Marketing, as a whole, is more focused on measurement than ever before, and this is particular true for customer marketing and reference programs. CEOs are demanding that marketing be accountable for finding and cultivating prospective buyers, and technology is making attribution possible in ways that didn’t exist a decade ago.
Gartner’s CMO Spend Survey report found that “Analytics and insights continue their reign as the most strategically important capabilities, while Marketing Operations grows in strategic stature.” It’s all about the data.
So, what about customer marketing, which, more often than not, calls the marketing department home? Within our customer base, we see a wide range of commitment to measurement. When one of our customer contacts isn’t concerned about quantifying their program’s contributions relative to their organization’s growth, we worry. Their health status is automatically set to amber in the red/amber/green spectrum. Why? Because. customer reference programs that don’t quantify impact faulted and die.
Here are the most common reasons we hear related to why metrics aren’t being defined and monitored by customer marketing managers, and why that’s problematic.
“Leadership isn’t asking for any reports.”
A lack of interest in metrics generally indicates leadership doesn’t know how to measure the customer marketing program’s value, see its importance to achieving corporate goals, or it’s just not on their radar at the moment. It’s tempting to assume a customer reference program can fly under the radar forever. It can’t.
Experience tells us that when budget cuts are called for (pre-IPO, economy slowdowns), all programs come under scrutiny. There will be a swarm of report requests to help inform those decisions. If, as program manager, these reports are difficult or impossible to produce, your program is in jeopardy. The result: high contribution programs stay; low or unknown contribution programs go.
You probably know by now that a change in leadership can be a stressful time. When the customer reference program gets a new senior executive, either due to a transfer of the program to a different department or a change in the executive staff, there will be renewed scrutiny. To get a handle on your program, new executives will ask for data. Maybe the former executive was fine taking a leap of faith on the reason for your program’s existence. The new executive could be a “data head.” Uh-oh.
“I don’t have time.”
The trap here is believing that being extremely busy getting stuff done is enough proof of the customer reference program’s validity. Not so. If there’s no data to document the activities and results of your efforts, it’s as if they never happened. Sounds crazy, right? Who would cut a program so obviously busy? To executives, contributions aren’t legitimate unless they can be quantified, and there is a clear connection between program activity and corporate imperatives. Again, it is very, very difficult to piece together meaningful statistics from email, Slack, or Chatter correspondence over the past quarter or year. Not running regular reports and tying the results to company goals will sell yourself, and the customer reference program, short.
“I don’t know what’s really important to track or what to aim for.”
Think in terms of outcomes and corporate goal alignment. There are very few things that matter at the end of the day. Is your program helping to close business? Are the program membership and content library changing or growing to support company growth goals? Are the program’s assets helping to generate more demand (i.e., leads)?
“I’m not good at creating reports.”
Unless you’re lucky enough to have a business analyst-type resource at your disposal, you must consider this an essential skill set and develop it. Analysis is iterative. You start with a broad report. Then you’ll change the filter criteria, add data elements, remove data elements, group, and subtotal until you get the picture of the data you need. It is experimental and dynamic. You won’t want to have to wait on anyone else’s availability to get to report nirvana. If you use Salesforce, you’ll find a variety of Trailheads on the reporting topic, and they’re free!
“My program stats aren’t impressive, and I don’t want anyone to find out.”
This is not a sustainable position. Ultimately someone will ask for numbers. It’s a legitimate and reasonable request. If you’re tracking numeric goals early on, and they aren’t acceptable, then this is an opportunity to call in support. Customer reference programs are cross-departmental and interdependent by nature. If there is a failure in the ecosystem, all the parts need to be assessed and adjustments made. Here are a few examples of common issues and fixes:
You don’t want to be that marketer that can’t quantify their value. It’s a career-limiting attribute. Success begets success. When you have the numbers to show your program’s contributions, more resources follow. With more resources, the program grows and has an even greater impact. Want to read more on this topic? Here are some related posts:
Customer Reference Program Measurement
As this infographic illustrates, a mature advocacy program is responsible for continuously identifying advocates, maintaining accurate advocacy data, protecting customer relationships, and aligning with top company goals to accelerate growth.
The infographic contains six key components. Here's a description of each for you to translate into your own talking points.
Every advocate starts as a customer.
The journey begins when account teams, customer success managers, support teams, and services organizations create positive experiences that build trust and confidence.
As customers achieve success, some become enthusiastic supporters of the company, its products, and its people. These customers are identified as potential advocates and introduced to the advocacy team.
The advocacy team interviews these individuals, learns about their experiences, captures important details about their interests and expertise, and creates a searchable advocate profile.
The result is a discoverable advocate: someone who can be found, matched, and engaged when the business needs credible customer voices.
Without this process, valuable customer relationships remain hidden inside co-workers’ heads or team spreadsheets, unavailable to the broader organization.
Great advocates are rarely discovered by the advocacy team alone. It’s really just too much to ask of any one part of the organization. Every customer touchpoint plays a part in cultivating and retaining advocates.
Customer success managers see customer enthusiasm firsthand. Account teams hear success stories during business reviews. Support teams witness customer loyalty. Product teams interact with passionate users who influence future direction.
A successful advocacy program creates a systematic way for all customer-facing teams to identify and nominate potential advocates, as well as a means for customers to self-identify..
Think of it as building a talent pipeline.
The broader the participation across the organization, the stronger and more diverse the advocate community becomes.
This collective effort ensures the advocacy database reflects the full spectrum of customer success stories across industries, products, geographies, and use cases.
The advocacy team serves as the steward of the organization's advocacy data.
Their responsibilities fall into three primary areas.
First, they recruit continuously. Advocates change jobs, priorities shift, and customer enthusiasm naturally evolves over time. Maintaining a healthy advocacy community requires constant replenishment.
Second, they keep information current. Customer stories, product deployments, business outcomes, and willingness to participate all change. Outdated advocacy data quickly becomes unreliable.
Third, they measure and report value. Advocacy programs must demonstrate their contribution to business outcomes such as customer acquisition, retention, and expansion.
Beyond maintaining records, the advocacy team actively shapes the composition of the database to align with company growth objectives. This is essential if the program is to be seen by executives as a strategic lever vs. a low-level function an intern can run.
If the company’s strategic direction includes expanding into healthcare, launching a new product, selling through a new channel, entering Asia, or targeting a specific buyer persona, the advocacy team ensures the advocate population evolves accordingly.
In many ways, they function as portfolio managers for one of the company's most valuable assets: customer credibility.
Most organizations initially think of advocacy as a sales resource.
Sales certainly benefits from customer references, but advocacy creates value far beyond the sales organization.
The common thread is credibility.
Advocates provide something no marketing budget can purchase directly: authentic proof from real customers.
Most mature advocacy programs include additional components that extend value for both advocates and the business.
These activities are connected mechanisms that strengthen relationships, increase engagement, and create additional opportunities for customers to contribute.
Together, they help transform advocacy from a transactional activity into an ongoing customer experience.
The ultimate purpose of customer advocacy is not activity.
It is business impact.
In Summary
Advocates are valuable assets. The advocacy team's job is to make sure those assets are available when needed, protected from burnout, and aligned with the organization's most important priorities.
When done well, customer advocacy transforms customer success into measurable business value. It is an enterprise capability built on trusted relationships, reliable data, and authentic customer voices.
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