Advocate Marketing: A Powerful Tool for Startups

Advocate marketing isn’t just for established brands, it’s ideal for startups, too. While there’s often a tendency within startups to focus on growth with plans to add innovative marketing tactics later on, advocate marketing is not only doable while your startup grows, it can help you achieve your goals. 

Why advocate marketing is essential for startups

Advocate marketing encourages existing customers to promote a brand. Advocates have unique superpowers. Their familiarity with your product is only paralleled by their ability to sway others. For your startup, advocates: 

Build brand awareness

When you’re just starting out, brand recognition is key. You need to introduce your brand and products to your target audience. You need to start a steady drumbeat on social media that mentions your brand and gets your name out there. Advocates can do that very well.

Offer a cost-effective marketing tactic

With the proper planning, you can mobilize many advocates to promote your brand and products on social media. By investing in an advocate marketing platform, you can reward advocates for taking actions like endorsing a product or leaving a product review. For many, investing in the platform is a more cost-effective way to advertise than paying for TV ads or pumping money into online ads. 

Generate authentic promotions

Traditional sales tactics that push products aren’t motivating consumers like they once did. Instead, they respond to authentic promotions from genuine customers. Think about how critical product reviews have become, for example. Consumers trust other consumers. As a result, advocate marketing is the ideal solution to generate authentic promotions. 

Humanize your brand

By working with advocates, you humanize your brand right from the start. Rather than rolling out stiff corporate ads, you can tap advocates to share personal experiences and offer real advice that resonates with your prospects. 

How startups can activate startups

You might assume that finding advocates as a startup is tough to do. After all, it’s one thing to cultivate a group of customers, but finding customers who are willing to advocate for your young company probably feels like an impossible task. 

However, every brand, even startups, has champions among their customers. All you have to do is motivate them to stand up. Here’s how: 

Identify potential advocates

Mine your data to see who your loyal customers are. Are there customers that have purchased from you several times over? Add them to your list of advocates. 

Check social media sites. Is anyone raving about your product? Again, add them to your list of potential advocates. 

Comb through your reviews, too, and add anyone who’s spontaneously provided positive feedback about your product.

Invite advocates to a structured advocate hub

Depending on your advocate marketing platform, you can invite customers to support your brand via email and text. Advocates can access your customized portal and join a like-minded community of customers turned promoters. 

The platform incentivizes advocates by rewarding them with redeemable points earned for sharing their experience on social media, leaving reviews, or referring a friend. Points could be used towards discounts, free products, gift cards, or experiences. 

Continue the call to action

Within your advocate marketing platform, you can set challenges for advocates to encourage them to participate in a specific campaign. By doing so, your brand gets a flood of on-brand content and boosts brand awareness and engagement. You can keep UGC flowing into your channels by setting up regular challenges. 

Find an advocate marketing platform that works for your brand

Advocate marketing platforms allow you to organize and motivate your most loyal customers. It provides a structure and incentives that net your brand various authentic content that drives brand awareness, engagement, and sales. Keep challenges going to keep advocates active and engaged.