This article comes from our 2022 State of Customer Marketing panel from our April Summit. Check out similar events here.
Are you ready to revolutionize your customer marketing strategies?
In today's competitive landscape, where customer engagement and loyalty are paramount, traditional case studies and testimonials just don't quite cut it anymore.
The field of customer marketing has evolved, and it's time to explore the exciting new frontiers that lie ahead in this rapidly expanding industry.
Join us as we dive into the minds of industry experts who are reshaping the customer marketing landscape. Speaking at our Customer Marketing Summit, it was an honor to be joined by:
- Dan Cote, Chief Marketing Officer at Influitive
- Gillian Farquhar, Global Head of Customer Marketing at Qlik
- Sterling Jackson, Vice President of Customer Marketing at UserTesting
Let’s investigate some of their valuable insights, practical tips, and actionable strategies that will take your customer marketing initiatives to the next level.
Their key takeaways will cover: How has customer marketing evolved?
- Our expert’s responsibilities
- Measuring the value of customer marketing
- The power of advocacy and community
- Securing budget growth
- Final thoughts
Read on to find out more! 👇
💡 How has customer marketing evolved?
Gone are the days when customer marketing solely revolved around static case studies and testimonials.
Budgets are increasing, and there are opportunities for customer marketing professionals to advance their careers, it's time to embrace a new era of customer marketing that goes further.
Today, it's all about creating immersive experiences, fostering meaningful relationships, and building vibrant communities.
By tapping into the power of storytelling and leveraging the voices of your satisfied customers, you can drive engagement, loyalty, and business growth like never before.
As Dan Cote neatly summarized, ‘customer marketing is in the mainstream, and it is maturing and growing faster than ever’.
He’s absolutely right here, as a role and function, customer marketing has seen significant growth in recent years as businesses have come to recognize its importance.
In fact, he recently asked his audience how important customer marketing is to the overall success of an organization, and received an almost unanimous response of either important or very important.
For Dan, he pinpoints three key reasons for this evolution and growth of customer marketing. Firstly he highlights the way that the pandemic accelerated digital transformation, refocusing everyone’s attention on the customer.
It is this customer-driven model that is extremely successful and profitable for businesses, leading to more businesses investing in customer marketing.
Secondly, buyers are more in control these days, doing their own research and self-educating online, with up to 80% of buyers making their decisions before ever reaching out to sales.
Thirdly, experiences matter, every touchpoint matters and customer marketing plays a very pivotal role in orchestrating these touchpoints across an organization, keeping customers coming back, and growing business.
Gillian Farquhar stresses that customer marketing is the only part of marketing that has adjusted to the way people buy today, and this is why its growth has been so rapid.
Similarly to Dan, she points out that, aided by social media, high-speed internet, and developments in tech, people have more control of their own buying process.
This has also aided customer marketing, as a huge part of the role is exposing customers to existing customers that are happy and getting a lot of value out of your product who use social media and other platforms to expose potential customers to the market in organic, credible ways.
Sterling Jackson, citing his background in customer marketing, has seen its evolution and expansion into a broader set of content and programs that drive customer adoption, renewal, and advocacy.
For him, these programs and a focus on authentic customer evidence are the driving force behind the evolution of customer marketing.
He explained that ‘they are able to connect with people in a very human way’ and executives and management have ‘realized the return on investment that customer marketing programs deliver’.
So it is the heightened awareness in recent years of the importance of the expanded customer marketing function that has aided its evolution further.
⚖️ Our expert’s responsibilities
In this discussion, our industry experts all highlighted the need to go beyond traditional activities like case studies and testimonials and focus instead on creating experiences that build loyalty and advocacy.
Gillian Farquhar mentioned how case studies, although important, can sometimes feel antiquated and limited in their reach. Instead, she emphasized the importance of exposing and empowering successful users to share their experiences in ways that resonate with potential customers.
Her organization, Qlik, focuses on creating experiences through community building and targeted relational events. By leveraging networks and facilitating connections between users and prospects, they aim to foster loyalty and advocacy organically and where it doesn’t feel transactional.
Sterling Jackson also shared insights from his work at UserTesting, highlighting the importance of customer communication and engagement throughout the entire customer journey, getting real-time human feedback.
His customer marketing team focuses on communications, ensuring customers are aware of available resources, driving adoption, and providing opportunities for advocacy.
They also have focused on building a community for their customers that provides an experience for customers to connect and grow with each other, ranging from a library of shareable feedback to an awards program.
Our experts also emphasized the partnership between customer marketing and customer success teams as a key responsibility, citing this alignment as crucial for creating impactful experiences and telling compelling stories that resonate with customers.
📊 Measuring the value of customer marketing
To truly understand the impact of your customer marketing efforts, it's essential to focus on meaningful metrics.
Our experts all agreed that while volume metrics may provide some insights, they don't capture the full picture.
Instead, customer marketing professionals should prioritize measuring engagement and its tangible effects on revenue, customer retention, and renewals.
It's the quality and depth of engagement that truly drives business outcomes and showcases the value of your initiatives.
Farquhar stressed the importance of defining and measuring engagement in meaningful ways. She explained that engagement should be tied to specific customer behaviors that correlate with increased revenue, customer retention, and higher Net Promoter Scores (NPS).
Qlik measures engagement by tracking how customers participate in their community, contribute to support processes, and engage in the ideation process. They then correlate increased engagement in these areas with higher attachment rates and renewal rates.
Jackson shared his perspective on the value of customer marketing insights and his introduction of a customer marketing insights program at UserTesting, to drive focus on renewals and growth.
This program utilizes both qualitative and quantitative feedback to optimize touchpoints, ensuring they are effective, easy, and enjoyable for customers. By measuring the impact of these touchpoints, they can gauge the value delivered to customers.
Both experts emphasized the need to align customer marketing metrics with overall business goals. By demonstrating the direct impact of customer marketing efforts on revenue generation and customer retention, you can showcase the value you bring to the organization.
🤝 The power of advocacy and community
Advocacy and community are not isolated elements but interconnected pillars of successful customer marketing strategies, with advocacy standing as the natural outcome of a thriving, engaged customer community.
Our experts highlighted that when customers come together, sharing their positive experiences and becoming brand advocates, the impact is exponential.
By nurturing a sense of belonging and facilitating interactions, customer marketing professionals can unleash the full asset potential of advocacy and amplify brand reputation.
Farquhar further emphasized the interdependence of advocacy and community, stating that they cannot exist without each other, with a strong community fostering organic advocacy.
Qlik, by bringing customers together and facilitating connections, has seen a direct correlation between community engagement and high renewal rates.
Jackson also shared UserTesting's success in leveraging their user community, seeing a 300% growth in the past 18 months. He also highlighted the role of the community in driving high renewal rates, citing a staggering 99% renewal rate for customers who were active in their community.
Here both Farquhar and Jackson highlighted the need to shift from a transactional mindset to a relational mindset when it comes to customer marketing.
Building a community-centered approach allows companies to create deeper connections with their customers, fostering loyalty, and long-term partnerships, and strengthening their position as trusted advisors in their respective industries.
✅ Securing budget growth
One of the final points of this discussion was looking at how customer marketing professionals can make a compelling case for increased budgets and resources to match the expanding role.
Farquhar shared her excitement about the growing recognition of customer marketing as a vital function within organizations, mentioning that just a few years ago, customer marketing wasn't even on the radar, but now it has become a key driver of growth.
Though she emphasized that there is still more work to be done and many opportunities for professionals to advance their careers within the field.
Jackson discussed the importance of cross-functional collaboration in driving the perception of value for customer marketing. By nurturing relationships with champions from various departments, customer marketing professionals can amplify their impact and gain support across the organization, using internal communication to remind colleagues of the value of customer marketing.
In terms of making a case for more budget, both experts emphasized the need to tie customer marketing efforts directly to business outcomes. By demonstrating how customer marketing drives revenue, customer retention, and advocacy, professionals can showcase their value and influence decision-makers.
They also stressed the importance of focusing on the narrative of value rather than simply trying to prove it. Engaging in strategic conversations with senior leadership and highlighting success stories can help customer marketing professionals secure the necessary resources for growth.
💭 Final thoughts
The conversation shed light on the evolving landscape of customer marketing and hopefully provided valuable insights for fellow customer marketers.
From redefining the scope of customer marketing responsibilities to measuring program value, and harnessing the power of advocacy and community, customer marketers have numerous opportunities to drive business growth and foster customer loyalty.
By aligning with customer success teams, focusing on meaningful engagement metrics, and effectively communicating their impact, customer marketing professionals can secure the budgets and resources needed to execute successful strategies.
As the customer marketing field continues to evolve, professionals in this space have an exciting opportunity to make a lasting impact on customer relationships and business growth.
If you enjoyed this run-down of our panel discussion and want access to even more videos, articles, and other resources, become a member of the CMA community today!
