Building a successful customer marketing program

This article comes from Gillian Farquhar’s insightful talk at our Customer Marketing Summit in Boston 2024, check out his full presentation.

Building a successful customer marketing program is no small feat.

I'm Gillian Farquhar, and I've had the privilege of learning what works—and what doesn’t—when it comes to customer marketing.

Now, as I take on the challenge of establishing customer marketing at Infor, I’ve realized that each build is unique. In this article, I’ll share my journey, the lessons I’ve learned, and the strategies I’m using to create a high-impact, cost-efficient customer marketing program that drives value across the business.

My philosophy for building a customer marketing program

None of what I’m about to share is absolute; it's just my perspective. I think of advocacy as an outcome, not a title. In fact, I don’t like the word "advocate" at all. I don’t like being called an advocate, nor do I want to be thought of as one. To me, the term needs a rebrand.

When people ask me, "Well, what do you call them, then?" I simply say, "I call them customers." I’ve been saying this for about 10 years now, and I still stand by it.

As a customer myself, I think about how I want to be treated by the brands and products I care about. Being labeled as an advocate doesn’t resonate with me. I don’t see the value in it, and that bias is reflected in most of my work.

Now that I’m in a new organization, I’m constantly educating others—and being educated myself—on what customer marketing is and the value it brings.

Living in the post-sale

Recently, I had to present my perspective to the executive leadership team, which was a little nerve-wracking. My pitch was simple: "Customer marketing lives in the post-sale." That’s where we pick up the baton. But our work doesn’t just stop there—we influence demand generation, the sales funnel, and the pipeline.

Now, I’m in a company that’s heavily focused on demand generation and net new business, which I completely understand. But as I often say, you have to pick your battles. Right now, I’m figuring out where customer marketing fits into that framework.

While my team operates in the post-sale, we influence everything that comes before and after it. If we’re doing our job right, demand gen should get easier, and the sales funnel should open up.

Building and nurturing communities

One of my core beliefs is that our primary remit is to find, build, or nurture communities of users. These users are then activated and reintroduced into the market in a way that benefits everyone, including the demand gen team. They're not just reference points; they are an integral part of the ecosystem.

And let me be clear: I don’t just mean end users. Partners are also a part of this. I don’t differentiate between them because, in my view, they’re both customers. These groups—users and partners alike—are our best salespeople, our most influential product experts, and our most resourceful problem solvers.

They’re the best moderators in community forums, which means you don’t need to hire an army of community managers. If you empower your top users with the tools they need, they will scale your efforts for you.

Customer marketing’s role in a revenue-driven world

What I’m talking about here might sound like customer marketing 101, but it’s not always obvious in organizations that are hyper-focused on revenue generation in a formulaic way. It’s been a shift for the company I’m now building within.

My goal is to prove that customer marketing adds value across the entire organization, even though it’s often seen as a secondary or supporting function. In reality, it plays a vital role in driving sustainable growth and long-term success.