Building Successful Advocacy Programs: Insights from the CMAweekly Workshop with Mariah Lenahan

Welcome back to CMAweekly, your go-to source for knowledge and strategies in customer marketing and advocacy!

In Episode #85, we had the privilege of hosting Mariah Lenahan (on CMAweekly), Senior Manager of Customer Marketing at SurveyMonkey, as our guest expert.

Joined by a diverse group of participants, the session unfolded an enriching discussion around starting and enhancing customer advocacy programs.

Here, we drill down into the insightful key topics covered in this episode, each packed with best practices, strategies, and actionable tips for customer marketing managers aiming to build robust advocacy initiatives.

Resource shared (presentation): Google Drive

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Understanding Advocacy Program Maturity Models

Key Insight: Starting with a clear understanding of where your program stands in its maturity is crucial.

Mariah Lenahan introduces the concept of a maturity model which acts as a compass for assessing the development and performance of advocacy programs. This model encourages teams to evaluate their strategy, execution, technology, and overall skill set, gauging their maturity level as either "behind," "developing," "mature," or "leading."

Best Practices:

• Self-Assessment:

  Use maturity models to audit your current program. It’s essential to be honest about where you stand to plan better.

• Benchmarking:

  Compare your program against industry standards and peers. Identifying gaps can guide strategy enhancements.

• Iterative Improvement:

  Regularly update your assessment. Advocacy is dynamic, and continuous improvement will keep your program competitive.

Actionable Steps:

1. Gather input from your advocacy team and key stakeholders to create a comprehensive picture of your current state.

2. Develop metrics that matter to your goals—like community engagement levels or case study turnarounds.

3. Aim to graduate stages by optimizing processes, enhancing skills, and employing leading technologies.

Driving Customer Engagement in Advocacy Programs

Key Insight: Customers have a natural propensity to advocate for products they love. The focus should be on harnessing this enthusiasm organically.

To exploit this latent advocacy potential, you need to identify your advocates’ motivations and design your program to naturally fit these driving forces.

Best Practices:

• Segmentation:

  Identify different types of advocates—those who educate, collaborate, share stories, or seek career advancement. Understanding their motivations allows for tailored engagement strategies.

• Incentive Alignment:

  Use motivations to define the rewards. Not all advocates seek tangible rewards; some may value acknowledgment or career opportunities.

• Automation:

  Implement automation for routine tasks like review requests, freeing resources for high-impact engagements.

Tips for Success:

1. Use surveys and direct communication to understand individual motivations.

2. Develop a categorized portfolio of engagement activities and rewards that align with different advocate types.

3. Streamline low-impact tasks with automation to focus on meaningful, personalized engagement.

Creating Effective Case Studies

Key Insight: Case studies are invaluable; they need to be impactful and metrics-driven to resonate with audiences.

During the episode, Steven underlined the importance of preparing customers effectively for interviews, suggesting that case study processes can be more efficient and beneficial when insightful metrics are emphasized.

Best Practices:

• Preparation:

  Equip customers with an overview and potential discussion points to ensure they feel at ease and informed during interviews.

• Focused Metrics:

  Highlight crucial performance metrics in case studies to add credibility and pragmatism.

• Open-Ended Questions:

  Employ open-ended questions to extract deeper stories and insights, providing a richer context.

Strategy for Implementation:

1. Create a standardized template that includes both metrics and narrative sections.

2. Collaborate with advocates to align on which success stories should be highlighted.

3. Host workshops to guide customers on presenting their journey to ensure alignment and coherence.

Building Internal Buy-In for Advocacy Processes

Key Insight: Stakeholder buy-in, especially within your own organization, is non-negotiable for advocacy success.

Gaining internal support often involves educating teams on the process's value and how these efforts directly impact the company’s bottom line.

Strategies and Tips:

• Education & Enablement:

  Run enablement sessions focused on demonstrating the process benefits.

• Highlight Success Stories:

  Use stories of internal change advocates to inspire and rally support.

• Competition & Rewards:

  Foster competition and use elements like leaderboards to engage and motivate teams.

Steps to Foster Buy-In:

1. Plan regular touchpoints with leadership to continuously communicate the value of advocacy.

2. Use easy-to-remember tools like Bitly links to simplify processes for busy teams like sales.

3. Build a roadmap highlighting how advocacy aligns with broader company goals.

Leveraging Feedback and Community Engagement

Key Insight: The power of community and continuous feedback loops cannot be overstated.

Mariah concluded by addressing the community's importance in fostering ongoing growth and learning in customer marketing practices.

You can learn more about Advocate Engagement in another episode of CMAweekly here with CAP Awards finalists. 

Best Practices:

• Regular Feedback Surveys:

  Implement ongoing surveys to parse actionable insights, adapting to the shifting landscape of customer needs.

• Engagement Platforms:

  Utilize forums or dedicated spaces where customers can share experiences, contributing to the feedback loop.

• Community Events:

  Host exclusive events for community members, cementing a sense of belonging and collective advocacy.

Steps to Encourage Community Building:

1. Identify key community members and involve them as champions for advocacy programs.

2. Facilitate workshops and forums to keep feedback channels open and dynamic.

3. Celebrate community milestones and individual contributions to nurture loyalty and sustained engagement.

Final Takeaway

Building and managing successful advocacy programs transcends mere process stringency—it’s about creating a support system that aligns with natural customer inclinations and organizational capabilities.

As we've learned from this episode, factors like understanding program maturity, engaging customer advocates meaningfully, creating impactful case studies, securing internal buy-in, and leveraging community feedback are cornerstone elements of a thriving advocacy ecosystem.

By embedding these best practices and strategies into your program, you can drive engagement and realize the true potential of customer advocacy.

Tune in to CMAweekly every Friday for more insightful discussions and expert toolkits to empower your journey in customer marketing!

Engaging Customers Through Gamification: "Leaderboard and competing elements are where we've seen our customers have a ton of success." - Andru Creighton

Aligning Sales and Enablement: "I have guides coming out of my ears. I can send you videos. I have so much enablement documentation. But if it doesn't align with what a seller is used to seeing, they won't review it." - Andru Creighton