Lauren Sawyer (00:02)
But if you can say like, here's what didn't work and then how we handled it, your audience then feels like they have that leg up
Ben Ard (00:35)
Welcome back to another episode of Content Amplified. Today I'm joined by Lauren. Lauren, welcome to the show.
Lauren Sawyer (00:40)
And thanks so much.
Ben Ard (00:41)
Yeah, Lauren, I am excited to have you on. It's going to be a really fun subject today that I'm excited for. But before we dive in, let us get to know you. Tell the audience a little bit about yourself and background.
Lauren Sawyer (00:53)
Yeah, you got it. So I started my career actually as a news producer in the Midwest and then I moved to New York City nine years ago, did some in-house production, found my way into tech five years ago, taught myself marketing through a little bit of a side hustle. And right now I've just started a new role at dual.tech where I am running events for the United States ⁓ in a super person centered event focused marketing role.
I'm super excited to be back to meeting people in person. And yeah, I'm excited to talk about more about, okay. And I'm excited to talk more about that.
Ben Ard (01:30)
Well, today what we're going to focus on is customer advocacy. The idea that this should drive your marketing and everything that you're doing. It was so interesting when we were talking before we clicked the record button. Immediately you were drawn to this subject. You brought it up. This is something I love, something I talk about. Why the passion? Like why, why are you so caring about customer advocacy and what are your thoughts to kind of kick off the conversation?
Lauren Sawyer (01:55)
Yeah, so in the process of doing events, I've done about 300 virtual events. And people always ask me, yeah, like what works? And it's like, well, I've really seen what works and doesn't work at this point. And what works is bringing on customers to tell their story. And the more authentic, the better. So if you can get into the good, bad, and the ugly,
Ben Ard (02:02)
That's a lot.
Lauren Sawyer (02:18)
That is fine. Like a lot of companies are afraid to air out their dirty laundry of like, this is the piece of implementation that didn't really land, for example.
But if you can say like, here's what didn't work and then how we handled it, your audience then feels like they have that leg up
of like being able to like, yes, no, this will solve my problem. And then also be able to kind of learn from their experience. So it became just kind of obvious to me.
that being close to your customer, making sure they have a great experience learning from them and putting their story out was a very effective way to market. And then I connected with the founder of Dual.Tech and we had this whole conversation where he had the same experience working in the brand world, where he was like, you have to be building something that is so exceptional, your customers are willing to share that with other people. And so he built a whole platform around it.
and we are telling people about it through events, but not even really the platform. We're leading with advocacy, again, education about the space before even telling people about the platform. So I think it's a really, really powerful way to orient your messaging and build relationships before selling.
Ben Ard (03:33)
I love that. That's amazing. I am a huge fan of having your customers tell your story for them and you tell their story. All of that stuff is fantastic. But when we talk tactically, how are you getting to the customer and finding the right customers and how are you giving them a platform to share their experience and their story in the first place?
Lauren Sawyer (03:53)
Yeah, so there's a couple ways when you talk about like business development in terms of getting in front of the right people, tools doing something really exciting where we're not cold calling, we're not sending template at emails. We have a network team that goes to industry events to learn the industry and meet the people who are actively involved in it and build relationships. And so we're starting everything from actually getting to know a person.
not trying to get them to know a platform. So I think it's a really positive place to start and move forward. And then in terms of selecting somebody to be your advocate on content, those people raise their hands. Honestly, if you're doing your job right, you see them already posting about it. They send their account manager feedback that they had a campaign that went really well using the platform. And it's like, hey, like, thank you so much for sharing. Do you want to like,
collaborate on XYZ content to do that. And so again, just literally keeping your eyes and ears open and having close relationships is the answer.
Ben Ard (04:54)
That's so cool. So you talked about all of these virtual events and how you're now kind of shifted into these in person. How exciting it is for us to actually meet one another face to face again in real time. That's so great. How are you taking customer advocacy to a physical event? How is that influencing what you're doing?
Lauren Sawyer (05:13)
Yeah, so a company value is to build exceptional experiences. an exceptional experience really is something that people will go back to their friends, to their team and say, I had such a great time. And they think, ⁓ I want to go as well. So you're bringing in more people. You're creating something that people love so much they will clear their calendar to go, right?
⁓ And so I always am looking for the little personalized touches that help people understand that this event was created intentionally for them. It could be their name tag being ready and already printed out. It could be ⁓ sending a personalized follow-up with another additional personalized offer that relates to something they mentioned they enjoy. Like literally thinking through the experience from start to finish based on the person who is attending.
Ben Ard (06:04)
Okay, I love that. So what's interesting is when I hear the words customer advocacy, I immediately go towards testimonials. I'm getting people who are on my platform to talk about my platform and share it. You've taken it to this whole new level. As we're talking, you're talking about just any interaction with the business is exceptional, even if it's an about the platform, right?
Lauren Sawyer (06:24)
Yeah, it's a concept.
Yeah, because how you do one thing is how you do everything. So, you you want people to really like positively associate, you know, excellence with you and your organization. And then also, like testimonials are definitely part of it that's telling other people about it. And then when it comes to the platform side of what we do to facilitate customer advocacy.
that's working with really exceptional brands in the fashion and beauty space like Abercrombie & Fitch, Victoria's Secret, Charlotte Tilbury. They white label the platform and they're able to engage with their most passionate customers to help them create content, leave referrals, so there's those testimonials. And then they have their own individual rewards programs based on each client and how they want to structure it.
And then what's important is they can track that too. So historically, like I think it's been so undervalued because you can't track people talking about you offline. But we're doing our best to put a little bit of metrics behind that so we can enable business leaders to be able to really stand for customer advocacy and put some numbers behind that.
Ben Ard (07:31)
Okay, I love that. For anyone that wants to really up their game with customer advocacy, when they're just in the early phases, they're trying to prove out the concept, they're trying to put time and effort and maybe even budget into it, what are some of the early recommendations you have? And then as they grow into something cool like your platform and things like that, but how do they get that motion started in general? Are there any tips like, here's what I would do today.
just to kind of move one step in the right direction.
Lauren Sawyer (07:59)
That's a really good question when it comes to events with a customer advocacy mindset. I would say keeping them small. Like we're going for having the right people in the room who are really going to benefit from the messaging and be able to make really strong connections with each other. So you're looking at 15 to 20 people. Like this is not a numbers game. It is about being intentional.
⁓ And so even if you have like a virtual event as well, like be on camera, send a Zoom link, a Google Meet link, instead of doing like a true one to many webinar and focus on the personal experience over just like telling people something. Like any way you can increase engagement and make it a two-way conversation is really important. And I would just say as well, think of what you want to do and go test it. Like what is like the...
MVP, your minimum viable product of like going out and running a mini campaign. And if you're seeing success, then go scale that.
Ben Ard (08:54)
I love that. So I'm going to ask you a question and then share an experience because I'm going to put you on the spot and have you think of something. So I'll give you a second to think about it, but I would love any examples of events that you've done and some like really meaningful experiences that you've been able to witness that just to get the juices flowing for people. And I'll quickly share a cool experience that I had. I was invited as a founder to this really cool dinner and it was really just like 15 to 20 people.
Lauren Sawyer (09:02)
Okay.
Ben Ard (09:20)
It was at a nice restaurant and it was a really like awesome opportunity. There was the opportunity to meet people. It was a small setting, but was really nice. Every single table had a customer of this brand who had actually invited us and they had a couple of them actually get up and share their personal experiences. They sat down and immediately when they sat down, the questions are, Hey, how much does a platform cost? Like, what do you think about it? Like, tell me about this. And immediately.
the conversation went in the right direction and the company didn't really even have to talk about themselves that much. They just invited like two people to share their experiences and it was really cool. that customer got free dinner and got to have that experience and all that kind of fun stuff. So that was one experience that this was like three, four years ago. I still remember that experience vividly. I still have connections from that event and relationships that I built there that I really value.
Lauren Sawyer (09:53)
Thank you.
Yeah.
Ben Ard (10:12)
So I really believe in this concept. now turning it back to you, Lauren, any like meaningful experiences that you've had that you could share with the audience.
Lauren Sawyer (10:20)
I mean, that's absolutely the goal. You really hit the nail on the head of how you do it. And so in terms of like bringing stories to life, leading with value, keeping the group small and intentional and making sure that people are also meeting each other, not just interacting with your company. So lots of really great things highlighted there. Yeah, things that stand out to me, one are a dinner that I went to and was invited for marketing leaders and
It was a private room at kind of a sushi place. They brought in actually a musical improv actor. I recognized him from a show. My friend loves musical improv. And I was like, me to be careful about talking to you, I'm gonna end up in the set. But he's fantastic. And so we had a little extra fun, surprise and delight moment. And then they were really, really intentional with...
Ben Ard (10:56)
Nice.
Lauren Sawyer (11:13)
allergies. And so I think that's another thing that really helps people feel seen is when you have food at an event to make and also like alcohol versus mocktails and all that good stuff. Really, really make sure there's an option for everybody if at all possible. That's a great way to be inclusive. And then from there, like we had a whole conversation as one because it was a small enough group, we could kind of all go around the table.
before we broke off into kind of our individual side conversations is a really good connection point. And then from there, we were sent home with a little piece of pizza. Can you believe that? Sushi place that also makes pizza. And so that extra kind of like cherry on top of something to take home. So it's that beginning to end experience. And then like even in terms of an event that I put on, I remember one time putting on a little retreat where I had
Ben Ard (11:48)
Hmm. Weird.
Lauren Sawyer (12:04)
design the name tags and I really care a lot about name tags. I'm classic event marketer. So I made them to be pinned on someone's chest so you could easily see them lanyards flip around and that bothers me because you get to a point where you can't read anyone's name. I always like to make the font quite big and easy to read because a lot of times name tags are way too small font. And then I put a really pretty design with the name and I had multiple people ask when I was collecting lanyard or the name tags if they could keep their name tag because they liked it.
Ben Ard (12:32)
Wow.
Lauren Sawyer (12:33)
Right. And I was just like, that mattered. Like a lot of people like, yeah, it's a lantern. It's a name tag. You just get it done. Maybe people hand write their own on a sticker and but then it's falling off and it's like, no, like really zoning in on that piece, especially because their name was on it. It really mattered. Two out of 30 people asked to keep their name tag. So that is the level of detail of when it comes to each person that I would recommend.
Ben Ard (12:36)
I love that.
That's very cool. So when you're at these small events and it's an intimate setting, I love how you talked about, had a small enough group that we could all talk together. How do you like drive the conversation? Like I'm sure that's the next thought. How do I, is it education? Is it just acquaintances, relationships, any recommendations there? So if someone puts on an event, they kind of have a starting point to say, okay, this is what we're going to actually do besides eat or whatever it is. Like this is how we're going to have a discussion.
Lauren Sawyer (13:25)
That's a great question. I would always start with introductions. I think it's really valuable to give everyone a chance to share who they are, maybe why they showed up to the event, how they learned about it maybe even. And then, I'm not a huge fun fact girly. I like to kind of get a little bit meatier and ask people to share maybe a challenge that they're working on or project they're really excited about.
And so we can kind of go a little bit deeper into who each person is and what they're kind of in the middle of at work. And then that is a really good spark for conversations where people can learn from each other.
Ben Ard (13:59)
Okay, I absolutely love that. I only have time for one more question because these episodes go by so quick. I'm a marketer and I'm sitting here listening to this episode and I'm thinking, okay, I gotta do this. I need to try this. I need to prove this. Any recommendations for anyone listening that has to go and convince their boss, I need budget.
Just hear me out. Let's go try this. We may not even pitch the product. We're going to go build relationships. Here's what we're going to do. What would you recommend to that person who is going to go out and take the leap of faith and try one of these events if they haven't been doing it before?
Lauren Sawyer (14:34)
A couple things. One is obviously you said go to your boss. If they're not your executive sponsor, as you're getting to know other leaders in your organization, see if there's anyone else that thinks like you do and says like, is interesting, or they've been to an event where it works and it was really impactful. And it's not like you're kind of like them against other people, but you need to find
your people who are going to help you influence the company. It's a little political, it's an education process. Who's on your side to help bring this to life? I think that can be really helpful. Additionally, there's data behind this. It's proven that a recommendation from a friend is on average two to three times more effective than a paid app.
And so how do you get those recommendations? Where do they come from? Where do they start? It's probably a relationship which can sound fluffy to a lot of people, but at the end of the day, if we're not selling to people, what are we doing? So, but there is still a data and reporting piece to it. So keeping track of who attended your events, even if it's
Ben Ard (15:37)
I love it. Yeah.
Lauren Sawyer (15:45)
you know, nine to 12 months out, like, is there a way to see if any referrals were driven if they you've had any upsells, new customers? And then if you can literally hand people a quick little piece of paper at the event to say like, rate this like for the value one one out of five, would you recommend this this event to a friend one out of five? What's one thing you learned and maybe keep it to like three really quick questions. And I do really recommend
using paper because people can do it there in 10 seconds instead of like sending them a survey afterward. It feels a little more personal and then also it's guaranteed to be anonymous right like people don't have to worry if their info is being tracked online and just again get a little bit of data so that you have something to stand on, lean back on.
Ben Ard (16:30)
I love that. That's so cool. Now all of these insights have been amazing. Lauren, I really do appreciate you sharing all of this. Our audience is going to love it. For anyone listening who wants to reach out and connect with you online, how and where can they find you?
Lauren Sawyer (16:43)
I love it. I'm pretty active on LinkedIn. So Lauren R. Sawyer on LinkedIn is my handle and I'm happy to chat events and customer advocacy.
Ben Ard (16:53)
love it and anyone listening to this episode, scroll down to the show notes, you'll find Lauren's profile linked in the bottom, click on the link, connect with Lauren, say hello. Lauren, this has been amazing. Thank you so much for your time today.
Lauren Sawyer (17:06)
New ballot!
