Customer Storytelling: Validate your company’s vision and technology

When you have a great product or service, the real PR magic happens. People start rooting for you. Advocacy is a powerful communications tool that drives awareness, builds pipeline and influences revenue. 

Customer storytelling, for example, is one of the most effective ways to validate a company’s vision and technology. It can be leveraged to explain how features and functions work, inspire cross-platform adoption, and even deepen customer relationships. 

But a successful customer advocacy program takes time and effort to build. Here’s what our EVP and Pacific Northwest General Manager Kate Riley recommends: 

Identify the right customers

Are there specific audiences you’re trying to reach? Access to credible and knowledgeable spokespeople who can speak to results and direct outcomes is key.

Communicate how it benefits them

Reinforce how working together can (and will) help both of your brands boost awareness and credibility in the space. Just be sure to get sign off from the customer and their PR or legal team to be named publicly.

Keep it low pressure

These are your paying customers after all. We recommend keeping the ask casual. And if the company isn’t up for participating in a media interview, perhaps they would be interested in speaking during a LinkedIn Live event or sharing their experience as a written case study for the website instead. 

Show (and tell) different use cases

Find ways to spotlight how the product or service is being adopted across priority verticals. Keep questions like these in mind: 

• How long have you been using the product/service?
• What problem(s) were you facing/what was the need that caused you to look for a solution like this?
• After implementing the solution, what were some noticeable improvements?
• Can you share specific metrics on how it reduced costs, downtime and/or improved efficiency for your business?

Choose the moment

Can a customer support an upcoming launch or extend momentum after a recent one? 

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