Advocacy is the highest level of attention any business can get. It’s the kind of attention you get from people who are invested in your success and who redirect the attention that they’re getting toward you.

There are two ways to generate advocacy: you can earn it or you can pay for it.

Influencer marketing has become all the rage in recent years. That’s because some people have been able to get enough attention for themselves — mostly through social media — that brands are willing to pay to get some of it. For companies, this can be very effective. There are also some common pitfalls.

The best way to use paid influencers is to set a goal of getting awareness for your brand. That’s achievable. The mistake many marketers make is thinking they can get influencers to sell their products. Just because lots of people love what an Instagram influencer wears or thinks a shirt is “fire” doesn’t mean people will buy that shirt. However, you can certainly create an impression of your brand. You may even be able to co-create content with an influencer that gets your brand in front of large audiences. If you run a contest or a giveaway with that person, you may even be able to collect some email addresses and get connected attention. That’s about the extent of what you can expect and it’s important to plan your budget based on those realistic expectations.

That said, it is possible for you to find and get advocate attention from micro influencers. These are people who have small but very supportive and engaged followers. These people can convince others to support a cause, try a product, or eat at a restaurant. They will share information about your company for a free meal or an invitation to an exclusive event. For quite a few businesses and nonprofits, micro influencers are the best return on investment.

All influencers we’ve worked with agree on some common best practices:

  • Trust that they know their audience better than you do and ask questions before sharing your plan.
  • Don’t dictate content; be open to their ideas and suggestions because they’ll likely come up with something better than your initial pitch.
  • Support their efforts and cross-promote their content on your social media channels.
  • Avoid the single post and try to create a plan with the influencer that includes multiple posts, email, landing pages or other marketing materials.
  • Give them something different or new. They are leaders and won’t respond well to doing the same thing as everyone else online.

For many organizations, earned advocacy is the most important and effective way to get awareness, connections, engagement and conversions.

Over the course of many years, we’ve asked business owners how they get new clients. Most of them say word-of-mouth. What does that really mean? It means that someone they know told someone else to consider doing business with the owner. Those middle people — i.e., referral makers — have influence. People listen when they talk. They follow their advice. They do what they say. These referral makers are trusted. They’re respected. And they’re often overlooked.

If you rely on referrals, you have the attention of advocates. But we would bet that you have no plan to get more value out of those advocates or to create more of them. This is a mistake.

Most companies that rely on word-of-mouth referrals to grow their businesses invest the largest part of their marketing time and money into reaching customers. Why? We have no idea.

Getting and keeping referral sources engaged can be remarkably easy and rewarding, regardless of industry. They want to help you because they like you. They also want to be seen as smart, connected and authoritative by people they know. Help them do both. Give them information, insights, early access to new products and services, samples they can try, the ability to partner with your brand on an event for your shared audiences, case studies of work you’ve done, or even a gift. A year-round plan to help these people help you may be the only kind of marketing you need to do if you do it well.

Generating advocacy from your actual clients and customers is the final way to get this type of attention. Testimonials, unboxing videos, and other forms of marketing content created by people who love you carry great weight with other customers. They have the added benefit of often being produced with great excitement and passion.