Customer marketing framework

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Customer marketing is an enthralling yet complicated field. There's a whole bunch of different concepts you need to master to satisfy your customers, motivate your team, and optimize your workflows. Enter our Customer Marketing Framework.

The Framework covers all the areas needed to navigate the customer marketing journey, from start to...well, there is no finish really, is there?

For each of the five fundamental stages: Lifecycle and governance, educate, engage, understand, and expand, we’ve unpacked each of the cogs to arm you with all the info needed to boost your understanding of pivotal topics, as you and your team strive to create something truly memorable.

CMA Framework Wheel

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Lifecycle and governance

Understanding, taking ownership of, and managing the customer lifecycle is crucial for marketers to tailor strategies and messages for each stage's specific needs and behaviors.

Get acquainted with the post-purchase lifecycle from repreat purchasers to lifetime advocates.

What is customer relationship marketing?
Customer relationship marketing is a marketing strategy that companies use to center their business and product marketing efforts around customer relationships, customer needs, and customer loyalty. The approach focuses on using customer feedback and data to optimize product marketing.
Customer Marketing AllianceCharley Gale
Ways customer marketers can work with their organization.
Customer marketers and product marketers will often make reference to the cross-functional nature of their role - it’s something that’s critical to ensure that the customer is at the beating heart of an organization.
Customer Marketing AllianceAmie Stephens
Mapping out the customer journey and finding your audience
Although often represented in linear form, the reality is that there are often cycles or skipping across the journey. It’s key to mention that each consumer will approach this journey differently - this is why personas are at the heart of customer journey work.
Customer Marketing AllianceAmie Stephens
How can effective data visualizations drive action?
Explore the power of data visualization in driving actions. Transform complex data into compelling stories to elevate your RevOps game.
Customer Marketing AllianceElla Harrison
CMA’s conclusive guide to OKRs and KPIs
Wondered how to navigate the world of OKRs and KPIs? You’re in the right place. This page serves as Customer Marketing Alliance’s ultimate guide to these metrics. It houses all the articles we’ve written on the topic, all in one place.
Customer Marketing AllianceEve Chatfield
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Educate

Deliver valuable information to the target audience to enhance their understanding of a product, service, or industry topics. Supporting your customers through the learning curve of your product will ensure customer success and lifetime loyalty.

Strategic branding: The #1 key to customer program adoption
Ever pour your heart into a customer program only for it to flop? Discover the key tenets for driving program adoption.
Customer Marketing AllianceDeanna Carrillo
The core fundamentals of customer onboarding
Ever bought a product, only to be left in the wilderness after you’ve parted with your cash? Irritating, isn’t it? After converting a prospect into a bonafide customer, the buck doesn’t stop there. As Karen Carpenter said: ‘We’ve only just begun.’
Customer Marketing AllianceLawrence Chapman
Customer education is a SaaS marketing strategy
Customer education is a marketing strategy. If you know who your audience is you can educate them, and help them do their jobs with your product.
Customer Marketing AllianceBill Cushard
Setting expectations for customers throughout the journey
Part of providing a great experience lies in managing realistic customer expectations. Overpromise and under deliver, and you may find yourself without repeat custom and a very damaged reputation.
Customer Marketing AllianceEmma Bilardi
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Engage

Deliver valuable information to the target audience to enhance their understanding of a product, service, or industry topic. Engaging your customers is vital for fostering relationships that last, and which are valuable for everyone involved.

Whether it's at a face-to-face event, on social media, chatting on a forum, or meeting up for a 1-2-1 chat, working with, and getting to know your customers, on a individual level is vital for customer marketing success.

Customer vs. community engagement: Know the difference
Not all forms of engagement are created equal. Understanding the distinctions between customer engagement and community engagement is crucial.
Customer Marketing AllianceEve Chatfield
The evolution of advocacy: embracing a value-led approach
When everything you do is focused on living up to your company values, you’ll naturally build up a loyal customer base of advocates who resonate with your brand ethos.
Customer Marketing AllianceEve Chatfield
How to measure the success of your customer advocacy program
Being able to successfully measure your programs is what’s going to help you unlock more headcount, resources, and budget and be seen as a trusted partner and resource across your organization
Customer Marketing AllianceEve Chatfield
Personalization: Why it matters to C-suite executives
Personalization is the magic that turns your business from “just another option” to “the one and only” in your customer’s eyes. What better way to show your customers that their individual preferences and needs are your top priority?
Customer Marketing AllianceEve Chatfield
Customer Advisory Boards: What they are and how to do them
Customer Advisory Board does more than just provide information, offering a direct link to your customers, provide direction and create champions for your brand.
Customer Marketing AllianceEve Chatfield
Five steps to harnessing testimonials for customer marketing
Testimonials are not just a one-and-done deal but should continue to evolve as your customer’s preferences change and grow. They’re powerful tools when produced and used correctly that harness both the Voice of the Customer and advocacy to support your team’s success.
Customer Marketing AllianceEve Chatfield
What is a case study?
A case study is a testimonial outlining your customers’ success with using your product, explaining how your product’s key features led to benefits for your customer such as productivity and through increases and time and cost savings.
Customer Marketing AllianceAsya Bashina
The power of customer events in building brand loyalty
One of the most impactful things I’ve learned is the immense value of connecting customers directly with product teams. By facilitating this connection through engaging customer events, we gain invaluable insights, forge stronger relationships, and fuel customer-led growth.
Customer Marketing AllianceAri Hoffman
Collecting the right kind of customer feedback: Everything you need to know
When it comes to marketing using the Voice of the Customer, the first step in creating such a program is collecting feedback and aggregating it across the channels where customers are giving it.
Customer Marketing AllianceLauren Culbertson
Begin your learning path

Understand

Collect and analyze data, conduct market research, and use diverse tools to understand customers and their journey. Securing a strong understanding of who make up your target audience, your existing customer, and their sentiments toward your business is invaluable.

Monitoring such data means you'll never be caught off guard when things go awry, and you'll be able to make informed decisions when building out, and developing, your existing marketing strategies.

Customer goals and the psychology behind them
Understanding customer goals is super important for marketers because it helps you figure out how to talk to people in a way that really hits home.
Customer Marketing AllianceEve Chatfield
An introduction to OKRs
OKRs are like flossing your teeth - not the most enjoyable part of your day by any means but still a vital and fundamental part of the bigger picture. We’re all here with the same ambition - to be the best at what we do (and to avoid too many long stints in the dentist’s chair!)
Customer Marketing AllianceStephanie Whalley
Decoding customer engagement scores: Understanding and improving your scores
A customer engagement score is a quantitative measure used by businesses to assess the level of interaction, involvement, and satisfaction of individual customers with their brand, products, or services.
Customer Marketing AllianceEve Chatfield
Ultimate guide to customer segmentation.
Customer segmentation is a tool used by businesses that sorts and categorizes your existing customers by certain characteristics. This tool has a multitude of benefits, which we’ll be going over in this comprehensive guide.
Customer Marketing AllianceEve Chatfield
Effective engagement channels for advocacy and retention
How you approach, connect with, and build relationships with your customers is a vital part of the customer marketing machine. Picking when and where you connect with your customers is just as important as how you connect with them.
Customer Marketing AllianceEve Chatfield
Support your career growth

Expand

Implement strategies to reach new audiences, enter new markets, and increase your business' presence and impact. Foster existing customer relationships to support the introduction of new customers into your business.

How customer referrals can drive organizational growth
Imagine a world where your customers become your most powerful salesforce, effortlessly driving exponential growth through the sheer power of their enthusiasm. This isn’t some marketing fantasy – it’s the reality of harnessing customer referrals, the ultimate growth engine for smart businesses.
Customer Marketing AllianceStevie Langford
Cross-selling and upselling: An introduction and best practices
You’re at the checkout process on a website, a message comes into view ‘have you forgotten this?’ or ‘customers also purchased x y or z’. This is a tried and tested cross-selling strategy - it encourages customers to buy additional, or ‘’add-on’ purchases.
Customer Marketing AllianceAmie Stephens
Implement cross-sells and upsells into your customer marketing strategy
Cross-selling and upselling are becoming a more common KPI for customer marketing teams as customer marketers get more involved in how companies nurture an increase in growth and revenue. But where do you start?
Customer Marketing AllianceEve Chatfield
How to calculate customer retention rate (and increase it)
If you sell a product, have you sold it to the same client more than once? Congratulations, you’ve just retained a customer. If you provide an ongoing service and a client sticks with you for more than a day then, yep, you’re retaining customers.
Customer Marketing AllianceGareth Watkins

Loving what you've been learning? Then take it to the next level and get certified with Customer Marketing Core; aka, the new standard of customer marketing.

Customer Marketing Certified | Core
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Customer Marketing AllianceCustomer Marketing Alliance