Welcome to the Deeto Hub

A resource and community space for modern marketers, sellers, and builders using customer voice to grow — together.

Learn, share, and lead with customer voice

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This hub is built for anyone who wants to do more with the voices of their customers. Whether you're scaling advocacy, building trust with proof, or rethinking how to go to market — you're in the right place.

Inside the hub, you’ll find:

  • How-to guides and playbooks for building with customer voice

  • Campaign-ready templates and swipe files

  • Benchmark reports and reference best practices

  • Event recordings, expert sessions, and community spotlights

Find the format that fits you

Grow together with the Deeto community

Ask questions. Share ideas. Trade wins.
This is your space.

You don’t have to figure this out alone. The Deeto community connects you with other leaders using customer voice to build better GTM motions, faster-growing brands, and smarter strategies. If you are interested in joining when it launches, sign up below.

How Deeto helps:

  • Automate advocacy management workflows

  • Dynamically generate customer stories and social proof

  • Eliminate manual reference management

  • Track and report advocacy impact on revenue

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Discover practical guides, templates, and tools to help your team close more deals, faster.

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Referral programs have long been known as one of the most effective strategies for acquiring high-quality leads and expanding customer networks in B2B marketing:

With the advancement of technology, platforms like Deeto have revolutionized how businesses implement and manage their referral initiatives. However, launching a successful referral program requires more than just setting it up—it demands strategic planning and execution. 

Here are six best practices for leveraging Deeto to maximize the effectiveness of your referral program:

1. Customization is Key

Customizing your referral program's landing page is crucial for making it appealing and intuitive for your customers. When utilizing Deeto, take advantage of its customization features to tailor the landing page to match your brand identity and resonate with your target audience. Ensure that the copy:

  • Provides a clear overview of the referral process
  • Mentions rewards if applicable 
  • Is relevant to your audience

By making the process familiar and transparent, you encourage greater participation and engagement from your customers.

2. Experiment with Campaigns

In Deeto, the ability to launch unlimited campaigns provides a unique opportunity to cater to diverse customer segments. Different individuals may respond to varying triggers, so leverage A/B testing to experiment with different colors, copy variations, and incentives. 

For instance, consider adjusting the initial incentive based on customer personas:

  • Different incentives for different level personas 
  • Different languages 
  • A variety of copy styles 

By tailoring campaigns to specific segments, you can optimize engagement and drive more referrals.

3. Strategic Program Placement

The frequency and visibility of your referral program play a pivotal role in its success. Integrate your program across multiple channels, ensuring it is prominently featured in:

  • Emails 
  • Newsletters 
  • Website pages
  • Social media 

Consistent exposure reinforces awareness and encourages participation. Consider including it as a footer in all outgoing communications to keep it top-of-mind for customers. The more your customers hear about the program, the more likely they are to participate, leading to increased submissions and conversions.

4. Value-driven Rewards

People are motivated by incentives, and a well-structured reward system can significantly boost engagement in your referral program. 

When determining rewards, consider the value of a qualified lead and the effort required for referral. Aim to offer rewards that demonstrate appreciation for the referral while aligning with your budget and objectives. 

For qualified leads, offering a percentage of the regular Cost Per Lead (CPL) as a reward is recommended, with the exact percentage varying based on deal size and company preferences. 

Additionally, for won opportunities, industry standards suggest offering rewards ranging from 3% to 20%, depending on the specific circumstances.

Remember - leads are never free, and referrals should be no different; Especially considering that leads that come from a referral are ~30% more likely to convert than any other lead. 

5. Timing is Everything

The timing of your referral requests can greatly impact their success. 

Approach customers for referrals when they are at their peak satisfaction—perhaps following positive feedback or a successful interaction with your product or service. 

By reaching out when customers are in a "giving" state (usually comes right after they have “received” something from you), you increase the likelihood of a favorable response. 

Timing your requests strategically ensures that customers are more receptive and likely to advocate for your brand.

6. ​​ Keep Track & Grow

It is easy to fall into the trap of setting up your referral programs and letting them go with the hope of catching something.

Don’t do that. 

Instead, use feedback and analytics to review the performance of your campaigns, and learn which ones are performing better and which ones aren’t. 

Tweak them, and improve them constantly to maximize your resources and their potential.

In conclusion, launching a successful referral program using Deeto requires a strategic approach that emphasizes customization, experimentation, strategic placement, value-driven rewards, and impeccable timing. By implementing these best practices, businesses can harness the full potential of their referral programs to drive growth, expand their customer base, and foster strong relationships with advocates. With Deeto's powerful features and these proven strategies, you can elevate your referral program to new heights of success.

Need more information? Reach out through our chat and we’ll be happy to help!

6 Referral Programs Best Practices for Success

6 Referral Programs Best Practices for Success

Discover 6 referral program best practices to boost engagement, drive growth, and get more qualified leads.

Growth
Marketing

From customer reviews to video testimonials, there are several ways to incorporate social proof into your website.

It's far and away your most valuable marketing asset. And if you aren't prioritizing it in 2024, you're behind.

Problem is, manually sourcing, curating, and uploading this content to every product, service, and feature page is time-consuming and tedious.

Deeto's dynamic social proof site widget empowers businesses to curate and showcase user-generated content directly on their websites, without the messy middle.

Social proof plays a critical role in web conversions.

B2B buyers don't immediately trust companies or sales reps, but they do trust reviews, proven results, and recommendations from their peers.

  • Glowing reviews and UGC validate your product to Google, which is why websites with testimonials average 45% more web traffic.
  • 92% of buyers are more likely to move forward once they've read a trusted review.
  • Sales pages with testimonials convert 34% more.

Not to mention, feature- and situation-specific written and video testimonials help you reinforce your product's value and differentiation strategy.

When someone reads or watches an honest testimonial, they have the opportunity to see its most important benefits through someone else's eyes.

For your current customers, it fosters authenticity and engagement.

Apart from reinforcing your brand's credibility, activating your current customers keeps them engaged with your product. They'll be more likely to remain loyal, try new features, products, and services, and refer others to your business.

When you showcase their authentic, unbiased feedback on your website, it also motivates them to keep providing valuable insights and suggestions.

Use Deeto to collect and display social proof on your website.

With Deeto, you can automate the process of collecting, curating, and displaying social proof across your web pages.

Here's an overview of the four-step process:

1. Customers join your program.

Within the Deeto platform, you can invite customers via email to leave feedback and submit reviews.

When a customer receives the invite, they'll be guided through the process of setting up their profile, setting their contribution preferences, and making their first submission.

2. They leave their feedback.

Compared to your average customer advocacy program, which has users write reviews for anything and everything, Deeto's guided flow helps you target specific aspects of your product and members of your customer base. Ask questions like, "What feature have you found most helpful in X situation?" to get detailed, situational feedback you can use to guide others through the buyer journey.

Plus, it's all personalized to the customer. Some may want to leave a video testimonial. Others would rather leave a written review than show their face to the world. Both will have the opportunity to do so with Deeto.

3. Deeto curates user-generated content using AI.

Deeto takes your authentic quotes, feedback, and video testimonials and turns them into social proof assets for your website. In seconds, you'll have a library of reviews and testimonials, specific to features and situations, that you can add to your website.

As more customers participate and your content pool grows, you'll always have access to it through the platform.

4. Deeto distributes social proof across your website.

The widget helps you source reviews, testimonials, and other UGC from within your Deeto content pool. From there, you can easily add that content to different landing pages (or change it) based on their context and target audience. 

Every social proof widget is beautifully designed, featuring customer headshots and snippets of their feedback. 

The best part is, Deeto easily integrates with your website. It matches your brand and displays seamlessly alongside your existing content, without anyone having to write a single line of code.

The result: Your site visitors see timely, relevant social proof that speaks directly to their needs, pain points, and use cases, helping to build trust and drive conversions.

Request a demo to see the social proof widget in action.

Dynamically Display Social Proof with Deeto's AI-Powered Website Widget

Dynamically Display Social Proof with Deeto's AI-Powered Website Widget

Deeto's dynamic social proof site widget empowers businesses to curate and showcase user-generated content directly

Content
Growth

When was the last time you took a good, hard look at how your business operates?

Whether you've added new team members, expanded your product line, or shifted your target audience, a lot has probably changed (even from this time just a year ago).

Some changes are obvious, like a shift in employee culture or the launch of a new marketing campaign.

But the processes running them in the background? Broader shifts in buying behavior? Not so much...

That's why you take the concept of spring cleaning from home to your business.

What we mean by "spring cleaning":

The concept of spring cleaning is simple: out with the old, in with the new. 

Specifically, that means refreshing your approaches to marketing, customer engagement, and internal processes to better align with current trends and achieve your business goals.

The process involves:

  • Evaluating your current approach in those departments
  • Identifying what's working and what needs improvement
  • Implementing changes to become more efficient, eliminate excessive costs, and make room for new ideas and strategies

5 steps to spring cleaning your business

The good news is, auditing your business processes and strategies isn't as overwhelming as it sounds.

Let's dive in.

1. Evaluate your mix of organic vs. paid marketing.

Newer businesses tend to invest in paid ads because they're easy to track, right next to the money, and deliver immediate results. While there's rarely a reason to axe them altogether, it's important to periodically reevaluate your mix of organic vs. paid marketing.

What are your CPL and CAC for each channel? Compare these costs to the return they generate, then clear out the strategies with a low yield and high cost.

With your leftover budget, invest in organic activities like social media, content marketing, and referral campaigns.

2. Look at your current methods of customer activation.

When it comes to organic marketing, your current customers play a critical role. Their advocacy helps you market to and close new customers. And their feedback guides your product roadmap.

But how much effort does nurturing and engaging with them require? A few signs you need to simplify the process:

  • Case studies cost thousands to produce and take months to publish.
  • You're exhausting the same three customers for referrals and references.
  • Only a select few customers participate, and they require manual attention.

Deeto cleans up this mess by creating an ecosystem of customer feedback and advocacy. Customers onboard themselves, indicate their availability and contribution preferences, and your team can auto-pilot customer-generated content and feedback.

3. Assess your website interface and performance.

As you change your marketing and brand messaging, add new content to your site, and make updates to your products, ICP, and value prop, it's important to double-check whether your site reflects your current goals and strategy.

There are two main areas you’ll want to focus on: 

  • Fine-tuning brand messaging. Do your website design and content address customers’ pain points and reasons to buy?
  • AB testing to increase conversions. Small design changes, like updating a headline or changing the color of a CTA button, can have a big impact.

You probably don't need a massive overhaul, either. There are a few easy fixes you can make to up your conversions and improve your UX. 

Take social proof, for instance. Websites with testimonials receive 45% more traffic, and adding customer logos to your homepage can boost its conversion rate by up to 400%.

4. Closely examine your customer experience and buying experience.

Customers are simple. Whether they're making a purchase decision or are already a customer, they want three things: personalization, communication, and convenience.

You need to consider how your sales, marketing, and customer success operations contribute to or detract from that.

  • For sales efficiency, eliminate unnecessary friction (e.g., approvals, multiple contacts) and make it easy for new customers to sign up and make changes to their accounts. Internally, give sales teams the tools they need to be successful (e.g., prospect-reference smart-matching for social proof and customer advocacy).
  • Your marketing team should consider how effective their content is at buyer enablement. Do your web pages and articles give customers the information they need to evaluate your product? Are you providing timely and relevant content to customers at different stages of the buying journey?
  • The CS team needs to look at how compelling their customer engagement strategy is. Participating in your advocacy program should be as guided and self-driven as posting an Instagram story. Engaged customers who want to test new products and features should be able to take part in that beta process without going through multiple channels just to receive an NDA.

5. Consider your tech stack.

Just like you'd periodically go through your personal subscriptions, you should review your technology stack. Most companies use dozens of SaaS apps, which fragment and bloat their internal processes.

Nowadays, more companies offer one-stop-shop platforms for your marketing, sales, or customer success activities. Opting for all-in-one tools means your team can manage multiple tasks without having to jump from place to place, and you can access all your data from the same dashboard.

Deeto cleans the messy middle of customer activation. Use it to manage advocacy, user-generated content, referral marketing, and feedback in one place. Request a demo to see how it works.

Spring Cleaning Your Business in 5 Simple Steps

Spring Cleaning Your Business in 5 Simple Steps

When was the last time you took a good, hard look at how your business operates?

Growth
Business development
BizDev
Strategy
New business

In Q1, you probably focused on acquiring new customers and setting the foundation for a successful year. 

So, by April, you've got a pipeline full of new opportunities, and your outbound team is hustling to bring more in. 

You’re also in a time crunch — you need to get the ball rolling before decision-makers take summer vacations and companies spend their budgets elsewhere.

In other words, Q2 is all about momentum.

To accelerate the already-spinning wheel, you have two things on the to-do list:

  • Get those open deals from Q1 across the finish line
  • Steadily bring more leads into the pipeline

There's one group that can help you in both of those areas: your existing customers.

Existing customer relationships support revenue growth in more ways than one.

Buyers don't immediately trust salespeople. 92% of them trust referrals from people they know over your company's marketing content. 75% prefer not to interact with reps at all, which creates a huge barrier for new business.

Plus, everyone wants social proof. According to research from Gartner, three-quarters of today's B2B buyers look at at least three forms of advocacy before making a purchase decision.

By delivering the best possible experience, engaging customers through advocacy and product/feature testing, and turning their feedback into your strongest marketing asset, you're building a legion of brand champions who will bring you new customers for years. Since they also validate your product, new leads that fit your ICP become more likely to convert.

Advocacy is especially a competitive advantage when business is slow.

Maybe your 3 best reps are on vacay for 2 weeks. Maybe your highest-value prospect just paused their decision-making process. Maybe your latest campaign was a flop.

Things happen.

There are two ways having an advocacy program hedges you against slow business:

  • It provides a level of consistency when you don't have any (within your control). Plus, referral leads convert at a 30% higher rate on average.
  • It's a continuous source of reviews, referrals, case studies, quotes, and other materials that support sales and marketing. By integrating customer-generated content into the sales process, you'll build trust faster, and gain the edge in decision-makers' minds.

The stakes are higher when you have fewer deals in the pipeline. During those periods, a higher conversion rate and shorter sales cycle are particularly important.

How can you make the most out of your customer base?

There are three bases you have to cover:

  • Foster loyalty
  • Refine products or services 
  • Drive new sales
  • Encourage upsells and cross-sells

Let's dive into strategies for each. 

Foster loyalty with a customer advocacy program.

One of the best ways to reinforce customer loyalty is to engage them through advocacy. Here are a few program components you can consider: 

  • Exclusive events for advocates
  • VIP access to beta releases and product roadmap discussions
  • Monetary rewards for referrals, references, etc.
  • UGC features throughout your web and social media content

A well-designed customer advocacy program has to be (a) flexible for each customer, (b) easy to participate in, and (c) value-adding for the participant. Some customers are happy to hop on reference calls, others are more into product testing, and a few will just want to leave a quick testimonial.

You need to make it simple for them to participate in your program by providing them with an easy way to submit feedback, reviews, referrals, and other content.

Leverage customer feedback to refine products and services.

Activating your customers goes beyond advocacy. Your ability to retain them and future-proof your business also depends on how well you implement their feedback.

  • What do customers love about your product?
  • What do they find frustrating?
  • What do they want to use it for, but can't?

By proactively seeking this information, you'll identify and fill these gaps before they cause a retention issue. And your sales team can sell new customers on these features.

Here are a few ways to gather feedback:

  • Customer surveys (e.g. NPS)
  • Social listening
  • User testing
  • Direct customer communication (e.g. emails, calls)
  • Feedback forms on your website/product

Drive new sales through personalized UGC and customer references.

Of all the ways to accelerate the sales cycle with your current customers, this is by far the best. And with Deeto's smart-matching feature, it's remarkably simple.

Deeto's smart-matching algorithm shows your sales reps which of your existing customers have similar use cases to the deals they're currently working on, plus all the content they've left in the system.

Reps can then select the most appropriate references and content to showcase, which results in more relevant social proof, reference calls, sales demos, and proof of concepts.

Encourage upsells and cross-sells by offering personalized solutions.

There are dozens of ways to personalize the customer experience. That's a topic that spans just about every facet of your business strategy.

In the context of your current customers, one of the best ways to expand your accounts is to market to them as soon as you implement feedback they've left about your product.

Let's say you're a CRM software vendor, and 100 customers have mentioned they want a plugin tool to help them automate their email marketing.

After determining there's a market for it and it makes sense to include it in your product suite, those 100 people should be the first to know. Your CS team can send them personalized messaging, letting them know you specifically listened to their feedback.

Some of those customers might buy it on the spot.

You have to use your customers in a way that empowers them and your business.

There are a few reasons companies struggle to accomplish this:

  • A poorly structured approach to customer engagement
  • Too little flexibility for each customer's contribution preferences
  • An uninteresting or unrewarding experience for customers

And all these things stem from a lack of technology to manage advocacy activities and resources. With Deeto, it's simple:

  1. Customers receive a unique link to join your program.
  2. They join the platform by submitting content and setting their preferences.
  3. Deeto's generative AI repurposes the content into case studies, testimonials, quotes, and more.
  4. Sales reps can use the content to speed up their deals.

It's easier than making an Insta post. Request a demo to see how it works.

Using Your Existing Customers to Flourish in Q2

Using Your Existing Customers to Flourish in Q2

In Q1, you probably focused on acquiring new customers and setting the foundation for a successful year.

Growth
Customer Advocacy
Marketing

You probably measure customer activation in terms of how many people successfully complete the onboarding process or reach a certain level of engagement.

We aren't saying you shouldn't know your time to value or adoption rates. But truth is, that's a tiny step in the grand scheme of things.

Long term, you need customers who propel your business forward. People who...

  • Stick with you
  • Expand their product/service use
  • Advocate for your brand
  • Refer others
  • Test new products and features
  • Speak at webinars and events

In actuality, "activating" your customers is more about engaging them over time and solidifying a relationship. Jumping through hoops during onboarding is definitely the first step, but it's more about creating an experience that encourages long-term loyalty.

Let's dive into what it takes to accomplish that.

1. Start with a streamlined onboarding process.

You can't even think about advocacy or expansion if you can't retain your customer base. And retention starts with onboarding.

The level of involvement you'll need in customer onboarding largely depends on the market you're selling into. Enterprise customers will, of course, need a lot more handholding than SMBs that deploy your solution only across a small team.

The basics:

  • Create an onboarding checklist that visually maps out the process.
  • Use videos, screenshots, and how-to's to make it easy for customers to understand.
  • Offer templates or default settings, so getting started is painless for customers.
  • Create in-app guidance to welcome customers, highlight key features, and prompt them to take action.

86% of customers say they're more likely to stay loyal to a business that offers educational onboarding content. And before you engage customers in other facets of your business, like advocacy and testing, you have to get them excited about and continuously using your product.

2. Invite all your customers to join your community.

Most companies get it wrong when it comes to choosing customers for customer activation programs. They pick a small group with whom they already have personal relationships or who show the highest CLV or engagement levels.

If you do this, you're leaving out tons of customers who would otherwise participate and grow their relationships with your brand.

  • 91% of customers are willing to give you a referral.
  • Two-thirds would gladly leave a positive review.
  • Almost all of them would give you private feedback on how to improve your product.
  • More than you think would test new products and features.

Very few (if any) will participate in all of these activities. And some of your best participants won't be who you expect. That's why you need to invite everyone to join you and let each of them choose how they contribute.

3. Make the advocacy process seamless for all customers.

If you're having trouble getting customers to participate at scale, 99% chance "you're making it too hard" is the reason.

If you want to turn customers into brand advocates, your program needs three things:

  • Easy sign-up. If your users can't sign up and select how they'd like to participate through a simple, clickable interface, you've lost them. You need a one-shot process that's as simple as posting on TikTok.
  • Personalized engagement with no intermediary. A huge reason why customer marketing struggles to scale is the constant need for someone from your CS team to manage it. Remove the intermediary with a self-service program that guides and motivates customers and gives them contribution opportunities based on their preferences.
  • Instant gratification. The average attention span is 8.25 seconds. If you're forcing customers to wait days or weeks for a response, they've lost interest. They should be able to track their progress, see how they compare to others, and get cash rewards within the same session.

This sounds intimidating, but it's actually pretty easy to set up. With Deeto, customers onboard themselves and choose their contribution preferences. From there, they’re able to create a variety of content — quotes, reviews, testimonials, and even case studies — with the help of AI. And they can track their contributions’ impact and receive corresponding rewards, all in one place.

4. Engage customers through your marketing collateral.

Sure, they'll be happy to write reviews, provide reference calls, and test new products. But you can't always ask for favors.

While advocacy and providing hands-on feedback are the best ways to create a highly engaged customer base, you also have to communicate with them in ways that add value to them.

  • Your customer newsletter (bonus if you create a separate monthly one for advocates)
  • A community forum where customers can connect with other users, ask questions, and get exclusive updates
  • Exclusive access to new products, beta programs, and discounts
  • Webinars and events where customers can learn from your team and influence product development

You should also involve them in some of your marketing campaigns through user-generated content.  When customers talk about or showcase their experience with your product, using it in your social media and web content will reinforce their relationship with your brand.

5. Use customer activation to fuel new customer acquisition.

Practically every lead in your pipeline will want to see some form of social proof before signing the dotted line. Your customers can help you here in real time through reference calls, but your reps can also use content like case studies, reviews, and user-generated videos in their sales conversations. With smart matching, they’ll see 

Your customers can help you here in real time through reference calls, but your reps can also use case studies, reviews, and user-generated videos in their sales conversations. With Deeto's smart matching feature, they’ll automatically see the most relevant content based on a lead's profile, interests, and stage in the buyer's journey.

You can run your whole customer activation program with Deeto. Request a demo to see how.

Deeto’s Guide to Launching a Client Activation Program

Deeto’s Guide to Launching a Client Activation Program

Learn how to build a client activation program that turns happy customers into powerful growth drivers.

Customer Advocacy
Growth
Strategy

Perhaps it goes without saying: the success of your customer activation program hinges on the types of customers who participate (and the quality of their feedback).

You want advocates who are:

  • Passionate about your brand
  • Knowledgeable about your products
  • Engaging and influential within your target market

But you also need their content to be authentic, relevant, and valuable for potential customers.

And that's where things get a little more challenging.

Most companies do customer activation backwards.

Since there's so much pressure around the questions of "Who would best represent our brand?" and "How can we get them to produce content?" most companies prioritize the recruitment of advocates over creating opportunities for them to contribute.

  • They pick out their most satisfied customers (or those who fit a specific mold) and ask them directly to participate in the program.
  • They create incentives like discounts and free products to entice them to provide feedback.

Sure, this approach nets you a handful of advocates. But it neglects the larger purpose of a customer activation program: to build trust and credibility in your brand through authentic voices.

Filtering out initial invites lowers your chances of building strong relationships with your customer base. And it's based on pre-made assumptions.

There's a better way to find advocates.

Instead of spending so much time in the beginning picking the "right" customers, open your advocacy program to everyone in your customer base.

This means providing all of them with the opportunity to contribute, in a streamlined process that doesn't require too much time and effort.

  1. Invite them to join your program.
  2. Onboard them in your customer activation software.
  3. Set up a system that allows all of your customers to contribute according to their preferences.

This way, they can create content (think: reviews, testimonials, and even case studies) unique to their own experiences. Then, you can decide which of that content is relevant to different sales and marketing initiatives.

With this approach, you're avoiding the time-consuming process of hand-picking advocates. You're also establishing a more authentic and diverse representation of your customer base. And you're encouraging more customers to spread positive word-of-mouth about your brand.

Plus, the feedback you'll get from casting a wider net of customers will give you insights into their pain points and preferences. This can help you improve your products and services and, in turn, attract/retain more customers.

How to select the best advocates and content.

"Don't jump the gun by filtering out customers in the beginning."

That's a bit vague. How can you tell which advocates and content are the "best" for your brand?

Let's dive in.

1. Set up your customer activation platform.

The only way you'll be able to gather the content you need is through a streamlined, automated system.

With a platform like Deeto, you can:

  • Onboard new users through a simple, mobile-friendly interface.
  • Ask for feedback in a centralized location, making it easy to track and manage the content.
  • Auto-generate optimized case studies and other content types based on user inputs using Deeto's generative AI.

For your customers, the workflow is intuitive and fast. For you, the data is easy to access, and the content is optimized for your sales and marketing initiatives.

2. Let your customers choose how they contribute.

There are several different types of social proof. Some customers will be more comfortable with certain types of content over others. For example, some may prefer to write a review while others may want to participate in an interview.

Make sure you have options for customers to choose from, such as:

  • Writing a review on third-party platforms like G2
  • Providing feedback through surveys or questionnaires
  • Participating in case studies or reference calls

By tailoring your advocacy program to the individual customer, you're opening up the possibility for all types of social proof to emerge.

3. Incorporate different types of content into your marketing strategy.

Now that you have a variety of content at your disposal, the question remains: What can you do with it?

Really, the use cases are endless.

  • Incorporate customer testimonials into your website and landing pages (with Deeto, you can display dynamic content personalized to the visitor).
  • Use case studies in your sales pitches and email campaigns.
  • Reinforce your argument in an article with a customer quote.
  • Feature customers in your social media posts.

You can also use customer feedback to inform future marketing and product development initiatives. Let's say you get quite a few comments about a feature customers wish you offered. You can use that feedback as a starting point for product development, then update your advocates and the rest of your customer base once you implement it.

4. Match content and customers with prospects in your pipeline.

Since it translates so well to web and social content, companies tend to see customer activation content as a marketing-only tool.

Really, there are several ways it drives B2B sales.

When you integrate Deeto with your CRM, you can use its smart-matching capabilities to connect specific content to individual prospects in your pipeline.

That way, you can personalize your outreach and give potential customers content that actually matters to their use case. And you can find the perfect customer reference for every prospect without having to do any manual digging.

Final thoughts

Cherry-picking a few advocates for your program sounds like a good approach. It's only natural to think that the more "ideal" customers you feature, the better your brand will look.

In reality, that's not the most efficient or effective way to build brand trust and drive sales. By opening up your program to all of your customers and using customer activation software, you can create a more diverse representation of your customer base.

Request a demo with Deeto to see how your customers’ voices fit into your overall marketing and sales strategy.

How to Choose the Right Customers for Activation Success

How to Choose the Right Customers for Activation Success

Master customer activation by choosing the right advocates to boost engagement, trust, and conversions.

Business development
Growth
Customer Advocacy

Without enough UGC, you'll never have an active, engaged community. And you won't have coverage for all the topics, features, and use cases that matter to your prospects.

If the content you do have isn't good, though, the amount of it won't make a difference.

In truth, you need both. A solid UGC strategy balances high-quality content with a steady stream of contributions.

In today's article, I'll walk you through how to strike that balance.

What is user-generated content?

User-generated content (UGC) is any type of content created by your customers for your brand. In the B2B space, it includes:

  • Reviews
  • Video/written testimonials
  • Social media posts
  • Podcasts
  • Collaborative webinars
  • Forums and discussion boards
  • Videos and images shared on social media or other platforms

Anything a customer creates and shares that references your brand counts as user-generated content.

UGC is social proof. You'll use it in your web content, email campaigns, and social media collateral to show prospects the value your product or service delivers. You can even integrate it into your sales cycle by sharing reviews and testimonials with leads to help them make a buying decision.

What is "quality" UGC?

In a B2B context, high-quality customer-generated content meets three criteria:

  1. It's relevant to your specific ICP or stage in the buyer's journey. 
  2. It highlights a specific benefit or aspect of your product/service you want to emphasize.
  3. It's authentic.

As an example, if you're trying to win over healthcare companies, reviews from retail businesses won't carry much weight. And if your sales rep wants to win over a technical buyer, a case study about your product's ROI (that says nothing about integration or security) won't be a good fit.

The content you do share with customers doesn't have to be polished marketing copy. But it should be coherent and easy to understand.

And it should explicitly showcase the value of your offering through feature mentions, statistics, and tangible benefits (e.g., "Since using Product X, we've seen a 25% increase in production efficiency").

Content volume matters, too.

92% of B2B buyers say they're more likely to make a purchase decision after reading a trusted review. But G2 found that almost two-thirds of them want to see 11-50 reviews before they feel confident.

This is just one simple example of how higher volumes of user-generated content do a better job of nurturing leads through the sales funnel.

But reviews are just one type of UGC. For every deal, you're working with...

  • One of your multiple ICPs
  • Dozens of sales and marketing touchpoints
  • 5+ decision-makers (with different interests and concerns)
  • Long sales cycles with multiple phases

You need different types of UGC to support these touchpoints (and personalize them).

One case study won't relate to 10 different prospects. So, without enough content, you simply won't have adequate coverage.

It's also worth mentioning that the bigger your existing UGC repository, the more confident new customers will be about adding to it.  When they see lots of other people contributing, it'll feel more like a community than a one-off gesture.

So, what's the solution?

As is true with any kind of marketing, thinking only in terms of "quantity" is quite limiting. Instead of asking yourself, "Are we garnering enough user-generated content?" ask, "What are we getting out of the content we are creating?"

Think about:

  • Who you're targeting (your ICPs)
  • Your sales cycle and funnel
  • Common pain points, objections, and FAQs that arise during the sales process
  • What else you can get out of content (e.g., feedback that helps your product roadmap)

Then, get creative. You can maximize the amount and quality of UGC you have by:

  • Creating customer-specific templates
  • Asking for video testimonials in addition to written ones
  • Building an incentive-based referral program
  • Hosting webinars and Q&A sessions with customers
  • Adding real value to your users in exchange for participation (a financial incentive system)

While you need quality, you can't afford to move slowly. Good news is, you don't have to — spending weeks on finding the “right” customer, interviewing, hiring copywriters and editors, etc., is a waste of time.

A platform like Deeto makes sourcing and managing UGC easy and cost-effective. Customers onboard themselves, choose their contribution preferences, and create content in minutes. Deeto's generative AI turns their feedback into usable case studies and dynamic web content. And smart-matching functionality connects your reps with relevant content for each sales conversation.

Request a demo to see how it can activate your customers, increase UGC volume and quality, and help you win more business.

Quality vs. Quantity in B2B UGC: What Matters Most?

Quality vs. Quantity in B2B UGC: What Matters Most?

Boost B2B trust & conversions: Balance UGC quality & quantity. Strategies for authentic content. Learn more.

Content
Marketing
Growth

Word-of-mouth: your most powerful (and important) marketing asset. Also, the most difficult one to manage cohesively.

Customer advocacy platforms are designed to help you encourage and manage customer reviews, referrals, testimonials and other forms of user-generated content at scale. If you have a good one, it can bring the power of social proof to you in ways you never thought possible.

But with several options each with somewhat different feature sets, how do you choose the right tool for your business?

Three reasons stick out as to why Deeto is the obvious choice here.

With Deeto, you can take an advocate-first approach.

There are plenty of reasons companies struggle to turn their customers into brand advocates. Maybe your advocacy program...

  • lacks structure
  • is too frustrating to join and contribute to
  • isn't compelling enough to participate in
  • only captures a limited pool of customers
  • fails to emphasize their value and impact

All these potential pitfalls have one thing in common: they're direct results of putting the advocate last.

Most programs focus on (a) customers' contributions and (b) how they can help promote the brand. Little thought goes into what participants get out of the exchange or how easy it is to advocate.

You aren't to blame, though. If you're still handling communication through email and spreadsheets, it's impossible to keep the customer as your primary focus.

We designed Deeto to help you take the exact opposite approach.

Deeto's platform is both business- and customer-facing, meaning customers can onboard themselves. They define their own contribution preferences, input feedback, and Deeto's automated scheduling, smart-matching, and content generation capabilities take care of the rest. As they make contributions, they can track their impact and earn rewards.

It's an all-around more engaging experience. And it's one with far less friction.

It can help you personalize your advocacy efforts.

From personalizing your own onboarding to imprinting your brand on user-generated content, Deeto gives you the ability to make your advocacy program truly yours.

  • Create an onboarding experience that's compelling and tailored to your brand
  • Establish different contribution paths based on a customer's preferences and history with you
  • Allow for customer input and feedback to make the program more collaborative
  • Design your own rewards system that motivates customers to stay engaged and contribute more
  • Customize the look and feel of your user-generated content to align with your brand's aesthetic

Deeto's intelligent matching capabilities can also personalize which advocates are connected with which prospects. Your sales team can quickly get the right references in front of their prospects, increasing your chances of closing that sale.

At the same time, the platform's dynamic web content personalization feature helps you accelerate your sales cycle. It allows you to showcase the most relevant customer reviews and testimonials based on a visitor's interests, use cases, and behavior.

Aside from being a clear win for you, that level of personalization maximizes the impact of your customers' advocacy contributions. When advocates see their input actually drives business results, it reinforces their value and encourages them to stay active.

Deeto is an end-to-end customer advocacy solution.

There are lots of ways your customers can advocate for you — referrals, reviews, written/video testimonials, case studies, reference calls, and more.

There are also countless ways your sales and marketing teams can use these contributions. And at different points in the sales cycle, buyers' priorities shift, calling for different types of social proof.

Before Deeto, you probably had to use different tools for each one. With Deeto:

  • Generative AI curates case studies and testimonials from customer feedback
  • Smart-matching connects customers with prospects who were in their exact position just months earlier
  • In-app scheduling eliminates the middleman when coordinating reference calls
  • Web integration publishes unique, dynamic content to match changing pages
  • Rewards management makes it easy to administer points and perks for customer contributions
  • Customized dashboards track which customers are contributing, how much they contribute, and which campaigns bring the most value

And the icing on the cake: Intelligent suggestions help your sales team use customer-generated content in sales conversations in the most effective, targeted ways possible.

Request a demo to see how it works.

Why Deeto? 3 Reasons it's the Clear-Cut Winner for Customer Advocacy

Why Deeto? 3 Reasons it's the Clear-Cut Winner for Customer Advocacy

Word-of-mouth: your most powerful (and important) marketing asset. Also, the most difficult one to manage cohesively.

Marketing
Growth

In 2024, social proof is the most valuable marketing currency.

The overwhelming majority of today's buyers look for reviews, testimonials, case studies, and other forms of customer-generated content before they even consider a purchase. Or, they consider a vendor their friend referred them to.

Why? Authenticity.

When someone vouches for your brand, they're doing it by choice. And that does heaps more for your credibility than any ad campaign.

So...how do you get more of your customers to be advocates? How can you turn as many positive experiences into recommendations and referrals as possible?

You have to build a customer advocacy program.

Most customer advocacy programs struggle to scale.

There are plenty of reasons for this, but they all boil down to a few common denominators.

  • Spreadsheet- and email-based management is exhausting and messy. You might pull it off if all you're doing is a few case studies and testimonial quotes per quarter. But if you want to create a true advocacy engine that drives potential customers through every stage of the funnel, forget it.
  • Nobody wants to join a messy process. Your customers aren't going to jump through hoops to sing your praises. And your CS team will be pulling their hair out trying to keep track of who's doing what, who's getting rewards, and why.
  • Frankly, it looks bad. Customers rarely know what kind of content they should be creating. Plus, they're all different. Reeling them into a program that lacks structure and direction comes across as lazy and unprofessional. Not flattering.

The bottom line: you're limiting your own potential by making it too hard both for you and for your customers.

You can't afford not to have an advocacy program.

Despite the challenges of building a successful customer advocacy program, it's absolutely worth it. Social proof can increase web conversions by 270% and nearly 9 in 10 B2B decision-makers say they use it before investing in new products.

Plus...

  • It makes you more credible.
  • It's cost-effective (especially compared to paid ads).
  • Participating in advocacy makes your current customers more loyal and engaged.
  • You can repurpose user-generated content and reviews across all your sales and marketing channels.
  • The feedback you get helps you improve your products and services.

A win-win. But you have to do it right.

What does a successful advocacy program look like in 2024?

The modern customer demands a frictionless experience and remarkable personalization. When it comes to your advocacy process, they expect the same — streamlined, engaging, and satisfying.

Here's what you need:

A reason for being that goes beyond closing deals

Sure, you want more sales. But true advocacy starts with thoughtful communication. You should strive to create an engaged community that advocates for your brand not because they have something to gain, but because they truly believe in you.

A one-stop shop for program management

We mentioned the nightmare of managing everything manually via spreadsheet and email. It's also worth mentioning software won't help you much either if your processes operate in silos.

  • Onboarding customers to the program
  • Setting and managing customers' contribution preferences
  • Creating and distributing content
  • Tracking and administering rewards

...should all happen under one roof. And needs to be self-service, so there's no need for extensive back-and-forth dialogue with your customers.

Automation tools

Artificial intelligence and process automation are the game-changers in customer advocacy today.

Use a platform like Deeto to:

  • Automatically curate and distribute content based on customer input and feedback
  • Source, track, and organize user-generated content
  • Smart-match advocates with deals in your pipeline
  • Track and assign rewards and incentives
  • Display dynamic, personalized content on your website and landing pages
  • Integrate your data to quantify advocacy impact and ROI

Refined focus on the customer experience

With the right tools in your corner, it's a whole lot easier to personalize at scale and make your program a joy to participate in.

But remember, the whole point of advocacy is building relationships. Although it's a software-enabled process, you still need to make it authentic and human.

That means:

  • Training your sales team to use advocacy content in the sales process
  • Recognizing your advocates through social media, email, and other channels
  • Offering more than just rewards (think: early access to product updates, exclusive events)
  • Asking customers for feedback and taking it seriously

Deeto makes it easy to do all these things and more. If you want to learn how to build a frictionless, authentic customer advocacy program that amplifies your brand and helps you build stronger relationships with your customers, request a demo today.

The Future of Customer Advocacy is Here

The Future of Customer Advocacy is Here

In 2024, social proof is the most valuable marketing currency.

Customer Advocacy
Growth
Content

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