While tossing together random ingredients might occasionally give you something delicious, pulling off a truly memorable event requires deliberate planning. For those high-stakes events where every detail matters, you can’t afford to wing the menu. You need to know how many guests to expect, where to source the best ingredients (and in what quantities!), as well as the timing of the preparations. Approach your customer advocacy strategy like planning the perfect meal, where each element is intentionally designed to delight your favorite guests.
Let’s explore the key ingredients of a successful advocacy framework.
Crafting a Desirable Advocacy Menu
Strategy Elements: Target Audience; Research
Every great meal begins with knowing your guests. It’s important to spend time learning their preferences. You could prepare your absolute favorite dish to perfection but if your guests don’t enjoy a specific ingredient—or worse, they’re allergic—all your efforts will have been in vain.
The same concept applies to customer advocacy. Audience awareness shapes everything from your “menu” of opportunities to engagement frequency.
Target Audience
Customer advocacy programs can be broad or targeted, serving a wide range of customers or engaging a select few. Successful programs address the interests and motivations of its members which is why it’s key to clearly define your target audience. Knowing who you intend to engage is an important decision! Is your customer advocacy program for the end users of your product? For executives who drive purchasing decisions? Determining where to start will help you shape the parameters of your research, as well as your overall program strategy.
Pro Tip: Once you’ve identified your target audience, create a list of must-have and nice-to-have criteria when defining your ideal program member. These customers are your dinner guests!
Research
At Captivate, we strongly believe that a solid customer advocacy strategy always begins with research. This goes for any type of program; whether it’s a customer advisory board, an awards program, a community program—always start with what you know (or don’t know…hence the research). Knowing who you’re serving will make the menu selection that much easier (and appetizing).
Pro Tip: Survey a broad selection of your target customer base to understand what they might look for in a customer advocacy program. Then, handpick 5-10 customers for in-depth interviews to uncover golden insights that will help shape your overall strategy.
The Art of Preparation
Strategy Elements: Key Priorities; Purpose, Mission, Vision, and Values; Value Proposition
Mise-en-place is a French culinary phrase which means “putting into place”—essentially, the art of preparation. Just as a good chef is prepared with all the necessary ingredients before they begin, a good advocacy program manager must too have the foundational ingredients of their strategy at hand. Let’s talk about those ingredients.
Key Priorities
Effective programs begin by defining your focus. What are the outcomes you aim to achieve through your customer advocacy program? When it comes to your key priorities, it’s important to align with company-wide objectives. View your program through the lens of leadership—ask yourself, “How will this program help us deliver on our objectives as an organization?” Being able to draw a line from your program’s goals to your department’s goals, to those of the company will make sure your program is seen as essential (and not just a nice to have).
Pro Tip: For each key priority, identify 2-3 metrics that will define what success looks like. For example, if amplifying customers’ voices is a key priority, a success measure might be identifying 10 new story leads from the program.
Purpose, Mission, Vision, and Values
Establish clear program pillars. They will serve as the foundation of your program and will guide how you make decisions in the short- and long-term.
- Purpose: Why your program must exist—this is a constant
- Mission: Daily operational focus—what is it that you set out to do each day to bring its purpose to life
- Vision: Long-term aspirations—the ideal you seek to create in the future
- Values: Principles that guide how you make decisions
When you get these right, the other elements of your customer advocacy program will blend together perfectly.
Pro Tip: Work with key stakeholders to explore these foundational elements and ask big picture questions: How do you want members to feel? What will your program have accomplished 10 years from now? Your answers will set the stage for your program.
Value Proposition
At Captivate, we’re all about the Advocacy Mindset: the belief that true, long-term advocacy from your customers is driven by a mutually-beneficial relationship. Customer advocacy shouldn’t be transactional, but reciprocal. Rather than asking what’s in it for you, ask what’s in it for them and this will lead you to your value proposition. Develop this reciprocal value by understanding what motivates them - whether it’s status, belonging, access, or rewards - and design a program aligned to these benefits.
Pro Tip: Don’t forget to demonstrate internal value to other teams as well through shared success metrics. CS, Sales, Marketing, and even leadership can all realize value from your program, and it’s easier to get their buy-in when they can see how it supports their goals, too.
Following an Advocacy Recipe
Strategy Elements: Captivate’s Advocacy Methodology (Discover, Nurture, Mobilize)
Now you’ve got some great ingredients, but even the best ingredients don’t guarantee an incredible meal—it’s how you use your ingredients (and in which order) that matters. And sometimes, following a tried and tested recipe makes all the difference—especially when serving valued customers.
Frameworks are like recipes: they outline proven steps and techniques to achieve an anticipated outcome. Recipes are often repeated countless times before they’re perfected, and to ensure consistency.
Captivate’s Customer Advocacy Methodology
Based on years of experience designing customer advocacy frameworks, Captivate’s methodology weaves the advocacy mindset into program design, providing structure to your program and designing a pathway for members. It’s a roadmap to advocacy activation that applies to all programs, targeted or scaled.
- Discover: Discovery is all about understanding your target audience through research, helping you design a highly relevant value prop and deliver highly personalized experiences.
- Nurture: Nurturing your members is all about following through on your value proposition. How do you engage with members and add value beyond your products or services?
- Mobilize: If you’ve invested in the first two steps, your members will mobilize and advocate on your behalf; as you continue to nurture your advocates, the potential for impact scales.
For each of the stages above, consider the activities or workstreams you’ll introduce into the program. How will you continue to learn about your advocates once they’ve joined the program? How will you personalize their member experience? Which acts of advocacy would you like your members to engage in?
Serving Advocacy - Fine Dining Style
Strategy Elements: Key Messages; Program Brand
Presenting a meal is an art—after all, we eat with our eyes first and those first impressions matter. Just as they could determine whether your guests partake or not, how you present your program could impact whether your customers choose to engage with your program…or not.
Key Messages
What’s the narrative of your program? Your key messages are how you translate all the ingredients of your program (the foundational elements like the purpose, mission, vision, and values, and your value proposition) to your target audience. These messages should be woven into your program strategy and program materials, such as recruitment emails, registration pages, and other documentation.
Program Brand
Every program has a personality. How does your program sound in your messaging? What imagery does it use to represent itself? And most importantly, what is it called? We’ve all heard of champion, ambassador, insider and hero programs. With so many programs sharing these names, how do you choose a name that makes your program stand out?
A well-defined brand helps your customers recognize and identify with your program. Work closely with your brand team to develop your program’s distinctive visual identity and naming convention that resonate with your audience and align with corporate standards. Partnering with brand teams from the get-go builds trust and ensures a smooth process from program brand ideation through to its launch.
Ready to Serve?
Once you’ve designed your strategy, gather feedback from your stakeholders and your customers. Just like a chef would tweak recipes based on guest feedback, a program manager should adjust the program over time to reflect the needs of its participants.
You might also be wondering where technology fits into your strategy. Here at Captivate, we have a saying: strategy before software. With a well thought out strategy in place, you’ll have the key requirements for any technology needs clearly defined. Let your strategy guide platform selection rather than letting tools dictate your approach.
Crafting a successful customer advocacy program is like preparing a gourmet meal—each ingredient must be chosen with care and every step meticulously planned. By understanding your guests' preferences you set the stage for a delightful experience that leaves them wanting more. Your well-prepared advocacy strategy will earn accolades from satisfied customers, fostering lasting engagement and loyalty. Keep this culinary approach in mind, and your advocacy program will indeed be a recipe for success!
⭐️ Recommended Reading: Download our Beginner's Guide to Customer Advocacy Essentials ebook, designed to provide you with the knowledge and tools you need to succeed in building or up-leveling your own advocacy program.
Interested in working with a partner to define your customer advocacy program strategy or help identify the right tools to bring your existing strategy to life? We’d love to chat.
