What is Marketing’s Role in Customer Loyalty and Advocacy

Without marketing, you can’t build customer loyalty and a team of brand advocates. Your marketing team will help you promote your rewards program, educate customers on the value of it, and encourage its use. Marketers can also help you identify customers ready to join your program and facilitate customer retention efforts like collecting feedback. While specific marketing roles may vary by company, here’s a look at marketing’s role in customer loyalty and advocacy.  

Promoting the loyalty or rewards program

The marketing team is likely responsible for promoting your brand’s reward program. Marketers use various channels to create and share content that encourages customers to participate. More specifically, marketers generate content that:

• Invites customers to the program
• Explains how the program works
• Offers discounts to loyal customers
• Suggests products based on past purchases
• Gives links to product-specific tutorials based on a recent purchase
• Provides account updates 

Email is a useful way to educate and connect with loyal customers, but so is a dedicated brand advocate hub where members can interact and share their experiences.

Marketing a loyalty app

Some brands have a separate loyalty app or include rewards as part of their overall app. Starbucks, for example, gives customers points for each purchase made, but the brand sends emails to members when special events are happening. 

The email is sent to loyal members, explains how to get additional rewards, and encourages mobile orders through the app. Marketers are still promoting the program, but actions are taken inside the app. Brands with advocate programs through Zuberance can encourage members to take actions like downloading the app, reviewing the app or completing challenges.

Identifying loyal customers through UGC campaigns

Marketing teams often launch UGC campaigns to generate a buzz and engage with customers, but the byproduct of these campaigns can aid loyalty marketing. If a customer participates in a photo submission contest, for example, their level of engagement warrants an invitation to the brand’s rewards program.

After the UGC campaign is complete, anyone who shares a picture in the contest could be invited to the company’s loyalty program via a DM. 

Collecting feedback

The best customer advocate programs treat their customers as valued members of their team. When customers feel appreciated and have a voice, their brand trust only grows. As a result, part of your loyalty program should collect customer feedback. 

Of course, there are many ways to do this. You can set up a table outside the store and ask customers about their in-store experience. You can ask customers on social media to respond to polls, or you can email a survey after a customer makes a purchase. 

Your marketing team can decide how, when, and why to collect feedback. Keep in mind your needs will change over time. One survey might focus on a specific product, while another could investigate a customer’s online shopping experience via an email.

As you design surveys, keep these tips in mind:

• Keep it short and tell customers how long it will take to complete.
• Keep the survey focused on one topic.
• Ask one question at a time.
• Use response scales for efficiency.
• Test the survey before sending it.
• Add an incentive.

With responses collected, make improvements based on the results. 

Generating helpful, retention-based content

Your content marketing team can help keep customers satisfied. How? By creating content that helps customers get the most from your product. 

An outdoor brand, for example, could craft blogs on how to set up a tent or how to break in hiking shoes before a big trip. A baking brand could share a video on how to care for cake pans after each use or a software company could send a weekly email that explains how to use a specific feature. 

When customers are happy and engaged with your product, they’re more likely to become brand advocates. 

As you can see, marketing plays a big role in customer loyalty and advocacy. By communicating with customers, the marketing team helps cultivate relationships with customers that build trust and result in loyalty and advocacy.