Advocacy and Loyalty Technology Overview

1. Advocacy and Loyalty Technology Overview Advocacy and Loyalty: Technology Overview © 2014 Demand Metric Research Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Technology Overview By: Jerry Rackley, Chief Analyst With: Kristen Maida, Senior Research Analyst September 2014

2. 3 4 6 8 Executive Summary Advocacy & Loyalty Vendor Landscape Evolution of the Landscape Analyst Bottom Line Table of Contents 11 About Demand Metric 9 10 About the Research Analysts Our Technology Overview Methodology 3 4 6 8 Executive Summary Advocacy & Loyalty Vendor Landscape Evolution of the Landscape Analyst Bottom Line Table of Contents 11 About Demand Metric 9 10 About the Research Analysts Our Technology Overview Methodology

3. Most sales and marketing professionals will acknowledge that some of the best-qualified leads and easiest sales to close come from word-of-mouth referrals. There are many studies that confirm how influential and credible this type of customer or brand advocacy is. The old school of thinking about brand or customer advocates and Customer Loyalty was that it occurred organically. A brand would simply strive to delight customers, which in turn produced loyalty and hopefully advocacy. The new understanding is that far more customers are willing to serve as brand advocates if it is simple enough. Getting customers to serve as advocates on behalf of a brand no longer has to occur only organically. There is now a nice collection of vendors with solutions that help brands create communities to identify, nurture and reward loyal customers, and to encourage their advocacy on behalf of a brand. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Advocacy and Loyalty: Technology Overview These solutions – or the collections of widgets, objects and tools for creating custom solutions – are designed to encourage and reward advocacy and loyalty behaviors. The content presented in this Vendor Landscape are given to provide marketers with an overview of Customer Advocacy and Loyalty solutions. The goal is to enable Modern Marketing Organizations (MMOs) to make effective investment decisions about the Advocacy & Loyalty platforms and tools that best fit their broader Customer Engagement strategy. We are combining our look at Advocacy and Loyalty solutions because they are related and often cornerstones of a Customer Engagement strategy. At present, however, they largely exist as separate solutions in the market. This Vendor Landscape focuses on both Customer Advocacy and Customer Loyalty platforms. 3 © 2014 Demand Metric Research Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Most sales and marketing professionals will acknowledge that some of the best-qualified leads and easiest sales to close come from word-of-mouth referrals. There are many studies that confirm how influential and credible this type of customer or brand advocacy is. The old school of thinking about brand or customer advocates and Customer Loyalty was that it occurred organically. A brand would simply strive to delight customers, which in turn produced loyalty and hopefully advocacy. The new understanding is that far more customers are willing to serve as brand advocates if it is simple enough. Getting customers to serve as advocates on behalf of a brand no longer has to occur only organically. There is now a nice collection of vendors with solutions that help brands create communities to identify, nurture and reward loyal customers, and to encourage their advocacy on behalf of a brand. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Advocacy and Loyalty: Technology Overview These solutions – or the collections of widgets, objects and tools for creating custom solutions – are designed to encourage and reward advocacy and loyalty behaviors. The content presented in this Vendor Landscape are given to provide marketers with an overview of Customer Advocacy and Loyalty solutions. The goal is to enable Modern Marketing Organizations (MMOs) to make effective investment decisions about the Advocacy & Loyalty platforms and tools that best fit their broader Customer Engagement strategy. We are combining our look at Advocacy and Loyalty solutions because they are related and often cornerstones of a Customer Engagement strategy. At present, however, they largely exist as separate solutions in the market. This Vendor Landscape focuses on both Customer Advocacy and Customer Loyalty platforms. 3 © 2014 Demand Metric Research Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

4. © 2014 Demand Metric Research Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Technology Overview ABOUT DEMAND METRIC Demand Metric is a global marketing research & advisory firm serving a membership community of over 40,000 marketing professionals, CEOs, and business owners with advisory services, custom research & benchmarking reports, vendor studies, consulting methodologies, training, and a library of 500+ tools and templates. Using Demand Metric resources, members complete projects faster and with greater confidence, boosting respect for the marketing team and making it easier to justify needed resources. Our 1,000+ clients range from start-ups to members of the Global 1000. To read the rest of this Benchmark Report, become a Demand Metric member today! © 2014 Demand Metric Research Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Technology Overview ABOUT DEMAND METRIC Demand Metric is a global marketing research & advisory firm serving a membership community of over 40,000 marketing professionals, CEOs, and business owners with advisory services, custom research & benchmarking reports, vendor studies, consulting methodologies, training, and a library of 500+ tools and templates. Using Demand Metric resources, members complete projects faster and with greater confidence, boosting respect for the marketing team and making it easier to justify needed resources. Our 1,000+ clients range from start-ups to members of the Global 1000. To read the rest of this Benchmark Report, become a Demand Metric member today!