In this episode of Customer Marketing Catch-up, Valerio Battelli, Voice of Customer and Insights at Taboola, takes us through his steps to managing, and succeeding at, a flagship customer program.

Varleio Battelli spoke about this topic in his full-length talk at our Customer Marketing Summit in London, 2023. You can get access to the full recorded talk using one of our membership plans.

If you want a look at our upcoming event calendar, take a look here.

Key takeaways

• The key characteristics to get from the stakeholders for a customer program
• The most important touchpoints to prioritize when capturing potential advocates
• How to maintain current advocates
• One key tip to maintain advocate relationships

About the guest

Valerio Battelli, Voice of Customer and Insights at Taboola, has 12 years experience in customer marketing & advocacy. He is passionate about making customers and people successful and demonstrating the impact of the voice of the customer.

His favourite life quote:

"Concentrate on what you have to do. Fix your eyes on it. Remind yourself that your task is to be a good human being; remind yourself what nature demands of people. Then do it, without hesitation, and speak the truth as you see it. But with kindness. With humility. Without hypocrisy." - Marcus Aurelius

Join the conversation

What did you think about this episode? Let us know, contact hello@customermarketingalliance.com, speak to us on our socials, or get involved with the discussion on the Customer Marketing Alliance Community Slack channel.

Got something to say on one of our podcasts, or know someone who would be a great guest? Get in touch, and contact our copywriter at eve@customermarketingalliance.com.

In this episode of Customer Marketing Catch-up, Nisha Prabhakar, Senior Manager, Customer Marketing at Salesforce, gives us a sneak peek into her top-secret tips for getting compelling customer stories. 🙌

Nisha Prabhakar spoke about this topic in her full-length talk at our Customer Marketing Summit in London, 2023. You can get access to the full recorded talk using one of our membership plans.

If you want a look at our upcoming event calendar, take a look here.

Key takeaways

• How customer stories relate to Salesforce’s tagline: ‘Meet the top brands who are transforming the customer experience with Salesforce.’
• The top 1-2 key strategies for crafting customer stories.
• Common pitfalls or mistakes often made when trying to tell customer stories, and how to avoid them.
• How to maintain authenticity while still ensuring the stories resonate with your target audience.

About the guest

Nisha is a success-driven, self-motivated and dynamic professional with 16 years of global sales and marketing experience in the technology industry.

She currently leads the Customer Marketing & Brand Engagement function within Salesforce EMEA and is responsible for designing and executing strategic co-marketing programs with Salesforce's customers to showcase top brands and their visionary thought leaders.

Join the conversation

What did you think about this episode? Let us know, contact hello@customermarketingalliance.com, speak to us on our socials, or get involved with the discussion on the Customer Marketing Alliance Community Slack channel.

Got something to say on one of our podcasts, or know someone who would be a great guest? Get in touch, and contact our copywriter at eve@customermarketingalliance.com.

In this episode of Customer Marketing Catch-up, Tobi Demuren, Global Head of Advocacy Marketing (Agencies) at LMS at LinkedIn talks to us about the value of winning the hearts and minds of your customers. 🙌

Tobi Demuren spoke about this topic in his full-length talk at our Customer Marketing Summit in London, 2023. You can get access to the full recorded talk using one of our membership plans.

If you want a look at our upcoming event calendar, take a look here.

Key takeaways

• The most effective strategies for winning hearts and minds.
• How to navigate and address varying viewpoints within your customer base to build productive relationships.
• Advice on maintaining close customer relationships over a long period of time.

About the guest

Tobi Demuren currently leads the strategy and activation of LMS agency partnerships across the world. He is passionate about creating experiences that enhance brand engagement, increase customer loyalty, and drive customer acquisition for LMS and its agency partners.

With over 15 years of experience in marketing, business development, and technology, he has a proven track record of building long-term relationships with companies of various sizes and sectors, understanding their specific challenges and opportunities, and delivering bespoke solutions that meet their needs and goals.

Join the conversation

What did you think about this episode? Let us know, contact hello@customermarketingalliance.com, speak to us on our socials, or get involved with the discussion on the Customer Marketing Alliance Community Slack channel.

Got something to say on one of our podcasts, or know someone who would be a great guest? Get in touch, and contact our copywriter at eve@customermarketingalliance.com.

In this episode of Customer Marketing Catch-up, Dean Lindsay, Product Marketing Manager at Third Bridge Group Limited talks about how businesses in fintech-focussed industries should approach customer advocacy.

Key takeaways:

• Initial steps a business should take when launching a customer advocacy program.
• Common mistakes people making when setting up an advocacy program.
• Unique challenges and opportunities when establishing a customer advocacy program within the fintech sector.
• How to navigate compliance and privacy concerns when featuring customer testimonials and success stories in your advocacy program.

About the guest:

Dean Lindsay is an experienced B2B marketing professional specialising in demand generation and customer marketing. Though currently a Product Marketing Manager, Dean's career history also includes customer marketing specific roles with companies like Soldo and 8x8.

He has a particular focus in cultivating customer advocacy, driving cross-sell and upsell opportunities, and enhancing sales enablement through dynamic multichannel marketing campaigns.

Join the conversation:

What did you think about this episode? Let us know, contact hello@customermarketingalliance.com, speak to us on our socials, or get involved with the discussion on the Customer Marketing Alliance Community Slack channel.

Got something to say on one of our podcasts, or know someone who would be a great guest? Get in touch, and contact our copywriter at eve@customermarketingalliance.com.

In this episode of Customer Marketing Catch-up, Elizabeth Grant, Director of Customer Advocacy & Enablement at Autodesk talks about the vast advantages available to you if you use personalization within your customer journey - particularly how it can impact customer relationships in a positive manner.

Elizabeth Grant spoke about this topic in her full length talk at our Customer Marketing Summit in London, 2023. You can get access to the full recorded talk using one of our membership plans.

If you want a look at our upcoming event calendar, take a look here.

Key takeaways

• The most crucial factors businesses should consider when delivering personalized customer experiences.
• How personalized customer experiences will evolve in the coming years.
• Key trends that play a role in the development of personalization.
• How to scale personalization efforts to accommodate a growing customer base.

About the guest

Elizabeth Grant has made her home at Autodesk for the last 11 years of her career, first beginning as a Support Specialist, before moving into the role as Director of Customer Advocacy & Enablement just over a year ago.

She had had the privilege to work alongside some of today's greatest engineering minds to partner through technology with leaders in the Construction, Architecture, Engineering, Design, Manufacturing and Media & Entertainment space.

Join the conversation

What did you think about this episode? Let us know, contact hello@customermarketingalliance.com, speak to us on our socials, or get involved with the discussion on the Customer Marketing Alliance Community Slack channel.

Got something to say on one of our podcasts, or know someone who would be a great guest? Get in touch, and contact our copywriter at eve@customermarketingalliance.com.

In this episode of Customer Marketing Catch-up, Cristina Errico, Cybersecurity Customer Evangelist at Cisco, talks about some ways to extract more value from your customer case studies.

Cristina Errico spoke about this topic in her full length talk at our Customer Marketing Summit in London, 2023. You can get access to the full recorded talk using one of our membership plans. If you want a look at our upcoming event calendar, take a look here.

Key takeaways:

• The two most unique ways to get more value from these case studies.
• How Cristina has successfully used these tips in her own case studies.
• Some practical ways that businesses can measure the results and ROI of customer case study initiatives.
• How to balance highlighting achievements with maintaining authenticity and transparency.

About the guest:

Cristina Errico is committed to empowering cybersecurity professionals to make the digital world safer and more inclusive, because every voice deserves to be heard, and every hero deserves to be recognized.

In order to be able to scale this, Cristina has developed a methodology of six steps to help any advocacy manager extract the maximum value from a case study and empower their customers to be recognized as true heroes.

Join the conversation:

What did you think about this episode? Let us know, contact hello@customermarketingalliance.com, speak to us on our socials, or get involved with the discussion on the Customer Marketing Alliance Community Slack channel.

Got something to say on one of our podcasts, or know someone who would be a great guest? Get in touch, and contact our copywriter at eve@customermarketingalliance.com.

In our fifth episode of Learning with Leadership: A Customer Marketing Podcast, we talk to Kevin Lau Senior Director of Global Customer Engagement at F5, on the importance of establishing metrics to ensure your advocacy success.

Not long enough for you? Continue listening to Kevin Lau with his episode from our flagship podcast, Customer Marketing Catch-up, now.

Key talking points:

• Why the idea that relationship-based roles can't be easily measured needs to change.
• How to choose the right metrics for your team.
• How customer marketing teams go about proving ROI.

About the guest:

Kevin Lau is a performance-driven, innovative and ROI-focused, customer marketing professional and digital marketing strategist with 13+ years of experience.

He is an industry thought leader in customer advocacy, lifecycle marketing, social media, event marketing, digital marketing, community management, customer experience, voice of the customer, and customer engagement. 

Kevin Lau is also the course leader for CMA's Customer Advocacy: Certified course which'll give you the skills to launch and manage customer advocacy programs and excel in your career. 

The course includes:

👩🏼‍🏫 8 modules covering all aspects of customer advocacy.

✅ 40 exam questions to test your intake.

⏰ 5 hours of content, including bonus material, crammed with expert insights.

📝 Optional coursework and frameworks to consolidate your learning.

🔖 Official certification to boost your resume and grow your career.

So what are you waiting for? Keep learning from Kevin Lau and his fantastic thought leadership and enroll today.

Join the conversation:

What did you think about this episode? Let us know, contact hello@customermarketingalliance.com, speak to us on our socials, or get involved with the discussion on the Customer Marketing Alliance Community Slack channel.

Got something to say on one of our podcasts, or know someone who would be a great guest? Get in touch, and contact our copywriter at eve@customermarketingalliance.com.

In our fourth episode of Learning with Leadership: A Customer Marketing Podcast, we talk to Florian Engel, Director of EMEA Marketing & Global Customer Marketing at Aiven, who share some tips on interacting with different cultures and regions both within your internal culture, and externally when interacting with customers.

Key talking points:

• Important factors to consider when adapting customer marketing strategies for international markets.
• Tailoring your messaging and communication to resonate with diverse cultures and regions.
• Fostering a culturally inclusive work environment.

About the guest:

Florian Engel is an innovative, customer-centric Marketer with 10 years of driving captivating storytelling, SaaS marketing, developing B2B sales strategies, demand generation, and supporting digital products for industry leaders (including VMware and OpenText).

He has continued success in generating new business in competitive markets, managing comprehensive account prospecting lifecycles to grow territories and consistently expand client base. 

Join the conversation:

What did you think about this episode? Let us know, contact hello@customermarketingalliance.com, speak to us on our socials, or get involved with the discussion on the Customer Marketing Alliance Community Slack channel.

Got something to say on one of our podcasts, or know someone who would be a great guest? Get in touch, and contact our copywriter at eve@customermarketingalliance.com.

In our second episode of Learning with Leadership: A Customer Marketing Podcast, we talk to Katie Meeker, Director of Customer Marketing at ICIMS, about the vital leadership skills you need when structuring your marketing teams.

Key talking points:

• The difference between customer marketing with B2B businesses and SaaS services.
• How leaders should begin to structure their customer marketing team.
• Important behaviors and skills that are most valuable among team members.
• Skills that will distinguish a customer marketing leader from the rest.

About the guest:

Katie Meeker is a tech-minded marketing professional with over 13 years of B2B and SaaS experience, with a specific focus on the customer experience.

Katie has helped organizations build and scale cross-sell and retention campaigns, regional customer events, customer stories and references, voice of the customer (NPS) programs, digital communities and engagement programs, customer influencer awards programs, VIP executive customer events, advocacy programs, and more.

Join the conversation:

What did you think about this episode? Let us know, contact hello@customermarketingalliance.com, speak to us on our socials, or get involved with the discussion on the Customer Marketing Alliance Community Slack channel.

Got something to say on one of our podcasts, or know someone who would be a great guest? Get in touch, and contact our copywriter at eve@customermarketingalliance.com.

"Think about collaborating with other parts of the business that have other connection points and converging those so there's a consistent brand experience..."

In our third episode of Learning with Leadership: A Customer Marketing Podcast, we talk to Steph Mills, Director of Corporate Marketing at Matillion, about how to connect to your customers using their own voice, with case studies.

Key talking points:

• Go-to strategies for connecting with your current customers.
• How doing so can improve your brand image.
• Why case studies are important.
• How to conduct case studies to get the most out of your customer.

About the guest:

Steph Mills has spent most of my her career connecting stories, people, programmes, campaigns, and teams; she considers this one of her biggest assets in any role. At the moment she is connecting customers and their stories through a mutually beneficial advocacy program.

Join the conversation:

What did you think about this episode? Let us know, contact hello@customermarketingalliance.com, speak to us on our socials, or get involved with the discussion on the Customer Marketing Alliance Community Slack channel.

Got something to say on one of our podcasts, or know someone who would be a great guest? Get in touch, and contact our copywriter at eve@customermarketingalliance.com.

In our first episode of Learning with Leadership: A Customer Marketing Podcast, we talk to Jeni Asaba, Senior Manager, Community Engagement & Advocacy at Jamf, about the importance of finding your customers' passion topics to inform engagement and internal processes.

Key talking points:

• How to pick the right form when writing for a specific community
• What's the best way to go about getting feedback from your customers?
• How to go about finding out your customer’s passions
• How to go about choosing the right social media platform for your specific community

About the guest:

Newspaper reporting, copywriting and customer advocacy … They’ve been Jeni Asaba’s world for the past 15 years. And they’ve given her the chance to use her love of writing and passion for people to create a library of powerful stories (news articles, case studies, e-books) and build a thriving community (Jamf Heroes).

Join the conversation:

What did you think about this episode? Let us know, contact hello@customermarketingalliance.com, speak to us on our socials, or get involved with the discussion on the Customer Marketing Alliance Community Slack channel.

Got something to say on one of our podcasts, or know someone who would be a great guest? Get in touch, and contact our copywriter at eve@customermarketingalliance.com.

In this episode of Customer Marketing Catch-up, Joshua Zerkel, Head of Global Engagement Marketing at Asana talks about the importance of developing multifaceted communities to cement the future of your customer spaces.

Key takeaways:

• How multifaceted communities are different from traditional communities
• Biggest mistakes made when trying to expand their customer community
• Building your community into other forms and channels
• Tackling ‘passive observers’ in your community

About the guest:

As one of the established leaders in the business community management space, Joshua Zerkel, has been leading community programs at B2C and B2B companies and nonprofits for 20 years.

At Asana, Joshua leads engagement marketing, including creating Asana's award-winning global community, a highly-scaled strategic GTM program which includes our Ambassadors, community-focused events, and our community forum. He's passionate about equipping enthusiasts so they can deepen the use of Asana on their teams and help spread the word to others. 

Our sponsor:

This podcast was brought to you by Influitive - find out more at influitive.com.

Influitive allows you to build a community of advocates and invite your customers, developers, partners, and employees to complete challenges, referrals, product reviews, social media posts, and more. As they complete these personalized and targeted challenges, they earn points, badges, and levels to redeem professional perks and privileges.

Join the conversation:

What did you think about this episode? Let us know, contact hello@customermarketingalliance.com, speak to us on our socials, or get involved with the discussion on the Customer Marketing Alliance Community Slack channel.

Got something to say on one of our podcasts, or know someone who would be a great guest? Get in touch, and contact our copywriter at eve@customermarketingalliance.com.

In this episode of Customer Marketing Catch-up, Sangeeta Walsh, VP of Marketing and Alliances at Dialpad talks about how to use AI, customer data, and business intelligence to connect and partner with your customers.

Key takeaways:

• How AI supports business and customer interaction
• How to use and understand customer data
• Understand the difference between customer behaviors and customer purchases
• Why business data as a whole is so important
• Discover and exclusive clip from Sangeeta Walsh's talk at the end of the episode

About the guest:

Sangeeta has been a wearer of many different hats over her career, comfortably vacillating between roles, industries, and management levels.

Her experience is primarily in mobile and cloud partnerships, marketing, and platform technology integrations within Fortune 500 and startup companies. Her work has also contributed to over 70% revenue growth and 100% product adoption through product definition and GTM activities spanning worldwide.

Our sponsor:

This podcast was brought to you by Influitive - find out more at influitive.com.

Influitive allows you to build a community of advocates and invite your customers, developers, partners, and employees to complete challenges, referrals, product reviews, social media posts, and more. As they complete these personalized and targeted challenges, they earn points, badges, and levels to redeem professional perks and privileges.

Join the conversation:

What did you think about this episode? Let us know, contact hello@customermarketingalliance.com, speak to us on our socials, or get involved with the discussion on the Customer Marketing Alliance Community Slack channel.

Got something to say on one of our podcasts, or know someone who would be a great guest? Get in touch, and contact our copywriter at eve@customermarketingalliance.com.

This episode was recorded live at one of our many Customer Marketing Alliance events. If you want a look at our upcoming calendar, take a look here.

"You have to look at who you're inviting into that room and are they going to give you the behind the curtain view of how's it really working for them at that company...."

In this episode of Customer Marketing Catch-up, Sara Steffen, Sr. Director of Connected Customer Experience at Nutanix talks about how you should set up all types of Customer Advisory Boards to enable true business impact.

Key Takeaways:

• Why you should strategically pick your CAB members
• The vital role of a moderator at CAB meetings
• The types of peer to peer CAB cohorts
• How to maintain member engagement

About the guest:

As the Sr. Director of Connected Customer Experience at Nutanix, Sara Steffen manages a global team focused on customer marketing, customer advisory boards, user groups, certifications, training, community, CXO marketing, and the executive briefing center.

Sara has a proven track record of building strong, collaborative relationships across the board. With over 7 years of experience in customer marketing and communications, Sara is passionate about bringing our customer stories to life and developing talent and opportunities for the teams she works with.

Our sponsor:

This podcast was brought to you by Influitive - find out more at influitive.com.

Influitive allows you to build a community of advocates and invite your customers, developers, partners, and employees to complete challenges, referrals, product reviews, social media posts, and more. As they complete these personalized and targeted challenges, they earn points, badges, and levels to redeem professional perks and privileges.

Join the conversation:

What did you think about this episode? Let us know, contact hello@customermarketingalliance.com, speak to us on our socials, or get involved with the discussion on the Customer Marketing Alliance Community Slack channel.

Got something to say on one of our podcasts, or know someone who would be a great guest? Get in touch, and contact our copywriter at eve@customermarketingalliance.com.

This episode was recorded live at one of our many Customer Marketing Alliance events. If you want a look at our upcoming calendar, take a look here.

In this episode of Customer Marketing Catch-up, Annie Eissler, VP of Customer, Partner & Expert Insights Marketing at AlphaSense talks to us about the importance of customer experience and how customer journey mapping can help align teams to support retention and growth.

Key talking points:

• The importance of upsells for retention and growth
• Mapping and managing the variety of customer experiences
• Aligning all company teams with the big picture using journey mapping
• How mapping helps to scale a customer marketing team

About the guest:

Annie Eissler's 25+ year career combines in-house B2B technology marketing leadership with marketing agency ownership, Annie Eissler brings a strategic mindset, extensive toolkit, and broad operational experience to companies that need to reposition their offering and level up their GTM strategy.

Annie has developed a reputation for quickly understanding the business drivers, gaps, and opportunities to put a “punch above our weight” marketing program and team in place that drives growth.

Versatility and adaptability are strengths that have enabled Annie to contribute to growth initiatives beyond the marketing function, including leading 10+ acquisition integrations in Canada and Europe, and orchestrating a company reorganization to better serve customers.

Our sponsor:

This podcast was brought to you by Influitive - find out more at influitive.com.

Influitive allows you to build a community of advocates and invite your customers, developers, partners, and employees to complete challenges, referrals, product reviews, social media posts, and more. As they complete these personalized and targeted challenges, they earn points, badges, and levels to redeem professional perks and privileges.

Join the conversation:

What did you think about this episode? Let us know, contact hello@customermarketingalliance.com, speak to us on our socials, or get involved with the discussion on the Customer Marketing Alliance Community Slack channel.

Got something to say on one of our podcasts, or know someone who would be a great guest? Get in touch, and contact our copywriter at eve@customermarketingalliance.com.

This episode was recorded live at one of our many Customer Marketing Alliance events. If you want a look at our upcoming calendar, take a look here.