Hi! đ Welcome to the next episode of The CMA Newsletter where 280+ marketers get better at building Customer Marketing programs and strengthening relationships with their customers in less than 5 minutes.
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Happy Saturday! Iâm in Lake Tahoe right now on my first vacay in 3 years! đ
Letâs set the stage with my personal CAB experience:
I have done CABs at 3 different companies
They have never been monthly or quarterly (only bi-annually or annually)
I position them as Customer Advisory Breakfasts so people donât feel obligated to keep attending.
These next couple episodes will be more of an event brief since I donât host these multiple times a year. However, I feel like my strategies can still help.
As Customer Marketers, we have the incredible opportunity to help our product team introduce their latest features to existing customers. The best way to ensure the new features meet our customersâ needs is to invite them to share their expertise in shaping the future of the platform.
These customers are encouraged to provide open and honest feedback on the product, articulate their desires for enhancements and improvements, and discuss how the product is being used within their organization.
Goals
I started by scheduling a meeting with our executive team. We established dates, budget, roles for each executive, and most importantly, goals. Here are some sample goals:
Gain a better understanding of the trends, drivers, and priorities shaping your customersâ businesses, and to explore how your company can become a more valuable partner in light of those influences.
Validate your companyâs value proposition and strategic direction, ensuring your business is in sync with your customersâ needs and expectations.
Review, assess, or brainstorm product direction and opportunities, improving solutions, interaction, and customer satisfaction.
Collaborate on shared business issues, thereby strengthening the relationship between your executives and these customer decision makers, and fostering peer-to-peer networking opportunities between your customers.
Why should your customers attend?
Being part of the Customer Advisory Forum lets engaged customers:
Share their perspective on our current product roadmap
Potentially influence future roadmap
Foster peer-to-peer best practice discussions
Have insight into what is coming and be able to plan ahead
Why should we do a CAB?
To determine if we are conceptually heading in the right direction
To understand our customersâ new reality post pandemic
Gather market insights then frame marketing messaging
Ability to speak directly to specific market segment (large/small customers, industry, at risk)
Discuss specific topics (product direction, company positioning, the competitive landscape, etc.).
Once you have your goals in mind, youâll need to invite customers who will help you reach your goals.
Invites
How many people you invite should depend on how many people you want to attend. For a virtual CAB, I like 35 to register and 20-25 to actually show up (not including customer speakers).
For in person, I would be happy with 15-20 that actually attend but I feel like if you go over itâs not the end of the world and 4 to 5 at a table is a good cluster.
**Quick Tip** Also, 5 tables of 5 people make for really good photos of your event so you can promote future CABs.
Invites - You can set these emails up in your Marketing Automation or personally reach out to them. Think of it as wedding invites - A list- B list đŹ Try your wish list of 40 target customers first.
Also, youâll want your Customer Success Managers to hand select around 10-12 customers. Give them inclusion criteria such as:
Happy, innovative, personable, opinionated, current advocates, up for a BIG renewal, generally satisfied customers, early adopters, or a new customer with a fresh perspective.
**Quick Tip** Try incentivizing your Customer Success Managers. I offered them a $25 Amazon Gift Card for every customer they got to attend the event. Youâll be impressed with the level of follow up that takes place from your CSMs.
As you may know, one person sending the invites doesnât really do the job these days. I always establish a team and a cadence. I (Customer Marketing) will send the first invite with all the details. My VP of Customer Success will follow with a âpersonalizedâ touch. Lastly, we will have the CSM give them a call and follow up with an email. Sometimes, I even have the Head of Product send an actual personalized email with a survey attached to increase interest in the event. (Next episode, I will give you my pre-event survey.)
Here is my first marketing type email:
When you are sending your second outreach either from yourself or the VP of Customer Success try this đ
**Quick Tip**- Secure some big name accounts first- Ex. âWe would love to add [Company name] to the attendee list along with Airbnb, InstaCart, RingCentral, and First Republic Bank.â
This creates FOMO! Nobody wants to miss out! People also love to network at these events, so tell them who will be there!
Ok, thatâs all for this one. Tune in next week where I will get into agenda, keeping the audience engaged, and follow up. Iâll also be sharing my CAB event brief so you can just clone it and roll with it! Badda Bing Badda Boom!
Jump to Part 2 here!