Before buying from you, nearly every prospect will look for referrals, reviews, and recommendations. For major purchases, they'll need a current customer to provide a reference.
If your customers talk about you on social media and review sites, the buzz around your products might even be the way prospects find you in the first place.
TL;DR: Customers who advocate for you play a crucial role in every stage of the funnel — from discovery to the purchase decision.
But how can you turn customers into advocates and use them to grow revenue?
I'm glad you asked...
5 ways to increase your revenue through customer advocacy
1. Social proof content on your website
Social proof content is far and away your most valuable marketing asset. 84% of people say they trust it as if it's a friend's or family member's recommendation. And sales pages with testimonials convert 34% more.
So, displaying social proof throughout your website will significantly increase the number of demos and free trials you drive.
There are plenty of ways to do so:
- Customer quotes and testimonials
- Case studies and success stories
- Impressive statistics from customers
- User-generated content
- Spotlights showcasing how people use your product
Deeto's AI-powered social proof widget makes things easy. It sits in the bottom-left corner of your website (you can also have an embedded version nestled within the page itself), and automatically shows relevant testimonials that your customers left in the platform.
Or, you can embed it directly into the page.
2. Reviews on third-party sites
Clutch found that 94% of B2B buyers use review sites when making purchase decisions. And, on average, buyers trust reviews around 25% more than they trust sales reps.
Soliciting reviews on third-party sites like G2, Trustpilot, or Capterra helps you capture new leads and push existing ones toward the final “Yes.”
It's also one of the easiest and most scalable ways to gather and distribute customer feedback. All you have to do is set up automated review requests through your live chat software or email marketing tool.
3. Reference calls
Reference calls are one of the best B2B sales tools because they give prospects a chance to ask current customers about their experience with your product.
Your reps might be able to answer questions and alleviate concerns, but hearing it from someone who's actively using your product gives them more context and assurance. It makes the seller more authentic and trustworthy.
Plus, the act of asking for a reference call solidifies a prospect's intent to purchase.
You can also use Deeto's smart-matching feature to connect prospects and references. It's based on relevancy — your sales team automatically sees customers who match the prospect's industry, company size, or use case. You can weigh the importance of each category, so Deeto can give you more accurate matches based on what characteristics matter most to your ICP.
It also considers factors like the reference’s call availability, which they set within the Deeto platform.
RELATED: Building a Strong Reference Pool: 4 Best Practices for B2B Tech Companies Using Deeto
4. Word-of-mouth marketing
Nielsen surveyed 40,000 buyers across 56 countries in its 2021 Trust in Advertising Study. The results: 88% of buyers trust and act on recommendations from people they know, above all other forms of marketing and advertising.
Not to mention, referral leads convert at a 30% higher rate.
The best way to facilitate word-of-mouth marketing is through a referral program.
Offer incentives for customers to refer friends and colleagues, and use Deeto's platform to facilitate, track, and reward successful referrals.
5. Social media shares and mentions
Whenever a customer talks positively about your brand on social media, their audience sees it. Encouraging UGC on social media makes customers more engaged with your brand while giving you a free boost in reach.
Depending on the type of product you're selling, you have a lot of creativity here:
- Shareable quote graphics
- Customer success stories and case studies on LinkedIn
- User-generated videos using your product in their daily lives
- A tweet about your product, or a strategy for using it
When it comes to incorporating users' content into the sales cycle, you also have plenty of options. You could run paid social ads featuring your customers, repost their content on your own profiles, respond to them on the platform, or incorporate their content into your email campaigns.
Important considerations for your customer advocacy program
Getting your advocacy channels and content sorted is just Step 1. When you're building your customer advocacy program, you have to keep three other things in mind:
- Program scalability. Most businesses have trouble scaling customer advocacy for a few reasons: lack of structure for advocate engagement, excessive friction for advocates, and an uninteresting or unrewarding experience. You have to automate advocate touchpoints and centralize everything in an advocate-facing app.
- Choosing the right advocates. Since there are so many different ways customers can advocate for you, you need to personalize things as much as possible. Customers should be able to contribute according to their own preferences, whether that's through reference calls or simply by publishing a review.
- Making an impact on prospects. Prospects want to connect with advocates they can actually relate to. They care about the results and experiences of similar customers. When you're planning your program, consider how relevant a particular asset will be for different segments or stages of the buyer's journey.
Deeto's self-onboarding and smart-matching features take care of these considerations for you. Book a demo to see how it works.
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