It's time to focus on what keeps a program truly thriving: meaningful engagement. In this playbook, we will walk you through how to engage your advocates in a way that is timely, balanced, scalable, and built for the long haul.

Strike While the Iron is Hot

The best time to get an Advocate to participate is within the first few weeks after they complete your Activation form. They were feeling energized enough about your company to sign up, so tap into that energy quickly. This also reinforces your program and their membership. Imagine if you waited six months to make your first request – they might not even remember signing up!

Pro Tip: Consider a Friday afternoon email to all Advocates who signed up that week. Give them an additional warm welcome, and share a bit about yourself and anyone they might be hearing from related to your Advocacy program. This starts creating that personal connection before you even have a request to send their way.

Have a few pre-written Advocacy opportunities ready to go to send out based on the preferences they selected. Clearly state in your request that you're excited to share their first participation opportunity with them and make sure they know how to contact you if they have questions. This is a great chance to build that first connection with your Advocate.

Here are some great first asks to consider:

• ‍Third Party Review: Ask them to submit a review on a site like TrustRadius or G2 (based on your current needs and the 'badge' timelines of the vendors).‍
• Quote/Testimonial: Ask them to write 2-5 sentences about your product or company as if they were talking to a colleague or peer. Show them 1-2 examples to get them thinking or offer up a few bullet point topics to steer them into writing something impactful.‍
• Event Speaker: Consider asking them to fill in a short form (or just reply via email) about topics they could speak about. Even though you may not need them to speak right at that moment, you're building a library of potential speakers and you're keeping them engaged. Win-win!

Plan Quarterly Activities

Create an annual calendar with your biggest Advocacy needs on it. For example: third-party review site deadlines, annual conference Call for Speakers, your goal number of case studies and/or quotes per quarter, quarterly webinar speakers, and pre-planned press releases (such as end-of-year wrap ups).

Now you have a timeline for many of the opportunities that you'll share with your Advocates, in addition to the ad hoc requests that will pop up. You can also use this to prioritize the requests for some of your top Advocates, such as foregoing a smaller ask of a client in Q1 because you know that in Q2 you want to ask them to speak on a webinar.

Pro Tip: It's not just about what you're asking of your Advocates, it's also about what you're giving them in return! Consider a quarterly webinar exclusively for Advocates to make them feel valued and special. They get product sneak peeks or get to ask questions of an executive, making them feel connected to your brand and your future. During this webinar you can also publicly thank some Advocates and share the upcoming opportunities for the next quarter.

Spread the Love

It's easy to keep asking the same core group of reliable Advocates to participate in activities, but it won't set your program up for long-term success.

Put your tracking data to use! Take a look at who hasn't performed an activity yet this year or for the last two quarters and start your requests with that group of people. Additionally, always be sure you're offering people activities that align with their initial selections! If you have an Advocate that you think would make a great webinar speaker but they didn't check the box to be a speaker, acknowledge that when you make the request so that they feel valued and "seen."

Manual Outreach

As busy Customer Marketers it's important to automate as much as we can to increase our effectiveness and impact. But it's also crucial to continue to develop one-on-one relationships with Advocates throughout the year. Frankly, they'll be more likely to say 'yes' to a request from someone they've spoken with! But you'll also receive valuable insight about their interests and expertise so you can tap them for the perfect opportunities.

Try setting aside time each month to do a few of the following ideas:

• ‍Coffee Chats: Set up "coffee chats" with advocates you haven't connected with yet or don't know a lot about. Use this time to learn more about topics they can discuss as speakers or references, but also about their hobbies or interests. Send them a $10 Starbucks card a few days ahead of time to make it feel even more like a "coffee chat".‍
• Handwritten Notes: Send handwritten notes to 3-5 Advocates each month. These can be thank you notes if they've recently done an activity, or merely just an acknowledgement of their program participation and that you look forward to sharing some upcoming opportunities with them.‍
• LinkedIn Shout Outs: Give 2-3 Advocates a LinkedIn shout out each month and/or re-share their content with your own comments. Anything you can do to help increase their personal brand is always a plus!

Pro tip: Drop them a note when their account renews and/or when they receive a promotion!

Think Long Term

At the end of the day, engaging your Advocates is about being thoughtful and consistent. When customers understand what they're being asked to do, feel respected in how often they're asked, and see that their time is valued, they're far more likely to stay engaged over the long term. A strong advocacy program is built on trust and balance.

You've made it through the full series!

This post wraps up The Customer Marketing Playbook — a four-part series on building a strategic, scalable Customer Advocacy Program from the ground up. Whether you're just getting started or looking to level up a program that's lost momentum, we hope these playbooks give you the foundation, the framework, and the confidence to build something that lasts. Ready to dive deeper?

Check out the full series here.

About This Series

This playbook series was created by Champion in collaboration with Heather Foeh Consulting. Heather brings 19 years of experience in customer-facing leadership roles across customer marketing, customer success, and community building at companies including Eloqua, Oracle, Workfront, Adobe, and 6sense.

Champion is an AI-powered customer advocacy platform that helps B2B companies identify, activate, and mobilize their most passionate customers. Our mission is to make trust the most powerful engine for business growth — using the voices and relationships of your happiest customers to make business more human.