MarketStar Blog

If you’re in Marketing—and you’ve been paying attention—you’ll have heard of Account-Based Marketing, or ABM. If you’re not already doing it, you may wonder why it’s getting so much attention. Fortunately, understanding ABM is simple, and implementing it can be the key to increased, ongoing revenue for your company. 

In today's digital age, content marketing has become a vital tool for marketers. It's not just about creating content; it's about crafting messages that resonate with your audience and drive meaningful engagement. According to a study by Knowledge Storm, personalization by industry can improve a content piece’s effectiveness by a staggering 82%. This shows the importance of knowing your audience and tailoring your content to their needs.  

Key Insights

Perhaps a decade ago, organizations would typically use outsourcing to improve back-office operations through cost cutting and performance improvement. However, the situation has completely transformed and evolved in today’s rapidly changing business landscape.

Key Insights

• The world is going digital. And outsourcing solutions are no longer just a quick fix to achieve cost reduction 

• Global outsourcing is changing the game plan, ensuring that work happens at a place that does it best 

• Such an approach ensures flexibility in decision-making and operations 

• Businesses benefit by not getting locked into outdated or static processes but can change and evolve to meet new growth challenges

• It’s a common assumption that outsourcing is a new phenomenon. This is far from the truth

Outsourcing dates back to the 1970s when manufacturing companies seeking process efficiency began hiring third-party vendors to manage their less-than-essential processes. This approach made its way to IT operations and entire back-office operations, including human resources, payroll, and accounting. 

Outsourcing is at a crossroads today. 

Businesses no longer outsource only vertical business units. Companies are seeking strategic advantages based on outsourcing alliances, operational efficiency being the driving force behind this. 

With the disruptions brought about by the pandemic, virtual outsourcing solutions have become a competitive, strategic marketplace tool, allowing companies to improve response times and develop new products faster than ever. 

Once focused just on reducing expenses, today’s outsourcing initiatives are likely to help companies do things they previously could not do. 

The Rise of Global Outsourcing

On the verge of disruptive outsourcing and Robotic Process Automation (RPA), companies are turning to virtual outsourcing solutions. The prominence of titles like “Chief Globalization Officer” and “Strategic Services Manager” clearly highlights this shift. 

Work from home outsourcing takes a long-term holistic view of the client enterprise and aligns its business goals to the outsourced service offerings, in contrast to tactical short-term contracts that take a piecemeal project-by-project approach. 

Global outsourcing and virtual outsourcing solutions allow companies to find partners from any part of the world to execute some (or even all) of their work for either financial or operational reasons or both. 

Global outsourcing solutions are quickly becoming the norm, and it brings numerous benefits: 

1. Scalability

Lack of funds to invest in additional resources is a big reason hindering business growth for many organizations.

Additionally, businesses often don’t dedicate the time required to recruit a new employee to leverage potential growth opportunities. This is where global outsourcing providers can have your outsourced team set up in as little as six to eight weeks.

That way, you will be able to free up funds that can be used to reinvest back into the growth of your business.

With the additional support of a globally outsourced team, your team is free to take up more tasks. You also get the ability to scale up or down quickly.

A study by Clutch found that almost 24% of small businesses seek global outsourcing services to improve their work efficiency. 

2. Cost Efficiency

Virtual outsourcing solutions and global outsourcing can help you in cost savings by having day-to-day tasks completed in a lower-cost economy. 

A popular model is the “managed operations” model. 

In this, a third-party provider takes care of several processes, ranging from recruitment, human resources, payroll tax, to overall management supervision. Apart from the engagement costs in such an approach, you only need to sacrifice time to train new offshore employees. 

3. Cybersecurity

Digital transformation has become a fast-evolving trend, amid the widespread disruptions brought about by the pandemic. The need for cybersecurity has never been greater. 

The IT Trends Report by Syntax highlights that 83% of leading IT organizations are considering partnering with global outsourcing services to handle any digital threats that may come along with this unexpected shift.

3 Hard-to-Ignore Trends That Will Dominate the Global Outsourcing Space

According to statistics by Grand View Research, it will reach $405.6 billion by 2027. India and China are already leading the outsourcing bandwagon, followed by Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, and the Philippines. 

Similarly, new sectors–such as health care and fintech–are predicted to invest heavily in outsourcing in the coming years, along with IT which continues to remain the No. 1 sector. 

Keeping these in mind, let’s look at the top trends for the virtual outsourcing and global outsourcing landscape in 2022: 

1. Quality & Innovation 

Rather than pricing, quality and innovation will be the top consideration for remote working solutions. Until a few years back, cost-cutting and the availability of cheaper offshore solutions drove outsourcing. 

But the trend is changing since companies are not just outsourcing non-core activities but tasks that demand quality. 

2. Tremendous Growth

The global outsourcing industry is set to grow in the coming years. 

A report by GSA-UK highlights that 70% of buyers surveyed expect to increase their use of outsourcing, with 35% planning to do so significantly. 

There is a strong belief that outsourcing is set to become more popular as a business practice over the next five years

3. Stringent Data Laws

With the world going digital, data protection laws and cyber insurance will be increasingly enforced. 

Global businesses, industries, and countries are focusing on setting up stricter measures in their own capacities to curb cybercrime. 

While data security was always prioritized for the outsourcing industry, the coming years will see greater enforcement in the form of better compliance with the laws of client-residing countries. Cyber insurance is one of its facets, a sector that is projected to grow to $20.4 billion by 2025. 

Towards a Brighter Future

From CEOs to local staff to consumers, global outsourcing, when done right, benefits everyone involved. 

Organizations increase their efficiencies while having the flexibility to scale and grow – allowing many to invest in other business areas. 

In the fast-moving, competitive world, it’s critical to make sure that you are not left behind. If you decide to incorporate virtual outsourcing or global outsourcing solutions, ensure that you partner with experienced and reliable companies and people to drive business growth. 

This is the second installment of our series on Remote Outsourcing where we explore many ways in which work-from-home outsourcing is shaping the business landscape, providing innumerable opportunities for long-term growth.

Key Takeaways

• Building a strong sales process can help your team convert leads into paying customers

• The Aberdeen Group found that best-in-class companies are 67% more likely to have a formal sales enablement strategy in place

• Investing in sales enablement can help your team identify the most effective strategies and tools to improve sales performance 

• The future-proofed sales team will be composed of experienced human salespeople and AI-assisted technologies 

• Sales teams must be able to adapt to changing customer needs and trends to remain successful 

In today’s fast-paced business world, companies need a sales team that can adapt and thrive in an ever-evolving landscape.

The future of sales is no exception.

With new technologies and changing customer behaviors, companies must stay ahead of the curve and future-proof their sales teams.

This article will explore the challenges that sales teams face and provide actionable tips to future-proof your sales team. We will also address the role of technology in sales and the importance of aligning your sales strategy with your business objectives.

And lastly, we will also discuss how MarketStar can help your sales team stay on top of the game and thrive in a constantly changing digital world.

The Importance of a Sales Team for an Organization

A strong sales team is vital for an organization's success, as they play a key role in driving revenue, building customer relationships, shaping the company’s image, and providing valuable insights into the market and customer needs. 

A study by the McKinsey Global Institute found that sales productivity can increase by as much as 14% with the use of sales force automation (SFA) technology. 

Sales teams are responsible for identifying, cultivating, and closing deals with potential customers, directly impacting revenue and growth. 

The sales team is also responsible for building and maintaining relationships with existing customers, which can lead to repeat business and positive word-of-mouth marketing. 

Additionally, the sales team is often the first point of contact between the company and its potential customers, which means they play a key role in shaping the customer’s perception of the company and its products or services. 

A strong sales team can also provide valuable insights into customer needs and preferences, which can fuel product development and marketing strategies. 

Furthermore, the sales team’s performance can also be a vital indicator of the company’s overall health and growth prospects. 

A high-performing sales team can drive revenue growth and help the company achieve its goals and objectives. 

On the other hand, a struggling sales team can signal problems with the company’s products or services, market positioning, or sales strategy.

Challenges that Sales Teams Face

Sales teams are under immense pressure to perform. 

They constantly seek new ways to improve their numbers and hit their targets. However, this pressure can sometimes lead to sales teams making mistakes. 

There are several challenges that sales teams face that can prevent them from being successful. These challenges include:

• Lack of leads and customer engagement

• Long sales cycles

• Missed quotas and low win rates 

• Not having a clear sales strategy 

• Not understanding their customers 

• Not having the right sales tools 

• Keeping up with changing technologies 

• Sales onboarding and training

If your sales team struggles to meet its goals, it could be due to one or more of these challenges. But don’t despair – there are ways MarketStar can help your business overcome these challenges and get your sales team back on track.

The Changing Landscape of Sales

The sales landscape has undergone significant changes in recent years, driven by technological advances and changes in customer behavior. 

Some key changes in the sales landscape include digital transformation, increased automation, remote selling, shift to inbound sales, emphasis on customer experience, increased focus on data and analytics, and increased use of AI and machine learning. 

These changes in the sales landscape are driving companies to rethink their strategies, processes, and technology stack to stay competitive. Let’s discuss how to future-proof your sales organization amidst these changes. 

8 Effective Ways to Future-Proofing Your Sales Team

Future-proofing your sales team involves preparing them to adapt and thrive in an ever-evolving business landscape. Here are a few key strategies that can help you future-proof your sales team: 

1. Embrace Digital Transformation

This can include investing in sales pipeline management tools and platforms to manage leads, track customer interactions, and close deals. This will help your sales team work more efficiently and effectively. 

2. Automate Repetitive Tasks

Automation can help your sales team save time and focus on more strategic tasks. This can include using CRM software, marketing automation platforms, and AI-powered sales assistants. 

According to a Salesforce study, companies with a well-defined sales process and using a CRM system see a 25% increase in sales productivity.

3. Embrace Remote Selling

Remote selling will likely become more common in the future, and your sales team should be equipped to operate effectively in a remote environment. 

4. Shift to Inbound Sales

Inbound sales, which focuses on attracting customers through content and building relationships, will likely become more popular. Your sales team should be equipped to adapt to this approach. 

5. Prioritize Customer Experience

As customers become more empowered, sales teams must prioritise providing a positive and personalized customer experience to drive repeat business and positive word-of-mouth marketing.

6. Invest in Data and Analytics

Sales teams will need to become proficient in using data and analytics to gain insights into customer behavior, identify trends, and make more informed decisions. 

7. Invest in Sales Enablement

Investing in sales enablement can help your sales team stay up to date with the latest trends, technologies, and best practices. This can include training and development programs, mentoring, and coaching. 

8. Embrace AI and Machine Learning

AI and machine learning can help sales teams in lead generation, customer segmentation, and predictive analytics thereby enhancing the sales process.

How MarketStar Can Help You Future-Proof Your Sales Team

MarketStar helps businesses future-proof their sales teams. Here’s how. 

We offer sales solutions and services that include – sales enablement, digital transformation, inbound sales, outbound sales, feet-on-the-street, pipeline management, and operations. 

• The sales enablement service can help businesses identify the most effective strategies and tools to improve sales performance. 

• Digital transformation helps businesses adopt new technologies to improve sales processes and customer engagement.

• Our inbound sales service can help businesses attract and engage potential customers through various inbound marketing techniques such as SEO, PPC, Social Media, and Content Marketing. 

• Outbound sales service helps businesses reach out to potential customers through various outbound marketing techniques such as email, telemarketing, and direct mail. 

• The pipeline management service can help businesses manage their sales pipeline effectively to improve conversion rates and increase revenue. 

• The sales operations service can help businesses with sales process design, CRM implementation, and performance analysis. 

These are some of the services MarketStar offers; we can help businesses improve their sales performance by providing expert guidance and support in areas such as lead generation, sales strategy, and technology adoption. 

Get Started with MarketStar, today!

In conclusion, MarketStar can help businesses future-proof their sales teams by providing various services. 

If your sales team is facing challenges such as generating leads, meeting quotas or staying current with changing technologies, consider reaching out to MarketStar today to help future-proof your sales team and drive success for your business.

The term ‘customer-centric culture’ might feel self-explanatory. While it does entail that you put your customers first, it only scratches the surface of “customer-centric”. To truly define its aspects, many researchers have spent a good amount of time thinking about it.

Key Insights

The more leads your venture generates, the better its business growth will be.

Key Takeaways

• Businesses can successfully slash their sales expenditures by switching to AI based platforms.

• AI-based sales platforms like Nytro.ai can drastically improve sales readiness and thereby enhance sales pipelines.  

• Nytro.ai helps outsourced sales by integrating CRM platforms and thus optimizing productivity. 

Introduction

Data is no longer just a resource that can be collected and analyzed. It is a building block for creating standalone platforms that automatically harness information and automate queries-based processes. Artificial intelligence is a vast sector that utilizes this power of data to perceive, synthesize and infer information.

AI finds application in any sector that simulates human intelligence, including technology or business. Businesses can use AI to smoothen their sales processes by predicting customer behavior and automating repetitive tasks.

In this article, we explore how AI-based platforms like Nytro.ai have made sales teams more efficient, especially in making data-driven decisions.

How Has AI Revolutionized Sales? (Problems and How AI Addresses Them)

Perceived Growth in Revenue: 44% of businesses using AI in sales report a cost reduction. With a 50% rise in sales leads, AI enables businesses to identify the most effective actions to generate and qualify genuine leads.

AI can automate sales forecasting and boost sales enablement by determining the likelihood of prospects making buying decisions. As sales enablers, these data-driven processes can provide sales teams with essential tools to help them sell smarter. AI can also eliminate uncertainty and thus prevent deals from going cold. 

Precision in Sales: AI-based sales platforms using machine learning algorithms to devise optimal price optimization strategies that can evaluate precise data and analyze them.

By calculating the price elasticities of the products, the sales and marketing departments can determine the optimal demand for that product and the price. AI can drastically improve the B2B pricing strategies in their development and implementation instead of relying on trial and error.

A Window of Opportunities: Sales teams using AI can transform how Sales Qualified Leads perform, especially in the post-pandemic period. Together with AI-based CRM platforms, AI can boost win rates by opening new channels for cross-selling and upselling.

Moreover, they also help determine how Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) can fine-tune selling strategies. AI-powered CRM platforms can reduce sales costs by 11-20% by using customer data to qualify sales, thus saving valuable time and effort. Additionally, businesses can employ these platforms to restructure their product inventory and thus minimize inventory shortages.

Greater Emphasis on Content Marketing Strategies: AI-based sales efforts can accelerate sales cycles by personalizing content strategies. Issues like inefficient lead prioritization and the inability to personalize sales approach can imply a drastic fall in sales leads.

AI-based platforms can automate the process by maintaining a constant inflow of personalized content like testimonial videos. Customers prefer to continue purchasing a product when sales teams hold genuine discussions using 24*7 chatbots or personalized content to customers’ social feeds.

To summarize, AI-powered platforms validate your sales data with high-performing sales teams and identify the points of conflict. Bid adieu to traditional sales techniques and welcome a system that leverages cutting-edge technology to track your sales team’s success. 

Introducing Nytro.ai

Are you still struggling to make sense of organizational data and wondering how you can derive valuable insights from them?

With Nytro.ai, sales teams can manage their sales pipeline from a single platform, allowing them to focus on the most important deals and opportunities. As an invaluable tool for sales teams, Nytro.ai can provide personalized training, pitch recommendations, and customer insights. By leveraging AI in these areas, sales teams can increase efficiency, effectiveness, and overall success.

It provides access to advanced analytics and insights that provide real-time assistance during customer interactions, suggesting the following steps and providing relevant product information. 

Quirks and Features

Nytro.ai employs a user-friendly interface that offers a range of tools to help sales teams analyze customer interactions and provide insights into customer preferences and behavior patterns. The three most important benefits that Nytro.ai delivers are as follows:

• Sales Training: Sales teams must identify knowledge gaps and develop personalized training programs. Nytro.ai can analyze sales reps’ performance data to identify areas that need improvement and provide targeted training materials to address those gaps.

• Sales Pitch Training: Nytro.ai can analyze data on successful sales pitches to identify common patterns and use that data to develop personalized pitch recommendations. Its data-driven algorithm can also provide real-time feedback during pitch practice sessions, enabling reps to refine their delivery and messaging.

• Conversational Intelligence: Ntro.ai helps analyze customer interactions and provides insights into customer preferences and behavior patterns. This can help sales representatives tailor their communication style and approach to each customer, increasing the chances of a successful sale.

Nytro.ai offers two leading sales-based solutions that a business can utilize – Sales onboarding and Sales Readiness. A sales onboarding platform increases the chance of sales representatives landing with better sales pitches that can guarantee positive leads. The sales readiness platform helps sales representatives engage with their customers better by improving their presentation skills. 

How Does Nytro-ai Function?

Informed Insights on Training Sales Teams: Nytro.ai’s industry-leading AI technologies adopt these styles to provide valuable input.

• Accumulates and analyzes primary data corresponding to your sales prospect. 

• Boosts motivation, confidence and ability when training sales teams  

• Blends personality into sales: information distribution across channels

• Focus on information that matters, asking the right questions.

Who Is It For?

Sales development representatives willing to derive valuable insights from data

AI-driven Assistance for Outsourced Sales: Struggling to manage your outsourced sales team? Nytro.ai modernizes the traditional rep-training with machine learning through

• AI-powered sales pitching that highlights rep-readiness  

• Prioritizing sales tasks and opportunities 

• Integration with CRM and other sales tools   

• Lower turnover costs with targeted training and data-driven assessments

Who Is It For?

Functional heads of businesses who want to maximize the value of outsourced teams

Pitch Intelligence: Know what works and what doesn’t with Nytro.ai’s Pitch Intelligence program which can help

• Upgrade your sales pitches through a personalized or storytelling approach to engage prospects

• Resonate with potential customers and close more deals

• Automate onboarding, retention and rep readiness

• Allow machine learning to automate the process at a higher accuracy rate

 Who Is It For?

Mid to Large B2B companies with a sales team > 10

Bottom Line

Sales enablement platforms like Nytro.ai guarantee better collaboration between AI-powered tools and sales representatives. At a current adoption rate of 35%, AI-powered tools like Nytro.ai can fuel lead generation in sales, thereby driving business growth.   

Are you still wondering whether Nytro.ai can help your sales teams stay ahead of the competition?  

Contact us today!

Key Takeaways

• Psychological safety contributes to an inclusive and diverse workplace

• A high-performing team values psychological safety as much as they do physical security

• Providing psychological safety is a team effort. Team members must take responsibility for improving the working environment for one another 

• Adopting an employee assistance program can help handle problems related to mental well-being 

The Covid-19 pandemic has had a varied impact on humanity. The weight of these unprecedented times was heavy and has dramatically influenced our mental health, whether transitioning to a new work-life situation, losing a job, or losing a loved one. 

Forced to take on these stressors while still having to work, many employees are experiencing unexpected difficulties with their mental health and need support while at their jobs. 

Covid-19 Challenges

The Covid-19 environment has created unprecedented economic and business challenges.

According to “The Future of Sales in 2025: A Gartner Trend Insight Report,” B2B buying behavior has grown even more unpredictable with COVID-19 and market volatility. The report quotes, “One client told us their quarterly deal pipeline shrank to nearly zero when their prospects suspended all nonessential expenditures.

Others report that without in-person meetings, their sellers don’t achieve the level of engagement required to validate their pipeline predictions.” (The Future of Sales in 2025: A Gartner Trend Insight Report, 2020). 

This has also placed business owners, leaders, and employees under more pressure and stress than many have experienced before. 

Most employee's psychological well-being has taken a hit, leading to decreased enthusiasm and productivity.  

Distributed, remote, and virtual teams have fewer opportunities for spontaneous, casual conversation; team members have more difficulty picking up non-verbal cues in conversation, and people are more likely to feel alone, anxious, unsure of what to do, and may even experience self-doubt or imposter syndrome.

The resulting consequence is an undercurrent of emotional disturbance characterized by rising levels of anxiety, depression, fear, and stress.  

In this scenario, sales and customer success leaders who understand the importance of psychological safety and the associated behaviours are more likely to adapt and succeed in a post-pandemic environment. 

According to Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson, “Psychological safety is a belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes.”  

Research has proven that higher psychological safety in teams drives higher performance, innovation, and productivity. 

Psychological safety can be developed through small experiments based on a Neurosciences framework of SCARF – Significance, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness, Fairness developed by David Rock of Neuroscience of Leadership. 

The Importance of Psychological Safety

Safety is a basic human need, and psychological safety is the belief that you can freely express your ideas and thoughts without worrying about being degraded.  

Here are the top five reasons why psychological safety is important at work. 

1. Inclusive Workplace Culture

A safe workspace welcomes diverse teams, and it is critical to ensure that every team member feels included, especially after a pandemic. This enables team members to thrive regardless of gender, race, color, or political preferences.  

The outcome is a fruitful exchange of ideas and experiences where everyone feels connected and part of a common cause. 

Psychological safety is a key ingredient in promoting an inclusive workplace culture.  

When employees feel safe to express themselves without the fear of judgement or reprisal, they are more likely to bring their whole selves to work, fostering a more collaborative and creative environment.  

Employees who feel included are also more engaged and productive, leading to a positive spiral of increased inclusion and success for the organization. 

2. Better Employee Engagement

It is easier for team members to engage when they feel secure at work. This could be during a team meeting where members work on projects, brainstorm, solve problems, and engage with their peers and customers. 

Safe teams encourage workers to be completely present rather than dozing off or counting the hours until the day is over. 

3. Improved Well-Being

Developing a psychologically safe work culture contributes to overall employee well-being.  

When employees are psychologically well, they can work at their best and avoid pressures that prevent them from doing so. 

Promoting employee health and wellness at work requires first ensuring their psychological safety. When employees are mentally healthy, it means they can think, feel, and act in ways that help them perform well. 

4. Decreased Employee Turnover

Employees who face a high turnover are beginning to understand the importance of psychological safety.  

According to The Predictive Index, team members who feel psychologically safe are less likely to quit their jobs. Why will employees leave a company that makes them feel safe and valued? 

More and more organizations are embracing this concept because teams are becoming geographically dispersed, and psychological safety is responsible for motivating employees, retaining them, and promoting an inclusive culture. 

5. Improved Team Performance

According to studies, psychological safety promotes actions that result in improved team performance, such as taking moderate risks, expressing one’s opinions, being creative, and sticking one’s neck out without the fear of repercussions. 

Employees who work in psychologically secure environments view risk positively and know they won’t be considered stupid or inept. By taking moderate risks, teams can thrive and grow while learning new concepts. 

The 4 Behaviors That Build Psychological Safety at Work

1. Active Listening

Active listening is a powerful communication tool promoting psychological safety at work.

By actively listening to others, we create an environment where people feel safe expressing themselves and sharing their ideas. This, in turn, can lead to better collaboration, creativity, and productivity.

It also involves entering a conversation with an open mind and a pleasant attitude, and being willing to modify and adapt to the speaker’s line of thought without passing judgement.

2. Leading with Empathy

Leading with empathy shows employees that you care about their well-being and want to create a safe environment for them to work in.  

When employees feel psychologically safe, they are more likely to take risks, be creative and productive, and stay with the company. Showing empathy is also one of the best ways to engage with an employee and foster a feeling of belonging.

3. Focusing on Performance

Employees need to feel recognized at work and receive honest feedback on their performance. When we focus on performance, we create an environment where people feel safe to take risks and experiment.

This psychological safety is essential for innovation and creativity.

4. Welcoming New Ideas

Welcoming new ideas at work and promoting psychological safety so that everyone can feel comfortable contributing should be encouraged. It allows organizations to create a positive and productive work environment where everyone can thrive. 

Summing Up 

It is vital to make psychological safety a priority in organizations. An organization should be a place for learning and growth.

Psychological safety shouldn’t just be a “nice to have” benefit. It should play a significant role in the culture and future of every business.

The mark of a good company is its team members.

So, if businesses want to build a successful team, psychological safety must be one of the top priorities and ensure the team members feel safe to express themselves.

Key Takeaways

• When businesses think of growth, they usually think about reaching out to more people and acquiring more sales

• Besides traditional marketing and customer acquisition strategies, it is brand advocacy that can help you keep your marketing costs low

• It is one of the most valuable marketing strategies where you tap into your happy customer base to spread the word about your brand

• There are numerous strategies that can help companies to harness the enthusiasm of their brand advocates for business growth

Getting new customers is good for any business.

But real business growth comes from existing customers.

In fact, a research by Bain and Company shows that return customers spend 33% more per order compared to new clients. Another study suggests that existing customers are 50% more likely to try new products.

Why is this important? 

In an era where it has become surprisingly easy for consumers to walk away from brands after a single bad experience, turning your customers into brand advocates should be at the top of the to-do list. This is more critical than ever since new acquisition costs have increased by almost 50%. 

Think of this as a fandom, like how major sports teams and musicians operate. 

Instead of buying out the tickets, these brand advocates will fill their social media feeds with news about your brand, helping move prospective customers through the marketing funnel. 

So how do you build brand advocacy? And what should be your brand advocacy strategy? 

As you get down to turning your target audience to brand advocates, remember it all starts with the efficacy of your customer success solution. Only when you deliver experiences that delight your customers will they endorse your brand in their network.

Let’s begin.

What is Brand Advocacy?

Did you know that a staggering 76% of individuals surveyed said that they have a deeper trust in the content shared by “regular” people than content shared by brands? 

Simply put, brand advocacy means that the people who are closest to your brand will continue to show their love and support for your product(s) or service(s) by promoting your organization organically to new audiences. While referring new customers, they also create content on your behalf. 

Your brand advocates can include your customers as they are not affiliated with your company which makes their support genuine and more influential. Your employees can be brand advocates too. Armed with deep insights into how your solution caters to clients, they can positively influence your brand through superior customer success management. 

Your business partners can also affect your customers’ purchasing decisions. These include charitable organizations and other companies affiliated with your brand. Lastly, you have influencers. A well-known influencer can extend the reach of your brand far and wide. 

Turning Customers into Brand Advocates: Why is it Important?

With brand advocacy, you will quickly find an increase in your revenue without increasing your marketing budget. Your fans will do a lot of word-of-mouth marketing for you on their social media platforms. 

Another good reason is that your happy customers will continue to return to you again and again. 

According to a report by PwC, 17% of consumers will leave a brand after just one bad experience. Since finding a brand that precisely caters to their needs can be challenging, customers who genuinely love a brand will stick with the company for a very long time. 

Strong brand advocates will increase awareness about your company beyond your immediate target audience. This will help you eliminate costs associated with customer acquisition strategies. 

For these reasons, both B2B and B2C companies have begun to focus their initiatives on developing effective brand advocacy programs. 

How Do You Turn Customers into Brand Advocates?

1. Know Your Customers

Despite the expansive power of brand advocates, this will still be a small portion of your overall customer base. 

Most customers will probably purchase from you once (or perhaps repeatedly) but will not engage with your brand as much as you hope. This means that you need to keep a steady eye on the ones who do and who are taking their time to spread the positive word about your product or service. 

A simple question such as “How likely are you to recommend us to a friend” can help you understand what makes your customers happy. Social listening can come in handy. Keep an eye on people who are speaking favorably about you on social media. 

2. Appreciate Your Customers

Your customers want to feel like a VIP when they do business with you. 

Deliver an enhanced and personalized customer experience at every touchpoint, whether it means optimizing your website for search engines to having helpful support, both chat and call options, in place. 

Having a happy customer base can also be achieved through giving extra perks. 

Loyalty programs can help deliver this value to your customers consistently. 

Rewards, discounts, promotions, and special events will demonstrate that your relationship is more than just transactional. 

3. Establish a Memorable Onboarding Process

Your onboarding process has a direct impact on your customer retention rates. It’s also a crucial facet of your brand advocacy strategy. 

In fact, 86% of consumers are likely to stick longer with a product if they experience a better onboarding process that gives a holistic education about the many offerings. 

So how do you do this? 

Start with asking your customers why they are using your product and what they want to achieve with it. 

Equipped with this information, guide them to the most useful features of your product rather than throwing all your product features all at once. This will also minimize friction points for your customers.

You can also give them templates so they can start using your product features at once. Additionally, develop an email sequence that educates your customers on the best use of your product. 

4. Give Them Exciting News

Turning customers into brand advocates means sharing exciting news, exclusive sneak-peeks, and one-time-only discounts to keep the excitement going. 

Hold special “fans-only” shopping events where customers have unique access to your products. This will encourage them to spread the word in their network. 

Amplify this word-of-mouth marketing with referral rewards for fans who successfully encourage someone to buy your product or service. Such rewards can be a free product, a discount, or even cash for their next purchase. 

5. Create a Customer-Centric Culture

Zendesk conducted a detailed study of more than 45000 businesses across 140 countries and found that almost 70% of customers expect companies to collaborate between different departments on their behalf. 

If your employees are transferring a customer to another BU for issue resolution, it can create a bad image in the eyes of your customers. 

This is where a customer-centric culture can help you. Brand advocacy can only be effective if you help establish a culture where customer satisfaction and happiness are at the center of all your key decision-making. 

Such a culture must be part of your core value system and every department should take the onus of effective customer success management.

6. Amplify Your Presence

While 70% of consumers expect brands to respond within a day of reaching out over social media, the average brand response rate stands at just 25%. The more active you are on social media, the higher your chances are to reach out to your potential brand advocates. 

Don’t be active on every channel. But you should be present in more than one. 

Conduct an analysis of the platforms where your customers are the most active. 

Once you have established the channels, it’s time to get creative. 

Encourage your brand advocates to create their own content. This can be through video submissions of how they are using your product for YouTube or images where they are using your product for Instagram Story.

Immersing your brand advocates with content development can help them feel like they are part of your brand and not just observers. 

Ready for Brand Advocacy?

Your job is not done when your customer has successfully transacted. Keep your customers engaged to turn them into brand advocates who will do a lot of the marketing work for you. 

Brand advocates play a critical role in driving sales for you. 

While in the age of 24/7 connectivity and social media, it’s not so tough to keep your customers engaged. The challenge, however, is to be consistent in providing your customers with first-class services. This helps to nurture your customers into brand advocates. 

Looking to make customers your best growth engine? Benefit from a world-class CS strategy at scale, Partner with MarketStar today!