The rise

of creative

customer

advocacy

Right now, tech marketers are almost as likely to invest in creative customer advocacy as they are product and service launches. And it’s working.

Question 01

In which areas, if any, did you prioritise creative investment in 2021?

Expert Perspective:

Are customer stories becoming more important?

Gwen Lafage

VP Brand and Content, Sinch

There’s definitely been a shift, putting customers more at the centre. The voice of your customer is stronger, and feels truer, than when your company sells itself. So there’s a lot of value in having your customer be your biggest fan.

The peer-to-peer movement is a big part of it. A recommendation resonates more when it’s from a friend, and people are more willing to engage with a person than with a brand – so putting your customer front and centre definitely helps your marketing.

It’s the same with employee advocacy. Engagement on LinkedIn has totally shifted in the past few years. People are becoming the representation of your brand – and when you ask customers how they found out about you, more and more they’ll say they followed an employee.

There’s a million ways to be creative with that trend – like podcasts, which are people talking to people. It’s not just in the design; creative thinking goes way beyond that.

"The voice of your customer is stronger, and feels truer, than when your company sells itself.”

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Chapter 02: Key Findings

One finding we definitely weren’t expecting: we asked marketers where they’re prioritising creative investments this year. And about half said “customer advocacy”.

To put that in context, it means almost as many B2B tech marketers are putting creative muscle into customer advocacy work (47%) as are prioritising product and service launches (48%). It’s more than are putting their creativity into brand building and awareness (44%).

Your customer’s voice has always been more powerful and persuasive than anything your brand might say about itself. So while case studies are nothing new, it makes sense to put creative resources into making that voice heard – especially at a time when people are feeling cynical and fatigued.

But here’s the real kicker: it’s working. Compared to respondents who focused on services and products, the marketers who made customer advocacy a creative priority were 21% more likely to report an increase in customer engagement, and 20% more likely to have a distinctive brand identity.

47% of marketers are prioritising creative investment in customer advocacy.

They were also 20% more likely to say their brand identity is distinctive.

Those who prioritise customer advocacy were 21% more likely to report improved customer engagement.