This article comes from Allison Johnson’s insightful talk at our Customer Marketing Summit in San Francisco, check out her full presentation.
Building a powerhouse customer marketing team is both an art and a science.
I’m Allison Johnson, Global Head of Customer Marketing at Okta. Throughout my career, I’ve had the privilege of working across organizations of all sizes, from tech giants like Cisco, Salesforce, and Okta to innovative startups like Zuora and MuleSoft. These experiences have shaped my understanding of what it takes to structure and lead customer marketing teams that drive real business impact.
In this article, I’ll share strategies and insights—rooted in my own journey—that are essential for building and scaling a successful customer marketing team.
Eve Chatfield
The pillars of customer marketing at Okta
At Okta, we think about customer marketing using three main pillars:
- Awareness
- Engagement
- Advocacy
These pillars guide everything we do and form the foundation of our strategy.
Customer marketing brings immense value to an organization. It drives upsell opportunities, fosters loyalty, strengthens brand impact, and supports other teams like product marketing, product management, and demand generation.
But with so many stakeholders relying on customer marketing, it can feel overwhelming to meet everyone’s expectations.
Here’s the reality: everyone wants a piece of your time and resources. Whether it’s securing a customer logo for a high-visibility placement—like getting it up on the Las Vegas Sphere—or finding a customer reference for a niche $2 million deal with specific integration requirements, the requests are constant.
So how do you make it all work with a small but mighty team? It starts with building a strong foundation and a cohesive team.
Five tips for building a great customer marketing team
I want to share five quick tips for building and structuring a powerhouse customer marketing team:
- Focus on your business value
- Harness your team’s superpowers
- Make data-driven decisions
- Scale your team with ongoing learning
- Automate with the right tools
These are lessons I’ve learned from balancing a range of demands and delivering results with a focused and driven group.
1. Focus on your business value
The first tip for building a powerhouse customer marketing team is simple: always focus on your business value.
In customer marketing, the landscape is constantly shifting, and we see this reflected in how teams evolve. Over the past five years, I’ve witnessed a transformation in how companies structure and leverage their customer marketing organizations.
Even within my two years at Okta, the changes have been significant.
One of the biggest challenges we face in the tech world is being asked to do more with less. It’s a phrase that probably feels all too familiar (and maybe a little triggering).
We’re tasked with driving year-over-year growth, meeting KPIs, and hitting targets like the number of customer stories produced or advocates highlighted. But at the same time, our teams, tools, and business environments are constantly changing.
The key to navigating this is hyperfocusing on your business value. Ask yourself:
- Where is your company in its business cycle?
- Is it the end of the year or the beginning?
- Does your sales team need leads, or are they looking for help closing deals with strong customer references?
Understanding these nuances allows your customer marketing team to adapt and deliver value where it’s most impactful. Align your goals with the broader company objectives, and don’t be afraid to rewrite those goals as the business shifts.
A customer marketing organization thrives when it evolves alongside the business, always staying laser-focused on what matters most to the company at any given time.
2. Harness your team’s superpowers
The second tip: focus on your team’s superpowers. Every team member brings a unique set of strengths and work styles to the table, and as a leader, it’s crucial to recognize and celebrate that diversity.
For me, I’ve embraced the fact that my superpower is being a big-picture thinker and a connector of dots. I thrive in strategy and vision, but when it comes to nitty-gritty details—like planning the exact timing of a customer advisory board meeting or managing logistics to the last minute—I lean on team members who are naturally detail-oriented.
One of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever received from a mentor is to hire for the gaps in your own skill set. By embracing different work personality types, you create a team that complements one another and operates as a cohesive unit.
For example, if you’re more strategic like me, look for people who are meticulous, process-driven, and able to execute flawlessly.
Understanding your team dynamics
A great way to explore and harness the diversity within your team is by using tools like Facet5, Myers-Briggs, Enneagram, or Gallup’s StrengthsFinder. These tools offer valuable insights into how individuals approach their work, communicate, and collaborate.
For example, my team recently did a Facet5 assessment with a facilitator, and it revealed a wide range of personality types and work styles.
At times, these differences can lead to disagreements or competing points of view during team meetings, but that’s the beauty of it. When distinct strengths and perspectives come together, it creates a richer, more integrated program.
For instance, within our three pillars of awareness, engagement, and advocacy, each pillar is led by someone with a unique skill set, and their combined efforts create a seamless customer journey.
Questions to ask when building your team:
- What are your blind spots?
- What skill sets are you hiring for?
- How do you encourage collaboration and impact?
- What does the future of your team look like?
These questions can help you think strategically about team composition and ensure you’re not just hiring clones of yourself. A diversity of skills and viewpoints may be challenging to manage at times, but it leads to better problem-solving and innovation.
Celebrate strengths and individuality
One of my favorite things about our team is how aligned we are with our individual strengths. We’ve intentionally structured our team around what people are naturally great at, allowing everyone to be authentic and excel in their roles.
If you’re looking for tools to help you get started, I highly recommend exploring Gallup’s StrengthsFinder for work-related insights or even experimenting with lighter tools like Enneagrams or, yes, even horoscopes.
At the end of the day, it’s about creating a team where everyone’s unique superpowers shine. When people feel empowered to be their true selves, it shows in their work and leads to incredible results.
3. Make data-driven decisions
The third essential factor in building a strong customer marketing team is being data-driven. While relationships are at the heart of customer marketing, relying solely on anecdotal evidence or goodwill can lead others to undervalue the strategic impact of your work.
Customer marketing often involves building and maintaining incredible relationships with advocates—those go-to champions who are always ready to step up.
Maybe they’re like our very own John Heedley, who will hop on stage, take a reference call, or even pinch-hit for a sick speaker. Those relationships are vital, but they can also create the illusion that customer marketing is simple or “fluffy.”
Here’s how you counter that misconception: bring the data.
When you can show that a single customer advocate has completed 20 acts of advocacy, influenced $4.2 million in the pipeline, or helped close deals in just 25 days, it reframes the conversation.
Suddenly, the value of your work becomes undeniable. You’re not just finding someone to "do a favor", you’re driving measurable business impact.
Using data to focus your efforts
Customer marketing needs to be deeply attuned to the business cycle. For example, the second half of the year (or Q3 and 4) can sometimes feel shaky. Deals might slow down after the hard hustle of Q1 and the pull-through in Q2.
So how do we drive the most value?
This is where data becomes your guide. Instead of prioritizing net-new relationships, maybe you shift your focus to listening to the field and analyzing their data. Your dashboards, spreadsheets, and metrics become your best friends, helping you identify where to focus your energy for maximum impact.
We’re constantly looking at key metrics like:
- Deal close rates
- Deal size
- Deal influence
- Acts of advocacy
While some disciplines have established tools and metrics—like customer acquisition costs or lead conversion rates—we often don’t have access to the same granular data in customer marketing. That’s okay! Start with what you have.
Draw a line in the sand, establish benchmarks, and focus on year-over-year growth. Consistency is more important than perfection.
The importance of quantifying value
Your team works incredibly hard—building relationships, securing advocates, and driving programs. But if you can’t quantify the value of their efforts, their contributions might not be seen as strategic. And that’s a huge missed opportunity.
As a leader, it’s your job to make that value visible. Even if you’re working with imperfect data, show up with the numbers you do have. Consistency builds credibility, and over time, you can refine and improve your metrics.
We’re all learning and evolving. If you feel like you’ve cracked the code on customer marketing metrics, let’s connect—I’d love to learn from you! Ultimately, being data-driven is about making sure your team’s incredible work is recognized and valued for the impact it truly delivers.
4. Scale your team with ongoing learning
The fourth key to building a strong customer marketing team is learning how to scale effectively. Scaling isn’t just about growing your team—it’s about evolving your processes, leveraging the expertise around you, and continuously improving based on feedback and learnings.
Fail fast, learn quickly
In customer marketing, you’re often juggling the expectations of multiple stakeholders. It’s impossible to make everyone happy, but what you can do is fail fast, learn quickly, and iterate.
For example, last year, our reference program wasn’t delivering the results we needed. Leaders were frustrated with the lack of support, and our team was overwhelmed, fielding around 40 reference requests in a tight two-week window. The deals ranged from tens of thousands to millions of dollars, and we had no clear criteria to prioritize.
Despite our best efforts, no one was satisfied.
To fix it, we acted quickly. We conducted a listening tour, gathering feedback from some of the loudest voices in the room.
What we learned was clear: we needed stricter guidelines. So, we rolled out a self-service tool for account executives (AEs) to find references independently. While this wasn’t initially well-received, we also introduced defined criteria to prioritize support for high-value deals that would move the needle for the business.
By listening, learning, and acting decisively, we turned a struggling program into a more scalable and effective solution.
Leverage your experts
Scaling isn’t just about fixing problems—it’s about recognizing that you don’t have to do everything yourself. You don’t need to be an expert in every tool or process, but you do need to know who to turn to.
This is where your experts come in:
- MOPS teams: They can help you create dashboards and pull critical data insights.
- Agencies: Tap into their expertise to craft better customer stories.
- CSMs and AEs: Their feedback can refine your customer story briefs and make your programs more relevant.
Your job isn’t to have all the answers—it’s to bring the right people into the conversation. By involving experts, you can scale your team’s capacity without stretching yourself too thin.
Give your team permission to fail
One of the most valuable lessons I’ve learned is that failure is part of the process. Sometimes programs don’t gain the traction you expected, or a well-intentioned initiative doesn’t meet stakeholders’ needs.
When this happens, it’s tempting to take it personally, but the best thing you can do is pop the hood and ask:
- What’s not working?
- Why isn’t this program resonating?
- How can we adjust?
Giving your team the space to fail—and the permission to pull back when something isn’t working—is critical to maintaining morale and driving improvement.
Learn to say no
Scaling also means knowing when to say no.
One of the most powerful tools in your arsenal is the ability to set boundaries. Whether it’s saying no to a low-priority request or deciding to sunset a program that’s not delivering value, a clear “no” can free up time and resources for what truly matters.
As one of our leaders loves to say:
“Don’t be fooled by the smile—she’s the one who helps us say no.”
Having someone on the team who can confidently draw the line is invaluable.
Scaling isn’t just about growing—it’s about refining. By embracing feedback, leveraging expertise, and learning quickly from mistakes, your team can become more agile, resilient, and impactful over time.
5. Automate with the right tools
The fifth and final tip for building a powerhouse customer marketing team is to automate wherever possible. This might not be our strongest area just yet, but it’s one we’re actively working on—and one that can make a massive difference.
If someone on your team is doing the same task more than once, there’s an opportunity to automate. Repetition is a signal that a system can be created to simplify and streamline the process.
In customer marketing, where budgets and resources are often tight, automation is a critical way to tackle the challenge of doing more with less.
Simplify the work
To automate effectively, start by identifying the bottlenecks and obstacles slowing down your team. Ask questions like:
- What’s taking too long?
- Why is this process so complicated?
- How can we simplify it?
This is where leaders should spend time—not just overseeing tasks but digging into the challenges your team is facing. Often, teams are so focused on delivering results that they may not notice inefficiencies or have the bandwidth to address them.
Staying curious and proactive can uncover these areas for improvement.
Invest in the right tools
The right tools can be game-changers. For instance, we’ve heard a lot of buzz about platforms like ReferenceEdge and have been exploring solutions that can help us organize and streamline our processes.
The goal is to ensure that if someone is unavailable or leaves the company, we’re not scrambling to track down a spreadsheet or scattered information.
Automation tools can also help measure impact. By tracking things like turnaround time or identifying what’s causing delays, you can focus your efforts on what’s working and eliminate what isn’t.
Leverage internal resources
Don’t forget the incredible resources already available to you within your organization. Your CSMs, PMMs, and even product management teams can play a key role.
For example, our product management team has been running its own webinar series to drive product awareness and adoption.
Collaborating with these internal teams not only reduces the workload for customer marketing but also ensures consistency and alignment across the company.
Stay organized
Whether it’s a sophisticated tool or a humble spreadsheet, staying organized is essential. Centralizing information makes it easier for your team to work efficiently, ensures continuity, and helps you track the progress and impact of your efforts.
Final thoughts
These five tips—focusing on business value, harnessing your team’s superpowers, making data-driven decisions, scaling through learnings, and automating with the right tools—offer a framework for building and structuring a high-performing customer marketing team.
Building a great team is an ongoing journey. By staying curious, leveraging your resources, and continuously improving, you can create a team that delivers incredible value to your organization.
