New Vendor Features, New Course, New Discussions

Mary Green May 28, 2024

Welcome to a very late issue of CMAweekly.

This is going to be a big issue. There’s been a lot of movement in our space and I want to share all of the details.

In Case You Missed It:

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Welcome New Members: Come Say Hello

Hrishi Kulkarni who is Head of Customer Marketing & Executive Programs at New Relic

Sheila Tobin who is looking for her next role (here is her LinkedIn)

Briana Chenkin who is building a new customer community on Gainsight

Kyle Harris who is building a brand new Customer Marketing function at CampusESP

Sam Harrison who came from Case Study Buddy and is hoping to help more people with their Customer Interviews

Member Bulletin Board: (Share Your Wanted Ads)

Allison Hughes is hoping to meet up with others in Houston

Leslie Barrett is hiring at her new company - YAY Leslie, you’re killing it!!

Let’s Get To the News

Some quick updates:

• CMAweekly wants You; Come Share Your Experiences with us.
• Advocacy Vendor Survey Findings: initial results are coming this week
• Update on Influitive; support is still slow and even more customers are unhappy.

Vendor Speed Dating & Several Feature Updates

The Vendor Speed Dating event by Captivate Collective was awesome. Vendors shared their latest capabilities and brought a customer to shout their praises. Here are some of the highlights:

• Champion shared a new form for the backend and several new filters for narrowing down your advocates (they help you identify, activate, and retain advocates)
• UserEvidence shared a customer from the Security industry which is usually a more difficult field in which to find stories; but they definitely did that. UE has two new features: a chatbot for sales enablement & ROI study alternative to Forrester’s reports.
• PeerSpot does actual interviews instead of just automated/form reviews. New feature PeerReport - generate industry-specific product reports and customized buyer guides containing customer experiences and reviews. Doni is offering free strategy sessions for working with PeerSpot.
• Laudable shared new features: G2 review set up; where they pull quotes from Gong and then ask customers to use it as a G2 review. SMART. And, an Ask Slack feature where you can ask what content you have and get the answer in Slack.
• TestimonialHero shared several new updates in their business to become a 1 stop shop for all kinds of customer stories.
• Orca is looking at Advocacy Everywhere and has added multiple features - it’s now in-app. Embed into any existing platform.
• Deeto has new features too: Referral hub, improved SF and HubSpot integrations, Website widget, & G2 integration.
• ReferenceEdge shared with Jeanne Talbot; They can measure value (revenue), are native to SFDC, and help you find the references you need right from an opportunity.
• SlapFive shared recorded references, customer content engine, capture, manage and share authentic stories onto your website. Campaigns to target new people to join your program (no more spreadsheets).
• Planhat joined as a vendor; there is a lot of opportunity for using a CS platform for Advocacy, the value lies between the data and marketing/email features.
• There were several other vendors for referrals and videos where I didn’t get notes.
• Check out all of Day 1 here.
• Check out all of the Day 2 presentations here.

Update on the Job Market

I’m getting a lot of people asking about our job market. Here are a few insights from my point of view:

• A lot of newer job posts for Customer Marketing & Advocacy
• Look for these job openings under different titles such as References Manager, Customer Stories, etc.
• Several more people are starting new positions and posting about it on LinkedIn
• Finally, I’m seeing a slight increase in salaries vs what I saw 6 months ago. There are companies still hoping to keep costs low but I am seeing more companies post decent salaries to start.

What are you seeing in the job market? Come share your thoughts!

• Hiring managers don’t know your worth. Here’s how you communicate it
• Great Advice for the Job Search: When I started my job search, I submitted 300+ applications.

Free Resource of the Week from Emily Amos

Emily Amos on LinkedIn

Here’s a super practical way to make it easy for your sales folks and CSMs to ask customers to participate in customer stories: Provide them with an email ??…

Great Discussions & Content

How are you measuring success in your advocacy program?

Jumpstarting expansion efforts

Cross-selling in customer marketing

Identify potential advocates

In-app messaging for Customer Marketing

Thanks for hanging in there, I hope you found something helpful in this issue.

Please hop into the community and chat - if you aren’t there, we miss you!

Have a great week!

Mary Green https://linkedin.com/in/marygreencny?