Recruit and incentivize customers to participate in your advocacy efforts
Without willing participants, there can be no customer advocacy program, so recruiting potential advocates should be a top priority for your marketing department.
One strategy for identifying possible participants is to create an ideal advocate profile that can be used as a benchmark for future customer advocates. You can build this profile by evaluating needs within your customer lifecycle and analyzing customer details like demographics, transaction history, and net promoter scores (NPS). You can also build a list of brand advocates by establishing a customer review strategy and identifying your top fans based on the reviews you have received.
Once you understand the type of customers you want to recruit as brand advocates, the next step is to invite them to participate. Before you do that, be prepared to articulate what’s in it for them. This is where incentives come in handy — in exchange for your customers’ time and effort, you can offer them perks such as preferential service levels for support issues, opportunities to speak at event or advanced access to (and influence over) product development roadmaps.
You should also highlight the promotional value of becoming an advocate for your customers by launching rewards programs. For instance, a loyalty reward program can range from incentives such as discounts, cashback, redeemable points, and exclusive deals. Any or all of these incentives can foster greater customer loyalty while also drawing in more prospective customers.
