Welcome to the next episode of The CMA Newsletter where 320+ marketers get better at building Customer Marketing programs and strengthening relationships with their customers in less than 5 minutes.
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Hope you enjoyed Part 1 and 2 on CABs! We will be wrapping it up today with metrics and that event brief I have been promising.
One more tip for the Day-of though. Don’t forget to take a lot of pictures of the event and your customers to promote on your internal slack channels. (Always be advocating for your programs and department) Also, you can use those once you start a customer advocacy webpage to bring life into your program.
Measuring the impact of a CAB program is not always easy or straightforward. CAB ROI may be a mix of “hard” and “soft” dollar amounts to explain and justify to your executive team.
Here are the 11 metrics that I look at from my CABs:
Registration & Attendance rates- Play around with direct mail/eGift incentives to increase attendance. This will be fun to report on if you do increase attendees
# of case studies from customer speakers
# of product feedback - Your members will provide critical feedback on your product roadmap – new features and capabilities they’d like to see, and maybe those that are a lower priority or not even necessary. Have someone else take diligent notes day off while you are running/hosting the event.
# of people signed up to enter a beta program
Member Revenue - Your CAB members are most likely some of your company’s best/largest customers. If you’re not already, begin looking into the revenue generated by them, ideally starting before they participated in your CAB, and since joining your program. Then look into 👇
Increase Average Member Spend - You can make a goal of increasing overall average member spend (or average contract price). 10-15% ⬆️ is a good stretch goal.
Renewals influenced - I look at opps created for the next 3 months. If the member is the primary contact on the opportunity then I claim marketing influence on those deals.
Upsells or seats added - Same as above
% of accounts retained at the end of the year - This is always a fun one to report on. To be able to say that your CAB members have a retention rate of 95% is always a crowd pleaser.
Increase in customer sentiment - Love this one. Get everyones sentiment score before event and then look one month later.
New Advocate accounts - Not everyone who attends is an advocate but make sure they join at the end!
While increases may not entirely be due to your CAB initiative, your customers involvement in your CAB is certainly a contributing factor to their increased commitment to your company.
Present metrics and results to your executive team to gain their buy-in for continuing advisory board budget and resources.
**Lesson Learned** I sent a pre-survey to my members to make sure we cover any hot topics or features they are expecting to see but I didn’t send a post survey. This is something I will be sending out next time. I’m not focused on if they liked the food or the venue, what I want to know is what was a main takeaway and what do you plan on implementing with your team in the following months. Maybe even “Do you feel more confident renewing with [insert company name] after seeing our roadmap”. These surveys are a great time to ask VERY specific questions.
*Tip* - Think about rolling out a referral program at the end of the event. Just think about it…Your customers are so pumped up about what is ahead that it’s the perfect time to drop a referral program in their lap. Not only will they look like a hero to their peers/ friends but they will earn some extra money! Capitalize on that energy and excitement. One sale from a referral may pay for your entire CAB program for the year!
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Something I believe my CAB members enjoy the most is when I send them an email that lists ALL the platform changes we implemented from their direct feedback!
Of course you can see it! 😃 You can see it all…
As promised here is the Customer Advisory Board Event Brief. This should help get you started and keep you organized.
Love your CMA Soulmate,
Leslie