Advocate Marketing: An Overview

Mid-Atlantic Marketing SummitBaltimore, MD

September 19, 2013

Chad Horenfeldt @chadhorenfeldtDirector, Customer Operations @Influitive

Fred Bals @fredatektronManager, Media & Customer Relationship Programs @Ektron

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@chadhorenfeldt

SELECT CUSTOMERS:

About Influitive 2013 Cool Vendor in Social Marketing

Influitive helps B2B marketers recruit, mobilize and recognize an army of advocates that outsell their best sales reps.

WHO WE ARE:

• Founded in 2010

• Toronto, Bay Area and Boston

• >$11M raised from top tier investors

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@chadhorenfeldt

Marketers are no longer in control of the buying process

2006 2010 2014F0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

3.5X increase

Dependence on knowledgeable peers in the buying process (B2B software buyers)

Initiates process

Initiates contact

Purchase

complete

75% of buying process complete before B2B buying interacts with company!75% 25%

Advocate reviews ATTRACT buyers

Fact: 60% of tech B2B customers search for peer testimonials/reviews of a product

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Advocate reviews attract buyers

Xactly’s FOX program drove 262 LinkedIn reviews, follows, and shares, making it one of the most visited profiles in 2012.

Advocates refer the best leads

Fact: Your biggest fans spend 13% more than the average customer and refer business equal to 45% of the money they spend

Advocates help you capture the best leads

200+referrals

$180,000 pipeline

5% conversion rate

“The biggest untapped resource is your existing customer base.” Jeff Linton, Act-ON

$80,000(Closed)

In 6 months, Act-On’s referral program drove $180K in pipeline

Nothing nurtures better than customer success stories

Fact: B2B marketers cite case studies (78%), followed by white papers (73%), and in-person events (72%) as the most effective content for lead nurturing.

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@chadhorenfeldt

Referrals

Product reviewsBlog comments

“Hey can you help me with …?”

ReferencesRetweets, likes, shares

Discover Consider PurchaseRetain Inspire

Media interviews

User groups

Product surveys

Customer Advisory Boards

Analyst interviews

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@chadhorenfeldt

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@chadhorenfeldt

Experience is poor for advocates today

What advocates seek:

Status

Recognition

Career value

Connections

Part of the team

Reputation

Perks

Feedback

What advocates get:

Neglect

+

Abuse

=

Annoyed

Leads to Advocatedisengagement

Fred Bals: Customer Advocacy Manager at

Enterprise Content Management

Digital Experience Software

• Founded in 1998

• Headquarters in Greater Boston area

- Offices in Australia and the United Kingdom

• 200+ Employees

• Over 3,800 customers and 12,000 sites

MISSION: Empower marketers through best-in-class solutions for WCM and DXM

WEB CONTENT MANAGEMENT

Create, deploy, and manage enterprise-scale, global, dynamic websites.

DIGITAL EXPERIENCE MANAGEMENTPersonalize, analyze, and optimize content deliveryto digital channels – web, mobile, and social.

About Ektron

• A community for Ektron fans and followers

• Influence Ektron through participation in betas, surveys and questions

• Recognition from Ektron through perks and special programs

Ektron Inner Circle

Program

"Our first job in marketing is to help empower our fans to bring others on-board. That's what makes us grow.“

~ Ken Gullicksen, Evernote COO

OUR GOALS

• Nurture our advocates

• Grow our relationships with them

• Learn from them

• Broadcast their advocacy of Ektron to our markets

Who are Ektron’s advocates?

Customers – Developers, Designers, Content Authors, Administrators, Marketing and other roles

Partners – Developers, Sales, Marketing and other roles

Employees – Everyone at Ektron

Invite customers, partners,

employees

Mobilize them to complete

‘challenges’

Recognize their

achievements

Customer Advocacy in Action:The Inner Circle helps Ektron recruit,

manage, and acknowledge its advocates

“I could not do my job without the Inner Circle”

THE OBJECTIVE:Ektron’s annual SYNERGY Customer Conference: We needed to make it more Customer-Centric

CHALLENGE: VIDEOS Crowd-source the “I am Ektron” customer videos to be shown at the opening keynote.

No Recruiting!

Videos collected on the spot.

40 “I am Ektron”Videos Collected.

CHALLENGE: FUN Mobilize attendees to build “one great song” for keynote breaks.

“…One of the most popular challenges we’ve ever

done.”

CHALLENGE: AWARDS Generate huge increase in customer submissions for “Site of the Year” award.

50 Submissions500% Increase in nominations

CHALLENGE: CASE STUDIESVideo case study interviews.

Hours of footage

Dozens of interviews

• Over 200 reference contacts coordinated through EIC

• 50+ nominations for 2012 Site of the Year

• 73 sign-ups to participate in Beta Programs

• Feedback on Aloha Editor, eSync, Ektron Support

• 247 Tweets, 25 LinkedIn recommendations, Dozens of survey responses, testimonials, quotes, etc.

EIC in Action

Download the Advocate Marketing Playbook www.influitive.com/playbook

Questions? Need more information?

@chadhorenfeldt

@FredatEktron