Customer Advocacy

What is customer advocacy?

Customer advocacy (or brand advocacy) refers to all strategies aimed at transforming satisfied customers into active promoters of your brand. These brand ambassadors spontaneously recommend your products or services to their network, generating organic and credible advertising.

Unlike traditional marketing where the brand speaks about itself, customer advocacy relies on the authentic voice of customers. This peer-to-peer recommendation is considered the most reliable form of marketing: 92% of consumers trust recommendations from their peers.

An effective customer advocacy program identifies the most enthusiastic customers and gives them the means to share their positive experience, whether through customer reviews, word-of-mouth, or testimonials.

The pillars of a successful ambassador program

Implementing a successful ambassador program relies on several key elements:

1. Identifying potential ambassadors

Use the Net Promoter Score (NPS) to identify your promoters. Customers giving a score of 9 or 10 are your best ambassador candidates. Also analyze customers who leave positive reviews or already spontaneously recommend your brand.

2. Creating an exceptional experience

Customer advocacy cannot exist without exceptional customer satisfaction. Every touchpoint must exceed expectations to generate the enthusiasm necessary for spontaneous sharing.

3. Facilitating sharing

Make sharing simple and natural. Offer tools to leave reviews, content to share on social media, or attractive referral programs.

4. Recognition and appreciation

Thank and reward your ambassadors. Exclusive access, previews, public recognition, or special benefits strengthen their engagement.

Customer advocacy vs influencer marketing

Customer advocacy differs from influencer marketing in several ways:

• Authenticity: Ambassadors are real customers, not paid influencers
• Motivation: They share out of conviction, not for financial compensation
• Credibility: Their recommendations are perceived as more sincere
• Cost: Customer advocacy is more economical in the long term

Both approaches can be complementary. Influencers create awareness, while customer ambassadors generate trust and conversions.

Measuring your program's effectiveness

To evaluate the performance of your brand advocacy strategy, track these key indicators:

• NPS: Evolution of the number of promoters
• Referral rate: New customers acquired through recommendation
• Review volume: Number and quality of reviews posted
• Social engagement: Mentions and shares on social networks
• Customer Lifetime Value: Value of ambassador customers vs regular customers

How Review Collect helps you

Review Collect facilitates implementing your customer advocacy strategy:

• Promoter detection: Automatic identification of customers with high ambassador potential
• Review collection: Optimized solicitation to maximize positive testimonials
• Easy sharing: Tools to distribute reviews on Google and social networks
• Sentiment analysis: Track the evolution of satisfaction and engagement

Launch your ambassador program with Review Collect.