Lauren Stefano

#discussions - October 11, 2024 at 12:18 PM

A few ideas for highlighting your customers at larger events: • Room drops (Chris has a great example below) • Having an extra piece of swag just for customers at your booth - a perk for them, helps make your customers identifiable to your prospects, and shows that you take care of your customers • If it's a conference where people collect stickers/pins/flair for name badges, have an extra item just for customers • An exclusive-access lounge where customers can get a snack and good coffee (because conference coffee is usually 👎) and have a quieter space to do some work or just chill. Bonus points if your execs can spend some time here • Highlighting any approved assets that feature any customers that are in attendance so that they see themselves when they come by your booth. Can also work well to connect prospects to customers if you're able to talk about a customer win and let them know that the customer is on-site if they want to chat more (of course make sure you have permission from the customer) • Opportunity to sign up for a 1:1 slot with any execs in attendance • Opportunity to sign up for a short strategy session with your pro services or other product expert team to get some quick win ideas (assuming that makes sense for your product) • If you have a formal community or advocacy program, offer a bonus swag or gift card for joining during the event (works for generating reviews too) - you can use the same item tor recognize people already in the program

#discussions - October 10, 2024 at 03:18 PM

Are you talking about events that you are doing specifically for your customers? Or are you thinking aways to recognize your customers as part of a larger event like a conference where you have a booth?

#cabs - October 10, 2024 at 12:14 PM

The exec wrangling is always an adventure. Having a great relationship with the EA has helped a lot, and I also think the execs are seeing the value of both the meetings and the prep the more CABs they attend. But it's still a challenge to get to the top of their list as far ahead as I would like. In our most recent round talking about slides, one exec said "surprise me and I'll make a good story of out of it" 😆. I appreciate having the vote of confidence, but not exactly what I'm going for in this situation

#cabs - October 08, 2024 at 01:04 PM

We've had success with 2 hour virtual meetings, but always include a 10-minute break after an hour. I agree with the advice to share discussion topics ahead of time to allow members to come prepared

#open-share - September 10, 2024 at 01:31 PM

Have a small stuffed animal in a branded tshirt as your swag. This is always a huge hit and generates lots of traffic. It's an easy thing for people to bring home for their kids and it takes buying something off their to do list. Once you have a few people walking around with them, others will see it and seek you out.

#cabs - August 26, 2024 at 09:40 PM

I also keep thinking that everyone must be sick of talking about AI, but it seems like I'm the only one . For our next virtual meeting, we're going to share our readout and a preview of our 2025 plans, and then I think we're going to discuss team structures (the different approaches our members are taking to structuring their teams, and pros/cons of different options). While it won't be directly tied to our product, I think we'll get some good insight into their areas of investment/priority and their thought processes

#cabs - August 26, 2024 at 08:37 PM

We are trying to focus on listening to the execs to inform our strategy/roadmap. We give them some high-level questions around a big topic like AI, and then listen as they discuss as a group. We all learn a ton! As I've explained it our CTO who loves the JTBD framework, we're looking to our CAB to help us identify the jobs. Then our job is to take all of that feedback and use it to help us figure out how to help them get those jobs done. And next time, when we share an update on our plans, it will be through the lens of "we heard you say that you need to do X, so we are building Y capabilities that allow you to do that"

#general - July 24, 2024 at 02:50 PM

I think it depends a lot on your audience. For a small business or consumer audience, or a buying decision that gets made in the mid-level of a bigger organization, bite sized assets are great. On the other hand, I've worked on several products bought by technical executives, and they aren't convinced by the bite-sized. They really do value more in-depth and more technical stories where they can understand more context and see how it compares or not with their own situation.

#general - July 23, 2024 at 06:07 PM

I'm stuck in a meeting but will watch for the recording!

#general - July 18, 2024 at 05:26 PM

@Lacey Butler I was also wary of being in the middle of the travel arrangements. By letting the customer book on their own, we would make sure that they get exactly the flights that they want and that if there are any delays/cancellations or other issues they are in a position to resolve it directly (either with the booking platform or the airline)

#general - July 15, 2024 at 03:00 PM

We didn't end up needing to do this, but our plan was to use Ramp, which is our expense management system. We were planning to issue customers a temporary Ramp card with an appropriate spending limit that they could use to book travel, pay uber, etc. That way, the expenses would go straight to our corp card, and we would be able to monitor costs as they came in (and shut down the card if needed)

#discussions - June 28, 2024 at 06:27 PM

I've also seen in included as part of the base price (so the standard contract language includes advocacy), so that if the customer asks to remove it during redlines, the price goes up. Functionally the same as offering a discount, but can be very different psychologically

#discussions - June 28, 2024 at 05:59 PM

I've also worked on incorporating this into contracts. It can be helpful, but to make it work, you need to make sure that the output is as specific as possible and that everyone on the customer side is on board (for example, I've seen a champion says yes, but then their legal won't approve when the time comes). Even though it's in the contract, there usually isn't much recourse realistically available if they don't come through. For renewals, I would go down to the level of agreeing on what story you are going to tell and the timing/channels so you can make sure that it aligns to what they want to talk about and your goals.

#discussions - June 24, 2024 at 06:27 PM

@Emily Smith This is our first year having a CAB so we haven't gotten that far yet. But as of now, it would most likely end up being title only, or maybe something small like an extra badge on a nametag. But we definitely don't have the capacity to manage a full alumni group either

#discussions - June 24, 2024 at 05:44 PM

@Emily Smith We invited everyone to join the CAB for 2024, with the intent that at the end of the year, we can either say "please stay on for 2025" or "thanks so much and welcome to the CAB alumni" without it feeling like we are kicking them off

#discussions - June 24, 2024 at 05:43 PM

@Amanda Peacock would you be willing to share with me too? ours is very informal at the moment, but we will need to tighten it up at some point

#general - June 21, 2024 at 12:03 PM

There are now several different customer marketing communities, and I lurk in most of them. But I participate here, and that's because of all of the work you (@Mary Green (Owner CMAweekly)) have done to make this a safe space for questions and conversation, to kick out the vendors who won't stop selling, and to make all of us practitioners feel welcome. You've built something really special, that's helped me be better at what I do, and that's introduced me to so many others that I never would have met. Customer Marketers are often on small teams, and it can be lonely, but having this space has meant access to others who really get it, and I think the fact that it was built by someone from within the space is a huge part of the magic. I'm so glad you are putting yourself first, but wow will I miss you here!

#general - June 17, 2024 at 09:37 PM

In addition to the great ideas above, I've seen a lot of value having PMs available to answer questions and respond to feedback or ideas that come up across different sessions. Even sessions that aren't explicitly about the product will often get customers saying things like "how can we do xyz" or "it would be cool if xyz" and having a product person there to answer those questions or assure the customer that their feedback was heard can go a long way

#general - June 07, 2024 at 09:02 PM

Oooh I love mugs that are their own coaster!

#general - June 07, 2024 at 08:28 PM

We've been using them for non-branded gifting and have been happy so far

#general - June 07, 2024 at 08:07 PM

Thank you! This is really helpful!

#general - June 07, 2024 at 07:55 PM

Thank you! Not sure I need to go that deep, but just want to get some first-hand perspectives on how the warehouse/fulfillment side worked and the quality. Things like: • If you bought items elsewhere, did you run into any issues getting them accepted at the warehouse and added into inventory? • Did shipments go out in a timely manner and arrive on schedule? If you needed to rush something were they able to accommodate (for an extra cost of course)? • Did items arrive nicely packed and in good condition?

#general - June 07, 2024 at 07:32 PM

@Evan Huck Have you used them for branded swag? If so, could I DM you with a few questions?

#general - June 07, 2024 at 07:07 PM

I could talk about lifecycle, I have some onboarding content done that I could repurprose

#general - May 17, 2024 at 07:16 PM

Not an icebreaker type question, but I am planning to ask each of my CAB members to come to our next meeting with a problem they're currently facing so the group can workshop them together

#open-share - May 14, 2024 at 05:11 PM

Congrats @Shannon Howard this is a fantastic report!

#open-share - May 13, 2024 at 06:23 PM

Do you have any places where you use standalone quotes? A great quote would be much easier to execute and could work well on social, or potentially on your site if it fits your design.

#general - April 17, 2024 at 02:43 PM

I'd love to join too!

#random - March 19, 2024 at 05:07 PM

What results are you hoping to drive to be considered a "win"?

#random - March 19, 2024 at 05:06 PM

So frustrating! Here's how I've framed the decision. If someone were to see the story and backchannel reach out to the customer, what would they say about you and the relationship? And how would they explain having such a great story but not renewing? Keep in mind that "customer" in this case could mean just about anyone at that company, not just the champion being quoted. In rare cases, there could be great answers to both of these questions that would keep your prospects excited and moving forward. But unfortunately, most of the time, you probably want to either remove or anonymize.

#jobs - March 18, 2024 at 08:24 PM

A former colleague is now at NetApp and reached out to see if I know anyone who might be a good fit for this Sr. Manager (IC) role. ~Looks like you need to be on-site in San Jose, CA~. Let me know if you'd like an intro! <https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/3858835999> Edit: You do not need to be in San Jose! Also a note with more context: "A heads up is that CloudOps Mktg team is part of a startup-y part of a larger org, NetApp. That's why it's a bit more hands on and not yet managing a full team."

#open-share - March 07, 2024 at 07:20 PM

Congratulations!! So adorable!

#open-share - February 13, 2024 at 01:55 PM

So sorry to hear this. I'm happy to help if I can! I am also seeing lines blur between scaled/digital CS and customer marketing, and I think we'll see more of it over time. But so far, it seems like every company is finding their own way. I assume at some point the roles will settle into more standard definitions, but I don't have a strong sense of what that will look like.

#reviews - January 24, 2024 at 07:00 PM

DMs are open - I'll just be over here updating my sponsorship packages 😆

#reviews - January 24, 2024 at 06:10 PM

I should probably not say this outside of no-vendors, but in my experience the review sites are all really pay-to-play, so if you want to see any significant value, you should expect to have some sort of paid relationship. They each attract slightly different visitor profiles, so it's worth thinking about which one(s) best matches your strategy. You can also look at your site analytics to see which review sites are referring traffic to you and might be a good starting point for more investment.

#reviews - January 15, 2024 at 09:31 PM

So glad they took it down, but what an awful tactic for a competitor to take!

#reviews - January 10, 2024 at 09:06 PM

I think that's the best approach - it sounds like their concerns are valid and can't be fixed at the moment. I would apologize for the situation and thank them for the honest feedback. If there's any action being taken (ie if there is a product update on the way that would fix their issue), I would include that too, but I assume if that was the case, their account team would have done that already.

#announcements - December 13, 2023 at 03:38 PM

I'm booked until 12:15, and then again from 2-3 on Tuesday. As of now, I could do 12 EST on any other day next week

#jobs - December 07, 2023 at 09:12 PM

@April Chu Sure - can you DM me with your LinkedIn and a short paragraph I can use to introduce you?

#announcements - December 07, 2023 at 04:51 PM

Onboarding is my favorite!! Let's chat!

#announcements - December 07, 2023 at 03:25 PM

I was traveling so missed seeing this yesterday. What awesome news to come back to today! Congrats @Mary Green (Owner CMAweekly)!

#open-share - December 06, 2023 at 05:32 PM

If you only have 30 min, I would collect feedback in advance on what went well and what could be improved and have it consolidated/grouped thematically before the session. Then you can use your time together to be more focused on highlighting the most important things to continue, solving any structural challenges, or working through any feedback that warrants a live discussion

#announcements - November 20, 2023 at 09:43 PM

I maintain a calendar of comms across all channels in Asana. Anyone can add it to their Google Calendar even if they aren't an Asana user

#announcements - November 13, 2023 at 06:40 PM

I wouldn't formally segment, but would create specific topical channels/areas that are likely to appeal to different company sizes. So for example, you could have a channel on working solo/with a small team, or a channel on working with your PMO. People from SMB will most likely be on small teams so would join that channel, but they probably don't have a PMO at their org so wouldn't be interested in that. People from enterprise would probably be the reverse. People end up mostly talking to peers from similar orgs, but it's not enforced and you aren't excluding anyone from joining an area just because it isn't usually relevant for the business size.

#random - November 06, 2023 at 08:40 PM

Interesting. I know IDC does them because I conducted customer interviews for them as a consultant. But can’t remember what they call them

#random - November 06, 2023 at 08:37 PM

IDC has similar offerings, I think most analysts have some version of that

#customerxcon - October 16, 2023 at 06:45 PM

Very excited to meet you all in real life!

#announcements - October 13, 2023 at 04:45 PM

I've done this before - I thought I still had the slide but apparently I don't 😞. Basically, I put together a one-slide intro that covered the very high-level ways that they might hear from me. I tried to be very heavy on the "give" side, but also included partnership opportunities like case studies etc. It was no more than 5 minutes of the call, but just a good opportunity to plant the seed and create some name recognition for later

#announcements - September 15, 2023 at 02:50 PM

Thanks! This is definitely helpful. I think in-app and personal outreach where we can are going to be out biggest opportunities. I'm also wondering if we can find ways to less explicitly opt people back in. For example, if they register for a webinar, we could opt them back in (just like demand gen would do for a prospect)

#announcements - September 14, 2023 at 01:57 PM

Have you run a successful re-opt in campaign for email? We have a large set of customers who we suspect were unintentionally opted-out due to an issue on our end, but since we can't be 100% sure, we need to find a way to get them to opt back in. I am kicking around a few ideas, but would love to hear if you have any tried and tested tactics that worked