This article is based on a podcast episode from when Aunalisa Arellano was Senior Manager of Content and Customer Marketing at Filevine. You can listen to the full episode here.
Retaining customers is just as crucial as acquiring new ones, making customer marketing an essential focus for organizations.
With growing recognition of the power of existing customers and advocacy, business leaders are realizing that nurturing these relationships is key to sustainable success.
In this article, discover how you can utilize customer marketing tactics to increase customer loyalty, retention rates, and drive more sustainable growth.
Communicating new features and products
At Filevine, my team is just myself and an associate customer marketer. Despite our size, we handle a wide scope of responsibilities. This includes community management, customer storytelling and advocacy programs, the client advisory board (CAB), and support for the user conference.
In my role, the responsibility for communicating new features and products primarily falls under product marketing. We have a fantastic demand generation team that handles the execution of the communications, while the product managers (PMs) drive the content creation.
Although customer marketing isn't directly responsible for these communications, I do contribute by sharing information within our community and helping with copy editing when necessary. However, this aspect isn't owned by customer marketing in our organization.
Challenges in communicating new features
One of the significant challenges that customer marketers face is simply keeping track of everything.
In our organization, for example, we have three pillar brands, each with a variety of new features being released weekly or pushed to beta. I rely heavily on the respective product marketing manager (PMM) or product owner to keep me informed, and I attend as many update meetings as possible.
Another interesting challenge in communicating new features arises within our community. We have people participating in various beta programs, and sometimes they'll discuss a beta they're involved in that others aren't. This can lead to confusion or frustration, as some may wonder why they're not part of a particular beta.
It's important to educate everyone on how we gradually open up betas to avoid overwhelming our "insiders," which is what we call our beta testers, with potential issues. Continuous education and clear communication are crucial in managing these situations.
Best practices for ensuring customers are aware of everything a brand offers
There are several best practices I follow to make sure customers are aware of the full range of features and services our brand offers.
Lifecycle marketing and account manager enablement
Lifecycle marketing is a key strategy, which includes enabling our account managers to effectively communicate with customers. By analyzing data from tools like Pendo or Appcues, we can understand how much customers are using our products and identify opportunities to introduce them to new features.
If customers are only using one part of our platform, we send announcements and emails, and we create workflows for account managers to reach out and encourage them to explore other areas of the product.
Community engagement
I rely heavily on our community to announce new features and remind users of existing ones that they might not be aware of.
For example, we have a document e-signature tool with a Spanish language version that had been available for a while. However, a couple of our long-standing customers, who are also big advocates, asked if we had a Spanish version. This was a humbling moment that made me realize the need to step back and assess what information our customers might be missing.
If our top advocates were unaware of a simple feature, it was clear that we needed to create content around it, share it with the community, and ensure everyone was informed. It's important to regularly circle back and remind customers of everything we offer.
We have a whole playbook on customer and community engagement. You can get your own free copy right here:
Download the playbookIn-app guides and announcements
Utilizing in-app guides and announcements directly within the product is incredibly valuable. Tools like Pendo and Appcues allow us to create in-app guides or announcements that help users discover and understand new features. This approach ensures that customers receive information in real time and within the context of their product usage, making it more likely they'll engage with the new features and services.
By implementing these best practices, we can enhance customer awareness and ensure they get the most value from our products.
Strategies for engaging with top advocates
When it comes to marketing to our top advocates, my approach shifts significantly compared to other customer segments. I view my advocates as partners because, in many ways, they truly are.
They are out there, sharing stories about how our products or services have transformed their work, and we receive a lot of new customer referrals from them.
Because of this unique relationship, I avoid coming to them with overly sales-focused pitches. Instead, I focus on creating a mutual value exchange.
For example, if I need assistance with a guest spot on a webinar, I frame it as an opportunity for them: "Let me help you get your voice out there through this channel, discussing a topic where you're a thought leader." This way, they can build their reputation while also helping us find new customers or build a demand pipeline.
Treating our advocates as partners and focusing on mutual benefits means we foster a stronger relationship and encourage them to continue supporting our brand. This not only helps us engage our advocates effectively but also enhances the overall success of our marketing efforts.
Strategies for upselling and cross-selling
When it comes to upselling and cross-selling, I focus on positioning these opportunities as value-adds for our customers. This approach helps ensure that our efforts are seen as beneficial rather than just additional sales pitches.
Cross-selling through thought leadership
I find that using a thought leadership lens is an effective strategy for cross-selling.
Our target audience, primarily attorneys who are managing partners or founders, are also entrepreneurs. This allows us to share best practices from other entrepreneurs and show how they are revolutionizing their business or their area of law.
By presenting these insights, we can demonstrate the value of our additional products or services in a way that resonates with our customers' goals and challenges.
Upselling through product usage insights
Upselling requires a slightly different approach, but it still centers around providing value. For instance, if we notice a customer using a tool to its full potential, it's an opportunity to discuss how they might benefit from new users or add-on features that could optimize their usage even further.
Additionally, if an advocate is using our product in an innovative way that isn’t typical for their role or target persona, we can share this information with them.
There might be someone else in their organization who could leverage the tool similarly but hasn’t yet realized its potential. By highlighting these opportunities, we can help our customers get more value out of our products and foster deeper engagement.
The key is to ensure that upselling and cross-selling efforts are framed as opportunities for customers to enhance their experience and achieve their goals, rather than as mere sales tactics. This approach helps build trust and strengthens our relationship with existing customers.
Amie Stephens
Integrating thought leadership into customer marketing
Thought leadership is becoming increasingly prominent across various brands and industries, and for us, it's an integral part of our customer marketing strategy. We aim to weave thought leadership into our communication and content in several key ways.
Customer-generated blog posts
One of our primary strategies is to have customers write blog posts for us. This allows us to showcase their expertise and experiences, providing authentic and valuable insights for our audience.
Once these posts are written, we share them through our community channels, amplifying the reach and impact of our customers' voices.
Webinar series
We also run a regular webinar series where we invite customers as guests to discuss how they utilize our tools. These sessions are not sales pitches or product demos; instead, they are conversations that highlight our customers' achievements and innovative uses of our products.
An internal moderator guides the discussion, ensuring it remains focused on the customer's story and insights. This approach helps us position our brand as a leader in the industry while also providing value to our audience through real-world examples and thought-provoking discussions.
The role of customer feedback in strategy
As the first customer marketing person at my organization, I've had the unique opportunity to build many programs from the ground up. While there were existing initiatives like the Net Promoter Score (NPS) program and market research conducted by our product team, I've focused on gathering and utilizing customer feedback to inform our strategy.
I'm deeply involved in collecting customer feedback, particularly within our community. I surface this feedback to other departments as needed and conduct ad hoc research when necessary.
For example, when we were planning to launch our community platform, I conducted qualitative research to gather insights from our customers.
Initially, our community was on Facebook, but based on the feedback and research, we're transitioning to Vanilla Forums. This input guided not only our platform selection but also our rollout strategy, ensuring that it aligns with our customers' preferences and needs.
By actively engaging with our customers and incorporating their feedback, we can tailor our strategies to better meet their expectations and enhance their overall experience with our brand.
Building the customer marketing function from the ground up
Building the customer marketing function from the ground up has been an exciting and challenging journey. Overall, I believe I've done a good job of establishing the importance of customer marketing within my organization.
However, there have been some blocks along the way that I've had to navigate.
One of the main challenges is that customer marketing is not yet seen as important as demand generation, which focuses on filling the sales pipeline, or even product marketing. At my organization, customer marketing is often considered third in line. This can make it difficult to secure resources and support.
To overcome these resource challenges, I've had to find creative solutions to get things done in-house.
For example, instead of purchasing expensive tools like Point of Reference or ReferenceEdge, I've utilized Salesforce to track customer references and acts of advocacy. With the help of some colleagues from our sales operations team, I was able to build a custom solution within Salesforce that meets our needs.
Finding innovative ways to work within our existing resources means we've been able to develop a customer marketing function that supports our goals and demonstrates its value to the organization. This journey has reinforced the importance of flexibility, creativity, and collaboration in building a successful customer marketing program from the ground up.
The future of customer marketing
As customer marketing continues to take root in various organizations, it's becoming increasingly recognized for the power it has in leveraging existing customers and advocacy. So, what does the future hold for customer marketing?
Here are my predictions for later this year and beyond:
Continued growth and integration
I believe customer marketing is only going to continue growing. According to some recent research from LinkedIn, customer marketing is one of the fastest-growing positions right now. I expect this trend to persist as organizations realize the value of focusing on existing customers and their potential to drive growth.
As customer marketing becomes more established, I anticipate it will become a pillar in almost every marketing team. While it's not yet a core component in all organizations, I see it moving in that direction.
Eventually, I hope to see customer marketing, demand generation, and product marketing viewed as equally important functions within a marketing team.
The importance of customer marketing
I've always advocated that customer marketing is one of the most critical functions, especially when considering customer lifetime value and retention.
Current customers are often the easiest to sell to, and nurturing these relationships can lead to significant long-term benefits. By prioritizing customer marketing, organizations can enhance customer loyalty, increase retention rates, and drive more sustainable growth.
As customer marketing continues to gain recognition and evolve, its role within organizations will become even more crucial. Focusing on existing customers and leveraging their advocacy means businesses can unlock new opportunities and achieve lasting success.
