As humans, we’re hardwired to trust other humans over faceless corporations and brands. And let’s be honest, marketing isn’t renowned for its honesty and transparency (although it’s actually a certain American president who’s taken this year’s prize for bending the truth). So who can your prospects really trust, if it’s not your brand and all that content you’ve worked so hard to produce?
The answer is startlingly simple: your own customers. Not only can they be a trusted source of recommendations and referrals, but they can also be an invaluable source of feedback for product development. Anneke Langhorst, marketing manager at Bynder, nicely sums up why customer advocacy is so critical: “Today, customer references are more important than ever. People don’t rely on what brands tell them; they rely on what a brands’ clients tell them.”
The immediate rewards of nurturing customer advocates are clear: get your customers to do your marketing and sales for you, and they’ll be more persuasive than your best piece of content marketing or your most convincing sales person. And to add to this, an advocate is more likely to be loyal themselves; after all, if they’re prepared to recommend you to their peers, they’re unlikely to go looking elsewhere.
Time to add to your tech stack?
Let’s not kid ourselves – customer advocacy is nothing new. But it’s one of the many old-school B2B marketing techniques experiencing a resurgence right now. And why might this be? Yet again, the answer lies with technology. Eagle-eyed tech entrepreneurs have seen an opportunity and grasped it with both hands; companies including Influitive, Advocately, Promoto and Zuberance (among others) have all developed ways for brands to build customer advocacy programmes and advocate communities, with much of the focus on gamification.
And B2B brands themselves are also realising how much potential revenue they’re leaving on the table by failing to cultivate customer advocates. A case in point is what happened at fintech giant Finastra (formerly Misys), as CMO Martin Häring explains. “After tracking the reasons why sales weren’t able to close deals, we recognised we were losing hundreds of millions of dollars just because we didn’t have customer references.” says Martin. “And if you explain, in numbers, how much you’re losing as a result of a lack of customer advocacy, it’ll certainly lead to raised eyebrows from the CEO.”
From loyalty to advocacy and back again
Retaining customers is one thing, but encouraging them to shout about you is quite another. So what’s the real difference between loyalty and advocacy? As Fraser Stark, VP EMEA at Influitive, puts it: “Loyalty is providing incentives and motivation to your customers so they keep spending money with you. Advocacy is about providing motivation and incentives to your customers to help you find your next set of customers and grow your business.”
Jamie Mackenzie, director of marketing at Sodexo Benefits and Rewards UK, believes many businesses are failing to focus enough on loyalty, let alone advocacy: “A number of B2B brands struggle to achieve good levels of customer loyalty, which is the first step. Once customers are loyal, you’re in a great position to turn them into advocates, but there’s still more focus on acquisition over retention in B2B.”
But while paying more attention to retention – and pushing advocacy – is commendable, it’s important not to fall into the trap of focusing on these in isolation. Martin believes that driving loyalty should be part of a much bigger conversation within the business. “I think advocacy is the output of really good loyalty,” he says. “But many companies are looking at both of these in a very isolated way. Advocacy should be the last element of a much longer cycle – it’s the outcome of a good user experience, not the starting point.”
Pushing the right buttons
The fact that you’ll need to provide your customers with an exceptional experience in order to turn them into advocates almost goes without saying. You can’t expect them to rave about you if they’re not satisfied with the product or service you’re providing. But what is it that drives a satisfied customer to recommend your business? Adrian McCallum, senior director at Kantar Millward Brown Corporate, believes it relates to the reason why advocacy is so valuable in B2B. “True advocacy is worth much more within B2B because there’s more at stake. People risk their professional credibility when they make a recommendation, so it’s rarely done flippantly.”
So why bother, when there’s so much at stake? Platforms like Influitive have found that gamification is an effective way of driving advocacy, as it pushes particular psychological buttons. “Our platform has things that make it fun and push psychological buttons that people have, for example the desire to belong to a group, in order to drive behaviour,” explains Fraser. “Every activity carried out by an advocate earns them points, which can later be exchanged for anything from Amazon gift cards to charitable donations.”
Dig a little deeper, however, and it’s clear that rewarding customers in this way won’t be enough on its own to drive customer advocacy. Martin feels strongly that loyalty and advocacy have to go beyond quick rewards. “Money will not drive customer centricity. It’s not what customer centricity is about – it’s about trust, integrity, experience, leveraging ideas and driving innovation together.”
Anneke echoes Martin’s thoughts: “Customers become advocates because they feel that someone listens to them, understands them, and tries everything to support them. By doing this you can build up a trustful and close relationship. If you help them, they’ll be more than happy to support you.”
Creating a customer community
The shape advocacy can take ranges from the most basic (think testimonials) to vibrant customer communities that provide valuable feedback to the organisation.
“In many cases, a company’s efforts to organise and drive advocacy are minimal,” says Fraser. “There’s a ‘spectrum’ of activity when it comes to advocacy: some of it just happens, then you can facilitate it in simple ways, and then you can create an organised community. Eventually this community can have visibility over the entire organisation, and can help to solve strategic problems, until the customers are at the centre of everything you do.”
And it’s the brands that have created these organic, two-way advocate communities that are proving the most successful. Forget about Amazon vouchers and branded swag; from the customer/advocate’s perspective, being part of a community not only allows them to find out how their peers are using your service or product, but also provides them with the opportunity to provide feedback on what they appreciate or feel could be improved, in the knowledge that their voice will be heard and taken into account.
Don’t ignore your detractors
So, how do you begin to create your own customer community full of advocates singing your praises? Step number one is to speak – and listen – to them. “It sounds really simple, but it’s effective – talk and listen to your customers,” says Jamie. “If a B2B customer can see you’re listening and evolving the service for them, not only will they be loyal, but they’ll also become advocates.”
And never forget your detractors. The key to unlocking an even more powerful customer community is by focusing on those who aren’t (yet) your biggest fans. “Without any official channels to converse with you, customers tend to complain,” according to Fraser. “But you can give your less satisfied customers more voice within your company. By inviting someone who’s perhaps not the happiest customer into your advocacy programme, you can have an open dialogue about why they’re not happy, and help them on the path to becoming a satisfied customer.”
So there we have it. You’ve almost certainly got customers who love you and what you do, and it’s time to start thinking about how you can get them to sing your praises. Just remember: successful advocacy is built on exceptional customer experiences and two-way conversations. Start listening to your customers and they’ll no doubt be ready to return the favour – and you’ll be able to put your feet up in no time.
