Influitive's AdvocateHub Changes the Future of Marketing

TORONTO and SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 17, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Influitive (@Influitive), the pioneer in B2B customer advocate management and mobilization has delivered the industry's first platform which harnesses the energy of advocacy and channels it into a sophisticated sales and marketing machine. 

(Logo:  http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120808/NE54065LOGO)

"There's a mounting body of evidence that word of mouth and social contagion are extremely important factors in the way purchasing decisions are made," said Jonah Berger, Associate Professor, Wharton School of Business. "The problem has been harnessing the power of advocates cost-effectively and at scale.  The company which solves this problem will have a profound effect on the marketing ecosystem."

B2B marketers must embrace advocate mobilization because:

• 70% of your buyer's journey happens before the sales organization is engaged, according to Sirius Decisions.*
• 74% of buyers find social media useful during the buying cycle, according to ITSMA (IT Services Marketing Association.)**
• 59% of B2B buyers researching a purchase spoke about it with peers who had considered a similar purchase, according to DemandGen.***

"Since we signed our first customers in 2004, our customers have always been fanatics and active advocates.  Very early on, we recognized this as a powerful asset in marketing's war of words," said Rob Meinhardt, General Manager of Dell KACE.  "AdvocateHub helps us harness these customer fans in a purposeful way.  Since using Influitive, we've seen increased social media activity, customer reference participation and advocacy overall leading to increased credibility in the market and – ultimately – increased sales."

Companies already benefitting from AdvocateHub include Xactly (@Xactly), Act-On (@ActOnSoftware), ShoreTelSky (formerly M5 Networks) (@ShoreTelSky), and DemandBase (@demandbase).  As a result of using AdvocateHub, these marketing leaders have seen increases in:

• Case studies
• Referrals
• Peer-to-peer references
• Customer quotes
• User council participation
• Sales leads

"The newest wave in marketing platforms is advocate mobilization.  We are seeing very strong demand for AdvocateHub as a solution for accelerating revenue growth through a faster buying process," said Mark Organ, co-founder and CEO, Influitive. "AdvocateHub drives a massive increase in advocate activity, which is facilitated by a fun, engaging and efficient experience for advocates.  Our centralized, self-service and always-on approach to advocate programs means that our customers can scale a high quality experience for hundreds or even thousands of active advocates every month. "

The 'Secret Sauce' Behind AdvocateHub

The success that customers have had using AdvocateHub can be attributed to its unique approach. Advocates are gently introduced to the platform, performing only tasks they enjoy, at their own pace – similar to an engaging iPad game. Whenever they complete a task, or challenge, they receive the types of rewards that best motivate B2B advocates: recognition, social capital, and opportunities for professional networking, to name just a few. Influitive's mastery of the advocate profiling and game mechanics combination drives record-breaking advocate engagement.

The typical AdvocateHub experience includes:

• A custom-branded portal for advocates to join
• A complete set of challenges for advocates to complete, ranging from the one-to-one (referrals and references) to the one-to-many (success stories and social media participation)
• Points, levels and badges that advocates earn by completing these challenges
• A reward center where advocates can redeem points for customer-selected rewards
• Integration with CRM systems such as Salesforce.com for a closed loop approach, motivating successful results, not just activity

AdvocateHub is free up to 20 advocates, and starts at $500/month for 20 active users.  B2B marketers can see how to motivate customers, employees and fans to become advocates and to share their experiences with AdvocateHub by signing up online at http://vip.influitive.com/join/prospect.  They can also follow the AdvocateHub conversation on Twitter with #AdvoMob. For more information, please visit http://influitive.com/advocatehub-plans-pricing/.

About Influitive

Influitive, based in Toronto and San Francisco, is changing the face of B2B marketing through its innovative AdvocateHub platform for advocate marketing. Today's buyers are leveraging knowledgeable peers at roughly twice the rate than they did even four years ago. Influitive's AdvocateHub lets marketers capture the enthusiasm of their best customers, followers, and evangelists, turning that into direct support through all stages of the buying cycle, from social media reviews and customer referrals to case studies and references.

Influitive's customers include some of most successful and fastest-growing business-to-business software firms in the world, who use their AdvocateHubs to massively shorten their customers' buying processes while maximizing win rates against competitors.

To learn how to get your advocates working with you, please visit http://www.influitive.com.

*Sirius Decisions - 2011 B-to-B Buyer's Journey

**IT Services Marketing Association (ITSMA), The Rise of the B2B Social Buyer: Results from the ITSMA How Buyers Consume Information Survey, 2011

***DemandGen Report: 2012 B2B Buyer Survey

Media Contact:

Pattie Mercier
Vigorous Communications for Influitive
[email protected]
+ 1 (978) 807-2972

SOURCE Influitive