This article comes from Deanna Carrillo’s talk, ‘Phase two: Branding customer programs to drive adoption & scale’, at our 2023 Customer Marketing Summit, check out her full presentation here.
Ever pour your heart into a customer program only for it to flop? Believe me, I’ve been there!
After months of getting stakeholder buy-in, configuring technology, and celebrating what you just know will be a total game-changer for customer loyalty at your company, it all amounts to … Crickets. Tumbleweeds.
With over five years under my belt in content and customer marketing at companies like Dropbox, Sage, and NetApp, I’ve picked up my fair share of battle-tested tips for effectively leveraging customer programs.
As a self-proclaimed ‘storyteller’ and ‘librarian’, I’m a true believer that while customer-centric tools are key, crafting cohesive program identities multiplies participation, results, and budget longevity tenfold.
In this article, we’ll walk through the key tenets I lean on to drive program adoption by simplifying processes, educating stakeholders, allowing flexibility, and cementing consistent messaging. While these strategies require upfront effort, they deliver huge dividends long-term.
So, let’s dive in!
Making customer programs simple
Between managing customer research, insights, referrals, content, events, and more, it's easy for our intricate web of customer programs to become complex and siloed.
We can't expect colleagues without ‘customer marketing’ in their titles to navigate this landscape flawlessly or even understand all the nuances between terms.
That’s why the first thing my team does is untangle the mess by breaking down programs into digestible pieces across three areas:
1 . Defining key terms
Synonyms definitely plague advocacy!
Terms like ‘advocate’ vs ‘champion’ may seem interchangeable, but I’ve found picking single names for activities and sticking to them like glue is hugely helpful.
Once these distinctions are made, it becomes easier to funnel customers into certain activities or engagements.
Narrowing definitions may seem counterintuitive, but these clearly defined terms empower us to say no less often by creating more opportunities to leverage customers and activities with lower levels of commitment.
Consider brainstorming with your team to see what utility you can gain from defining customer marketing terms at your company.
Importantly, you don't need your stakeholders to memorize the nuances between these terms but understand that you're the team that can deliver what makes sense for the customer and your company. This is ultimately a tool your team can leverage to fulfill customer marketing requests more efficiently.
