3X More Referrals with Automated Advocacy Programs in Marketo

Client Overview — A SaaS Company Not Leveraging Its Happiest Customers

A fast-growing SaaS company had a strong base of satisfied customers but no formal advocacy or referral program. Positive reviews were scattered, and referrals happened only by chance. Marketing wanted to turn customer satisfaction into a structured growth engine but lacked the systems to do it at scale.

Challenges — Untapped Advocacy Potential

• No Centralized Program: Referrals and testimonials were ad hoc and untracked.
• Low Awareness: Customers didn’t know how to share reviews or refer peers.
• Manual Outreach: Collecting testimonials required 1:1 requests from CSMs.
• Missed Growth Opportunity: Customer love wasn’t fueling pipeline or brand credibility.

Solution — Advocacy and Referral Automation in Marketo

Xgrid helped the client design and automate a full advocacy program directly inside Marketo.

• Advocate Segmentation: Identified satisfied customers using NPS and product adoption data.
• Automated Referral Journeys: Built nurture streams inviting advocates to share referrals with built-in rewards.
• Review Campaigns: Created email workflows prompting happy users to post reviews on third-party sites.
• Testimonial Collection: Automated outreach for case study and reference participation.
• Gamified Rewards: Integrated points and recognition into referral workflows to sustain momentum.

Results — Customer Love Turned Into Growth

• 3X Increase in Referrals: Automated programs consistently drove new leads from advocates.
• Faster Case Study Creation: Automated testimonial collection tripled the pipeline of customer stories.
• Improved Review Volume: Online reputation strengthened through steady review generation.
• Higher Customer Engagement: Advocacy programs deepened relationships with top customers.
• Pipeline Boost: Referrals converted at higher rates than other inbound channels.

Turn customer love into a predictable growth engine. Get started with Xgrid’s Marketo Consulting Services and build automated advocacy programs that scale.

Key Takeaways — Advocacy is a Scalable Growth Lever

• Happy Customers Are Your Best Marketers: Advocacy creates trust faster than any campaign.
• Automation Makes It Sustainable: Structured workflows replace ad hoc testimonial chasing.
• Gamification Fuels Engagement: Recognition and rewards keep advocates active long-term.

Conclusion — From Ad Hoc Testimonials to an Advocacy Engine

By automating advocacy and referral programs inside Marketo, the client tripled referrals, strengthened its reputation, and built a sustainable growth engine powered by customer love.