Social CRM: Brand Advocacy and the Evolution of the Loyalty Program

Advocacy: Another Key Metric in the Loyalty Equation

In our February 7th post we talked about the coming revolution that is Social CRM and the profound impact measuring, quantifying and integrating these conversations into CRM profiles will have in establishing the value of Brand Advocacy. It is the concept of rewarding these advocates that we want to focus on in this post. In particular we will examine the evolution of the Loyalty Program in a world where Brand Conversations and behaviours associated with Brand Advocacy will be considered alongside purchase behaviour as prime drivers in establishing the components of program currency.

Loyalty programs have long been centered on a group of metrics primarily linked to purchase behaviour and with good cause. Consumption of goods and/or services is what drives a business forward and thus it is logical and appropriate to reward consumers for behaviours which directly contribute to this key business metric.

However what if someone is a relatively light consumer of a product or service but in some way personifies the core values or is a major advocate for said Brand? Is it in fact not possible that this individual may be worth more to the brand for his or her potential influence over a multitude of others than even the heaviest of users?

The Age of the Influencer

We are living in an age when the power of an individual to influence others (both positively and negatively) is becoming an increasingly major force in the Brand Marketing Ecosystem. Just as multi-level marketing firms celebrate and reward their most productive and influential distributors, so will Brands and their corporate owners recognize and reward their greatest advocates and by necessity, their greatest critics. This recognition is a public opportunity for Brands to celebrate their customers and to create and share content across the Social Influence Media universe. It also offers a terrific public relations upside. Loyalty Programs will accordingly evolve into mechanisms for rewarding not only consumption behaviour but also the Brand Advocacy of prospects and customers. Consumption will no doubt remain a key metric for determining customer value and currency or reward levels but there can be no question the metrics of Advocacy have fundamentally changed the Loyalty Equation forever.

To this end it is our view that the term Social CRM should be evolved to Social RM, because in the world of Brand Advocacy, Relationships are a currency of their own. These relationships will increasingly influence the metrics of Loyalty, whether one is a customer or a prospect.

Dual Sides of a Single Coin

Looking ahead, savvy practitioners of Social RM will come to view a Loyalty Program as a key pillar in building additional intimacy, understanding and dialogue with their customers. Indeed Social RM and Loyalty Programs are highly complementary and may well be viewed as most effective when paired in an integrated manner. Additionally, methodologies such as the STREAMED AND UNSTREAMED TAGGING PROCESS which we discussed in our last post, or tools such as the intriguing WECANDO.BIZ offer an unparalleled and rich opportunity to provide value and reward customer or prospect behaviour in the days, months and years ahead.

Social CRM: Mining The Real Power of Social Influence Marketing

The Revolution Is Beginning

There is a growing buzz around the concept of Social CRM and with good cause. CRM and Loyalty Marketing Programs have long demonstrated the power of creating a currency and then segmenting, targeting and rewarding people on the basis of preference and needs. The rise of Social Influence Media has given even more meaning to the potential inherent in the concept of one to one marketing, but thus far it is rare to see real discipline applied to the scientific management of conversations or their integration into CRM initiatives let alone broader corporate marketing efforts.

Integrating Brand Conversations

Integrating Brand conversations into customer database profiles fundamentally enhances and changes the CRM proposition. Traditional measures of brand health such as equity, awareness or loyalty and broader business metrics such as consumption or sales may now be complemented by a measure of Brand Advocacy. In a world of Social CRM it is possible to both ask and answer whether somebody who may be a light user can actually be worth more to a marketer than a heavy user by virtue of his or her Advocacy and the impact this Advocacy may have on the consumption habits of others. This equation is game changing. By better understanding how Brand conversations impact core brand and business metrics, marketers will be able to dramatically rethink their creative and media mixes and to engage and reward the right individuals as never before.

Don't Just Listen: Tag, Integrate, Measure and Reward

Taking the monitoring of Brand conversations to the next level and integrating them into new or existing customer profiles requires an understanding of the power of the the Streamed and Unstreamed Tagging Process. Streamed Tagging occurs when a customer or prospect chooses to interact with brand content in the online space and shares some basic personal data such as that required to use Facebook Connect. These interactions and personal data are then captured and mapped against Brand conversations that this same individual may be having and integrated into the CRM database for mining and measurement. Unstreamed Tagging represents an enormous opportunity for marketers but is quite labour intensive. It occurs when a prospect or customer is overheard, usually via a Social Media monitoring tool such as Radian6 or trucast and is engaged by the Brand or Community spokesperson. After opening a direct, authentic and relevant conversation with a prospect or customer, the spokesperson can manually tag the individual for follow up or re-engagement later, offer to send them information on the product or service or, with permission, even add them to the database. Unstreamed Tagging is an enormously powerful and appealing tactic to marketer and consumer alike: just think how good you felt the last time someone responded to a comment you made online in a timely and sincere manner. (If you have not had the pleasure as yet, try it. Done well it is truly rewarding.)

Listening, measuring and rewarding the actions of your most valuable prospects and customers in a scientific yet authentic manner is a testament to the power of the coming revolution called Social CRM.

It is indeed an exciting time to be a marketer, a prospect or a customer.



Next week we will explore in greater depth the concept of rewarding prospects and customers and the relationship between Social CRM and the evolution of the the Loyalty program.