💬 I've found through first-hand experience with consulting/advisory that there is sometimes a disconnect with acquisition/awareness/TOF demand gen strategies, and tying in initiatives that focus on advocacy and 'referrals'.
Now more than ever, trust/credibility play an even bigger role in a world where there's even more competition and 'choice' in terms of solutions.
That's why I believe (and what I talk about often with companies I consult/advise) that more SaaS/B2B brands need to focus on 'first-hand' knowledge sharing, as well as forms of social proof, which then they can use to drive acquisition efforts.
That's why today, I'm sharing some of the top initiatives below that focus on generating referral/WOM (advocacy), that can help with acquisition/TOF, and even to support sales operations (enablement), retention, product upgrades, and many other objectives along the CX journey.
💬 All of these advocacy initiatives below are applicable for all growth stages of startups/SaaS - I also incl. references and software solutions I recommend to check out which can help with implementation.
One of the first strategy checklist points when it comes to scaling SaaS advocacy for WOM and organic referrals, comes from the quality of audience you need to focus on.
You should narrow down segments to your top 25% of customers/active users, and the likes of enterprise clients.
As something to think about and brainstorm, work on strategies to engage top customers to collab/co-create content with. For example, one of the lower-hanging fruit initiatives you can do is by creating UGC-style video reviews/case studies.
A good process I like is simply asking some questions - but the key here is then getting the workflow right which is easy for both parties.
I recommend checking out this platform called VocalVideo which you can use for reviews and Q&A style videos.
In conjunction with the above in terms of videos and "UGC-style", make sure to get video content which hones in on key ICP attributes that you want to target.
Collecting targeted video content like this from ICPs is then awesome for sales enablement content (emails and via sales team), and remarketing ads.
Something that I've seen many B2B and SaaS brands doing on the likes of LinkedIn and Twitter/X, is work closely with thought-leaders/creators, and even the likes of their top customer base (for example, agency partners, etc) to co-create content that focuses on use cases and features of the product.
A great way to create momentum of advocacy for your product, is by doing shoutouts and promotion of top customer's successes.
It can be effective for content generation and highlighting to prospect audiences that you care and celebrate customer wins.
I also created a checklist about customer appreciation strategies, where I share some other tactics worth trying related to this.
Establishing a "certified" program, for the likes of consultants/freelancers, can be a great way to develop advocacy - kind of like how ambassadors/affiliates and even the likes of how influencers work.
When consultants/freelancers become certified, they then naturally share this on their LinkedIn profile, their site, and them share content related across their channels - and usually, the quality of their audience is going to contain your target ICP segments.
There aren't too many loyalty programs that exist for B2B/SaaS brands, but doesn't meant you can't create one that is more 'closed' to incentivise customers to promote the brand.
A good strategy to can spur support and natural advocacy of customers, is when you can open and transparent around product feedback, and highlighting features/releases on a public roadmap.
I like this initiative a lot, particularly by some SaaS startups I've seen.
To really make the most of new key feature releases and to build up some 'hype' around it, make sure to get feedback from top active customers, and also get them to share quotes, videos or even the likes of stats/results.
Then use this collateral and content to help drive the feature campaign.
I've spoken about the power of referral programs in a few other checklists, and it's certainly an initiative that can help drive word-of-mouth and advocacy - and the one of the primary reasons why I really like referral programs is because it can be a 'quality' source for acquisition.
However, making them really drive WOM for scale does take work - so, I wrote a checklist for SaaS referral program optimisations with numerous tests/experiments and tactics to help increase uptake and growth.
Personally if there's one area of marketing that more SaaS and B2B brands should be focusing on now more than ever, it's community-building for me.
It's one of the best channels that you can truly 'own' (i.e. in other words, not be at the 'mercy' of various platforms that can change the rules at any given time) - which can impact all key touchpoints of the CX journey/funnel, from acquisition, nurturing, conversions, and of course, advocacy/referrals.
I wrote a checklist resource on community-building that's worth checking out :)
Hosting events/AMAs online/offline is a great way to engage active customers, and getting them to share/encourage colleagues and those in their network to join events - realy great when they share on their LinkedIn feeds/networks.
And even the likes of local meetups - whilst not as scalable compared to online events, they can be really effective in terms of generating localised face-to-face relationships - especially good for higher-value ICP targets (like enterprise clientele).
Implementing an affiliate strategy and program is certainly an awesome initiative to help drive awareness - and naturally, affiliates advocate your product through promotion in return for some sort of commission/incentive.
I created a couple of affiliate marketing checklists around promotion and increasing participation worth reading, if this is an area of growth you're looking for improving performance.
