You may have heard the term “brand advocate” before. A lot of businesses actually rely on the influence of their customers and employees to gain exposure for their brand.
Why? Simply because it works. It’s no secret that people trust the recommendations of loved ones over a paid ad from the business itself. As a study by Nielsen found, recommendations from friends still remain the most credible form of advertising.
And a customer may be able to get you in front of new eyes that you might not have been able to reach. It’s their well-established networks that work well at amplifying your reach because the element of trust is already involved.
But how can you harness the power of your customers and employees and turn them into advocates? You might consider a channel of advocate marketing, using advocate marketing software.
In this article, we’ll cover what advocacy marketing software is, the benefits of using advocate marketing software, and the best types of software that fall into this category. We’ll also offer a detailed review of some of the top advocate marketing software programs. But before we do all this, let’s first establish what advocate marketing is.
(Or skip straight to the advocate marketing tools below.)
What is advocate marketing?
Advocate marketing is simply the spreading of brand recognition through an affiliated source, whether that be a partner, employee, or customer. In fact, many types of marketing can fall into advocate marketing, and as we see it, it’s more of an umbrella term that fits under word-of-mouth marketing.
If you were to do a quick Google search, you’d likely find a variety of ways to do advocate marketing. Including using referral marketing, influencer marketing, affiliate marketing, reputation management, etc. Knowing this, you may immediately recognize the many benefits associated with this type of marketing.
What is advocate marketing software?
“Customer advocacy software is designed to support a company’s marketing, sales, and customer success efforts,” according to TrustRadius.
More specifically, this type of software can help you find an advocate so that you can engage with them and get them to spread the word for you. Whether that means by sending referrals, writing a review, or even participating in different surveys like NPS.
Advocate marketing software is something that is used to help you amplify your reach by using your existing customer base to do the heavy lifting. The main jobs of any advocacy campaign are to educate, organize, and advocate.
Advocacy marketing software can help you do all of these things, all while increasing your social proof and expanding your overall brand awareness in a more trusting way than traditional marketing methods (i.e., paid ads and signage).
The benefits of advocacy marketing software
If you run a successful advocate marketing program, there are many benefits. The primary benefit is increasing your word of mouth, and therefore increasing referrals. But there are a few others that should be noted.
- Increased brand recognition and building brand awareness
- Providing a channel for customer engagement to occur
- Creating a shorter sales and onboarding process
- Receiving feedback to create a more customer-centric product
In many cases, you’ll find a business uses a platform or software to help streamline their advocate programs, making achieving the benefits listed above much easier. Creating and automating specific workflows can make scaling an advocate (or other types of marketing) much easier to do, not to mention make it easier to track the process.
Keep in mind that advocate marketing software easily bleeds into many other software types like referral marketing software, review management software, and brand mention software.
Different types of advocate marketing software
We’ve found that there are a variety of different software platforms that can fall under advocate marketing software. There are a few software programs that actually are marketed as such (including the programs above), while others are simply categorized into it. Let’s check out a few categories of other software that can count as advocate marketing software.
1. Referral marketing software
Referral marketing software often gets tied into advocacy software because it also uses the power of existing customers, partners, and even employees to spread the word of a business. Typically speaking, people in referral marketing programs are incentivized to share the business. And new customers are also incentivized to buy. Though incentives aren’t necessarily required.
These types of recommendations work because people trust their friends and family to share only relevant and high-quality things with them. And since social currency is involved for the person referring, it is more likely they will only share and refer businesses that they actually use and like (regardless of whether an incentive is involved).
2. Brand mention tools
Brand mention tools also get categorized in advocate marketing because they work at achieving the same thing, brand awareness. Most of these types of tools help businesses see where they need to make changes in order to get the brand recognition they desire. Brand mention tools and social analytics tools help make this possible.
3. Influencer marketing software
Influencer marketing software can also sometimes be identified as an advocate marketing software. Except it uses celebrities, bloggers, social media gurus, and those with a trusted following to spread the word. Most of these people are sent products to use in their content. These people haven’t necessarily used your product before, but they’ll only promote it if they like it.
Influencer marketing works because influencers carry a lot of weight with their followers, and are experts at knowing the perfect moment or micro-moment to connect with followers.
This is why you’ll see brands use celebrity endorsements. Instagram, for example, often uses high profile icons and celebs to promote and endorse their products. This is why some brands have been able to pop up out of nowhere. Like Fashion Nova, who regularly has celebrities, like the Kardashians, help them promote new clothing styles on Instagram. And it’s often the reason these styles sell out. However, influencers don’t have to be celebrities or people with a large following, as long as their followers trust them highly. Influencer marketing software helps you find and manage a tight-knit program for these short-term advocates.
4. Brand ambassador software
Brand ambassador software helps you find and manage long-term representatives of your brand, who love your brand and want to see it succeed. It can help you find your existing biggest fans on social media, based on how often they mention you and how glowing their comments are, so you can potentially recruit them as brand ambassadors. And after you’ve recruited brand ambassadors, the software also helps you manage and track ambassador campaigns.
5. NPS software
NPS software makes it easy to run a Net Promoter Score (NPS) survey, where customers are asked how likely they are to recommend your brand to a friend on a scale of 0-10. People who answer they are most likely to recommend you, with a score of nine or ten are your promoters. Being able to easily identify these promoters lets you know who you should ask to refer a friend, write a review, or possibly become one of your long-term ambassadors.
6. Review management software
Review management software is a type of reputation management software. It helps you automate asking for reviews from the right customers, so you are more likely to get positive reviews. Some review management software also alerts you to new reviews as they happen, so you can always find your top reviews and thank the advocates who wrote them. These advocates may then be willing to promote you in another way.
People who leave positive reviews are some of your best advocates because so many potential customers seek out the opinions of people who have used your products before they decide whether to purchase from you. Harness the power of positive reviews with review management software!
7. Customer loyalty software
Though customer loyalty software has also been categorized as an advocate software, this one doesn’t necessarily help businesses get customers to refer – although it does get customers to come back.
Eventually, loyal customers can become an advocate for the business and will talk about and potentially recommend that business to others.
Starbucks, for example, uses a customer loyalty system where customers who purchase with their app earn points towards future treats. The people who regularly purchase this way have the potential to create content on behalf of the business. Think of all the Starbucks selfies posted on the web. On Instagram alone, it has 33.6 million hashtags!
Evaluation criteria for advocate marketing software
As we have mentioned, a few platforms can squeak into the advocate marketing software category. However, the software programs listed in this section can actually be marketed as advocate software, rather than under another category. When digging further in, you will realize most are actually aimed more towards employee advocacy. Before we dive into these advocate software tools, let’s explain the criteria we used in our evaluation.
| Evaluation criteria | Description |
| Industries | What type or types of businesses is the software best for? |
| Types of advocates | Who types of advocates does the software focus on: Employees? Partners? Customers? |
| Pricing and commitment | How much does the software cost, if pricing is available? What plans are available? |
| Free trial or demo available | Does the company offer a free trial or demo period for you to try out the software before purchase? |
| Review score | How do existing users of the advocate marketing software rate the program? Based on an aggregate score from top review sites, our rating is out of 5 stars and indicates how many people reviewed the software. |
Our list of top advocate marketing software
Using our evaluation criteria, we put together a list of the top advocate marketing software. The table below lists down all the software we cover in this article. Click the tool to read more about the company and its most popular features below.
Note: The software is not listed in any order of rank or recommendation. Our aim is to put together a selected source of advocate marketing software, and give a clear picture of all the available options.
| Advocate marketing software | Industries | Types of advocates | Pricing | Free demo or trial available | Review score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Referral Rock | All sizes, from small businesses to enterprise | Employees, customers, affiliates, brand ambassadors, partners | Starting at $200/month | Free trial available; demo also available | 4.5 (55 reviews) |
| EveryoneSocial | Larger and enterprise-level companies | Employees | N/A | Demo available | 4.5 (149 reviews) |
| SoAmpli | All sizes, from small businesses to enterprise | Employees (specifically, sales team members) | N/A | Demo available | 4.5 (23 reviews) |
| Influitive AdvocateHub | B2Bs of all sizes | Employees, partners, customers | N/A | Demo available | 4.55 (448 reviews) |
| GaggleAMP | All sizes | Employees, partners, stakeholders | Starting at $200/month | Demo available | 4.4 (121 reviews) |
| Bambu by Sprout Social | Larger and enterprise-level companies | Employees | N/A (Pricing is custom) | Demo available | 4.6 (89 reviews) |
| Amplify by Hootsuite | All, from entrepreneurs to enterprises | Employees | Starting at $29/month | Free 30-day trial available; demo also available | 4.25 (5278 reviews), for Hootsuite as a whole. |
Referral Rock
“Give your best fans an on-brand sharing experience.”
Referral Rock is an an all-in-one referral marketing platform that allows you to launch an advocate program in a matter of days – no developers required. The software engages advocates at the perfect time, and invites them to promote your brand in exchange for incentives.
By automatically communicating with your best customers, and then sending them instant rewards whenever their advocacy brings in a new sale, you can build long-term relationships with a growing customer base.
What sets Referral Rock apart is its exceptional customer support, as a dedicated success manager is included with every plan. Plus, the software is flexible enough to run employee advocacy programs, customer advocacy programs, ambassador programs, and multiple types of partner programs.
| Industries | Types of advocates | Pricing and commitment | Free trial or demo available | Review score |
| All sizes, from small businesses to enterprise | Employees, customers, affiliates, brand ambassadors, partners | 4 plans, from $200-$800/month (+ custom enterprise plan) | Request a demo or trial via their website | 4.5 (55 reviews) |
EveryoneSocial
“The Leading Employee Advocacy & Social Selling Platform”
EveryoneSocial is an employee advocate marketing software that helps you equip your entire team from sales to marketing and everyone in between with the right content and tools they need to be part of the digital world.
EveryoneSocial is one of the original employee advocacy platforms. Meaning you create the content and resources for your team, and they share it on their social networks (helping you increase your marketing efforts by a lot).
Since EveryoneSocial has been around for a while, you have a tried and true, not to mention an easy way to aggregate, review, approve, and of course, push content out to your people. Companies that use EveryoneSocial include Dell, Adobe, SurveyMonkey, and select Fortune 500 companies.
| Industries | Types of advocates | Pricing and commitment | Free trial or demo available | Review score |
| Best for larger and enterprise-level companies (500+ employees) | Employees | Pricing not publicly available | Request a demo via their website. | 4.5 (149 reviews) |
SoAmpli
“SoAmpli enables sales teams to sell more”
SoAmpli uses both human and artificial intelligence to provide your team with the best content to share. And it helps in connecting them with relevant prospects. The platforms gives your sales team access all the relevant content they need so they can share relevant and on target information on social media.
Since your team will be given the perfect content to share, they will be able to increase their network and turn otherwise cold leads into real customers.
| Industries | Types of advocates | Pricing and commitment | Free trial or demo available | Review score |
| All sizes, from small businesses to enterprise | Employees (specifically, sales team members) | 2 plans, but pricing not publicly available | Request a demo via their website | 4.5 (23 reviews) |
Influitive AdvocateHub
“Give advocates what they crave: exclusivity, recognition, and rewards”
Influitive AdvocateHub helps businesses create a community of advocates by offering a personalized game design and challenges and using gamification to make advocating a rewarding experience.
You can design challenges to help educate, get feedback, collect NPS surveys. You can also provide missions to complete like providing a testimonial, a reference, or even writing blog content. Influitive is really turning more towards advocate marketing to help B2B companies become successful by using the voice of their customers and employees to build recognition. Companies that use Influitive include HubSpot and Cisco.
| Industries | Types of advocates | Pricing and commitment | Free trial or demo available | Review score |
| B2B companies of all sizes | Employees, partners, customers | 3 plans, but pricing not publicly available | Request a demo via their website. | 4.55 (448 reviews) |
GaggleAMP
“Employee Advocacy Made Easy”
GaggleAMP focuses on helping brands engage their employees, partners, and stakeholders to use word of mouth for them. They know that a business needs to focus on more than just likes and follows, and instead needs to engage.
The platform is all about helping businesses create and execute their vision by aligning the right content with their team.
| Industries | Types of advocates | Pricing and commitment | Free trial or demo available | Review score |
| All sizes | Employees, partners, stakeholders | GaggleAMP does not list pricing publicly, but one review site claims that plans start at $200/month. | Request a demo via their website. | 4.4 (121 reviews) |
Bambu by Sprout Social
“The easiest employee advocacy platform”
Bambu is an employee advocacy platform that provides employees with curated and pre-approved content to share across social networks.
Since 2015 the platform has been used to help improve employee advocacy. This helps employees act on behalf of their company in a more effective way. Because employee advocacy can turn your organization into a powerful marketing engine that boosts the business functions that matter the most.
| Industries | Types of advocates | Pricing and commitment | Free trial or demo available | Review score |
| Large companies and enterprise businesses | Employees | Not available because Bambu plans are custom-built for each company | Request a demo via their website. | 4.6 (89 reviews) |
Amplify by Hootsuite
“Boost your social reach”
Amplify is an employee advocacy solution which encourages employees to share content through their social networks.
Amplify is built around the idea that employees are the best advocates for the work they are doing. By empowering employees to become industry experts, businesses can share content through tons of new channels and into new social circles.
| Industries | Types of advocates | Pricing and commitment | Free trial or demo available | Review score |
| All, from entrepreneurs to enterprises | Employees | 4 plans, from $29-$599/month (+ custom enterprise plan) | Free 30-day trial of the two less expensive plans available; request a demo of the Business or Enterprise plan. | 4.25 (5278 reviews), for Hootsuite as a whole. Amplify, specifically, does not have any reviews available. |
Summary
As you can see, a lot of things can make an advocate. It’s basically anyone who is willing to share your business. True advocate marketing software, as we have found, relies more heavily on employees, rather than customers like some of the other tools that often get categorized the same way.
Either way, advocacy marketing software is a way to help businesses increase their brand awareness with content shared by either employees, customers, or partners.
If you’re looking for customer advocacy software, why not check out this epic list of referral marketing software programs?