Toronto-based Influitive Inc. launched its business-to-business marketing tool AdvocateHub Web service today, the firm announced.
AdvocateHub takes a different approach to marketing, by allowing companies to build up communities of customers and partners who are willing to share good experiences they’ve had with that company. It’s a bid to tap into the word-of-mouth advertising that is so effective in the real world, and social networks have been trying to duplicate online. Influitive’s product aims to recruit more help to that effort.
The Web service introduces a company’s advocates to a community with an element of gamification. The advocates are asked to complete tasks they enjoy, or challenges, and then are rewarded with recognition, social capital, and opportunities for professional networking. Each company that signs up with AdvocateHub gets their own custom-branded portal and a set of challenges to use – such as a simple referral, or sharing of a case study. Users can sign in to the hub using their LinkedIn profile.
Influitive is based in San Francisco and Toronto. Earlier this summer it successfully raised a seed fund of $3.75 million from 11 venture capital firms. CEO Mark Organ previously founded Eloqua, a firm that exited with a public offering on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
AdvocateHub is free for communities of up to 20 advocates and then charges $500 per month for more active users than that.
Source | Influitive