What if customers did your marketing for you?
It’s not so difficult to imagine. Many companies now recognise the importance of customer advocacy, where your most loyal customers are also your most dedicated salespeople.
But customer advocacy doesn’t just happen by asking for referrals – it’s about creating a community where customers feel invested in your brand’s success. Customers who advocate for your brand become part of a loyal community that promotes, supports, and helps drive the brand forward.
What is customer advocacy?
Customer advocacy is where customers actively promote and recommend your brand to others. These customers are effectively micro-influencers who spread the good word about your products and services.
Having customer advocates adds authenticity to your brand, showing you have a community of engaged and satisfied customers. Nothing provides confidence in a product than seeing other people who have bought it and are happy that they did.
What are the 3 types of customer advocacy?
You cannot expect your customers to all be the same; this goes for their advocacy, too. How they promote your brand is dependent on how they interact with it. In general, there are three types of customer advocates:
- Educator: These customers constantly share what they know about your products and services. They serve as informal customer service by sharing practical knowledge through discussions and answering questions.
- Validator: You can rely on these customers to provide honest feedback about your brand. They are your loyal fans and want to see you succeed, but only if you have the confidence to trust them. Their feedback is not always the best way forward, but it is important to measure what your customer base is thinking.
- Status seeker: These peacocks view being associated with your brand as increasing their status. Because of this, they will go out of their way to ensure that you are just as, if not more, visible than they are at all times.
Why is customer advocacy important?
Marketing is more than just telling people about your brand. Having word of mouth complements your efforts to get the word out and maximises the reach of your messaging. Other benefits of customer advocacy are:
- Building stronger customer loyalty: Advocating for a brand fosters a sense of ownership and connection. Your customers don’t just buy from your brand—they feel part of its growth and success.
- Cost-effective marketing: One of the most significant advantages of a strong customer advocacy program is its cost-efficiency. Happy customers do the work for you, actively promoting the brand to their friends, acquaintances, and even complete strangers.
- Higher Customer Lifetime Value (CLV): Advocates don’t just bring in more customers—they also tend to be more engaged and spend more over time. Referred customers often have a 16% higher lifetime value than those who come through traditional marketing channels.
- Builds trust and credibility: A referral from friends or family carries more weight than any ad ever could. Referred customers have a 4x higher conversion rate than those who find the brand through other forms of marketing.
- Stronger customer loyalty: Advocating for a brand fosters a sense of ownership and connection. Customers don’t just buy from your brand—they feel like they are part of its growth and success. This sense of co-ownership turns advocates into loyal customers, who are more likely to return.
How do you build customer advocacy?
In an ideal world, all you need to do is build a good product, and customers will happily shout about our achievements to anyone within earshot. This could still work for specific categories of niche products (for example, the community around power tools is fiercely loyal to their preferred brands).
However, this is not an ideal world, and most of us are unlikely to be catering to such a specific niche.
In that case, building a community of customer advocates starts with these ingredients:
- Rewards: The goal is to ensure that your existing customers keep returning. One way to do this is to provide an incentive to make repeat purchases through points, perks, or freebies. Tying these rewards to a referral programme helps generate conversation and gets your customers out there.
- Recognition: People love a little personal touch, especially in this impersonal digital world. A discount code for their birthday or other significant event is a good way to maintain customer relationships.
- Empowerment: Being heard is the ultimate form of recognition for a customer. This means constantly listening to your community (whether through reviews or online discussions) and making changes to suit their needs. Failing to follow through after receiving feedback is one of the quickest ways to lose these customers.
Building a community of customer advocates is not an easy task. However, the benefits of having one are often worth the effort.
Word-of-mouth marketing is crucial regardless of the size of your business, and having advocates makes you more competitive in the marketplace.
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