Why can’t a customer advocacy platform be used to drive engagement with prospects? 

That’s what many of our customers have been asking us lately, particularly in light of the global pandemic and their apprehension of trying to drum up new business in the middle of it using traditional demand generation methods. 

I can’t think of any reasons why you can’t use our platform for creating a unique experience and journey for prospects. If the foundational elements—targeting, personalization, gamification and rewards—are successful for customers, why not put it in practice for other cohorts, such as prospects, employees, partners, and developers? 

This blog focuses on prospects (we’ll save the others for a separate blog), and here are five reasons why you should use Influitive’s platform to engage with them.

#1. Break through the information clutter

Every marketer has one universal challenge: getting the attention and time of potential customers (prospects). It’s harder than ever in this noisy digital world. Every day, the average office worker sees thousands of ads and receives more than 100 emails. As both a consumer and marketer, you know the overwhelming majority of them are ignored. What if your messages were tied to points that prospects earned for completing your desired call to action (CTA)? What if those points accumulated like frequent flyer miles and loyalty programs? They just may pay more attention to you over other vendors.

#2. Stand out from the competition

How many direct and indirect competitors does your company have? With constantly shifting and diverging markets that make up the digital economy and your ecosystem, the answer probably changes daily—whether you know it or not. If your competitors are using a similar marketing playbook to reach the same target buyer—and they can spend more—you need to zig while they zag. Drive your prospects to an experiential hub where they get rewarded for actions you want them to take at their pace and in a refreshingly fun way. 

#3. Create a better buying experience

In life and in business it’s the journey, not the destination. Modern B2B buyers want a meaningful and personalized customer journey—and they expect to be treated as partners, not targets. According to the latest Salesforce Research State of Marketing report, 80% of customers say the experience a company provides is as important as its products and services. And, 84% of customers say being treated like a person, not a number, is very important to winning their business. More than ever, experience matters throughout the buying and customer lifecycle. 

#4. Foster a community of experts

Putting the right content in front of the right buyer at the right time is table stakes for marketers today. No matter how creative and impressive your advertising and content marketing programs are, they spring forward or backward through human engagement. Create a virtual community where prospects learn from and network with company experts, industry peers, and customer advocates to gain valuable advice and best practices around their specific challenges. Foreshadow what it will be like to be a valued customer of your company. 

#5. Discover future customer advocates

In a Demand Generation Benchmark report by Software Advice, B2B marketers were asked to rate the relative quantity and quality of the leads they generated through a variety of channels, from email marketing to trade shows. The channel that received the highest number of positive ratings for both was referral/advocate marketing. Referrals come from customer advocates, who evolved from satisfied prospects. The sooner you discover and mobilize your advocates, the better your top-line growth and bottom-line profits.

Introducing Influitive Experience

Today we are officially launching Influitive Experience. For us, it’s a hub for marketing, CS and CX professionals to experience Influitive’s customer engagement platform—and to earn points simply for doing things like watching a video, taking a survey, and other steps to learn about us, and tell us about you without the sales pressure.

For you, Influitive Experience could be a unique and modern way to engage prospective customers to efficiently grow your business. Why not give it a try—it’s free and you will earn 200 points just for signing up.