In this article, Melis explores ways to harness the full power of customer advocates to boost your content marketing strategy. From making your content convenient and diverse to empowering advocates to get involved in the content creation process, there are several ways to drive more user-generated content (UGC) and engagement. Additionally, getting credible advocates contributing content can help your brand reach a wider network of potential customers.

Many companies are facing lean staffing budgets and finding it difficult to increase headcount where they need it. That’s particularly true of customer advocacy, a relatively new discipline with a shortage of experienced practitioners.

We have been talking a lot about Customer Advocacy and how important it is to your brand. But how do you get your customers from being just customers to becoming your advocates?

When it comes to Advocacy activities, there is no such thing as “one shoe fits all”. Just as all Advocates are not equal, all Advocacy activities are not equal either which means there is something in there for anybody to do.

When it comes to your sales teams needing a reference for a sales call, do they know where to find them?
Is the list of references sitting in a spreadsheet/Dropbox/Google drive somewhere in the marketing department? On the corporate website (and way out of date)? Or even worse, in someone’s head or their personal notepad maybe?

If more than 75% of B2B buyers are consulting three or more sources of advocacy before they make a purchase decision - what are you doing about it?
Creating an advocacy program will help you and your company to make the most out of the opportunity. But how do you get started & what do you look for?

What are the different formats customer stories take? Let’s review the most popular formats, their benefits, and when to use them.

Among other benefits, Customer Stories show that a brand can accomplish what they say based on real stories and real results, making them a very powerful sales tool.

Customer Advocacy is a must-have for any company that wants to build trust or strengthen its position in the market. Therefore, most already have at least a few customer stories – or case studies – published on their website.

A question I have seen come up on many occasions: is there a particular number of customers that a B2B company needs to recruit before starting an advocacy program?

There is often a magic number used – especially among large global businesses – and that a customer advocacy program should include 35% of your customer base. However, I believe you can start on a much smaller scale.  And it’s all about ROI.