I'm creating a short course for executives and leaders in our space to quickly get to know the CMA world. What would you include in the course? Here's what I have so far: The many impacts of advocacy in the post-sales world The language we use (ie: Stop calling advocates references) Perks and rewards customer actually want Metrics and what's possible to track Their impact in championing advocacy with and for their team and I'm using better language for all of this, but I'd love your thoughts. PS: It will be free
What about advocacy vs. lifecycle marketing vs. upsell/cross-sell/revenue marketing? What advocacy is and what it isn't.
Ooh good ideas Kelly Brenneman
Ambassador programs, CABs, TABs, Community etc. what each is best for and what support is needed from excutives
Resources, people, vendors, budget. What combination is required for a successful program and the commitment.
And culture. Is the company customer-first? Do they have the mindset to cultivate relationships with their customers that will result in ambassadors.
Along with what Amy just said - How to get a company to truly be a "customer-first" company.
Good points. This will just be a primer, so I'll try to incorporate as much as I can. Maybe we could do a larger course in the future. I'd love help with that.
The concept of “Outside In”. A lot of companies focus internally and for CMA to be successful you have to think outside in and have a customer-first mentality. If you don’t do this and have the right customer-first culture, customer programs you run won’t be as successful. Great book on “Outside In” https://a.co/d/9hjLOAB
I love the convo about language. I removed “ask” and “challenge” in favor of “opportunity” when referring to acts of advocacy.
Components that can be included in advocacy programs. Here’s a list I posted on LinkedIn recently. Note this for the customer advocacy only - not campaigns and lifecycle marketing. Here are three pillars I’ve focused on when I’ve led Customer Advocacy/Marketing Programs: 1️⃣ Drive Revenue: sales references, campaigns, customer referral programs 2️⃣ Deepen Loyalty: customer newsletters, customer awards, customer advisory boards, customer user groups, customer community 3️⃣ Amplify Success: case studies, video testimonials, customer press releases, analyst references, customer reviews, social media, customer speakers
I love the topic of messaging and language, we should work on a short course about that Gabrielle Herrera
I like that list Liz Pedro
Perhaps how to build an ecosystem of programs that feed each other? Example: UserEvidence surveys that feed the advocate community (inviting reasonably-high NPS respondents), using advisory board feedback to get next-level down validation in the advocate community, etc.? Might be more relevant as a next-level-down session.
And YES for messaging and language. I'm looking at job posts, and need to carefully read the job description as people seem to randomly choose Customer Advocacy, Customer Marketing (broader in my opinion) and Customer Lifecycle marketing interchangeably and it's confusing.
Also the importance of building and maintaining a customer reference pipeline or you could call it your Customer advocate pipeline. Where do your references come from? Do they come from your NPS survey? Do they come from your CSM, your sales people, professional services etc. You need a pipeline so you’re always building and finding Advocates for the different needs that are always coming in
