#announcements

Tying programs to business outcomes beyond “I did this many things.” Number of case studies is great, but did those case studies help generate opportunities? Increase close rate?

I’d say that was both an initial focus AND a skill gap for me. 😂

One thing I didn't anticipate moving into Customer Marketing is that I would have to get so familiar with our customer data! Where it's stored, how it stays (or doesn't stay) updated, options for segmentation / opt-in as you add programs, etc!

As the go-between for Ops and our customer-facing teams and even product teams, I've learned more than I ever thought I would about how it all works!

Community, and I had to build User Groups & a full fledged advocacy program in Influitive. One of the hardest parts for me was getting over the hump of asking customers to do things for me, rather than seeing my asks as opportunities they wanted to work on. I also had to rethink some of the language I’d used.

@Kaily Baskett was going to do a call on this at one point, she’s got some great ideas.

I found my way into customer marketing through customer stories (speaking, webinars, events, testimonials, case studies, etc.).

When I moved beyond this I learned how much of the job requires strong soft skills to work, evangelize, educate, report ROI, etc. It can feel like an uphill battle when doing your job well depends a lot on other individuals and teams.

Something that has really worked for me across all my companies, despite of how customer marketing was defined, is being a great storyteller. This is not the same as being a good writer. Being able to capture and develop and restructure stories that will resonate with different audiences (prospects, customers, analysts, media, investors and internal teams) is gold plus this also translates to the way you get buy in for your programs from different stakeholders.

The reason my org decided to invest in Customer Marketing was bc they were see so many demo requests say that they were referred to us by a friend, so they wanted to throw some gasoline on that fire and really make it a legit program. Turns out, this is MUCH harder than anticipated. When I came on, I also got our Customer Reference Program running and that has been the most fruitful of our programs so far and it's not even close!

I would still love to explore doing more for our customers and giving them additional value from my funtion. So far, I've started a monthly newsletter where we share product updates, our latest blog posts, customer hightlights, tool tips. But I think there's a possibility to do more which is what I'm currently exploring!