Building Customer Marketing: 5 Key Strategies from the CMA Playbook That Will Set You Up For Success

In today's rapidly evolving landscape of customer marketing and advocacy, a strong CMA Playbook is crucial for driving customer-led growth (CLG). It guides you through building a compelling business case, securing C-level buy-in, leveraging powerful customer engagement tools, and ultimately enhancing customer retention and revenue growth.

The Evolving Role of Customer Marketing
Customer marketing has evolved significantly in recent years, transitioning from a support role to a strategic function that directly impacts revenue and growth. As companies face increasing competition and rising customer acquisition costs, the importance of retaining and expanding existing customer relationships has never been greater. Customer marketing encompasses all post-sale marketing activities, including upsell and cross-sell campaigns, customer advocacy programs, and lifecycle marketing efforts.

Customer-led growth (CLG) is at the heart of these initiatives. By focusing on the entire customer lifecycle, from acquisition to advocacy, companies can create a more sustainable and efficient growth model. This approach not only reduces churn but also increases customer lifetime value (CLV), making it a critical component of any modern marketing strategy.

Crafting a Compelling Business Case for Customer Marketing
One of the keys to the success of customer marketing programs is knowing how to build a strong business case. The need to align customer marketing goals with overall company objectives is crucial to the program’s success. Whether it's improving retention rates, driving upsell and cross-sell opportunities, or enhancing customer satisfaction, the key is to demonstrate how customer marketing can contribute to the company’s bottom line.

To do this, customer marketers must adopt a data-driven approach, focusing on metrics that matter to senior executives. This includes not only traditional engagement metrics but also revenue-related KPIs such as CLV, net revenue retention (NRR), and customer acquisition costs (CAC). By tying customer marketing efforts directly to these financial outcomes, marketers can secure the resources and C-level support needed to scale their programs.

Leveraging Customer Advocacy for Success
Harnessing the power of satisfied customers to fuel growth is crucial for establishing a successful customer advocacy program. When building a customer advocacy program from scratch it’s important to secure buy-in from key stakeholders, particularly sales leadership, to ensure the success of advocacy initiatives.

It’s also immensely helpful to have a scalable customer marketing platform to manage references and advocacy activities. Customer engagement tools like Base can streamline the process, making it easier for sales teams to leverage customer testimonials and case studies in their pitches. This not only enhances the credibility of the sales efforts but also speeds up the sales cycle, leading to more closed deals and higher revenue.

Driving Retention with Lifecycle Marketing
Retention is another critical challenge for many companies, especially in the SaaS industry. One of the strategies for improving retention is focusing on customer deployment and early engagement. The key to customer retention is ensuring customers derive value from the product as soon as possible. This involves a concerted effort across customer success, sales, and marketing teams to get customers onboarded and actively using the product.

Deployment velocity is a metric that tracks how quickly customers begin using the product after purchase. By monitoring this and other related metrics, companies can identify at-risk customers early and take proactive steps to improve their experience. This data-driven approach not only boosts retention but also lays the groundwork for future upsell and cross-sell opportunities.

Best Practices for Upsell and Cross-Sell Campaigns
Upsell and cross-sell campaigns are essential strategies in customer marketing, helping to maximize the value of each customer relationship. It’s important to understand customers’ needs and align product offerings accordingly. By offering additional products or services that complement what customers are already using, companies can deepen their engagement and increase revenue.

In practical terms, this approach requires detailed planning and alignment with customer-facing teams. It’s recommended to build a comprehensive framework that maps out customer touchpoints over time, ensuring that upsell and cross-sell messages are delivered at the right moment. Additionally, you can use customer feedback to refine and optimize campaigns, making them more effective over time.

Conclusion
As the field continues to evolve, the focus on customer-led growth, customer advocacy, and data-driven decision-making will be critical for success. By aligning customer marketing efforts with overall business goals and leveraging the right tools and strategies, companies can not only retain their customers but also turn them into powerful advocates who drive sustainable growth.

Incorporating these best practices into your customer marketing strategy will ensure that you are well-positioned to thrive in the increasingly competitive landscape of 2024 and beyond.