Not every company has social media ingrained into their DNA from the CEO down to every single employee.
Well, that’s Gainsight. The company created the category of Customer Success and are the trusted thought leaders in this space.
For Gainsight, establishing thought leadership meant that they’re in the position of authority, subject matter expertise, and the trusted source for all things “Customer Success.” To accomplish this, it took a world-class content marketing strategy, engaged employees, and a social-savvy CEO.
While thought leadership and employee advocacy can individually hold their own, when united, they combine to create a powerful force for driving business outcomes.
We recently hosted a webinar with Gainsight to uncover their dominant thought leadership and employee advocacy strategy. Zoe and Saphiya shared their secret sauce on aligning content marketing and employee advocacy, engaging executive support, and measurement.
Read further below for the top takeaways. Also, make sure to watch the full replay to learn how Saphiya and Zoe launched their employee advocacy program.
Skip the fluff and go straight to direct impact on ROI to get executive leadership support
If you’ve ever followed Gainsight’s CEO, Nick Mehta on Twitter then you know how active he really is. He’s always tweeting about the NFL, SaaS, and of course, Gainsight.
Saphiya mentioned that Nick believes all employees should play an active role by becoming a brand ambassador.
“It really helped to have a CEO who was already a big believer in the impact of social media. He constantly shares the messages that he gets on social media which is great because it anecdotally shows the impact of being active with prospects or customers can have on our brand.”
It’s not just the CEO; there are executives across Marketing, Product, and Sales who have leaped social media also. “He also encourages teammates to be active by talking about how powerful it can be for our business and how it can impact them personally and professionally as they engage more. He had ingrained in the company culture since even before I started, which I think is definitely leverage for us.”
If you’re convincing leadership on the value of employee advocacy, Saphiya recommends focusing on the value and ROI that executives care for.
Learn how executives can improve their brand image on social media.
Educational content is the fuel in the engine for an employee advocacy program
Gainsight’s content marketing strategy is a cornerstone of their thought leadership. Whether it’s eBooks, webinars, blogs, interviews, or podcasts – Gainsight has both the breadth and depth of a world-class content strategy.
Zoe mentioned that providing value and education to their audience is the most crucial aspect of Gainsight’s content strategy. It’s not always about what products Gainsight provides, instead it’s about the value they provide through content.
The power of their thought leadership content is most evident in their results. Typically, third-party content such as industry publications, blogs, and such perform much better on social media. Gainsight flips this on its head because its branded content performs significantly better.
The numbers speak for themselves, in the past five months they’ve been able to achieve:
- 2,700+ total shares
- 1.3M+ in potential reach
- 22,000+ social interactions
- $140,000 in earned media value
- 6,500+ website visitors
Zoe and Saphiya aren’t afraid to pivot and adapt either since they had to adjust their content strategy and launch their employee advocacy program during the pandemic.
“We’re trying to be there and be educational about our content. Here’s how this CEO is handling being a leader in a pandemic. We had one CEO that had to go public, take his company IPO during a pandemic. It’s an amazing thing to be able to talk about. We’ve had CEOs of color who had to talk about how to lead through the social justice movement, how to be a leader for his team during that time.” Zoe said.
Communicate about employee advocacy program internally across multiple channels
It was vital for Saphiya and Zoe to internally communicate about their initiatives so they planned an extensive internal marketing strategy that touched multiple channels. They even announced the program launch on an internal Slack channel. Most importantly, they recognized that the message had to come from the executives and Nick certainly drove the message home.
Saphiya was meticulous in her approach and well prepared. When discussing the approach, she detailed everything, “It was also essential that before we launched everything, we created all the assets beforehand.” It’s the reason they’ve achieved an adoption rate that’s 30% higher than the industry average.
Learn about what you need before launching an employee advocacy program.
Final takeaways
The secret sauce to Gainsight’s employee advocacy is consistency.
They were consistently doing the right things, always adapting their content strategy, and communicating with their employees. From top-down executive support to a strong content marketing strategy – Gainsight makes employee advocacy look easy. It’s a true reflection of the effort of both Saphiya, Zoe, and their team of Gainsters.
If you’re thinking about launching an employee advocacy program, Saphiya’s recommendation is to start with a pilot. “We ran our pilot program, and I think that is really what helped them see the ROI and the benefits of this program,” Saphiya said. A successful pilot program will help you kickstart the program, understand the results, and convince leadership that employee advocacy should be a part of your marketing strategy.
In case you’d like to watch a replay of the webinar, check it out here: How Gainsight Builds Thought Leadership with Employee Advocacy
