Top 4 Examples of Customer Advocacy that Unlock B2B Growth

What is customer advocacy?

Customer advocacy is when buyers actively promote and support your brand because they believe in your products or services. It involves engaging and empowering customers to become brand ambassadors, spreading positive word-of-mouth and influencing others. 

How to identify customer willingness to advocate

Locating potential advocates among your customers is the first step towards building a successful advocacy program. To do this, you can use several methods:

• Use review collection services: Start by setting up a system to gather and monitor customer reviews across various platforms. Look for positive feedback and high ratings—these are your happiest customers who could be open to advocating for your brand.
• Evaluate customer health scores: Use a customer success platform to calculate and monitor customer health scores. This score, which is an indicator of your relationship strength with each customer, will help identify those who are satisfied and potentially willing to become advocates.
• Clearly articulate the benefits: Advocacy should be beneficial for both parties involved. Communicate clearly the benefits customers will receive by becoming advocates, such as exclusive access to new features, preferential customer support, or the sense of belonging in a community of users. This motivation will encourage them to actively promote your brand.

When you identify your happy customers, you lay a solid foundation for an advocacy program that resonates with your target audience, drives brand loyalty, and spurs growth.

4 great customer advocacy examples from real companies to inspire your strategy

Exploring real-world examples fuels inspiration and enabling a deep understanding of how strategic concepts can be translated into impactful actions. Here are four outstanding examples from companies that have successfully leveraged customer advocacy.

1. Proactive review collection: Insights from TeamUp

A quick snapshot: Since its launch in 2012, TeamUp focused on organically collecting user reviews and testimonials. Recognizing the importance of recent, high-quality reviews in attracting new customers and closing deals quickly, TeamUp aimed to accelerate its review collection process while strengthening its user community.

Mechanism and impact: TeamUp worked with Gartner Digital Markets' complimentary Review Collection Service to stand out from the competition. They adopted a systematic approach by regularly surveying customers and capturing key touchpoints throughout the user experience. To further expedite the process, TeamUp incentivized reviews, offering gift cards to users who shared their experiences. This strategy allowed TeamUp to efficiently gather reviews, build stronger customer relationships, and improve their product based on user feedback.

Example: By incorporating this strategy, TeamUp managed to collect 100 new user reviews in 2 months, thereby boosting their product's credibility to prospective users.

2. Referral program: An example from Uber

A quick snapshot: Uber's referral program has been instrumental in their global expansion, leveraging word-of-mouth marketing by rewarding both the referrer and referred.

Mechanism and impact: Existing users (referrers) share a unique code with new users (referred). Once the new user takes their first ride, both get a reward. This win-win scenario generated trust, boosted Uber's growth and enhanced credibility.

Example: If John (existing user) shares his code with Lisa (new user), they both get a reward (e.g., a $10 discount) after Lisa takes her first ride.

3. User-generated content (UGC) program: Learning from Apple

A quick snapshot: Apple's marketing strategy effectively leverages user-generated content (UGC), tapping into its vast user base's creativity to generate buzz and brand loyalty.

Mechanism and impact: Apple encourages its users to share their photos, videos and experiences with Apple products on social media using specific campaign hashtags. They then highlight some of these user-submitted content in their marketing campaigns.

Example: In Apple's "Shot on iPhone" campaign, users globally submit iPhone-taken photos. Selected ones are then featured by Apple in various media outlets, fostering engagement and making users feel appreciated. This provides Apple with a continuous flow of authentic, engaging content.

4. Responding to customer feedback: Lessons from Tesla

A quick snapshot: Tesla has been lauded for its proactive approach to customer feedback. Tesla not only listens to their customers but actively implements changes based on their suggestions, leading to a strong sense of customer ownership and loyalty.

Mechanism and impact: Customers can provide feedback via multiple channels, including social media. Tesla's CEO, Elon Musk, is known for personally responding to feedback on Twitter. If a suggestion can improve the product, Tesla incorporates it into future models or software updates, often surprisingly quickly. This direct interaction and responsiveness have helped the brand to build trust and foster a community of advocates.

Example: In one instance, a Tesla owner tweeted a suggestion to Musk about adding an option to the Tesla's software for the car to automatically reduce its speed when entering a school zone. Musk acknowledged the suggestion, and within a few weeks, Tesla rolled out a software update with the requested feature.

Imitate unique strategies to boost customer advocacy

The power of customer advocacy is undeniable. We can learn from the unique strategies of successful companies that carved a niche to create strong customer advocacy programs.

TeamUp collected 100 new user reviews within 2 months, Uber's referral program leveraged the trust among friends; Apple tapped into the creativity of their users for authentic marketing, and Tesla listened and rapidly responded to customer feedback.

Adapting these lessons to suit your business's needs and values is the way forward. Customer reviews can help you build a successful advocacy program. Start collecting reviews on Gartner Digital Markets today and find the customer advocates you need to fuel B2B growth.

Shubham Gupta

Shubham Gupta is a Content Writer at Gartner Digital Markets who ideates and creates purpose-driven content to help modern technology businesses achieve their goals. Outside of work, he enjoys reading thriller novels and Urdu poetry, as well as spending time with his dog. Connect with Shubham on LinkedIn.

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Sources:
1. Foundations of a B2B Customer Advocacy Program That Drives Growth Across the Customer Journey, Gartner