How to Use Webinars to Create Brand Advocates

This post is the latest in our series on B2B marketing optimization and how to take your marketing efforts to the next level.

We finished up our last post where we focused on how webinars can reduce churn by suggesting turning your clients into advocates.

This next post will take a deeper dive into how you can use webinars for your customer advocacy marketing, in particular, how to create brand advocates. Let’s get started.

Identify several potential advocates with customer success

As part of your optimization efforts, you may want to consider focusing on how many users you can turn into brand advocates. Can you increase the number of customers who can either join you on a webinar or take part in a case study?

If you are wondering how to create brand advocates, there are a few ways of identifying how many potential advocates you have. Sit down with your customer success team and, together, identify how many users could make compelling advocates for your product or service. Also, examine engagement and usage data in your CRM and any other metrics that can help you pinpoint potential advocates.

It’s important to create a list with more advocates than you need, as not everyone will be able to assist due to commitments at work and elsewhere.

Identify what you want them to do for you

Once you have your shortlist of advocates, you now need to identify what you want them to do for you.

Try keeping it small at first. It might even help to create your own customer advocate journey. Perhaps start by asking them to sign-off on a quote singing the praises of your product or service and then progress into participating in a full case study and then taking part in a webinar or presenting at a live conference.

Make them an offer they can’t refuse

We aren’t talking Godfather style here, of course. You or your customer success team can send out an email asking them to do whatever you’d like them to do (provide a quote or case study or participate in a webinar) and offer them an incentive or reward. The incentive can be anywhere from a discount or some swag, or as simple as a thank you. It’s up to you and what you think will properly reward them for their efforts. Offering an incentive is one of the simplest ways if you’re uncertain about how to create brand advocates. 

Suggest webinar formats that make it easy

Since we are focusing on webinars, once you have their involvement, suggest webinar formats that will make it easy for the advocate.

The panel format is perfect for this because all they need to do is to show up, have a webcam ready and answer questions. They can even be pre-recorded so being present at the time of broadcast isn’t necessary.

Get them to commit to a particular time, place and activity

Once you have their interest, look to lock in their commitment in their calendar. This will help both you and your new advocate to plan accordingly.

Be flexible on time and commitments if needed

That flows right into the next point: be flexible on the time and commitment required.

Keep in mind, your advocates are busy professionals and other priorities might come up, so being respectful of their involvement and flexible on commitments can only help to strengthen your long-term relationship.

Get their name in front of potential prospects and customers

Once you’ve got the content from the advocate, whether it be a case study or a webinar, get your advocate’s name out there for people to see.

This is important because not only is this the job you wanted them to do, but it also reassures your advocate that their input has been useful and valued and that it has been taken forward.

Reward them after the webinar and build on their experience

Make sure to reward your advocate after they’ve participated in the webinar. Rewards can be either material or immaterial; just make sure they feel supported and appreciated for their time and efforts.

Lastly, build on their experience over time so they continue to deepen the relationship with you. Ensure that they feel valued and happy to speak up.

There you have it, now you know how to create brand advocates using webinars.

To see how ON24 showcases its own brand advocate webinerds, check out ON24’s customer stories and see their examples of success.