“Engagement is conversation; advocacy is conviction.” Corinne Sklar, Global CMO of Bluewolf, and Jim Williams, VP of Marketing of Influitive, kicked off today’s Dreamforce session with this quote about the importance of advocacy on a company’s business outcomes.

Building a community of brand advocates is one of the best ways to drive growth and scale your brand. Today, advocacy leaders are industry leaders. Only 1 in 10 companies achieve sustainable, profitable growth — but those who do report 2X the measure of customer advocacy. Advocates are 5X more valuable than the average customer.

But where do advocates come from? To build a community of customer advocates — for example, clients who provide feedback, refer your business to others, or co-market a campaign with you — you must start with optimizing the employee experience. Create a culture that encourages your employees to become advocates. A great employee experience drives a great customer experience; from a great customer experience, companies can create and deliver a great advocate experience.

One of the key trends from this year’s The State of Salesforce Report is all about the employee experience: a third of companies are focused on an employee-facing initiative as a top initiative of 2016. Building a better employee experience is the first step to fostering a community of employee advocates for your brand.

At Bluewolf, we gamified internal collaboration with a program we call PRIME. To encourage collaboration across all departments, throughout all of our global offices, we offer points for “engaged” behaviors — the more engaging the action, the more points you get. For example, writing a blog gets you some points, but writing a blog that gets 300 page views and creates heightened social buzz gets you even more points. We celebrate employees who live Bluewolf’s values, for happier employees deliver better customer moments.

From employee advocacy comes customer advocacy. Our customer advocates are called Bluewolf Champions. It is a tiered program customized to our client’s function, role, and industry, offering personalized incentives and rewards for engaging in the community. It has evolved into a community of thought leadership, where Bluewolf can not only engage more personally with our clients, but where clients can also connect with other Champions.  

If you’re looking to build a customer advocacy program at your organization, here are three best practices for success:

1. Tie advocacy to measurable business objectives. Know what you want to get out of the program. Help clients answer the question, “How can I help your brand most?”
2. Obsess about customer advocate experience. Make sure it is easy to engage, and most importantly, make sure the customer is getting value from it. From building social connections to contributing to thought leadership, always ask yourself: What does the advocate want?
3. Start small, then scale up. For most companies, advocacy programs are the focus of a single department — and that’s a great start. As programs grow, integrate them into every initiative and campaign; then implement them across the organization so sales, service, and marketing all have a role in building a community of customer advocates.

To learn more about Bluewolf Champions, connect with us today. To get the full scoop on how the best companies use Salesforce, download The State of Salesforce Report or register for our webcast to hear six Bluewolf experts discuss key trends from the report.