improvement of the business in ways that serve the customers. By improving the customer experience, businesses improve the likelihood of customers recommending a product or service to others or leaving an online review. 

Before all else, businesses should make the products and/or services they are offering as good as possible. Without a product that delivers value or meets expectations, there is no foundation for advocacy marketing to thrive. A business should also find ways to put the customer first, make the sales process as seamless and rewarding as possible, and commit to having stellar customer service. When these fundamental aspects of the business are established, tactical strategies can be implemented to help make their advocacy-marketing efforts thrive.

Should a business do enough to exceed customer expectations, the customer will have even more reason to share positive feedback about their experience with others and advocate on behalf of the brand. Businesses should continuously look for ways to rise above the industry standard to elevate the customer experience in memorable ways. When the customer feels truly valued and appreciated they will have a meaningful connection with the brand and be willing to promote it when given the opportunity.

• Tactical Strategies:

There are many ways that a business can facilitate more engagement from advocates to promote their marketing efforts. One of the primary ways to do this is to create brand advocacy opportunities for their loyal customers. This can include following up with customers for reviews after they have received or purchased a product, creating in-store attractions and environments that beckon to be photographed and shared on social media, or simply creating digital content that addresses customer questions or is inherently sharable. These tactics all serve the purpose of providing opportunities for customers to share their love, voice, or opinion in relation to the brand. 

More direct marketing efforts can be made by actively seeking out influential brand advocates, or using social media to highlight user-generated content that demonstrates affinity for the brand. Loyalty or reward programs can also be established to promote a more significant relationship between the business and its most passionate advocates and reach new customers at the same time.

How Do Referral and Loyalty Programs Align With Advocacy Marketing Efforts?

Referral and loyalty programs are a natural extension of advocacy marketing efforts when a passionate consumer-base has been established. If customers are already serving as advocates for the brand through word-of-mouth, reviews, and other methods, the implementation of referral or loyalty programs will further strengthen their relationship with the brand and reward them for their advocacy efforts.

• Referral Marketing
  Referral marketing allows brand advocates to provide offers directly to their network for products or services that they love and would recommend. In the case of Talkable’s referral marketing software, product sharing is also an option that allows loyal customers to share a specific product within a brand’s website This allows products to be paired with individual consumers’ interests or needs to maximize the effectiveness of the referral offer. 
• For example, Talkable’s “Give/Get” feature helps drive referral and loyalty sales for a variety of brands: 
• Loyalty Marketing
  Loyalty programs promote repeat business and help deepen the connection between the brand and the consumer, further increasing the likelihood that they will act as advocates on behalf of the brand. By assessing the people who are leaders within a loyalty program, true customer advocates can be easily identified. 

By creating an ecosystem of incentives (points, tiers, early access, VIP access, etc.), loyal customers become marketing advocates for the brand, continue to shop within the business, and have more reason to tell others about their positive experiences.

How Can a Business Inspire More Advocates?

In order to attract more advocates and customer engagement in reviews, businesses need to solidify their offering and customer experience. After all, delivering value and exceeding customer expectations are things that will develop lifelong brand advocates. A few things to consider:

• Craft a Brand Narrative: Brands should have a story to tell, which can include the problems of their customers and how the brand will help solve them. Or perhaps the aspirations of the customer and how the brand is helping them reach their goals. Regardless of what the narrative is, customers should clearly understand the value that a specific brand can provide for them. A narrative can be amplified within website content, social media, and other marketing efforts. This narrative can be even more influential if the stories come from real customers who are passionate about the brand.
  
  
• Emphasis on Experience: Consider the various ways a business can impact the customer experience. By understanding the customer, having their needs and wants at the forefront of decision making, and ensuring transactions as seamless as possible, brands can improve their standing with the customer. Develop a customer service team that is truly committed to being helpful and retaining business. Loyalty and referral programs can also deliver a more engaging and rewarding experience for customers and keeps them raving about their favorite brands.
  
  
• Consistency Is Key: Businesses should have solidified processes in place to ensure that each customer interaction is consistent. This is especially important with transactions, shipping speed and cost, return policies, customer service and more. When a customer knows what to expect from a business, and the business has delivered on those expectations time and time again, the customer will ultimately be more inclined to become a brand advocate.

What Is Advocacy Advertising?

Advocacy advertising involves brands leveraging instances of advocacy marketing within their outbound content, social media, or advertisements for the sake of promotion. This could involve pulling quotes from reviews, testimonials, social media posts, or case studies to demonstrate customer satisfaction or excitement about a product or service. This could also take the form of social media contests where sharing images of a product alongside a brand hashtag are encouraged. Advocacy advertising provides customers the opportunity to be featured within high-profile channels and campaigns in recognition of their commitment to a brand.

What Is Customer Advocacy?

Customer advocacy is not the same as advocacy marketing, but the two are highly complementary. Customer advocacy is an approach to customer service where the business focuses on what is best for the customer. Broadly, customer advocacy reframes customer service in a way that reinforces a positive relationship between the business and customer through meaningful assistance. This may include:

• Seeing customer service interactions as an opportunity to gain insights about the customers and their specific needs.
• Practicing empathy and understanding during customer service interactions.
• Providing suggestions for both short and long term resolutions to the issues they are experiencing.

By using customer service interactions to create positive experiences for customers, a business can build trust, loyalty, and overall satisfaction with the brand. In fact, according to HubSpot Research, 93% of consumers are likely to become repeat customers at companies with excellent customer service. Customer advocacy is especially important when the customer has had a negative experience. However, by truly working on behalf of the customer to solve their problems, there is an opportunity for these customers to ultimately become advocates for the brand. 

Conclusion

Advocacy marketing starts with having a great product or service and crafting an exceptional customer experience around it. By building a brand that people can genuinely be passionate about, a concerted effort to amplify advocacy marketing can yield substantial business results and keep customers happy and engaged. Talkable can further empower and reward advocates by helping brands seamlessly integrate referral and loyalty programs. Our insight-driven approach helps these programs serve as an integral part (and welcome addition to) the customer experience.

Contact us today for a free demonstration of Talkable’s capabilities and allow your customers to champion your brand.