Most of us have been in situations where a friend or family member can’t stop talking about a product they loved. Maybe it is a restaurant they liked or a software tool that transformed their workflow. Such recommendations ultimately carry much more weight than any advertisement you see on different platforms.

That’s customer advocacy in action and is one of the most powerful forces in modern business.

Turning your customers into your biggest cheerleaders is the key to creating magic in your business. It means the customers don’t just buy from you, but they actively champion your brand to everyone in their network.

Learning what is customer advocacy and its key strategies is more important than ever because we are in an era where consumers are bombarded with thousands of marketing messages daily, so authentic recommendations can cut through the noise like nothing else can.

What is Customer Advocacy?

Customer advocacy is the process of prioritizing your customers’ needs to turn them from satisfied buyers into vocal supporters of your brand. It is a comprehensive procedure that goes far beyond basic customer service.

The key thing is that you place your customers at the center of every business decision to create experiences that people can’t help but share with their network.

Customer advocacy operates on a simple principle: when you put customers at the center of your business, they will return the favor by promoting your services/products and defending your brand to others.

Components of Customer Advocacy

Customer advocacy has two main components:

  • First, you have to consider the internal aspect. This involves how your company advocates for customers by predicting their specific needs, being proactive in solving problems proactively, and ensuring every customer interaction adds value.
  • Second is the external outcome. Customers who become advocates will voluntarily recommend your brand through reviews, referrals, social media posts, and in their everyday conversations.

Unlike traditional marketing that brings customers by pushing messages outward, customer advocacy pulls new customers in through the authentic voices of people who have actually experienced your product firsthand. It’s earned media at its finest.

Why Customer Advocacy Matters More Than Ever?

Statistics are clear that customer advocacy is more important than ever before. One study shows that 88% of consumers globally trust recommendations from friends and family more than other channels of marketing.

Moreover, traditional advertising is losing credibility, with only a small fraction of consumers trusting brand-sponsored content nowadays.

Here are the reasons why every business should focus on creating an effective customer advocacy program:

1. Build Trust

Marketing channels like social media platforms are drowning in sponsored posts and paid promotions. Authentic customer voices stand out in such situations. When someone shares their genuine experience with your product, potential customers listen.

Moreover, word-of-mouth recommendations drive between 20% and 50% of all purchasing decisions. This is the kind of influence that is difficult to replace with an advertising budget.

2. Lower Acquisition Costs

Acquiring new customers through traditional marketing channels is already expensive and also becoming pricier every year. Customer advocates, however, bring in new business at virtually no cost.

You can also think of customer advocates as an unpaid sales force working on your behalf because they genuinely believe in what you offer. The return on investment for word-of-mouth marketing can reach $6.50 for every dollar spent, which is far higher than most paid channels.

3. Higher Quality Customers

Customers who arrive through advocacy are cost-effective to acquire and are also better customers overall. Referred customers have a lifetime value of 25% higher than customers acquired through other channels.

Moreover, these customers demonstrate a 37% higher retention rate. So, if someone joins based on a trusted recommendation, they arrive pre-qualified and predisposed to succeed with your product.

4. Natural Retention

Customer advocacy and customer retention are closely related to each other in a powerful cycle. The practices that create advocates, including exceptional customer service, genuine care, and consistent value, are the same ones that prevent churn.

When customers feel valued enough to recommend you, they’re far less likely to leave themselves. This is highly important for all types of businesses, but more so for SaaS companies that want to reduce churn/

Related: Customer Retention Management for New and Existing Customers

5. Competitive Edge

A community of passionate customer advocates can give you a significant competitive edge. Competitors can copy your products and features and also offer lower prices to create differentiation.

However, competitors cannot replicate genuine customers who love and advocate for your products. This is why companies with strong advocacy programs are able to create an emotional moat around their business that transcends functional benefits.

Top Strategies to Build Customer Advocacy

Building a base of customer advocates requires a comprehensive approach of intentional efforts across multiple touchpoints. Here are some proven strategies that consistently generate results for businesses of all types and sizes:

Deliver Exceptional Experiences at Every Point

Customer advocacy starts with experiences worth talking about. This means you need to examine every interaction, starting from onboarding to customer support to billing, from your customers’ eyes.

Get answers to questions like:

  • Where are the friction points?
  • What delights customers?
  • What merely meets expectations versus what exceeds them?

Zappos, for example, is a popular online retailer that has built its whole brand identity around the fact that it offers exceptional customer service and has no call limits. The company even set a record for having a customer call that lasted 10 hours and 43 minutes. That kind of commitment generates stories customers eagerly share.

Create Genuine Human Connections

People advocate for brands that make them feel valued as individuals, not just transactions. This is why personalization is important here.

And by personalization, we don’t mean to simply insert someone’s name into an email, but genuine recognition of their unique needs, preferences, and history with your company. A platform like Churnfree can help you in this process by helping you create personalized offers.

In addition to relying on technology, small gestures also often matter most. For example, you can send a handwritten thank-you note after a major purchase. Or you can do a check-in call that doesn’t try to upsell anything. Try to remember details from previous conversations with your customers to have moments that create emotional bonds to drive advocacy.

Build Community Around Your Brand

Advocates thrive in community environments where they can connect with like-minded customers. You can use channels like forums, social media groups, user conferences, or ambassador programs to create spaces for customers where they can strengthen their connection to your brand and each other.

Strong communities also offer social proof that helps you bring in new customers. When prospects see an active, engaged user base, they gain confidence in their purchasing decision.

Make Sharing Easy and Rewarding

Even the most enthusiastic customers need convenient ways to spread the word about your products and services. So, businesses should create referral programs, review invitations, and shareable content to remove friction from advocacy activities.

A popular example is of Dropbox, which grew from 100,000 to 4 million users in just 15 months, largely through their referral program that was designed to reward both the referrer and new user with bonus storage.

Dropbox Referral Program

Actively Listen and Respond to Feedback

Nothing demonstrates customer-centricity like actually implementing customer suggestions. Starbucks’ “My Starbucks Idea” platform allowed customers to submit and vote on ideas, with popular suggestions like free WiFi and loyalty rewards eventually becoming reality.

When customers see their input shaping your product, they develop ownership over your success. They become invested not just as users but as contributors to your evolution.

Recognize and Celebrate Your Advocates

Public recognition amplifies advocacy. Feature customer success stories in your marketing. Highlight user-generated content on your social channels. Invite top advocates to exclusive events or early access programs.

Apple’s “Shot on iPhone” campaign brilliantly turned customers into marketing collaborators. By featuring stunning photos taken by everyday users, Apple created an army of advocates proud to have their work associated with the brand.

Slack Success Stories

Empower Your Entire Organization

Customer advocacy isn’t solely a customer success responsibility. Sales, marketing, product, and leadership must all embrace customer-centric values. Create a company-wide blueprint that clarifies how every role contributes to advocacy goals.

Training matters here. Ensure everyone who interacts with customers understands how to create advocacy-worthy experiences. Define metrics that track progress and celebrate wins across departments.

Measuring Customer Advocacy Success

It is not possible to improve something that you are not properly measuring. So, you should track the following metrics to determine the effectiveness of your advocacy program:

  • Net Promoter Score (NPS): This is a classic metric that asks customers how likely they are to recommend your company on a scale of 0-10. Customers scoring 9-10 are your advocates. You can easily calculate NPS by collecting customer feedback.
  • Referral Volume and Actual Conversion: Track how many referrals are generated by your existing customers. Also, determine the percentage that is actually converting. Higher numbers mean growing interest in your customer advocacy program.
  • Review Quantity and Quality: Monitor the volume and sentiment of reviews across different platforms that are relevant to your business. Moreover, you should be proactive in increasing positive reviews for healthy advocacy.
  • Customer Lifetime Value (CLV): Customer advocates tend to stay longer and spend more. Hence, increasing CLV means higher advocacy success.
  • Social Mentions and Sentiment: You should track organic brand mentions and their tone to see how customers are perceiving your brand. Growing positive conversations related to your brand means your advocacy strategies are working.

Conclusion

Customer advocacy is an important shift in how businesses grow. Instead of shouting louder in an increasingly competitive marketplace, advocacy-focused companies are smart enough to let their customers do the talking.

The math behind successful customer advocacy programs is also quite compelling. Referred customers are more valuable. Moreover, advocacy brings down acquisition costs, along with reducing churn. And authentic recommendations build trust that no paid marketing campaigns can match.

Most importantly, building customer advocacy requires businesses to become the kind of brand worth advocating for. It requires genuine care, consistent excellence, and a willingness to put customers first, even when it might seem inconvenient for businesses.

The best part is that you can try out platforms like Churnfree to incorporate strategies like creating personalized offers, gathering feedback, and reducing churn to build a successful customer advocacy program.