From Zero to Strategic Impact: Building a Customer Advocacy Program in Your First 90 Days

As someone who's built customer advocacy programs at ClickUp and other companies, I'm often asked about the best way to hit the ground running - especially when you're starting from scratch. Whether you're joining a fast-growing startup or transforming an existing program, the principles remain the same: balance quick wins with strategic foundation-building. Here's what I've learned about making it work.

Start with Quick Wins (But Don't Forget Strategy)

The biggest challenge in your first 90 days? Balancing quick impact with long-term planning. Many customer marketers feel pressured to launch everything at once - from customer advisory boards to user conferences - but success comes from strategic prioritization and execution. Here's how to do both:

Listen First, Then Act

• Spend your first 30 days talking to sales leaders and key stakeholders

• Understand their immediate needs (usually reference customers and case studies)

• Identify where you can make the fastest impact

• Document common patterns in requests to inform your long-term strategy

Build Your Customer Pipeline

• Start with high-value, brand-name accounts showing strong product usage

• Partner with your CS team for initial outreach

• Keep your first outreach personal and focused (avoid marketing-heavy emails)

• Use simple forms and processes - you don't need complex tools to start

• Remember: your initial outreach sets the tone for your entire program

Show Early Value

In my first few weeks at ClickUp, I:

• Built a simple reference program that attracted 200+ customer advocates

• Created standardized intake processes for sales requests

• Started building case study pipeline from engaged advocates

• Used these early wins to demonstrate the potential impact of a fully-scaled program

Transform Chaos into Strategy

The key to scaling beyond those first wins? Building systematic processes that can grow with your program. Without this foundation, you'll constantly be playing catch-up as your company grows. Here's how to build for scale:

Create Structure Where There Is None

• Standardize how sales requests references

• Establish clear SLAs and processes

• Document your advocacy programs and requirements

• Build simple but scalable systems for tracking and managing advocates

• Create playbooks that can be easily followed by future team members

Think Partnership, Not Just Participation

• Understand what motivates your advocates (career growth, brand exposure, networking)

• Create multi-touch advocacy journeys instead of one-off requests

• Look for opportunities to provide value back to your advocates

• Build programs that align with both customer and company goals

• Remember that true advocacy is about long-term relationships, not transactional requests

Lessons Learned from Building Multiple Programs

After a year of building ClickUp's advocacy program (and several others before that), here are my key takeaways. These insights come not just from successes, but also from the challenges and pivots along the way:

Focus on Foundation First

• Don't try to boil the ocean - start with core competencies

• Build fundamental programs before getting creative

• Earn the right to take bigger risks through consistent execution

• Remember that even the most impressive advocacy programs started with basic building blocks

Create Always-On Engines

• Balance high-effort, high-value activities with scalable programs

• Build systematic ways to gather "low-effort" advocacy (reviews, references, social shares)

• This frees up time for strategic, high-touch customer partnerships

• Design programs that can run with minimal intervention while delivering consistent results

Keep It Simple

Remember: your job is to activate super-fans to share their success stories and infuse those stories back into your company's sales, marketing, and brand narratives. Everything else builds from there. The most effective advocacy programs often aren't the most complex - they're the most consistent.

Moving Forward

Whether you're just starting your customer advocacy journey or looking to scale your existing program, remember that advocacy is an evolution. Focus on building strong foundations, show consistent value, and always keep your customers' goals in mind. The most successful customer advocacy programs aren't built overnight - they're built through consistent execution and strategic evolution.

Ready to transform your customer advocacy program? Let's connect on LinkedIn or reach out to discuss your specific challenges.