Advocacy and Loyalty Technology Overview

1. ADVOCACY AND LOYALTY TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW

2. ADVOCACY AND LOYALTY Technology Overview Table of Contents 1 2 3 Executive Summary 3 Advocacy and Loyalty Vendor Landscape 5 Evolution of the Landscape 8 Analyst Bottom Line 11 Technology Overview Methodology 12 About Demand Metric 13

3. ADVOCACY AND LOYALTY TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW Executive Summary

4. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ADVOCACY AND LOYALTY: TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW 4 Executive Summary 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 goal is to enable Modern Marketing Organizations (MMOs) to make effective investment decisions about the Advocacy and Loyalty platforms and tools that best fit their broader Customer Engagement strategy. We are combining our looks 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. 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. This Vendor Landscape focuses on both Customer Advocacy and Customer Loyalty platforms. 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. 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 is given to provide marketers with an overview of Customer Advocacy and Loyalty solutions.

5. ADVOCACY AND LOYALTY ADVOCACY AND LOYALTY: TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW 5 ADVOCACY AND LOYALTY TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW Advocacy and Loyalty Vendor Landscape

6. ADVOCACY AND LOYALTY VENDOR LANDSCAPE ADVOCACY AND LOYALTY: TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW 6 Advocacy and Loyalty Vendor Landscape As previously mentioned, this Vendor Landscape spans Advocacy and Loyalty solutions. Both of these solutions fall within the broader realm of Customer Engagement. They are compatible yet different. The vendors examined in this landscape tend to lean clearly toward either Advocacy or Loyalty. Even when a vendor offers solutions for both, one or the other is typically presented as a core capability or strength. The common thread between these solution types is referrals. Referral activity is the primary aim of Advocacy solutions and a secondary aim of Loyalty solutions. The primary aim of Loyalty solutions is to encourage increased purchases. Download Demand Metric’sAdvocacy and Loyalty Vendors Matrixto review the key vendors for each of these two solutions. This matrix includes target industries, key offerings, unique strengths and current customers for each vendor. V I E W R E S O U R C E

7. ADVOCACY AND LOYALTY VENDOR LANDSCAPE ADVOCACY AND LOYALTY: TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW 7 Advocacy Platforms Loyalty Platforms These platforms facilitate the creation of customer or employee advocacy portals, often creating a gamified community with tools and mechanisms for identifying brand advocates, nurturing and rewarding their advocacy through challenges, rewards and other forms of recognition. These platforms allow the creation of online and social communities and infrastructure to enable customer registration in programs, track purchases (and often referrals) and provide mechanisms for earning rewards based on transactions. As with advocacy platforms, there is typically integration with social media, sources of customer data, POS systems and online stores for fulfillment of rewards. Advocacy platforms almost always have integration capabilities with key customer touch points such as websites, blogs, online communities and social media. The ability to push coupons, special promotions and ads to program members often exists as well. Evaluate solutions you are considering with Demand Metric’s Advocacy and Loyalty Vendor Evaluation. V I E W R E S O U R C E

8. ADVOCACY AND LOYALTY ADVOCACY AND LOYALTY: TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW 8 ADVOCACY AND LOYALTY TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW Evolution of the Landscape

9. EVOLUTION OF THE LANDSCAPE ADVOCACY AND LOYALTY: TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW 9 Evolution of the Landscape The early days of Advocacy and Loyalty programs were characterized by standalone portals requiring separate sign-on, activity tracking that didn’t occur in real time and monthly or quarterly paper statements summarizing member activity. The capabilities and sophistication of these solutions has matured tremen- dously, yet in most cases the Advocacy or Loyalty program is presented to members through a highly customizable, branded interface. Participating in such programs required intentional effort on the part of the member, and prospective members went through a sign-up consideration process before deciding if it was worth the effort to gain the benefits of membership in an Advocacy or Loyalty program. As these solutions continue to evolve, the analytics capability will surge in importance, Today, Advocacy and Loyalty programs usually have distinct branding for promotional purposes, but they are seamlessly integrated – or should be – into the appropriate touch points. and in fact, gathering and analyzing metrics may serve as a primary motivator for implementing programs. A customer that just had a satisfying online support experience can easily click to tweet or post about it. New customers who are delighted with a company’s products or service can join their rewards program via single or social media sign-on. Advocacy and Loyalty programs have the capability to gather a lot of valuable data about the behaviors, sentiments and preferences of their members. For many solutions, an analytics engine monitors customer activity and pres- ents personalized challenges, coupons or offers that require only a click to activate or use.

10. EVOLUTION OF THE LANDSCAPE ADVOCACY AND LOYALTY: TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW 10 Few things are more important in marketing than gaining a deep under- standing of a firm’s most important customer segment. Another evolutionary step for these solutions is the emerging integra- tion of Voice of the Customer (VoC) and Advocacy platforms, if only for data sharing. As these solutions continue to evolve, expect the analytics capabilities to become both a major differentiator and purchase motivator as companies try to gain new insights about their most important customers. Clare Price, VP of Research at Demand Metric has stated The analytics capabilities should evolve from detailed analysis of existing Advocacy and Loyalty data to predictive analytics that help identify prospective brand advocates and loyalists – even some that are not yet customers. “Active VoC connections should do more than gauge satisfaction, they should elicit ideas. Online Community features, such as crowdsourcing and ideation that build the foundation for Advocacy, are valuable here. When tied to Gamification, these activities will enable the Community Manager to identify likely advocates for special focus and reward.” Clare Price VP of Research at Demand Metric

11. ANALYST BOTTOM LINE ADVOCACY AND LOYALTY: TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW 11 Analyst Bottom Line The technology that drives Advocacy and Loyalty solutions is becoming easier to use and more affordable, extending this functionality beyond the Enterprise into the realm of SMBs. Organizations that are successful doing this need to fully leverage the brand advocates and loyalists that they create. Companies should not be satisfied just letting Advocacy and Loyalty occur organically. Regardless of whether a solution focuses on Advocacy or Loyalty, both will help users better engage their most profitable and important segment of customers. An investment in one or both of these programs will provide measurable revenue and almost immediately accelerate brand advocacy and loyalty behavior. The current solutions range from cloud-based platforms with drag-and- drop interfaces for quickly implementing a program to collections of objects and widgets for developing highly customized programs. Product and services firms alike are finding that it is increasingly difficult to differentiate themselves through technical innovation, terms and conditions and certainly price. None of these provide a sustainable advantage. What does provide a long-term, competitive advantage is providing an excellent customer experience and engaging customers to the full extent possible.

12. TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW METHODOLOGY ADVOCACY AND LOYALTY: TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW 12 Technology Overview Methodology The Modern Marketing landscape is an ever-changing, ever-evolving environment in which new strategies, technologies, vendors and products appear continually. Our practical tools are designed to provide marketers with the tools and templates they need to plan for an initiative in a given focus area, analyze the vendor landscape and select the best vendor for their organization. Demand Metric Technology Overviews provide marketers with a focus on a specific technology solution set or focus area so that they are armed with the knowledge, information and tools they need to develop effective strategies for their organizations. Our Customer Engagement series includes Technology Overviews on Online Event Marketing Online Communities Gamification Each Technology Overview involves hours of analyst research (mainly publicly available information), is for a specific technology solution, and is usually accompanied by several practical tools. We provide a comprehensive overview of Customer Engagement in the companion report Customer Engagement Best Practices Report. V I E W R E S O U R C E

13. ABOUT DEMAND METRIC ADVOCACY AND LOYALTY: TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW 13 About Demand Metric Demand Metric is a marketing research and advisory firm serving a membership community of over 120,000 marketing profes- sionals and consultants in 75 countries. Offering consulting methodologies, advisory services, and 500+ premium marketing tools and templates, Demand Metric resources and expertise help the marketing community plan more efficiently and effectively, answer the difficult questions about their work with authority and conviction, and complete marketing projects more quickly and with greater confidence, boosting the respect of the marketing team and making it easier to justify resources the team needs to succeed. To learn more about Demand Metric, please visit www.demandmetric.com

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