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With advanced AI algorithms serving customers a curated and instant experience in so many areas of their lives, CX expectations are high. In addition, rising prices have made consumers more discerning about spending, with 48% of consumers ready to ‘abandon’ their favourite brands.
In this environment, how can you build brand loyalty?
One innovative answer is customer advocacy marketing. It uses first-party data to take the widest possible view of your customers to give you a deep understanding of the sentiments and feelings motivating buying decisions.
Customer advocacy is the term for any action that your customers take to promote your brand. They could refer a friend to you, or they could share your name on social media or leave a positive review.
An advocacy marketing strategy is one that seeks to turn your customers into active promoters of your brand. It uses first-party data to identify your biggest fans and nurture customers into advocates. Much like NPS before it, customer advocacy allows you to quantify such previously elusive concepts as customer sentiment and feelings.
If you’re worried by the challenges of building loyalty, take heart from the treasure trove of data that’s right under your nose. Your customers continuously provide insights on how loyal they are, you just have to find a way to tune in.
Their actions, from sharing your brand with others to giving feedback, are powerful indicators of their future engagement.
Analysing how actively your customers promote your brand reveals where they are in the loyalty journey. It lets you identify your most valuable customers and provides the information you need to improve on weaker sentiment.
Once you start using data to get a fuller picture of what’s motivating your customers, you can more meaningfully personalise experiences and tailor campaigns.
This has big benefits for retailers looking to boost brand loyalty. Customer advocacy:
Marketing professionals have modelled how loyalty is created through the customer journey. It’s a journey that contains 6 (or occasionally 5) steps. This process is sometimes referred to as the loyalty ladder.
While the terminology can vary by industry and objective, the basic concepts of how customers behave at each stage of the journey remain the same:
There are two important things to note about these stages:
In the process of building a successful advocacy marketing strategy, you will also build customer loyalty: If you want your customers to promote your brand, you have to provide a customer experience so outstanding that you can’t help but create loyalty within your customer base.
No one is about to go out and recommend you to their friends if they’re not satisfied with their experience. The more satisfied, and even delighted, you can make your customers, the more they’ll go out and advocate on your behalf.
Mention Me has built the world’s first Customer Advocacy Intelligence Platform to help draw your customers closer to your brand. It makes them feel happier, more understood, and more likely to make repeat purchases. In short, it increases brand loyalty.
An advocacy marketing strategy offers sustainable growth and a way to build a dependable, profitable foundation for your customer base. If you’re ready to start your advocacy journey, talk to our team today.