Table of Contents
Introduction
In today’s competitive business landscape, it is crucial for marketing teams to align with sales and focus on net new business. However, it is equally important for marketing to work in collaboration with customer success leaders. By prioritizing customer advocacy and growth, marketing teams can tap into a fundamental revenue-generating loop. This approach becomes particularly relevant in a challenging market, where companies need to find ways to win new customers with limited budgets.
The Importance of Customer-Led Growth
Customer-led growth is a mindset shift that requires reordering growth priorities to strike a balance between new business and existing customer growth. According to Forrester Research, customer-obsessed firms grew 2.5 times faster and retained 2.2 times more customers per year compared to non-obsessed firms. This highlights the significance of investing in customer advocacy and growth strategies.
Taking Action: Steps for Success
To implement customer-led growth strategies, marketing teams need to take proactive steps that drive revenue from within the existing customer base. Here are three key steps to consider:
Step 1: Proactively Use Customer Insights to Drive the Marketing Funnel
To effectively implement customer-led growth, marketing teams need to deeply understand their ideal customer profile. This insight will shape their outbound marketing strategy. Here are some initiatives that can help collect customer insights and inform marketing strategies:
- Customer Advisory Boards: Engage with customers to collect insights and build advocates for case studies, quotes, blogs, webinars, and tactical use cases.
- Win/Loss Deal Interviews: Meet with buyers to understand their decision-making process and use the insights to improve organizational strategies.
- Case Studies and Stories: Actively monitor accounts for high adoption and collaborate with customer success teams to provide case study candidates in real-time.
Step 2: Target Expansion Revenue as a Key Part of the Marketing Funnel
Marketing teams should ensure a balanced mix of activities that support both customer adoption and advocacy, as well as programs that drive net new revenue. Here are some key initiatives to consider:
- Adoption Events: Collaborate with product and product marketing teams to drive adoption through the release of new features, educational sessions, and best practice roundtables.
- Adoption Campaigns: Develop campaigns that focus not only on net new business but also on cross-selling to existing customers. Address timely challenges in the market and provide resources for customers’ ongoing path to advocacy.
- Product Launches: Communicate product launches to both external target customers and internal stakeholders, tracking metrics such as MQLs, adoption rates, and churn as measures of success.
Step 3: View Customer Advocacy as a Critical Growth Investment
Advocacy initiatives can be a powerful source of internal demand and new business. Here are some strategies to consider:
- Community Building: Create events, programs, and forums that build brand advocates within your customer base and industry. This can drive loyalty, accelerate word-of-mouth marketing, and result in new business.
- Partner with Customer Success: Customer success teams can provide valuable insights that shape marketing strategies and initiatives. Establish strong relationships and maintain regular meetings to ensure alignment with customer value and growth.
- Empower Customers to Tell Your Story: Market your customer advocates by developing referral programs, encouraging online reviews, partnering on webinars, and amplifying their stories on your platform through social media.
The Power of Customer-Led Growth
Customer-led growth is a powerful strategy for driving revenue and achieving sustainable, long-term success. By prioritizing customer advocacy and growth, marketing teams can tap into a more cost-effective and reliable approach to driving revenue. Embracing this mindset shift can lead to faster growth, higher customer retention rates, and greater success in a challenging market. By implementing the steps outlined here, marketing teams can unlock the full potential of their marketing funnel and achieve marketing success stories with customer-led growth strategies.