Hardly any marketing communications activity is considered more valuable but also more challenging than customer advocacy. After all, you can say so many nice things about yourself, but when your customers endorse your company, product or performance, it takes credibility to a whole new level. Case studies, video testimonials, customer quotes and other public endorsement provide the sales organisation with the much needed collateral to get the deals over the line. And surely, journalists are just as keen to get their hands on exclusive customer stories, making reference activity the backbone of most public relations program.
With the stakes so high, it is unsurprising that organisations spend considerable time and resources building and maintaining their reference program. But as many marketing managers will attest, these coveted references are not always easy to come by. Here are a couple of ideas to boost the number of customer stories in the long run: