7 Signs You Need a New Employee Advocacy Vendor
There’s nothing more important than customer loyalty in an economic downturn.
And one of the best ways to stimulate customer loyalty is employee advocacy. When your customers hear from your employee ambassadors, they’ll be more likely to trust you.
Unfortunately, some employee advocacy vendors can be seriously detrimental to your marketing results.
In this article, we’re going to show you 7 signs that you need a new employee advocacy vendor.
Let’s take a look!
1. Your Employee Advocacy Vendor Doesn’t Motivate Your Brand Ambassadors
This is the most common problem when it comes to social advocacy tools. Vendors offer basic features such as internal communications, but forget one very important aspects of employee advocacy:
Motivation.
If your employee ambassadors perceive brand advocacy as yet another chore, they’ll be less likely to create content that resonates with your customers.
And since we know that messages shared by employee ambassadors go 561% further than messages shared by brands’ official channels, you want to make sure your employees’ messages show your company in the right light.
A reliable employee advocacy vendor will help you motivate your employee ambassadors.
DrumUp, for example, uses gamification to motivate your employee ambassadors:
- Create leaderboards
- Start contests
- Run games
It’s a win-win!
2. Your Social Advocacy Vendor Doesn’t Have Advanced Features
At first glance, employee advocacy is simple: your employee ambassadors start using your tool, share your news, and presto! You’re converting more customers than ever before.
Unfortunately, it’s not that simple.
If you want to convert more with employee advocacy (an on average, leads attracted through employee advocacy convert 7x more than others), you need a powerful brand advocacy program.
Features to Look for in a Social Advocacy Tool
Your social advocacy vendor has to offer features that are advanced, but easy to use.
For example, DrumUp’s tool offers:
- One-click scheduling and automated company news broadcasts
- Industry news feeds to improve your thought leadership
- 1-click sharing options for employee ambassadors
- Simple administration and powerful analytics
- Content curation
- Slack integration
Additionally, you can negotiate up to 3 custom features. We’ll get them done within the first 30 days of your subscription!
The best tools are powerful under the hood, but easy to use above it.
Your tool should provide automated broadcasts from company feeds (social media, blogs, and more), but it should also be easy to share your news.
For example, if you use DrumUp, your employee ambassadors can share your news with a single click.
It’s important to stay in touch with your industry.
If your employee ambassadors read industry news, they can curate content and turn your company into a thought leader in your field.
Content curation also takes the pressure off your employees. You don’t have to create your own content all the time. Providing commentary on recent trends can be equally beneficial!
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At the same time, DrumUp also has great gamification features to keep your employee ambassadors motivated.
3. Your Brand Advocacy Vendor Doesn’t Care about Your Success
Every company has its unique brand advocacy needs and standards. There’s definitely no one-size-fits-all solution, and great employee advocacy vendors know it.
That’s why they have dedicated customer success managers for every customer.
Your vendor’s customer success manager should:
- Serve as the main point of contact
- Help you create strategies and maximize the benefits of their tool
- Monitor your progress and offer helpful suggestions for improvement
While the customer success manager isn’t your employee and they can’t be available 24/7, they should regularly get in touch with you.
Since every company’s employee advocacy program is different, the CSM has to help you make the most out of their tool.
If that’s not happening, you need to start looking for a new brand advocacy vendor.
Employee Advocacy Success: Your Vendor’s #1 Priority
An employee advocacy tool is only as successful as its customers.
For example, DrumUp assigns every customer a dedicated Customer Success Manager.
They will be your main point of contact, and help you improve your social advocacy marketing with their expert insight.
4. It Takes Ages to Get Started with Your Social Advocacy Tool
Social advocacy isn’t something that can wait; the sooner you start, the better.
After all, 50% of employees are already posting about their companies.
However, some employee advocacy vendors don’t get that. You’re forced to go through lengthy and arduous set-up processes; from integrations to onboarding your employees.
By the time you’re done, the rules of the game have already changed.
Additionally, a complicated tool creates resistance to change.
Even if you have the loveliest employees who want to use your brand advocacy program and emphasize your strengths on social media, they may be put off by not knowing how to use your tool.
This is one of the main reasons why employee advocacy programs fail.
The best social advocacy vendors know that the key to customer success is having an easy-to-use tool, and providing training early on.
So if your vendor makes it hard to get started, and you find yourself fielding employee questions left and right, it’s time to make a change.
DrumUp Is an Easy-to-Use Social Advocacy Tool
How does DrumUp do things differently?
First of all, we guarantee that you’ll be able to set things up in 30 minutes or less.
If you need help, your dedicated DrumUp Customer Success Manager will be more than happy to assist you.
You’ll also receive onboarding support and training. But the dedication to customer success doesn’t stop there; you’ll receive ongoing training and support.
So whenever you decide to test a new feature or improve your employee advocacy program, DrumUp will be here to support you!
5. Your Social Advocacy Tool Costs Too Much
Yes, brand advocacy is absolutely indispensable during a crisis.
However, it doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg.
A lot of employee advocacy vendors charge steep prices for their software.
Instead of helping you get started and maximize your results, they make you pay hefty amounts for tools that are often too complicated to properly use.
Costs of traditional vendors’ starting plans often range from $300-500. They go even higher up as you onboard more users.
DrumUp Is Affordable
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At DrumUp, we want you to earn with employee advocacy – not struggle to break even.
Our tool is affordable when compared to our competitors.
It’s only about 25-30% of the cost of big players.
If you have 1-20 employee users, you’ll be able to get started with DrumUp employee advocacy for as little as $95/month!
6. You Need a New Employee Advocacy Vendor if There’s a Lock-In Period
The whole point of contemporary pricing models is flexibility.
You don’t have to keep using software that no longer works for you. You can change your mind whenever you want to.
However, plenty of social advocacy vendors have lock-in periods. If you opt for a plan, you’re bound by a contract to keep paying for the tool – even if you’re no longer using it.
In addition to this being the farthest thing from cost-effective, it also leaves a bad impression.
Fortunately, there are employee advocacy vendors who understand you.
So if your vendor has a lock-in period, bounce!
Flexible Social Advocacy Subscriptions Instead of Lock-In Periods
DrumUp’s employee advocacy tool offers monthly or annual subscriptions. There are no lock-in periods.
You can start or stop using our tool whenever you’d like, and you’ll be constantly supported by your Customer Success Manager.
7. If Your Employee Advocacy Vendor Charges for Onboarding, Leave ASAP!
It seems counter-intuitive to charge your customers extra when they start using your tool, but some social advocacy vendors still do it.
The typical situation looks something like this: you get in touch with the vendor, and say that you have plenty of employee ambassadors you’d like to onboard.
In turn, they promise to help you – but only if you pay an extra fee.
At the same time, you’re probably paying hundreds of dollars for the “privilege” of using their tool.
It’s not just bad business on their part. It can be downright detrimental to your business!
Smooth and Free Employee Ambassador Onboarding
At DrumUp, we believe that strong onboarding is the best foundation for employee advocacy success.
And if you start using our employee advocacy tool, there are no onboarding costs!
Choose your plan, and our Customer Success Manager will be in touch with you. They’ll help you set things up in less than 30 minutes, so your brand ambassadors can get right to work!
