This document discusses the evolving role of the customer marketer. It begins by contrasting the traditional role of customer marketer, which focused on campaigns, to the current role, which emphasizes ongoing customer relationships and engagement. The modern customer marketer is challenged with measuring the impact of engagement activities and proving the value of customer marketing. Key metrics for success discussed include renewal rates, referrals, references, and advocacy/engagement. Overall, the role of the customer marketer is shifting from campaigns to building deep, long-term customer relationships and experiences.
Material Changes in the Customer Experience & the Profound Impact on CMOsJames O'Gara
Over the next three-to-five years, 75 percent* of marketers say
they will be responsible for the end-to-end customer experience. To be successful, CMOs must have a deeper understanding of the strategies and tactics required to deliver a superior customer journey. This paper explores how marketing’s responsibilities must change in the organization, how marketers must extend their reach into the customer experience, and why the CMO’s role must be reimagined.
Getting your Why factor right is crucial to sales successSalesRehab Pty Ltd
Simon Sinek puts it well... Most people sell like this.. they tell you what they do, how they do it and never get to Why.... Those that sell with Why first as the great successes...
Dr. Salvador Treviño, Dean of the School of Business, Undergraduate Programs, Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey - Multi-Channel Marketing Lecture
Capturing Customer Data and Insights that Elevate the Customer ExperienceJames O'Gara
Curriculum Highlights:
The data set that truly drives the customer experience
starts with understanding the customer’s desires, needs,
challenges and decision-making drivers. Do you need
big data to capture these insights? Maybe. Maybe not.
During this session, you’ll gain insight into the customer
experience data that really matters and how it can be
leveraged to improve the customer buying process and
journey. You’ll also learn about research techniques
that can be used to capture an accurate Voice-of-theCustomer
(VOC) and how the insights will help you create
a differentiated customer experience.
Learning Objective:
Participants will leave with a deeper understanding of the
customer research methods and data they need to create
a more engaging and compelling customer experience.
Creating Clarity and Conviction in the Mind of Your CustomerJames O'Gara
Clarity and conviction in the mind of your customer starts
with an authentic and consistently delivered corporate story.
To establish clarity and conviction, CMOs must first address
the enterprise-wide messaging development and delivery
problem that exists across all three phases of the customer
experience (self-service, sales, post-purchase). The CEO,
CMO and customer experience leaders must get in a room
and devise a plan for delivering a consistent story in the
complex experience economy they operate in today. This
starts with the CEO making the corporate story a strategic
priority across the organization. The CEO must fundamentally
buy in to the fact that your corporate story directly impacts
the customer experience and financial performance. Read more...
2013 - CSC Customer Intimacy Barometer - Convergence between on and off-line ...CSC
2013 Customer Intimacy Barometer (CSC) - 100+ interviews throughtout Europe - Convergence in Customer Intimacy at the crossroads of online and offline - CSC vision of current evolutions (cross-Verticals)
Material Changes in the Customer Experience & the Profound Impact on CMOsJames O'Gara
Over the next three-to-five years, 75 percent* of marketers say
they will be responsible for the end-to-end customer experience. To be successful, CMOs must have a deeper understanding of the strategies and tactics required to deliver a superior customer journey. This paper explores how marketing’s responsibilities must change in the organization, how marketers must extend their reach into the customer experience, and why the CMO’s role must be reimagined.
Getting your Why factor right is crucial to sales successSalesRehab Pty Ltd
Simon Sinek puts it well... Most people sell like this.. they tell you what they do, how they do it and never get to Why.... Those that sell with Why first as the great successes...
Dr. Salvador Treviño, Dean of the School of Business, Undergraduate Programs, Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey - Multi-Channel Marketing Lecture
Capturing Customer Data and Insights that Elevate the Customer ExperienceJames O'Gara
Curriculum Highlights:
The data set that truly drives the customer experience
starts with understanding the customer’s desires, needs,
challenges and decision-making drivers. Do you need
big data to capture these insights? Maybe. Maybe not.
During this session, you’ll gain insight into the customer
experience data that really matters and how it can be
leveraged to improve the customer buying process and
journey. You’ll also learn about research techniques
that can be used to capture an accurate Voice-of-theCustomer
(VOC) and how the insights will help you create
a differentiated customer experience.
Learning Objective:
Participants will leave with a deeper understanding of the
customer research methods and data they need to create
a more engaging and compelling customer experience.
Creating Clarity and Conviction in the Mind of Your CustomerJames O'Gara
Clarity and conviction in the mind of your customer starts
with an authentic and consistently delivered corporate story.
To establish clarity and conviction, CMOs must first address
the enterprise-wide messaging development and delivery
problem that exists across all three phases of the customer
experience (self-service, sales, post-purchase). The CEO,
CMO and customer experience leaders must get in a room
and devise a plan for delivering a consistent story in the
complex experience economy they operate in today. This
starts with the CEO making the corporate story a strategic
priority across the organization. The CEO must fundamentally
buy in to the fact that your corporate story directly impacts
the customer experience and financial performance. Read more...
2013 - CSC Customer Intimacy Barometer - Convergence between on and off-line ...CSC
2013 Customer Intimacy Barometer (CSC) - 100+ interviews throughtout Europe - Convergence in Customer Intimacy at the crossroads of online and offline - CSC vision of current evolutions (cross-Verticals)
Acting on a global basis to help our clients deliver winning marketing strategies through rigorous analytics, in-depth understanding and powerful insights. Making a difference - together.
Momentum – new perspectives on demand generationBANNER
Demand generation is the number one focus of an ever-increasing number of marketers. Faced by ever higher quarterly targets, they need to deliver predictable results from their activity. But, all too often, the traditional six week B2B campaign is simply failing to deliver.
In this white paper we explode the myth of the traditional sales funnel. We show how it is now time to move to a perpetual trigger-based approach. One recognising that different customers will need different information at different stages.
Today, this information can be triggered by easily observable customer behaviour using modern marketing automation systems such as Eloqua. The result is a more personal, more relevant and ultimately more effective way to generate and nurture demand.
The CMO and Marketing's Role in the Customer ExperienceJames O'Gara
The customer experience has become the competitive battleground for business. By delivering a consistent, memorable experience, companies can create a competitive advantage that increases customer engagement, conversion, loyalty and advocacy.
Today, almost everyone in a company plays a role in the customer experience — from HR to finance, operations, sales, marketing, customer service, even general employee connections and interactions. As a result, ownership and management of the entire customer experience has been elusive. That is rapidly changing. Over the next three-to-five years, 75 percent of marketers say they will be responsible for the end-to-end customer experience.
This series will provide CMOs and business executives with a deeper understanding of the strategies and tactics required to deliver a superior end-to-end customer experience. This is the first of 10 executive education sessions.
Transforming from a campaign-based approach to a more customer-centric one spans the considerations
needed to effi ciently manage all aspects of the Connected Journey. In 2016, multi-channel marketing (MCM)
enters a new and exciting phase that merges time-tested best practices with the trends that are driving digital
performance today
Retail Guide: 10 Commandments of Customer-Centric RetailingRaymark
As our physical and online environments continue to come together, consumer behavior
keeps changing and retailers need to react. Today’s consumers are extremely connected and live a digital lifestyle. They are educated, expect speed and have become extremely demanding. With an overload of mass marketing, some customers have lost trust in retailers and have become less loyal.
In this guide, we will take you through the 10 commandments that every customer-centric retailer needs to follow in order to increase loyalty, new customer acquisition, visit conversion, transaction value and to optimize marketing and customer engagement costs.
A Guide to Effective Lead Generation - The Journey from List to LeadReshma Nigam
This white paper delineates Markable Solutions’ high impact lead generation techniques to develop marketing qualified leads for an organization’s sales pipeline.
You will learn how to:
1. Define a lead and understand the buying process
2. Build a robust B2B lead generation strategy
3. Use various list-to-lead techniques by Markable Solutions
A Guide to Sales and Marketing Messaging Alignment with WittyParrotWittyParrot
A guide to align the sales and marketing messaging and content reuse. It also covers certain vital points including capturing, managing, maintaining, reusing and sharing messaging components.
Acting on a global basis to help our clients deliver winning marketing strategies through rigorous analytics, in-depth understanding and powerful insights. Making a difference - together.
Momentum – new perspectives on demand generationBANNER
Demand generation is the number one focus of an ever-increasing number of marketers. Faced by ever higher quarterly targets, they need to deliver predictable results from their activity. But, all too often, the traditional six week B2B campaign is simply failing to deliver.
In this white paper we explode the myth of the traditional sales funnel. We show how it is now time to move to a perpetual trigger-based approach. One recognising that different customers will need different information at different stages.
Today, this information can be triggered by easily observable customer behaviour using modern marketing automation systems such as Eloqua. The result is a more personal, more relevant and ultimately more effective way to generate and nurture demand.
The CMO and Marketing's Role in the Customer ExperienceJames O'Gara
The customer experience has become the competitive battleground for business. By delivering a consistent, memorable experience, companies can create a competitive advantage that increases customer engagement, conversion, loyalty and advocacy.
Today, almost everyone in a company plays a role in the customer experience — from HR to finance, operations, sales, marketing, customer service, even general employee connections and interactions. As a result, ownership and management of the entire customer experience has been elusive. That is rapidly changing. Over the next three-to-five years, 75 percent of marketers say they will be responsible for the end-to-end customer experience.
This series will provide CMOs and business executives with a deeper understanding of the strategies and tactics required to deliver a superior end-to-end customer experience. This is the first of 10 executive education sessions.
Transforming from a campaign-based approach to a more customer-centric one spans the considerations
needed to effi ciently manage all aspects of the Connected Journey. In 2016, multi-channel marketing (MCM)
enters a new and exciting phase that merges time-tested best practices with the trends that are driving digital
performance today
Retail Guide: 10 Commandments of Customer-Centric RetailingRaymark
As our physical and online environments continue to come together, consumer behavior
keeps changing and retailers need to react. Today’s consumers are extremely connected and live a digital lifestyle. They are educated, expect speed and have become extremely demanding. With an overload of mass marketing, some customers have lost trust in retailers and have become less loyal.
In this guide, we will take you through the 10 commandments that every customer-centric retailer needs to follow in order to increase loyalty, new customer acquisition, visit conversion, transaction value and to optimize marketing and customer engagement costs.
A Guide to Effective Lead Generation - The Journey from List to LeadReshma Nigam
This white paper delineates Markable Solutions’ high impact lead generation techniques to develop marketing qualified leads for an organization’s sales pipeline.
You will learn how to:
1. Define a lead and understand the buying process
2. Build a robust B2B lead generation strategy
3. Use various list-to-lead techniques by Markable Solutions
A Guide to Sales and Marketing Messaging Alignment with WittyParrotWittyParrot
A guide to align the sales and marketing messaging and content reuse. It also covers certain vital points including capturing, managing, maintaining, reusing and sharing messaging components.
Webinar - making customer retention your strategy for hyper-growthRanceTimiEbiwari
Consumer expectations have shifted. Digital-first brands are now the leaders in creating valuable experiences. Thoughtful, meaningful engagement is a more effective strategy than persistent, irrelevant campaigns.
A Pinpoint Systems Corporation white paper discussing how companies must transform from being about them to being about the customer by:
-Committing to a philosophical and cultural shift
-Centralizing the 360° view of customer information
-Enabling intelligent outreach
-Enabling intelligent dialog
To support organizations in making the transformation from a product- and channel- focused organization to one focused on the customer, Pinpoint Systems has applied their expertise in the customer-centric space to create the Marketing System of Record solution, powered by the efficiency of the IBM Enterprise Marketing Management platform.
The tracking features of the solution allow analysts to complete these tasks:
• Attribute customer actions to specific campaigns and target cells.
• Use campaign and response history for audience selection and segmentation.
• Compute standard campaign performance metrics.
• Automatically report those metrics, as well as emerging sales trends, to product managers and other stakeholders.
Hey guys, this presentation is all about marketing starting with a crisp and clear introduction and this ppt focusses on all important aspects related to marketing whether be it decision making, marketing process, marketig analysis, marketing utilities, marketing management concepts, marketing planning, traditional & modern approaches of marketing, a full coverage of 7 Ps of marketing mix as well as various important marketing strategy techniques along with relevant diagrams & charts & illutrative examples.
It’s well known among marketing professionals that customers go through a series of stages – a lifecycle – in their relationship with vendors. Despite differences in customers and the vendors with whom they do business, the lifecycle stages are pretty universal: Awareness (also known as Attraction), Consideration, Purchase, Retention and Advocacy. What differs is how long prospects remain in each stage, what kind of experience they have while they’re there, and what must happen to advance the relationship to the next stage.
Marketing is ideally the steward of the customer journey, and it faces several challenges in fulfilling this responsibility. One of the most formidable challenges is the self-directed nature of the journey. The norm is for prospective customers to start their journey in stealth mode, making significant progress on their own without marketing and sales aid, influence or assistance. Marketing has historically presided over the Awareness stage, and together with sales, the Consideration stage. But now, customers often pass through both of these stages undetected, and marketers understandably feel some anxiety over their diminished influence in these lifecycle stages.
While the stages of the customer journey are well known, from the customers’ perspective traversing them is sometimes a bumpy ride. Customers don’t view their relationship with vendors as a series of stages, each with a different conductor who may or may not know what transpired in a previous stage. Customers want a smooth journey and expect vendors to know the history of their relationships and the content already consumed; they don’t want to have to re-explain their needs and interests each time they transition to a new stage. They prefer seamless, consistent quality across all touch points and stages of the relationship, regardless of the device or channels through which interaction occurs. They value one-to-one, contextually relevant engagement that is sensitive to who they are, what they do and where they’re going.
Consumers' Mandate to CPG Marketers - Use Your Corpus Callosum!
The-Rise-of-the-Customer-Marketer
1.
2. 1. INTRODUCTION: THE RISE OF THE CUSTOMER MARKETER
2. THE ROLE OF THE CUSTOMER MARKETER: THEN & NOW
3. CHALLENGES OF THE CUSTOMER MARKETER
4. KEY METRICS FOR CUSTOMER MARKETING SUCCESS
5. WHICH ROLE WILL YOU PLAY?
THEN: THE ROLE OF THE CM THEN
MEASURING RESULTS/PROVING VALUE
NUMBER OF RENEWALS
CONCLUSION
MANY HATS/LIMITED RESOURCES
NUMBER OF REFERRALS/REFERENCES
ONLINE TOOLS
READING LIST
EMPLOYEE EDUCATION & ENGAGEMENT
ADVOCACY & ENGAGEMENT
NOW: FROM CAMPAIGNS TO CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
TABLE OF CONTENTS
3. TO BE SUCCESSFUL AS
A MARKETER, YOU NEED
TO PUT THE CUSTOMER
AT THE CENTER OF EVERY
SINGLE THING YOU DO.
— DEENA ZENYK
ADVOCATE MARKETING MANAGER
AT SMART TECHNOLOGIES
*SOURCE: BLUEWOLF’S STATE OF SALESFORCE REVIEW 2013-2014
CONSIDER THIS: 60% OF BUSINESS LEADERS SURVEYED
SAY THAT CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT IS THEIR TOP PRIORITY,
WHILE 84% OF BUSINESS LEADERS BELIEVE THAT CUSTOMER
ENGAGEMENT WILL SURPASS PRODUCTIVITY AS THE PRIMARY
DRIVER OF BUSINESS GROWTH.*
Why so much focus on the customer? It’s simple, really. Fully engaged
customers spend more, stay around longer, and ultimately, turn into
advocates for your brand, using their social power to recommend, refer and
ultimately sell your product or service for you.
Other factors, including the longer revenue cycles of SaaS (software as a
service), or subscription-based business models, have made it essential
to invest in customer relationships over the long-term in order to realize
revenue growth.
As more and more companies turn their focus away from short-lived
marketing campaigns, and toward building ongoing relationships with
customers, the role of the customer marketer is changing – and becoming
more important than ever.
To help you better understand this fundamental strategy shift, and the
exciting opportunities it poses for customer marketers, we’ve developed
this short guide, chock full of insights, recommendations and resources
gathered from those who live, work and breathe for the customer.
PSST! HAVE YOU HEARD THE LATEST?
THE AGE OF THE CUSTOMER IS UPON
US, AND IT MEANS BIG THINGS FOR
CUSTOMER MARKETERS!
3
4. THEN
To fully understand the evolution of the customer marketer, let’s
take a look at some of the traditional marketing techniques and
strategies used by marketers over the years.
THE ROLE OF THE CUSTOMER MARKETER
VS NOW
5. CAMPAIGNS WERE KING
SELLERS WERE IN CONTROL
CUSTOMERS INTERACTED
WITH COMPANIES VIA SALES
SERVICE STAFF
Historically, marketers relied heavily on campaigns that used push
techniques, such as advertising and email blasts, to broadcast a single
message to all of their customers. With a focus around specific events such
as product launches or contract renewals, customer interaction came in short
spurts, and then ended until the start of the next campaign.
With content now accessible anytime, anywhere, it’s hard to imagine the
concept of information scarcity. However, pre-Internet marketers used this
scarcity to their advantage, controlling campaign messages through direct
mail and advertising. Because buyers were limited in how they could access
company and product information, purchasing power sat with the seller.
Traditionally, buyers interacted with a company primarily through sales and
service staff. Marketing’s job consisted of collecting leads and passing them
on to sales people, who would then “connect” with customers by e-mailing
out a case study or two, and perhaps arranging a reference call, with the
goal of closing the sale.
FOUR YEARS AGO,
CUSTOMER MARKETING
MEANT RUNNING A
CAMPAIGN TO GET MORE
MONEY OUT OF YOUR
CUSTOMERS.
— HEATHER FOEH
DIRECTOR OF CUSTOMER
ADVOCACY, L AT TICE ENG INES
THE ROLE OF THE CUSTOMER MARKETER: THEN
5
6. FROM CAMPAIGNS TO CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
THEN VS NOW
THE ROLE OF THE CUSTOMER
MARKETER IS CHANGING
7. THE CUSTOMER NOW
HAS THE POWER, AND
THEY CAN CHOOSE
WHERE THEY GET THE
INFORMATION FROM,
AND FROM WHOM.
— CARLOS GONZALEZ
DIRECTOR OF CUSTOMER SUCCESS
CERIDIAN
With the amount of information and choices
readily available to today’s digital customer,
buyers expect more from the companies that
sell to them. As a result, businesses have
been forced to rethink the way they view and
interact with their customers — and the role
of the customer marketer has taken on a new
dimension.
BUYING POWER HAS SHIFTED
TO THE CUSTOMER
Gone are the days when companies could choose their campaign message and
push it out via limited channels. With access to social channels, online reviews
and communities, customers are interacting with brands (and each other)
outside of campaigns, and companies that don’t earn permission for a buyer’s
attention risk being left behind.
BUYERS TRUST PEERS MORE
THAN THEY DO MARKETERS
Because 75% of the B2B buying process is complete before buyers come in
contact with sales (Forrester Research), it’s important to engage customers early
in the buying cycle, and get them talking positively about your brand.
This is where customer marketers can shine. As drivers of advocate programs,
customer marketers can mobilize a company’s most enthusiastic, vocal fans to
share the love by agreeing to act as a referral, submit an online review, write a
testimonial, or simply comment on a blog post. Good customer marketers know
that treating advocates like rock stars – inviting them to private parties and
special events – keeps them part of your inner circle, and helps motivate them
to take the next challenge you cast their way.
FROM CAMPAIGNS TO CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
7
8. It’s always a challenge just to
get people in the company to
understand what advocacy
is. People think: Great, a
customer advocacy person –
we should have lots of case
studies now.
THE ROLE OF THE CUSTOMER
MARKETER IS CHANGING
Customer marketing has definitely
shifted from a strong emphasis on
cross sell and upsell to engaging
customers in ways that creates
a deeper relationship and more
action oriented dialogue. In the
long run, this shift will recreate the
way we market: putting customers
at the center of everything we do.
I think before it was: Who
can come up with their
creative campaign, do some
marketing automation and
send out to your customers,
whereas now it’s more of a
relationship role.
— HEATHER FOEH
DIRECTOR OF CUSTOMER
ADVOCACY AT L ATTICE ENGINES
— NATALIE SALSER
MARKETING MANAGER, CUSTOMER
ADVOCACY ENGAGEMENT AT NEUSTAR
— LIZ RICHARDSON
SOCIAL MEDIA AND ADVOCATE
MARKETING MANAGER AT BOMGAR
8
9. IT’S BECOME MUCH MORE
IMPORTANT TO INVOLVE THE
CUSTOMER IN THE SALES CYCLE
BECAUSE, MANY TIMES, PEOPLE
TRUST THE WORD OF THE
CUSTOMER OVER THE WORDS
OF THE SELLER. IT’S JUST THAT
WHOLE THOUGHT PROCESS
ABOUT HOW PEOPLE LISTEN TO
WHAT THEIR PEERS SAY.
— KRISTEN GLASS
MARKETING SPECIALIST
ACT- ON SOFT WARE
THE ROLE OF THE CUSTOMER
MARKETER IS CHANGING
Although still responsible for generating revenue through cross selling
and upselling opportunities, customer marketers have taken on more
responsibilities designed to foster the ongoing customer relationships that are
so important for retaining customers and reducing churn (the rate of customer
attrition or turnover).
Business leaders understand that it costs exponentially more to acquire a
new customer, so they are focusing resources on nurturing existing customers
through customer marketing. In fact, nearly 63% of business professionals say
they have staff dedicated to customer marketing roles.
FROM CAMPAIGNS TO CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
SOME OF THE AREAS WE’VE SEEN
CUSTOMER MARKETERS TAKE ON INCLUDE:
CUSTOMER AND USER GROUP EVENTS
CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT
CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
DEMAND GENERATION
ONLINE COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT
REFERRAL MANAGEMENT
RETENTION, LOYALTY AND ADVOCACY PROGRAMS
9
CUSTOMERS THAT ARE FULLY ENGAGED
WITH YOUR BRAND PROVIDE A 23% PREMIUM
OVER AVERAGE CUSTOMERS IN SHARE OF
WALLET, PROFITABILITY, REVENUE, AND
RELATIONSHIP GROWTH
10. 2
— KRISTEN GLASS - MARKETING SPECIALIST
AT ACT-ON SOFTWARE
FLI
I THINK THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE
FOR ME IS THE TIME, BECAUSE
CUSTOMER MARKETING IS NOT THE
ONLY HAT I WEAR. I ALSO WEAR
PARTNER MARKETING AND SOCIAL
MEDIA MARKETING HATS
CHALLENGES OF THE CUSTOMER MARKETER
— KRISTEN GLASS
MARKETING SPECIALIST | ACT- ON SOFT WARE
11. MY TWO BIGGEST CHALLENGES YEAR
AFTER YEAR: HOW DO YOU VALIDATE
THAT YOUR EFFORTS HAVE CONTRIBUTED
TO A CLIENT RENEWING—OR, HELPED
INFLUENCE A BRAND NEW SALE? HOW DO
YOU MEASURE THE IMPACT OF A PROGRAM
THAT IS DESIGNED AND EXECUTED SIMPLY
IN HOPES OF CREATING A WORLD-CLASS
CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE?
— NATALIE SALSER
MEASURING RESULTS
AND PROVING VALUE
One of the biggest challenges facing customer marketers today is how to
measure results of engagement activities, and how to prove their value in
the organization.
Although customer marketing has been around for years, the emphasis
on customer relationships is relatively new – and therefore, sometimes
misunderstood. Because of this, customer marketers tell us that it’s difficult
for others in the organization to realize the ROI of their efforts.
Despite this hurdle, the emergence of new measurement and analytics
tools, as well as other data mining technologies, can help businesses create
richer digital customer experiences, and more easily tie engagement
activities to bottom line results. And CMOs are on board. By 2017, predicts
Gartner Group, CMOs are predicted to spend more on IT than CIOs.
MANY HATS, LIMITED RESOURCES
Close behind on the list of challenges is the fact that customer marketers
have a wide range of responsibilities, and sometimes find it difficult to
prioritize and focus.
Many customer marketers are not only responsible for managing reference
programs, advocate marketing programs and online communities, but
customer events, partner and social marketing, as well.
The key to this dilemma is to go back to your company’s strategic objectives
and determine which activities will best support those objectives. As
several customer marketers told us, they share objectives across various
departments, so consulting with sales, customer support and other
functional areas is a must.
CHALLENGES OF THE CUSTOMER MARKETER
11
MARKETING MANAGER , CUSTOMER
ADVOCACY ENGAGEMENT AT NEUSTAR
12. MY BIGGEST BATTLE IS GETTING
INTERNAL RESOURCES TO PUT TIME
IN FOR CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS.
SALES ARE NOT ALWAYS LOOKING
TO NURTURE THOSE RELATIONSHIPS
WITH CUSTOMERS; THEY WANT TO
BE TALKING TO NEW POTENTIAL
CUSTOMERS WHO WILL HELP THEM
REACH THEIR SALES GOALS
— SOPHIE BROWN
CUSTOMER SUCCESS
MARKETING MANAGER AT BOMGAR
EMPLOYEE EDUCATION
ENGAGEMENT
Educating people about what customer marketing is, communicating how
they can help functional units across the business, and motivating employees
to dedicate time to building customer relationships rounds out the top three
customer marketer challenges.
For example, because advocacy programs generate content such as
testimonials and case studies, some might view the customer marketer solely
as a content creator. And while many customer marketers are responsible
for generating content for engagement or lead generation purposes, this is
certainly not their only role.
Another pain point for customer marketers is trying to keep references off
the black market and inside their advocacy program. Because sales people
may not understand the role that customer marketers play in managing the
company’s reference program, they may be trading references with other
sales people while bypassing customer marketing altogether.
This kind of activity dilutes your customer marketing efforts because it
leaves advocates outside of the reference process, and many times, doesn’t
provide the best peer match for a meaningful exchange.The solution to these
challenges? Employee engagement. When companies empower employees
to make decisions that put the customer first, employees feel valued and
happier with their jobs, and are more likely to contribute to the customer
experience, supporting the overall customer marketing effort.
CHALLENGES OF THE CUSTOMER MARKETER
12
OF MARKETING PROFESSIONALS
SAY THAT CUSTOMER MARKETING IS
VERY IMPORTANT IN HELPING THEM
ACHIEVE THEIR REVENUE GOALS.
13. CUSTOMERS THAT ARE FULLY ENGAGED
WITH YOUR BRAND PROVIDE A 23%
PREMIUM OVER AVERAGE CUSTOMERS
IN SHARE OF WALLET, PROFITABILITY,
REVENUE, AND RELATIONSHIP GROWTH.
13
14. I see customer
marketing as two
different processes:
One is marketing to
customers and the
other is marketing
by customers.
— HEATHER WATKINS
DIRECTOR OF CUSTOMER
MARKETING , OPTIMIZELY
Customer marketers continue to struggle with
how to prove their value in the organization,
especially in the area of revenue generation.
However, new tools and technologies are making
it easier for customer marketers to collect and act
on the metrics that are most important to their
organizations. From renewal rates to engagement
levels, here are some of the most significant
measurements identified by our customer
marketers:
NUMBER OF RENEWALS
With the proliferation of the SaaS model, renewal rate has become
an even more important measure for many customer marketers.
And although management of the renewal process falls outside of
customer marketing, keeping relationships going in between renewals
positively influences renewal rates.
The challenge is how to keep those relationships going throughout the
year, and not just when renewal dates come along.
KEY METRICS FOR
MARKETING SUCCESS
Create an email template that sales people can use to
check in with their customers each month. Asking people
to update their contact information, or regularly sending
them valuable content will help keep you at the top of
their list come renewal time.
Conduct periodic webinars for your customers around
new features or product updates.
Post a monthly tips and tricks article to your blog to help
educate customers on a continual basis and add value to
the customer lifecycle.
1
14
A FEW TACTICS SUGGESTED BY OUR
CUSTOMER MARKETERS INCLUDE:
15. Part of my job is to make sure
that we are staying in contact
with people so that we don’t
have to send this random
email once a year saying ‘Hey,
you owe us $20,000!’ We
need to have that relationship
in place to ensure that money
comes in easily and is almost
guaranteed
— SOPHIE BROWN
CUSTOMER SUCCESS AND
MARKETING MANAGER AT BOMGAR
NUMBER OF REFERRALS AND
REFERENCES
84% of B2B decision makers start off the buying process with a
referral (Edelman Trust Barometer). It’s no wonder this metric is one of
the top mentioned by customer marketers.
Tying both of these metrics to increased revenue is a common theme
among a majority of customer marketers we interviewed.
Fortunately, tools for tracking, measuring and analyzing these
metrics have come a long way. For example, those companies with
an advocate program can take advantage of advocate marketing
software to encourage and automatically track referrals and
references.
If integrated into their sales force automation software, these systems
can also report on how your customer marketing activities are directly
affecting the sales pipeline and revenue.
ADVOCACY ENGAGEMENT
Measuring customer engagement and advocacy activities continues to
be a major challenge for many customer marketers. As we’ve already
seen, advances in technology can help marketers better manage
advocacy efforts, as well as demonstrate value.
Beyond looking at quantitative data such as number of active
advocates and activities, how many testimonials and case studies have
been generated, or number of social shares for a piece of content,
customer marketers should evaluate the qualitative value of these
activities and how they contribute to overall strategic goals.
For example, find out what kind of content is being shared, and how
often. This will help determine the value of the content and provide
insights into how you can build on that value. When asking advocates
to participate in requests, or challenges, how many of them actually
respond? Armed with this information, you can ensure that you are
asking them to participate in activities that interest and motivate
them.
And finally, what are people saying about your brand? If customer
sentiment is not as enthusiastic as you expect, dig a little deeper to
find out how you can improve.
2
3
15
16. There has never been a more exciting time to
be part of this renewed customer movement.
As companies continue to realize the value
of nurturing their customers and the effect
this has on their bottom line, leaders are
putting forth more resources to support
customer marketers and their efforts to
strengthen lifelong customer relationships.
Advances in technology have paved the road to more efficient
customer behavior tracking and analysis, making it easier for
customer marketers to demonstrate their value across the
enterprise.
We, at Influitive, are ecstatic about the opportunities to contribute
to the customer-obsessed movement. In addition to this guide
and the listing of resources for customer marketers that follows,
we will be dedicating an entire series of webinars, blog posts and
thoughtful insights around the rise of the customer marketer.
And coming soon, you’ll get a glimpse of the results of our 2014
Customer Marketing Survey!
Thanks for reading, and we hope you find these resources useful as
you enter into this brave new customer-centric era.
WHICH ROLE WILL YOU PLAY
IN THIS NEW CUSTOMER-
OBSESSED WORLD?
16
You have to actually know
who your customers are
on an individual basis.
What excites them? What
doesn’t? What keeps your
relationship going? It’s
kind of like a friendship:
in order to keep it going
you have to check in on a
regular basis
— LIZ RICHARDSON
SOCIAL MEDIA AND ADVOCATE
MARKETING MANAGER AT BOMGAR
17. Take some time to explore these valuable
resources recommended by our customer
marketers.
ONLINE TOOLS
GOOGLE ALERTS
Get new content and resources delivered right to your inbox by
setting up Google alerts for keywords that are relevant to you, such
as “customer marketing” or “advocate marketing.”
TWITTER LISTS
Create Twitter lists of customer marketing resources and other
customer marketing professionals to stay up-to-date on the latest
news, resources and content about customer marketing and related
disciplines.
TWITTER CHATS
Twitter chats are a great way to meet fellow practitioners, swap
best practices
CUSTOMER MARKETING
INSPIRATION
A few years ago, we were
trying to figure out how
to measure the buying
journey. As a result, we
now have MQLs and
SQOs, as well as the ability
to measure every stage of
the funnel. We’ll get to the
point where we can apply
that same philosophy
and similar metrics to the
customer journey – it just
takes a little bit of time.
— BO BANDY
MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS
MANAGER - BR AND, CONTENT
CUSTOMER ADVOCACY - RE ADY TALK
17
BLOGS
Gainsight
Bluenose
Totango
Convince Convert
Satmetrix
Social Media Today
Social Media Examiner
WOMMA
Unmarketing
RESEARCH ANALYSIS
Forrester Research
SiriusDecisions
Bain Company
CONFERENCES EVENTS
Summit on Customer Engagement
Gartner Customer 360 Summit
Forrester Forum for Customer
Experience Professionals
CX Day
18. 18
INFLUENCE: THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PERSUASION
by Robert Cialdini
TRUST AGENTS: USING THE WEB TO BUILD INFLUENCE, IMPROVE
REPUTATION, AND EARN TRUST
by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith
HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW ON INCREASING CUSTOMER LOYALTY
THE THANK YOU ECONOMY
by Gary Vaynerchuk
TRIBES: WE NEED YOU TO LEAD US
by Seth Godin
YOUTILITY: WHY SMART MARKETING IS ABOUT HELP NOT HYPE
by Jay Baer
THE EVERYTHING GUIDE TO CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT
by Linda Pophal
PROFITABLE CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT: CONCEPT, METRICS AND
STRATEGIES
by V. Kumar
LOYALTY 3.0: HOW BIG DATA AND GAMIFICATION ARE REVOLUTIONIZ-
ING CUSTOMER AND EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT
by Rajat Paharia
BUILD FOR CHANGE: REVOLUTIONIZING CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT
THROUGH CONTINUOUS DIGITAL INNOVATION
by Alan Trefler
READING LIST