Customer advocacy in action: Influitive's Ari Hoffman shares industry secrets

If you work in sales or customer success, you know how your business is going all out to make that net new sale right now.

But, if you focus exclusively on marketing returns, your business will see a reverse hockey stick trend due to the noisy spray-and-pray method. Scaling marketing programs for the after-sales experience is key to standing out. Ask your customers to be your champions, and they'll spread the word for you.

I had the pleasure of chatting with Ari Hoffman, VP of Customer Marketing and Advocacy at Influitive, to find out how businesses can unleash the power of customer advocacy. During our chat, Ari talked about how he transitioned into customer marketing, how brands can launch customer advocacy programs, and how to leverage the voice of customers to win new customers.

This interview is part of G2's Professional Spotlight series. For more content like this, subscribe to G2 Tea, a monthly newsletter with SaaS-y news and entertainment.

What's your favorite drink? Tea. I love all teas - Tasani, Oolong and Darjeeling tea. I am a big fan of tea. I love everything from floral and hibiscus to rich and dark.

When do you enjoy it? When I need a little pick-me-up and a little flavor.

What was your first job? My first unpaid job was cleaning up poop and pee from dog enclosures at a pet store. If I cleaned all the enclosures, they let me play with all the puppies at the end of the day when the store closed. I love dogs so much, so this was my favorite thing to do. I did it three times a week. My first paid job was when I was 14 or 15. I was a host at the Malibu Inn restaurant. I was letting people in, finding them seats and making reservations.

What is your favorite software in your current tech stack? Influential.

What issues at work make you want to throw your laptop out the window? I haven't had one for a while. But often the frustration is actually on me, where I'm unable to communicate properly. You know those times when you have to teach from the top down, and sometimes you feel like people just don't get it. You don't understand what you're doing wrong and why you're explaining in a way that doesn't make sense or resonate. These times can be very, very frustrating.

Sudipto Paul: You mentioned how frustrating it is when people don't understand what you're saying. How can we avoid this when communicating with customers?

Ari Hoffman: Well, it's not just for customers. It's up to employees, peers, co-workers and everyone else. It's about stepping back, breathing, understanding and empathizing with everyone and how busy and full their plates are.

When you have such a full cup, it's hard to pour anything else into it. So it's not always their fault, especially if they don't work at it daily and don't have the same point of view as you.

You need to be patient and tolerant, and find clever ways to help them understand how this relates to what they're currently doing. So how do you show empathy, right? How do you find ways to change their perspective to yours? It is not by imposing ideas on them. It's leading them through their own interests towards what you're trying to achieve.

So if I talk to sales management about how the referral program should fit, I'll talk about how it contributes to speed, time to close, and conversion rates . How does this help improve adoption rate once a customer becomes a customer?

I'm going to talk about those things that resonate with them to bring them to the points that matter. From there, they will start wanting to know you, understand you, and support you.

It makes so much sense. Now let's go back to how you started your career in architecture and slowly moved into customer marketing over the years. What was that journey like and what made you move into customer advocacy?

Yeah, it's funny you say I eventually moved into a customer marketing role. There was no customer marketing field when I started in tech, and I haven't been there that long. Some people think I've been doing this for 20 years. I've been doing this for eight now.

I started in 2015 as an integration manager. I quickly evolved to be a bit of a corporate evangelist. The CEO said he couldn't be anywhere at all...