Demand Gen and Customer Marketing

just did something amazing

Here’s a little story about...

and

Zachary (Zach) An ambitious Director of

Digital Marketing

Anna A restless Director of Customer Marketing

As peers, they took time once a month to go out to lunch to share ideas and for professional support. This past year, these lunches took them on a wild ride. Here’s a look back on the conversations that turned them both into marketing superstars!

January New Year’s Day is born.

Sound the horns.

Unfortunately, your budget is

looking a little forlorn.

“Did you get your budget turned in?”

“Yeah, but it isn’t looking so good.”

“We just aren’t getting the lead quality we used to from digital

demand gen and for the first time in 3 years I was told to keep my

budget flat.”

“I know.”

“Well if it makes you feel any better I was told the same thing. I just feel like there is so much more that I could be doing to keep our customer’s happy.”

February Cupid’s arrows fly.

They miss his mark and

hit you in the eye.

Maybe there’s a different approach he could try.

“Are things getting any better with your digital campaigns?”

“No. It doesn’t matter what we do, our CPL is

going up while lead quality is going down.

How about you?”

“Same old thing here. I feel like I’ve turned into a librarian for customer references and events. I just don’t feel like I’m doing anything strategic at all.”

“Things will look up once we get through

the winter and everyone gets out of

their foul moods.”

March The Madness of March sets in.

Your team doesn’t win.

It may be time for them to put

more work in.

“Hmmm. Well, have you looked at new tech recently

“All right, we’ve got to get ourselves out of this funk! What can we do to

improve our situation?”

to see if there is something new that could generate high quality leads?”

“Huh. I guess I haven’t really looked in a while.” “I’ll do some research!”

“Yeah, I guess I haven’t really talked to them about anything other than references. I can definitely set up some meetings and see where they lead!”

“But what about you?”

“If you want to be more strategic maybe you should try to talk to all the players that touch the customer after

purchase like sales and support?”

April April Fools.

Don’t let yourself get overruled.

Instead discover new tools.

“They went great – almost too great. Sales wants cross sell and up sell. Support wants

“How did your meetings go? Did you get any ideas?”

Client Success said we should be doing more for customers that give us a high NPS. The ideas are great, but overwhelming.”

user community improvements.

“Wow. It sounds like you could get

involved in some really cool things.”

“Yeah, but with a flat budget and a small team, I’m just not sure what I can do. Maybe I just need to work on a strategic plan and pitch it for next year.”

May April Showers,

Bring May Flowers,

Which means it’s the time to

get empowered.

“Hey! How did your research go on new demand gen technology?”

“Actually, I think I found the answer to

both of our problems - referral marketing!”

“Yeah. Umm. I don’t know about that.”

“Referral marketing has come a long way recently. Now they have platforms that can automate the programs at scale. Our advocates can reach out to their networks via email, social media or even offline. And it is all 100% trackable so that we can attribute the closed deal to the advocate who made the referral.”

“All the high-growth, disruptive companies are doing referral marketing. I can’t believe I never considered it.”

“Well, I’m up for looking into it. If it would help to keep our customers engaged and get me involved in influencing cross-sell without increasing my team, then I’m game!”

“Awesome! I’ll set up a demo!”

June The sun shines bright.

You’re finally back in the light.

Maybe now you can share

your insight.

“I know, right?! You get happy customers

who feel engaged and recognized for the

relationship and . . .”

“That referral automation demo was awesome! It just makes sense!”

“. . . and, you get a steady stream of high quality leads! I can’t even tell you how cool it is that we can use referral marketing for cross sell too!”

“Let’s put a proposal

together.”

July Red, white, and blue.

Your troops support you anew.

Your position has greatly

improved.

“I can’t wait to get started!”

“Everyone was so excited about our proposal for

referral marketing.”

“I know! When sales chimed in and said that the referral automation platform would get the sales team to follow up on our leads I knew we had it locked!”

August As summer develops a chill,

Your sales funnel soon will fill.

Let yourself soak up the thrill. 

“It’s amazing how supportive everyone is of

the referral program.”

“I know! Did you hear that the Customer Success team is incorporating an invitation to the program in their calls?”

“Sweet! You know what else would be cool? What if when

new customers fill out the satisfaction survey and we ask

them if they would recommend us to a friend it triggers an invite

to become an advocate?!”

“Brilliant! I’ll make sure you are in the next meeting with Customer Success so we can make that happen.”

September Labor Day arrives.

It honors your work for which

you strive.

Your business starts to thrive.

“Are you nervous about the launch?”

“Nah. Totally excited, actually! The creative team came up with

an amazing campaign for the referral program and my team

hasn’t been this happy in years. We’re integrating the program with our website, user

community, product and social

media. But the best part is the

CRM integration.”

“How so?”

“Well, sales can see that the leads came from referrals, but

they can also see who made the referral and all their program info so that they can call them up and

get great briefing on the lead before making contact.”

“That’s awesome!”

October Trick or Treat,

We accomplished a great feat,

Advocate’s referrals will soon

complete.

“That’s great, news! And initial results are promising. We’re

getting a lot of customers signed up for the program and

making referrals.”

“Great job on the launch! I checked in with some of the customers I have relationships with and they love the program! They said they’re extremely happy with us and would love to refer us to their network, they just never thought about doing it because no one ever asked.”

“Nice!”

“Customer Marketing is unleashing its power!”

“Awesome! Soon we’ll have the program integrated in our user events with on-site kiosks too. And we’re already planning a cross sell referral program to launch next month.”

November Turkeys may die,

But you continue to rise,

As your business is

increasingly optimized.

“That’s awesome! I am totally loving the data I am getting out of the program.

The most common communication channel our customers use is LinkedIn?

I’m totally stepping up my efforts for engagement there.”

“I’m on a total professional high right now! We’re getting great leads and

they are converting to opportunities at a much higher rate than expected. We’ve even had a handful of leads

close already. This is a record for our shortest sales cycle ever!”

“I guess when a program works as well as referrals, it is worth putting in the effort!”

“That’s great. And get this, sales wants to add leaderboards and

enablement emails to encourage sales participation.

I’ve never had sales work so hard on a marketing program.”

December The holidays arrive.

And you’re brimming with ROI.

No need to be shy

you deserve this high.

“Have you started working on your budget yet?”

“Yup. And I can already tell it is going to go so much

better than last year.”

“I know. I’ve been told to plan an increase in my team so we can get more involved in the customer journey.”

“I’ve never gotten such good results from a demand

generation program. I am looking to add an employee referral

program next and the Partner Marketing team is asking about a

partner referral program. My team is having so much fun!”

“Who would have thought that Digital Marketing and Customer Marketing could do something so amazing! We are an awesome team!”

Amplifinity’s referral amplification software turns customer, employee and partner advocacy into revenue. Our platform provides complete referral tracking and management with 100% accuracy so none are missed. Enterprises like ADP and DirecTV trust Amplifinity to enable high-quality acquisition while providing an engaging, fully-branded experience for their advocates. !

AMPLIFINITY.COM