CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT & ADVOCATE MARKETING SUCCESS STORIES

Transcription

1 10 Award-Winning CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT & ADVOCATE MARKETING SUCCESS STORIES 2017 EDITION Top B2B marketers share the customer-centric campaigns and programs that allowed them to accelerate sales and increase customer lifetime value INFLUITIVE.COM

2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction...3 Best Discover, Nurture and Mobilize Strategy...4 Best Advocate-Generated Content Initiative...5 Best Referral Program...6 Best Global Customer Advocacy Program...7 Best Multi-Advocate Community... 8 Best Use of Advocacy for Events... 9 Best Advocate Experience...10 Big BAM! ROI Business Impact...11 Advocate Marketer of the Year...12 Advocate Marketing Program of the Year

3 INTRODUCTION WHAT ARE THE BAMMIES? The Best Advocate Marketing Awards (BAMMIES) recognize the amazing achievements of forward-thinking B2B marketers who put fans, advocates, and evangelists at the heart of their marketing strategies. The fourth annual BAMMIES awarded honors in 10 categories from best referral program to best global customer advocacy initiative. This year s entries demonstrate how advocate marketing is growing in importance for many organizations. It s no longer a project restricted to the Marketing department. Instead, the value of advocacy is being extended throughout the entire organization and changing how companies build relationships with customers from sales to product to customer success. This year s winners were revealed at Advocamp 2017, the biggest customer experience, engagement, and advocacy event of the year. In this ebook, we ll reveal the strategies and tactics these award-winning B2B marketers used to harness the power of their advocates and deliver value to every area of their businesses. Learn how to build your own advocate marketing program through an interactive, educational experience where YOU become the advocate. Join Experience VIP 3

4 BEST DISCOVER, NURTURE AND MOBILIZE STRATEGY To nurture relationships with instructors and students, Wiley used interactive challenges to train and educate them on WileyPLUS best practices and features. Top performers were given insider access to the Wiley team through product feedback opportunities and events. The were also rewarded with Wiley swag and recognition in the community through an awards program. Wiley, a global research and learning company, helps people and organizations develop the skills they need to succeed. In 2016, they launched WileyPLUS Studio, an invitation-only advocate marketing program to support college instructors and student ambassadors who use the WileyPLUS learning platform. In 2016, Wiley had already built a community of nearly 1,100 advocates. In 2017, they wanted to boost this number to 1,800 and generate 50 references for their sales team. To uncover new advocates, Wiley focused on four things that their customers love: connecting, sharing, free swag, and learning about Wiley products. They did this by: Promoting the WileyPLUS Studio program through a landing page and a video that went out to 6,000 instructors Inviting conference attendees to drop by their booth, join the program, and receive a WileyPLUS jacket Funneling users of the WileyPLUS Academy, an asynchronous product training platform, to the WileyPLUS Studio program Asking customers to register and submit questions for a virtual town hall via the WileyPLUS Studio 4 Grew the WileyPLUS Studio community to 2,010 advocates an 83% increase from the previous year Motivated 30 instructors to write 111 reference letters that influenced $250K in new business Supported the achievement of $65M in sales for the WileyPLUS product through better retention and expansion Reduced WileyPLUS user churn by 54% Generated 917 testimonials Received 1,466 pieces of product feedback Improved Net Promoter Score for Studio members by 380% Sourced 50% of Wiley Exchange blog content from the program, which generated 127K views We know from previous research that customers who are properly onboarded and trained achieve the highest levels of satisfaction with our product which translates into increased revenue and usage. Through the WileyPLUS Studio program, we re able to educate advocates on best practices, training paths, feature enhancements, and more. We ve seen 98% validation rates on adoptions affiliated with the WileyPLUS Studio. The results are more than we anticipated! - Nicole Dingley, Director of Customer Success, John Wiley and Sons

5 BEST ADVOCATE-GENERATED CONTENT INITIATIVE Next, they posted Challenges in the Student Insiders program asking advocates to write about specific themes, which reduced the number of rejected pitches. Some requests were targeted at advocates who had expressed interest in specific topics. Pearson also presented blog writing as an opportunity for students to build their professional portfolio in order to increase participation. Pearson, the world s largest learning company, dreamed of having a blog full of posts written by students about college life. They knew studentcreated content would drive traffic to their site and bring more students into their online engagement programs. But Pearson s process for working with student bloggers was long and complicated. Students also grew frustrated when they pitched ideas and had them rejected. Pearson decided to streamline their blog post submission process, plus make it fun for students to write for them via their advocate marketing program The Pearson Student Insiders. Pearson then provided advocates with a senior student Editor-in-Chief, who helped them perfect their drafts. Once complete, Pearson increased their reach by asking their employees, the student s school, and advocates in the Pearson Student Insiders program to share. 3-4 student-written blogs posts are scheduled per week for the next 3 months (vs. the 1-2 per month they used to publish) 400+ blogs written by students 1,600+ blog pitches from students this year 30+ student-created testimonial videos submitted Pearson asked student advocates for feedback on what topics would interest them. This helped Pearson figure out what content would be the most relevant to their audience. Our top priority is showcasing our advocates and helping them succeed. Putting our advocates first has helped us completely transform our blog and fill our content calendar. It s amazing to see students so passionate about Pearson. - Lindsey Erlick, Senior Manager, Student Advocacy & Marketing, Pearson 5

6 BEST REFERRAL PROGRAM They also answered questions about the referral process as a whole to create transparency and trust with their customers. Aside from an ongoing referrals section, they also held special contests and one-off campaigns to remind advocates to refer peers for points and prizes. The team at Procore, a leading provider of cloud-based applications for construction, knew that referrals from happy customers were the key to their continued success and growth. They launched an advocate marketing program, Builder s Club, to engage with their most passionate customers before asking for big favors, like referrals. They hoped that creating stronger connections with customers would encourage them to refer more qualified leads from their professional networks to Procore. Internally, Procore created a referral signature campaign, which encouraged both Builder s Club members and non-advocates to send them referrals. Over 1,000 referrals driven through the program Almost 200 referrals collected in one month 43 referrals lead to new business Customers can t provide qualified referrals if they don t know who they should refer. That s why Procore educated advocates in their Builder s Club program on what a good referral looked like. They ran Welcome to Builder s Club webinars where they explained how to use the program s referral section and explained the difference between an ideal referral and an unqualified one. 6 Our goal was to get the program up and running, integrated with Salesforce, and mobilizing our advocates to drive qualified sales leads and closed/won business. Via the Builder s Club referrals campaigns, we ve got over 800 referrals currently in progress and being worked on by our sales team. We must be doing something right with our advocates! - Larisa Sandu, Advocacy Programs Manager, Procore Technologies

7 BEST GLOBAL CUSTOMER ADVOCACY PROGRAM advocacy team while helping customers succeed more quickly. Through regional targeting, they offered advocates opportunities to help BMC by speaking with an analyst or their local press. As a global company, BMC Software has customers in almost every country. But BMC s Customer Connect team consists of just five people with a limited travel budget so they can only see 10 percent of their advocates in person each year. In 2017, BMC wanted their advocate marketing program to make members feel closer to the BMC team and each other despite never meeting face-to-face. They hoped this would increase program membership (via advocate referrals), and the number of customers willing to be showcased in public-facing collateral. Offline, the team held special events and personalized check-ins to engage advocates. The BMC sales and customers success teams were also asked to identify new potential advocates for the program. 4,000 global advocates joined the program a growth of 600% since 2014 The NPS of advocates is almost twice as high as BMC s general NPS 150 advocates volunteered to participate in external facing activities like speaking engagements, podcasts, analyst interviews, etc. 400 testimonials gathered for internal and external use Over 200 reviews written for Gartner PeerInsights, G2 Crowd, and Trust Radius by advocates 40 pieces of external content published featuring advocates, including blogs, case studies, videos, and press releases BMC s Customer Connect had a multi-channel approach to making global advocates more feel valued by the company. Online, they used the AdvocateHub platform to gamify the process of communicating with advocates, asking them about their interests, and requesting acts of advocacy. They also used the discussion functionality in the program to connect advocates around the globe so they could share BMC best practices and industry insights. This reduced the burden on the 7 Despite the challenges of having to extend our reach to every continent, we built a large and sustainable network of advocates who think of us as friends, rather than someone they ve just exchanged s with from halfway across the world. We have customers that would do anything for us at a drop of a hat, regardless of time zones or conveniences. - Kayla Geigerman, Customer Advocacy Manager, BMC Software

8 BEST MULTI-ADVOCATE COMMUNITY their personal brand and their company s brand. It earns them elite status within the program, granting access to Oracle s Product Management and Development for feedback. This recognition fosters product expertise at Oracle and in the user s and partner s organizations. The goal of Oracle s Customer Advocacy Program is to identify ways to create value. They strive to elevate customer, partner, and employee heroes by creating personalized moments of value, positively impacting the bottom line. To deliver against its mission, the Oracle Advocacy Team implements a Give to Get strategy that provides value to four different audiences executives, users, partners, and employees. They identify the unique needs of each advocate group and their motivations to participate. The Advocacy Team also acknowledges Oracle employees who contribute to the advocate community. By doing so, customer success becomes an important priority not only in sales and marketing, but also across the company. 96% of Oracle s Customer Advisory Board (CAB) renewed their membership for an additional term Oracle Champions executive group increased by 100% The Hero Hub saw 816 social shares, 16,000 click throughs, and increased blog views by 200% and comments by 213% Oracle s Ask the Experts event experience achieved a 4.9/5 CSAT score Forum activity increased by 1,100% among new software integrator partners leading to a 20% growth in Oracle s online community Oracle recognized 12 employees with Customer Advocacy Standing O Awards For example, executives respond better to VIP treatment and exclusive opportunities to build their personal brand. They are given access to thought leaders, company leadership and product experts, and elite opportunities to influence products future roadmaps. To help user and partner communities reach their professional goals, Oracle s Advocacy Team encourages them to work with subject matter experts and create high-value content, such as Ask The Expert webinars and how-to cookbooks. This content showcases their expertise, meanwhile building 8 Building these relationships and increasing account stickiness is key to the success of the Oracle brand and our advocacy programs. Many of our advocates view Oracle Service Cloud as a trusted advisor not just another vendor. Thanks to our Give to Get strategy, we have seen unparalleled growth and engagement among all four of our key advocate groups. - Stephanie Hartsog, Senior Manager, CX Customer Advocacy, Oracle

9 BEST USE OF ADVOCACY FOR EVENTS on social media, download the event app, and learn about speakers and sessions. They also encouraged XOXO members to sign up for one-onone networking sessions with other customers. Advocates were invited to a unique XOXO area for an exclusive book signing and chair massages. They also asked attendees to provide software reviews and share their experiences on social media. INSIGHTS, Ceridian's annual customer conference, is a premier event in human capital management (HCM). In 2017, Ceridian s Customer Success team wanted to boost on- and off-line engagement for conference attendees. To do this, they planned to harness the power of Ceridian s customers via their Customer Success XOXO program before, during, and after the event. In particular, during the live event, they wanted to boost on- and off-line engagement by presenting customers opportunities to extend their professional networks, enhance their education, collaborate with Ceridian on future product improvements, and be recognized for their HCM accomplishments. Ceridian built the XOXOLive INSIGHTS 2017 AdvocateHub Experience to increase the value of the conference to attending customers. It launched one month before the event, and concluded three weeks after it ended. Prior to the event, Ceridian posted activities in the XOXOLive AdvocateHub Experience that encouraged members to register for the event, submit nominations for the XOXO Awards, share content about the conference After the conference, Ceridian collected advocate feedback that will help them improve both the online XOXOLive AdvocateHub Experience and the live INSIGHTS event next year. Engaged 59% of the customers who learned about the XOXOLive INSIGHTS 2017 AdvocateHub Experience 87 XOXO Award nominations 180 one-on-one customer networking meetings facilitated through the XOXO Hub 24 new references sourced from the event Generated 4,323 social media shares that received 16,870 clicks and helped #CeridianINSIGHTS trend on Twitter Boosted Ceridian s Customers Hub NPS by 22 points during the Experience Ceridian s XOXO Customer Success Program is key to our customers HCM success. The XOXO Program s AdvocateHub Experience allowed us to give conference attendees a new level of value. Through the presented opportunities, we engaged customers on a personal level to help them advance in their professions. - Nick Venturella, Customer Success Operations Manager, Ceridian 9

10 BEST ADVOCATE EXPERIENCE Hero K12 also celebrated advocates to make them feel appreciated. For example, they ran a National Principals Month campaign to recognize the impact of principals. One advocate who joined during this campaign completed 40 challenges in just a few days and submitted 13 referrals. Hero K12 strives to have a profound positive impact on student behavior, making school a better place to work, learn, and grow. In October of 2016, the company planned to re-launch their advocate marketing program with two goals: engaging more educators and boosting their number of advocates to at least 600. Hero K12 believed creating a better program experience would encourage advocates to refer friends, create content for Hero K12, talk about Hero K12 on social media, and volunteer to be references. 961 new advocates joined the program $113K+ in referral revenue generated via advocates 49 referral leads generated via advocates 243 testimonials submitted 87 online reviews written, which generated 15 leads 43 new customer references uncovered 1,066 activities generated on social media via advocates 13 new customer stories and 4 advocate-created blogs sourced Their top priority was to make their community a welcoming experience from the start, in order to increase participation and long-term loyalty. To do this, the program administrator personally greeted every new advocate. First, she got to know advocates through a 5 Things About Me, 5 Things About You challenge where customers and the Hero K12 team shared details about themselves. Then, she personally responded to each submission. The Hero K12 team also created tailored content campaigns meant to educate and engage advocates by tapping into relevant and timely themes, such as Teacher Appreciation Week. This focus on advocates professional lives increased participation rates. People advocate for other people not for faceless companies. I knew that if our advocates got to know me better as a person, they would be more likely to lend a hand in the future. I make a concerted effort to know advocates on a personal level because they are champions for our business! - Jessica Mitchell, Customer Marketing Manager, Hero K12 10

11 BIG BAM! ROI BUSINESS IMPACT They also produced a funny video that showed advocates the benefits of joining. The video outlines the four types of rewards that advocates can receive through the program: status in the community, power to influence the PowerDMS product, rewards (like swag), and exclusive access to the PowerDMS team. PowerDMS provides policy management software that helps organizations reduce their risks and liabilities. They have been on Inc s list of the fastest-growing U.S. companies for seven straight years, and attribute much of their growth to customer word-of-mouth. In 2017, PowerDMS wanted to boost word-of-mouth through their advocate marketing program, the PowerDMS Champions. Their goals included finding 500 new advocates, generating 120 reviews, and receiving 78 referrals. PowerDMS picked the right times to invite advocates to the Champions program, such as immediately after a customer left a positive review online, or became a Net Promoter. To keep advocates engaged, PowerDMS filled their program with timely, fun challenges such as asking advocates to share the love by writing a review on Valentine s Day. These strategic campaigns helped PowerDMS stay on track with their advocate marketing targets. 631 new advocates joined the program More than $800K in opportunities influenced by advocate referrals, references and online reviews $140K in closed/won revenue from advocate-generated opportunities 121 referrals submitted Deal sizes via advocate referrals were double the average deal size 127 referenceable customers sourced 229 online reviews generated 2,763 feedback responses collected 2,353 social shares made by advocates Giving our customers a great experience has motivated them to help in ways that they wouldn t outside of an advocate community. For example, advocates have provided almost 3,000 responses through our feedback challenges. Since we made this process engaging, our customers are telling us things that we would have never heard otherwise Ray Lau, Customer Advocacy Marketing Manager, PowerDMS

12 ADVOCATE MARKETER OF THE YEAR WHO: Larisa Sandu lives and breathes advocate marketing. As the Customer Advocacy Program Manager for Procore Technologies, she spends her days getting to know her customers and giving them an amazing experience. When she s not delighting customers, you can find Larisa learning new advocate marketing best practices and networking with her peers. HER Larisa attributes Procore s success to creating and executing a strategic plan that included: Recruiting the right advocates into the program at the right time Nurturing advocates by providing valuable resources they rely on for insights and best practices of the Procore platform Using an omnichannel strategy to connect with advocates who prefer various forms of communication Allowing their program to grow organically, based on advocates changing needs 7,807 new advocates have joined the Builder s Club A nearly 50% engagement rate among advocates Over 15,500 social shares that generated over 102,000 website visits 143,000 advocacy Challenges completed in the AdvocateHub platform Larisa joined the Procore team in March of She quickly conducted voice-ofthe-customer research and used this information to design a strategic plan for the company's advocate marketing program, called Builder s Club. The success of Builder s Club has been nothing short of amazing. While our ROI figures are important, some of our most impressive results can't be tied to a number. For example, we have received countless messages from customers thanking us for supporting them in their careers. Knowing that my work positively impacts so many people is the best part of my job." 12 - Larisa Sandu, Advocacy Program Manager, Procore Technologies

13 ADVOCATE MARKETING PROGRAM OF THE YEAR as a partner in student success and inspire more students to become advocates. Pearson also sought to grow their Student Insiders program to 3,000 members doubling membership from the prior year. PEOPLE'S CHOICE: The winner of this category is determined by popular vote. This means advocate marketers have to put the engagement and passion of their advocate community to the test to take home the award. Pearson rallied its advocates and won 32% of the vote, amongst 8 competitors. Pearson set out on a mission this year: to change the way students perceived their brand. The company offers technology, materials and services to help students reach their highest potential but many college students just saw Pearson as a textbook vendor. To improve brand sentiment, Pearson wanted to help students be better prepared to get the job they want after graduation. By doing this, Pearson hoped to be seen By offering advocates exclusive career-focused opportunities to improve their employability after college and public recognition for their accomplishments, the Student Insiders community was ready to help Pearson win this award. Student Insiders have also shared their stories in blog posts and videos to help attract other students to Pearson s online engagement programs. This content also helped promote the program among Pearson teams across the world. 5,000 student advocates joined 200% higher NPS among Student Insiders program members vs. nonmembers 3,250+ pieces of product feedback collected from advocates Student-created content drove awareness of Student Insiders program internally, which led to a student advocate getting a spotlight at Pearson s National Sales Meeting Get Lindsey's 10 steps for mobilizing your advocates and putting them at the center of everything your company does. Watch her video and read her blog now. The Pearson Student Insiders was the first of its kind in the educational publishing industry and set the bar high. It enables students to unlock their potential by equipping them with the skills that they need to be successful in the real world. In turn, our advocates have spread the love and improved how others see our brand. - Lindsey Erlick, Senior Manager, Student Advocacy & Marketing, Pearson 13

14 SO, ARE YOU READY TO START AN ADVOCATE MARKETING PROGRAM? WE WOULDN T SHARE ALL OF THESE AWESOME STORIES AND LEAVE YOU HANGING. If you want to build an advocacy initiative on par with the examples shared in this ebook, here s a few next steps and resources to get you started. 1. Learn. Join experience VIP to see more advocate marketing content and learn at your own pace. 2. Strategize. Read the Advocate Marketing Playbook the step-by-step guide to launching your first advocate marketing program. 3. Connect. Download our buy-in kit for material to send your team members about the need for advocate marketing across your organization. 4. Explore. Book a demo with Influitive to learn how an advocate marketing platform can help you scale customer engagement. 5. Deep-dive. Start learning about your advocate s unique persona by choosing your industry from this list. 14