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.

These days, all companies with an existing marketing function create Customer Stories. (And if they don’t, they know they should!). This is an industry standard. But to be able to gain the full benefit of them, it is key to be effective during the creation process, make sure they are being used to bring in more customers, and finally, measure the ROI.

These are four stages of the Customer Stories production process that will help you to bring a programmatic approach:

Good customer evidence tells an interesting story.

It can be a short clip, a written story or anything in between. But one thing these all have in common is that they tell a story about your customer. A story so gripping that you want to watch or read till the very end. One that won’t see you skipping to the end because you don’t want to miss any ounce of the information right at the very the middle.

In my experience, one of the questions regularly posed by organizations and teams is “How do I get customers to engage in reference activities?” And it is a very valid one that begs to be answered, in full, by anyone considering a deeper dive into a customer evidence program.

Indeed, for those in sales and marketing responsible for getting customer references, it’s a question that doesn’t ever really go away.  And, with no simple answer to solve this predicament forever, it’s no surprise that collecting customer references becomes an ongoing challenge.

Why is this? Because each customer is different, your organization is different and everyone has different and often conflicting incentives and priorities.

The approach taken varies because each customer is different and each organization is different. However, from my experience working with organizations creating amazing customer evidence there are best practices you can follow to reach your customers and get their buy-in to your own evidence program.

I hope the following recommendations are the start to customer relationships that quickly transform into true partnerships -  for you and your organization.

You may have heard about customer evidence; stories told from the perspective of satisfied customer that talk about how your solution helped them overcome a challenge they were facing. But what you may not know is how these stories can be beneficial to many different departments within your business - making the time and effort necessary to create them well worth it.

Customer evidence programs are gaining popularity in industries and markets around the world with their ability to demonstrate the value of products and solutions. However, for brands to get the most out of these assets, it is important that they are in the right format for the audience and situation. We outline three situations below where customer evidence can be useful and a few ideas for how it can be used.

Today, the most important person selling your product or service is no longer you—it’s your customer. This means it’s all about customer engagement and how it can be beneficial for you, your customer, and your prospects. It is important to keep in mind that though the names Customer Advocacy, Customer Evidence and Customer Reference may sound similar, they are different terms - which we will cover in more depth next.

The game has changed when it comes effective marketing for B2B businesses. It’s no longer enough to make branded content that speaks about your solution and its benefits, now, to be truly effective, businesses need content that speaks from experience. Your customer’s experience.

The journey from prospect to satisfied customer has evolved. There used to be greater need for salespeople to get involved earlier in the process in a more consultative and educational purpose. Now, with the integration of internet in every part of our lives, it’s no surprise that buying has changed too. And when it comes to marketing and selling and the volume of content (branded and otherwise) on the internet, brands need to find new ways to stand out.