This article comes from Jessica Day’s talk, ‘Scaling customer marketing as a team of one’, at our 2023 Las Vegas Customer Marketing Summit, check out the full unedited talk here.

Have you ever tried building IKEA furniture alone? It’s possible, but man is it slower and more frustrating without a partner!

That’s exactly how I felt tackling customer marketing initiatives solo in the early days. Exciting but cumbersome.

So I want to share my hard-won tips for not just surviving but thriving as a customer marketing solo. How do you stay afloat AND move the needle when resources are limited?

Stick with me for pro tips on stakeholder and customer insight, priority setting, process efficiency, and cross-functional collaboration. Let's maximize your impact!

  • My background - The accidental customer marketer
  • Step 1: Stakeholder & customer interviews
  • Step 2: Map Initiatives to the Customer Journey
  • Step 3: Ruthless Prioritization
  • Step 4: Key Tips for Running Efficiently as an Army of One
  • Final thoughts

My background - The accidental customer marketer

Before joining Dropbox, I co-founded a tech startup called Ideascale with some college friends. For almost 10 years, I was essentially the entire marketing department. I did everything - demand generation, events, social media, email campaigns, website content, and more.

Growing and scaling that company from scratch to $10 million in revenue taught me that customer marketing is truly the heartbeat of any marketing organization. Our organic growth was driven by customer marketing activities.

So while I’ve only recently started thinking of myself as a “customer marketer”, I was doing the job of an entire marketing team.

Step 1: Stakeholder & customer interviews

Interviewing both stakeholders and customers gives you 360-degree insight into priorities.

This research should be the first step whether you’re just starting as a customer marketing army of one or you’re an experienced solo looking to reset and refine your direction.

Stakeholder interviews

Meet with one person from each key department and come prepared with a standard list of questions for each. Here are three must-ask questions:

  1. What do you know about the customer? Their insights will inform you and reveal knowledge gaps.
  2. What's the most important thing we could do right now to deliver value to customers? Ask why it's not happening already. Uncover blockers.
  3. If I could do anything in the next quarter to make your job easier, what would it be? Learn their priorities and desired initiatives.

As an example, in Ideascale's early days, our biggest needs were around building out the ICP and generating MQLs.

So after my stakeholder interviews, I invested in deep customer research that ultimately became a hugely popular crowdsourced innovation report.

Listen closely during the interviews for clues around gaps in the customer journey. If certain touchpoints like onboarding or technical training are repeatedly mentioned as pain points, dig into why.

Customer interviews

While stakeholder perspectives provide helpful direction, the customer's voice is what matters most. Aim to interview 3-5 existing customers.

Here are some key questions to ask:

  1. How did you initially come to work with our product? What problems or needs prompted your purchase? Learn their pain points.
  2. What does your implementation look like day-to-day? Uncover use cases and workflows.
  3. What do you think of our product overall? Get honest feedback on their experience.
  4. If we could improve in just one way, what should we prioritize? Identify desired new features or areas for improvement.

At Dropbox, these interviews highlighted that SMBs want to learn best practices from each other. The community was far more valuable to them than training materials.

Step 2: Map initiatives to the customer journey

Armed with insights from both internal and external research, you can start mapping potential initiatives to the customer journey.

Look for gaps between what stakeholders think customers want and what customers actually say they want. The opportunities for quick wins exist where expectations and reality converge.

Identify the journey stages with the biggest need gaps, whether it's awareness, onboarding, training, or retention. Then brainstorm high-impact projects you could pilot to address those gaps.

At this point, you’ll have a long list of compelling initiatives, which is both exciting and overwhelming. Now comes the hard part - narrowing the focus.

Step 3: Ruthless prioritization

The hardest skill for any customer marketing team of one, is saying no.

My priority setting framework has 3 steps:

1. Rank by Value

Look across your list and rank each potential project on expected business value, from high to low. Since quantifying value is difficult, use your best judgment based on customer and stakeholder insights.

2. Cut the List in Half

Once you've ranked your list by value, cut it in half. Those projects aren't fully off the table, but they should be treated as reach goals rather than priorities.

3. Focus on the Top Half

Now you have a manageable list of 3-5 must-do projects rather than a laundry list of every good idea under the sun. Limit your effort to this top tier only. Avoid the temptation to chase new projects until these are successfully implemented.

Be vigilant about protecting personal time as much as professional time. Customer marketing folks often struggle with work-life balance.

But you'll burn out fast trying to do everything on your list, ruthless focus on a few priorities will maximize results.

Step 4: Key tips for running efficiently as an army of one

Regardless of which initiatives you ultimately prioritize, here are some tactics critical for customer marketing solos to work efficiently and effectively:

Find your advocates

One of your most valuable assets is a community of engaged customer advocates. They can provide references, reviews, case studies, product feedback, and more.

To identify potential advocates:

  • Ask stakeholders who their best customers are.
  • Monitor social media for positive brand mentions.
  • Set up search alerts for your brand name mentioned on calls (tools like Gong help with this).

Once you have a list of ideal advocates, personally reach out to them. Have exploratory calls to understand what motivates them to share their positive experience.

Activate advocates strategically

Now that you’ve identified enthusiastic advocates, provide opportunities for them to share their love for your brand. A few options:

  • References: Nominate them for quick reference calls.
  • Speaking: Recommend them for webinars/podcasts/conference speaking.
  • Case studies: Interview them to develop compelling written, video, or audio stories.
  • Panels: Invite them to participate in product feedback panels.
  • Reviews: Ask them to leave honest reviews and ratings.

When possible, match activities to an advocate's primary motivation, such as networking or thought leadership. Take notes on participation and business impact.

Track everything in a CRM

Meticulously document all advocate interactions and the value delivered over time. This both maximizes your productivity and prevents over-engaging advocates.

Critical fields to track in a CRM include:

  • Primary motivation for advocating
  • Date of last activity
  • Details of activities completed
  • Business impact (e.g. "reference call resulted in $20k deal")

Ideally use a purpose-built CRM, but a spreadsheet works too. I've included a simple starter template in my tactical assets download.

Reward and recognize

Expressing thanks and appreciation is the most important thing you can do to keep your advocates engaged. Some simple but meaningful options:

  • Send handwritten thank-you notes.
  • Highlight advocates publicly in company meetings or internal newsletters.
  • Give early access to new product features or content assets.
  • Host exclusive dinners or events for top advocates.

If budget allows, branded swag is also a nice perk - just don't let it become expected. Not every reward needs to cost money.

Work cross-functionally

While you’re solo, collaborate extensively across Sales, Support, Product, and more. Treat them like teammates.

Encourage team members to "Adopt a Champion" directly, without being a middleman. This helps them build customer empathy and insight.

Send peer recognition on Slack when colleagues do something helpful. Public praise builds goodwill across departments.

Get laser focused

With endless competing priorities, the Eisenhower Matrix is your friend. Separate the urgent from the important.

I block 30 minutes every Friday for "kudos". I take quick notes throughout the week on people who helped me, then publicly thank them on Slack.

This focus and discipline ensures you’re not stuck doing busy work while high-impact activities fall through the cracks.

Final thoughts

Whew, we covered a lot of ground today!

If you take just ONE nugget away, let it be this: Listen first, act second.

Resist the temptation to jump into doing. Sit down with stakeholders, sit down with customers. Listen intently to their needs and pain points.

Then let those insights guide your priorities and activities.