Intro
Have you ever tried filling a pierced bucket with water? Tough, isn't it?
Customer marketing, in a lot of companies, is much like this pierced bucket approach, meaning it doesn't exist.
If you put all your marketing efforts into getting customers through the door and completely abandon them once they make that purchase, then you're trying to fill a pierced pipeline.
Okay, enough with the metaphor.
If you don't work on retaining and nurturing your existing customers in your marketing, your efforts are in vain. You need to keep working on building that relationship long after they've made their first purchase.
To give you an idea, Apple's repeat purchase rate is 78%. This means that more than half of their revenue comes from returning buyers. And that's because they know how to create brand loyalty.
If you want to be smart in your b2b marketing strategy, your pipeline needs to look like this:
Instead of like this:
Today’s smart marketing efforts do more than just get new customers. They aim to grow loyalty and support among current customers. This approach helps brands stay strong while others vanish in the void.
Let's explore each stage of your customer marketing journey and how you can turn your customers into brand advocates.
The Essence of customer marketing in today's market
Traditional marketing usually tries to reach a wide audience to get new customers. However, customer marketing focuses on the people who have already picked your brand. It understands that your current customers are important and should be cared for even after their first purchase.
Rather than only looking at the start of the customer journey, customer marketing works on creating strong bonds. This means giving value over time, going beyond what customers expect, and strengthening the link with your customers at every step. And in time, making them renew their purchase.
Customers have more power now
Today’s customers are smarter and have more power than before. They can impact your brand's image with online reviews and have many options to choose from. So if they're unhappy with your product or services, it won't take long for them to look elsewhere. This is why customer marketing is so important.
Keeping customers is not just something that happens naturally anymore. It is an active job. By building strong ties with your current customers, you create loyalty. Loyal customers are less likely to leave for other brands. To do this well, you need to understand their changing needs, offer them consistent value with effective newsletters, and respond well to their concerns.
Happy customers can become your brand advocates. They share their positive experiences online, helping to spread the word about your brand. This natural word-of-mouth marketing is very valuable in today's digital age. This is precisely how Apple became so big, their customers made their reputation.
How customer marketing differs from traditional marketing approaches
Traditional marketing spreads messages to many people. On the other hand, customer marketing focuses on personal interactions that fit individual needs. It realizes that using the same message for everyone across your marketing collateral does not work well. You're working on a one-to-one approach vs. the one-to-many approach you would usually have in traditional marketing.
Customer marketing puts existing customers first. The marketing team aims to attract new customers but also to build relationships that encourage repeat purchases and brand loyalty.
While traditional marketing sees customers as new gains, customer marketing treats them like valuable assets to support over the long term.
Strengthening customer relationships for long-term success
Customer relationships are more than just transactions; they are long-term investments. When customers feel respected and listened to, they are more likely to stay loyal to your brand. This loyalty can increase customer lifetime value. Satisfied customers often make repeat purchases and spend more money over time.
Also, strong customer relationships create brand advocates. These advocates happily share and recommend your products or services to others. This kind of word-of-mouth marketing is very valuable because people trust the advice of those they know.
Discover: Syncing Marketing and Customer Success: The Path to Winning the Customer Journey
More engagement for more brand loyalty
Brand loyalty doesn't happen in the blink of an eye. It takes careful engagement that connect deeply with customers. You need to communicate often, interact in a personal way, and show real appreciation. These things help build lasting loyalty.
Keep in mind that satisfied customers are more likely to buy from you again. If you understand what they like, predict what they need, and provide good value, you strengthen their loyalty to your brand. To do this, you should listen to their feedback, talk to them on social media, and offer solutions that solve their problems.
When you show true care and always meet or exceed their expectations, your brand becomes more than just a seller; it becomes a trusted partner.
Adopting a customer-led marketing strategy
A customer-led marketing strategy puts your customers first in every choice you make. It means moving from just selling to really listening to them, engaging with them, and giving them power. By focusing on customer advocacy, you can use the true voices of people who already love your brand, turning them into strong brand ambassadors.
Using feedback tools, like surveys and reviews, is very important. They help you understand how customers view your brand and find ways to get better. This ongoing process of listening and improving shows you care about customer satisfaction. It also builds trust and keeps customers loyal.
In a customer-led approach, marketing is less about sending out messages. It's more about having talks and creating real connections. When you let customers share their stories, you improve their experience. This also helps you draw in new people looking for real recommendations and authentic connections.
Aligning customer service and marketing campaigns
Why does this collaboration matter? In today's fiercely competitive arena, being customer-obsessed is essential. When marketing and customer service join forces, they unlock deep insights that elevate every customer interaction. Marketers gain a direct line to the consumer's voice, while customer service harnesses marketing's creative prowess to surprise and delight at every opportunity.
And guess what? Customers are noticing. 76% of consumers appreciate brands prioritizing social support, and when marketing and customer service stay in sync, they not only meet but exceed these expectations.
You've probably written to support teams yourself in the past, and wouldn't you agree that there's nothing more frustrating than not getting the help you need because of poor customer service? What would make this even worse is a complete dissonance between what your customer marketing sells through their campaign and what your customer service team actually does. So make sure to install a consistent communication channel between both teams to create a cohesive and united customer experience from sales to marketing to customer service.
To do that, you need to ensure that your marketing efforts truly support your customer service team in the right way. Here's how.
How to define each step of your customer marketing strategy?
Like any marketing strategy, you should have a good understanding of your target audience. It is also very important to focus on the customer experience at every point of contact.
Listen to the voice of the customer through surveys, reviews, and social media. By knowing their views and fixing their issues, you can build trust and show that you care about their needs. Keep in mind that customer feedback is essential for improving your content strategy and making sure it works well.
Let's bring our bowtie funnel back:
Adoption
Your buyer just became a customer; they freshly started using your product or service, and they're eager to see everything you promised during the buyer journey come to life.
This stage is crucial for them to move on to the rest of the b2b marketing funnel.
During this phase, you want to ensure that they don't feel a huge gap between what the sales team promised and what your product actually does.
For that, you have two options:
- Align with the sales team, and don't let them oversell.
- Keep a close relationship with the customer during their first few days of onboarding to ensure you are available to answer any questions they might have quickly. Make them feel taken care of.
Here, your marketing efforts need to be focused on making sure the customer has everything they need to succeed with your product. That goes through solid onboarding plans, tutorials, regular calls… Anything to make the product stick with their habits and integrate quickly into their routines.
And you also want to keep the sparkles of the sales cycle alive.
Basically, you want to avoid this:
Granted, both cakes look delicious, but I can guarantee you they weren't marketed the same way.
What content can you create for the adoption phase of your customer journey?
To make the onboarding as smooth as possible, you need to offer the right content at the right time. Of course, it all depends on what type of product or service you offer, but some generic rules apply.
1. For a smooth onboarding
You can consider creating an onboarding manual with detailed instructions on how to use your product. This is particularly handy in industries that provide technical products or software.
For example, this is one of the onboarding guides we send to customers when they first use our platform.
On top of this guide, you could also consider organizing short onboarding sessions with your newly onboarded customers. That way, you start creating that one-to-one relationship we mentioned earlier.
2. For a good understanding of your product or service
Product brochures
Think of product brochures as your product’s elevator pitch. They’re quick reads that give your customers the scoop on what makes your product shine. These should be visually appealing and loaded with key features and benefits, making everything crystal clear. And don’t forget—digital versions are perfect for keeping handy on their phones or tablets!
Here's a perfect example of a product brochure that serves the onboarding process. Building Engines is a company that provides building operations software designed for commercial real estate properties. Since this topic is pretty technical, they created this product brochure to present each solution according to different goals and needs.
Short tutorial videos
Everyone loves a good how-to video, right? Short, snappy tutorial videos can make your product feel like a breeze to use. They’re perfect for showing off the basics and can be watched whenever your customers have a few spare minutes. Creating a series? Even better! Your customers can pick and choose what they need to know right now and come back later for more tips and tricks.
Here's an example of a video we created ourselves to guide users with one of our features:
Resource center
Let’s talk about the ultimate support hub—a resource center. This is your one-stop shop for everything your customers need, from FAQs and online magazines to in-depth guides on your product's advanced features. By making this content searchable and easy to navigate, you're giving users the power to solve problems on their own and keep loving your product.
Here's a resource center we built for our customers.
Education
After their onboarding, your customers will still need support to get to know your product. You want to make sure that they have all the keys to do that without necessarily having to contact you.
Here, you're going to build a self-serve education center about your product or services, something that would allow them to fix their potential issues at any time of the day and without having to contact you.
In the customer marketing journey, the education phase ensures your customers are not left in the dark. It arms them with knowledge, enhancing their experience with your product and ensuring they see its full value. Proper education lowers support costs, boosts customer satisfaction, and turns your customers into loyal advocates who are likely to recommend your product to others.
This phase is all about providing the right tools and resources to help your customers understand and maximize the use of your product. It’s about building confidence and loyalty by showing customers you’re there for them every step of the way.
This is what you don't want to sound like:
©surveypal
⬆️ This, is an early churn guaranteed.
What content can you create for the education phase of your customer journey?
To avoid having to handhold your customers when they need something, you need to make sure they have all the content they need for success. Here are a couple of pointers.
Help center:
This should be your customer’s go-to resource hub for troubleshooting and FAQs. It provides quick answers and solutions, reducing frustration and downtime.
Ensure it’s searchable and regularly updated with the latest information. Include step-by-step articles and a community forum for peer support.
Take a sneak peek at our Help Center, it helped us reduce our support tickets by more than 50%!
Academy content:
For customers who can't be bothered with reading long articles about your solution, this is the perfect content type. Academy content can include a series of courses or modules covering different aspects of your product.
It allows customers to dive as deep as they want into understanding how your product works at their own pace.
We recommend creating easy-to-navigate, bite-sized courses with engaging multimedia elements like videos and quizzes to keep learning interactive.
Here's an example of one of our Academy courses. As you can see it's shorter than three minutes to allow the viewer to easily accumulate knowledge.
Guides:
Detailed walkthroughs that cover specific functions or use cases of your product. Guides help your customers achieve particular outcomes, which can lead to better satisfaction and product adoption.
Focus on creating guides for both beginner and advanced levels. Use rich visuals and real-world examples to make them relatable and easy to follow.
For example, here's a guide we created for our customers on using our embed feature, which includes many examples.
Webinars:
Live or recorded sessions where your experts dive deep into product features or industry topics. Webinars can engage customers directly and provide an interactive platform for learning and Q&A.
Promote webinars as an opportunity for customers to ask questions in real time. Afterward, provide recordings for those who couldn't attend live.
Here's our latest customer webinar as an example.
Nurturing (or retention)
Congratulations! You’ve educated your customers, and they’re using your product. But don’t pop the champagne just yet—it’s time to focus on nurturing that relationship to ensure your customers remain engaged and satisfied. This is the nurturing phase of the journey, where you transition from simply providing a product to building a partnership.
The nurturing phase is crucial because it helps transform first-time buyers into loyal and returning customers and brand advocates. It’s about ongoing communication and support, ensuring that your customers feel valued and understood.
Nurturing is all about delivering ongoing value, personalized experiences, and support. It’s the art of continually engaging your customers with tailored content and interactions that reinforce their decision to choose your product.
Here’s the content you can create to nurture your customers:
What content can you create for the nurturing phase of your customer journey?
Truth be told, nurturing actually starts right after they've finished their onboarding. It's an ongoing process. And there are a couple of pieces of content that can really help you with it.
Personalized docs:
Customized Docs that specifically address the needs or use cases of individual customers. They show customers that you understand their unique situation and are committed to helping them succeed.
Analyze customer data to tailor Docs that offer specific insights or solutions related to how they use your product. Use their name and company information to increase relevance.
For example, here is a personalized Doc we created for one of our customers before a meeting in their office.
Personalized training:
Tailored training sessions that address the specific needs or challenges a customer might be facing. These trainings help customers get the most out of your product and demonstrate your commitment to their success.
Offer one-on-one sessions or small group trainings with flexible scheduling. Use feedback from past interactions to customize the content and make it as relevant as possible.
Events:
Engaging opportunities (either online or in-person) for customers to connect, learn, and share experiences. Think workshops, seminars, or customer meet-ups. Events foster community, encourage networking, and enhance customer loyalty by creating shared experiences and memories.
Organize events that are informative, fun, and interactive. Invite guest speakers, hold panel discussions, and create opportunities for customers to share their success stories and challenges.
For example, here's the magazine we created for an event we organized with our local customers. We made the session interactive and organized keynotes with experts to make it even more interesting for them.
As you can see from these examples, in the nurturing phase of your customer marketing journey, you need to focus your efforts on offering personalized experiences! Now let's talk expansion.
Expansion
Your customers are already familiar with and using your product. Now, it’s time to show them how they can gain even more value by exploring additional offerings. The expansion phase is a golden opportunity to demonstrate how your broader suite of products or services can further benefit their operations.
Expansion is crucial for both your business and your customers. It’s about helping customers see the bigger picture and how your ecosystem of products and services can solve more of their challenges or enhance their existing solutions. For your business, it means increased revenue and a deeper customer relationship.
This phase focuses on effectively communicating the additional value your company can provide, paving the way for up-sells and cross-sells that genuinely meet customer needs.
Here’s how you can facilitate expansion with content.
What content can you create for the expansion phase of your customer journey?
Product brochures:
Detailed documents that outline the features and benefits of your additional products or services help customers understand what else is on offer and how these solutions can better serve their needs.
Use clear, persuasive language and visuals to highlight key features. For example, Interlub sells machinery lubricants, and they created this product brochure to help customers understand the value of each lubricant and what they're better used for. Have a look at their brochure.
Comparison Docs:
Side-by-side comparisons of different products or service levels. Comparison docs make it easier for customers to determine which product or upgrade fits their goals best.
Focus on clear, straightforward comparisons that highlight the advantages of choosing higher-tier products or additional services. Use tables or charts for visual appeal.
For example, here's the comparison Doc we created for our customers to see the value of all plans.
Email campaigns:
Targeted emails designed to inform customers about new offerings or suggest upgrades. Email campaigns can effectively reach your customers with personalized offers and timely information.
Segment your email list based on customer behavior or preferences. Craft compelling subject lines and content that speaks directly to their potential needs and interests.
Success stories and customer examples:
Real-world stories of how other customers have benefited from expanding their use of your products. Success stories provide social proof and demonstrate the practical benefits of your offerings. Highlight diverse customer experiences to show versatility and reliability. Use quotes, statistics, and before-and-after scenarios to illustrate success.
SheerID is an amazing example of how to create stunning stories. Have a look at their success stories.
Guides:
In-depth Docs that help customers navigate their new product options or upgrades. Guides offer step-by-step assistance and ensure your customers feel confident in expanding their use of your products.
Develop easy-to-follow expansion guides similar to those shared when customers onboard a new plan. Include illustrative graphics, FAQs, and contact information for further support.
For example, here's the expansion Doc we send to our customers when they onboard a new plan.
Advocacy
Yay! Your customers are happy and fully utilizing your products or services. Now it’s time to turn them into advocates. Advocacy is about fostering a deeper relationship where your customers actively promote and endorse your brand because of their positive experiences.
This phase is crucial because advocate customers often generate more business than traditional marketing can. They provide authentic endorsements and recommendations that are more credible and effective in attracting new customers. Advocacy also reinforces the loyalty of your existing customers, building a community of enthusiastic supporters around your brand.
Advocacy means engaging customers, elevating their voices, and rewarding their loyalty. It's about creating mutually beneficial relationships where customers feel valued and empowered to spread the word about your brand.
What content can you create for the advocacy phase of your customer journey?
Webinars:
Interactive sessions where advocates can share their experiences or learn about the latest updates from your brand. Webinars provide a platform for advocates to engage with your brand and community, fostering a sense of belonging.
Invite your most vocal advocates to participate as guest speakers, sharing their success stories and best practices with a wider audience.
Here's one of our webinars in which we invited Illinois State University, a customer of ours, we always like to invite customers to speak at our webinars and share their real-life experiences with our platform.
Gifts:
Tokens of appreciation sent to your top advocates, like branded merchandise or exclusive product previews. Gifts show that you appreciate their support and loyalty, strengthening the personal connection to your brand.
Personalize gifts based on the advocate’s interests or contributions. A thoughtful note accompanying the gift can further enhance its impact.
For example, here's the personalized Doc we send our customers after they've collaborated with us on a project to thank them for their time. In this Doc, they get to choose their own gift!
Referral programs:
Incentive programs that reward customers for referring new clients to your business. They empower advocates to actively contribute to your business growth, aligning their success with yours.
Design a referral program that offers meaningful rewards, such as discounts, gift cards, or exclusive access to new services. To ensure a seamless process, make it easy to track referrals and rewards.
Success Stories:
Detailed accounts of how advocates have achieved remarkable results with your product. Success stories provide inspiration and validation for potential customers, while also celebrating your advocates’ achievements.
Feature advocates in case studies and marketing materials, highlighting their journey and outcomes. Collaborate with them during the creation process to ensure authenticity and accuracy.
Have a look at our success story library for inspiration.
Social media spotlights:
Recognitions and features of advocates on your company’s social media channels. Spotlights acknowledge your advocates publicly, increasing their visibility and showcasing their loyalty and success.
Highlight advocates’ personal stories or milestones on platforms like Instagram and LinkedIn. Encourage sharing and engagement by tagging them and using relevant hashtags.
We like to spotlight our customers every week on our LinkedIn. Here's one of our latest examples:
There you go! Of course, there are millions of other possibilities for content to create for your customer marketing strategy, but these are the basics that you should definitely have in place.
The bottom line
If you're not doing customer marketing yet, we hope this post convinced you to start. It's really low-hanging fruit for you to fix these holes at the bottom of your pipeline. It allows you to connect with customers at every stage of their journey and eventually turn them into the brand ambassadors they should always have been. If you're still looking for more inspiration on what content to create for your customer marketing efforts, take a look at our content compass (it's free, don't worry).
