How to Nurture Advocates (Recommenders): Examples and Measures

"A customer who, without being asked, recommends your product to those around them"—that is an advocate. An advocate who brings in new customers without ad spend is an ideal presence for any company, but they will not increase if you simply wait for them to emerge naturally. This article clearly organizes everything from the basics of what an advocate is, to how to identify nurturing targets using the STP strategy, concrete measures, examples, and the keys to success.

What Is an Advocate?

An advocate originally means "a defender or spokesperson," and in a marketing context it refers to a customer who voluntarily recommends a brand or product to others. They are also called "recommenders" or "brand advocates."

The difference from a mere repeat customer is that they not only "keep buying themselves" but also "recommend to those around them." Through word of mouth to family and friends, posts on social media, and sharing reviews, they spread the brand's value on the company's behalf—an external cheering squad, so to speak.

Why Nurturing Advocates Matters

Several reasons lie behind the attention paid to nurturing advocates.

• Customer acquisition without relying on ads: An advocate's word of mouth tends to be trusted more than company-driven advertising, leading to low-cost acquisition of new customers.
• Improving LTV (lifetime value): Recommenders are also loyal customers who keep buying, tending to have a high lifetime value per person.
• A highly trustworthy information source: The voice of a customer, as a third party, is a powerful factor that pushes hesitant prospects to act.
• A stable base of brand support: The more highly engaged fans you have, the less you are swayed by price competition or temporary shifts in reputation.

The Stages Through Which an Advocate Emerges

Advocates do not emerge out of nowhere. Customers typically grow into recommenders through the following stages—imagine climbing the staircase of loyalty.

1. Prospect: The stage of being aware of the product and considering a purchase.
2. New customer: The stage of having purchased for the first time. Attachment to the brand is still thin.
3. Repeat customer: The stage of purchasing repeatedly and being satisfied with the product and brand.
4. Loyal customer: The stage of purchasing continuously and strongly supporting the brand.
5. Advocate (recommender): The stage of voluntarily recommending to others and spreading the brand.

Nurturing is nothing other than the effort to help customers climb this staircase one step at a time. The starting point is considering which-stage customers to address with which measures.

Identifying Advocate Candidates with the STP Strategy

Trying to turn all customers into recommenders indiscriminately only scatters your resources. This is where the STP strategy—a fundamental marketing framework—comes in handy.

The STP strategy is an approach that defines who to deliver what value to, through three steps: segmentation (dividing the market) → targeting (selecting the segment to pursue) → positioning (clarifying your standing). This STP strategy can be applied directly to "choosing the targets" for advocate nurturing.

• Segmentation: Divide customers by purchase frequency, spend, satisfaction, and so on to make visible the segments most likely to become recommenders. RFM analysis and NPS (an indicator of likelihood to recommend) are useful here.
• Targeting: From the divided segments, select the "recommender candidates" who already show high satisfaction or loyalty. The key is concentrating on the segment with the best cost-effectiveness for nurturing.
• Positioning: Clarify the "reason that customer would want to recommend you" to others. Define what you want them to talk about and which of the brand's values you want them to champion.

Using the STP strategy this way organizes "whom to nurture into recommenders, with what value," and dramatically raises the precision of your measures. It is important to design advocate nurturing not by gut feel, but as a strategic initiative grounded in the STP strategy.

Concrete Measures to Nurture Advocates

Once you have defined your target and direction with the STP strategy, the next step is translating it into concrete measures. Here are representative ones.

• Customer experiences that exceed expectations: Provide "beyond imagination" in product, support, and communication to create the kind of impression people want to talk about. The starting point of recommendation is satisfaction.
• Referral programs: Prepare perks for both parties on friend referrals to encourage recommendation behavior. Provide both the trigger and the reason to recommend as a set.
• Running a fan community: Create a venue for exchange among fans and with the company to heighten a sense of ownership and belonging.
• Activating UGC and word of mouth: Encourage review posts and social media sharing to build a mechanism where the customer's voice spreads. Featuring posts and expressing gratitude are also effective.
• Preferential treatment with a special feel: Deliver the sense of "being cherished" through exclusive offers and early announcements for loyal customers.

Examples of Advocate Nurturing

The thinking behind advocate nurturing is widely incorporated into familiar services. Here are representative patterns with examples.

• Referral type: A mechanism in which referring a friend grants perks to both parties, creating a flow where existing customers willingly bring in new customers. Adopted by many subscription services and apps.
• Community type: Running a brand fan community and nurturing recommenders through continuous dialogue with highly engaged customers. Particularly effective for brands with strong empathy for their worldview, such as outdoor and cosmetics brands.
• Ambassador type: Certifying especially enthusiastic fans as official ambassadors and encouraging their messaging. Recognition and a special role become strong motivations for recommendation behavior.

In every example, the common thread is preparing both a "reason to recommend" and a "mechanism that makes recommending easy" for the customer.

Keys to Making Advocate Nurturing Succeed

Finally, here are the practical points for turning advocate nurturing into results.

• Build on satisfaction: A dissatisfied customer will not become a recommender. Raising customer satisfaction first is the premise for everything.
• Narrow the target with the STP strategy: Rather than aiming at everyone, concentrate resources on the segment most likely to become recommenders.
• Don't "force" recommendation: Moving people too much with incentives tends to produce unnatural word of mouth. A design that respects spontaneity protects trust.
• Nurture the relationship continuously: Take the view of helping customers climb the staircase of loyalty as long-term relationship-building, not a one-off measure.

Summary

An advocate (recommender) is a customer who voluntarily recommends a brand to others. Because it leads to ad-free customer acquisition and improved LTV, nurturing advocates has become an important theme for many companies. Since customers grow into recommenders through prospect, repeat customer, and loyal customer stages, designing which stage to address with which measures is essential. At that point, using the STP strategy to clarify "whom to nurture into recommenders, with what value" raises the precision of your measures. Continuing measures like expectation-exceeding experiences, referrals, and community management—on the foundation of satisfaction—is the shortcut to increasing recommenders. Start by identifying your own loyal customers with the STP strategy.