Your advocates are one of sales' and marketing's most powerful assets. The cost for a prospect to connect with their peers is close to zero, and only companies who can leverage their advocates can take advantage of this trend.

Advocate marketing is in the early stages of adoption, but in the next three to four years, the best companies will use advocacy as one of their central organizing principles. These organizations will:

• Hire executives in charge of advocacy and build departments focused on managing the advocate marketing process.
• Drive advocacy every day and use their advocate metrics as a core indicator of corporate health.
• Measure advocacy as a core indicator of customer satisfaction. These companies are moving beyond Net Promoter Scores and identifying and rewarding advocates that are driving real value for their organization.

Today's advocate-focused organizations are showing results that bode well for the coming advocate movement. These companies:

• Build better products, price and promote them properly, and deliver real value because of the relationships they build with their advocates.
• Develop compelling customer-driven content.
• Leverage advocates as their lowest cost, highest converting lead source.
• Receive brand reinforcement and promotion from their advocates - the source that matters most to today's buyers.

Because of the low costs associated with creating an advocate marketing program and the proven results associated with these efforts, it's easy for companies to get started. We hope that our Advocate Marketing Playbook provides the blueprint you need to design and build your own advocate marketing program.