Customer Marketing

---
name: customer-marketing
description: >-
  Customer marketing and advocacy programs — case studies, testimonials,
  customer reference programs, NPS-driven advocacy, customer communities,
  user conferences, champion programs, logo usage, and review generation
  (G2, Capterra). Use when building customer marketing, generating case
  studies, launching a reference program, or mobilizing customer advocates.
license: MIT
compatibility: Claude Code, Codex, GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Gemini CLI, OpenCode, Goose, Hermes, Windsurf, Zed
metadata:
  version: "2.4.0"
  author: LeadMagic
  category: growth
  tags:
    [
      customer-marketing,
      advocacy,
      case-studies,
      references,
      testimonials,
      reviews,
      community,
    ]
  related_skills:
    [
      review-platforms,
      cs-playbooks,
      case-study-builder,
      social-media-strategy,
      content-marketing,
      referral-programs,
      gtm-spend-management,
    ]
  frameworks:
    - "Bain & Company — Net Promoter System (Fred Reichheld)"
    - "Gainsight — Customer success"
    - "Influitive — Advocate marketing"
    - "HubSpot — Flywheel"
---

# Customer Marketing

## Overview

Your best salespeople are your customers — and they work for free. A customer
saying "we grew 3x with this product" is worth more than every ad you'll ever
run. The mistake: treating customer marketing as an afterthought (sending a
"would you write a review?" email once a year). The fix: a systematic advocacy
program that turns happy customers into your most powerful GTM engine.

## Authoritative Foundations
- **Bain & Company — Net Promoter System (Fred Reichheld)** — Route promoters to advocacy asks, and close the loop with detractors before asking anyone for a reference.
- **Gainsight — Customer success** — Trigger advocacy asks from health scores and outcome milestones, not from the calendar.
- **Influitive — Advocate marketing** — Give advocates a program of small, rewarding actions (reviews, referrals, references) that build toward bigger asks.
- **HubSpot — Flywheel** — Delighted customers feed acquisition; design customer marketing so referrals and reviews reduce acquisition cost.

## When to Use

Trigger phrases: "customer marketing", "case study program", "customer
references", "customer advocacy", "G2 reviews", "build a reference program",
"customer community", "logo usage program", "B2B influencer program",
"creator partnerships", "employee advocacy", "LinkedIn creator GTM", "crisis comms", "negative reviews
viral", "reputation management", "bad press"

## Step-by-Step Process

### Phase 1: The Advocacy Ladder

| Level                | What Customer Does           | Required Health        | Reward                   |
| -------------------- | ---------------------------- | ---------------------- | ------------------------ |
| 1. Logo Usage        | Allows logo on website       | Any paying customer    | Featured                 |
| 2. Written Review    | G2/Capterra review           | NPS > 7                | $25 gift card            |
| 3. Quote/Testimonial | Named quote on website       | NPS > 8, 6+ months     | Featured + swag          |
| 4. Case Study        | Full story with metrics      | NPS > 8, clear results | Co-marketing + backlink  |
| 5. Reference Call    | Takes prospect calls         | NPS > 8, available     | Priority support + gifts |
| 6. Speaking/Webinar  | Co-presents at event/webinar | NPS > 9, articulate    | Travel + honorarium      |
| 7. Advisory Board    | Product feedback, strategy   | Power user, invested   | Equity or honorarium     |
| 8. Community Leader  | Runs user group/chapter      | Superuser              | Recognition + access     |

### Phase 2: Case Study Engine

**Pipeline:** Identify 3-5 candidates → interview → draft → approve → publish.
Target: 1 new case study/month.

**Interview questions:** `templates/case-study-interview-questions.md`  
Publish via `case-study-builder`.

### Phase 3: Review Generation

Full platform playbooks → **`review-platforms`** (G2, TrustRadius, ask emails,
response SLA). This skill identifies **who** to ask from NPS promoters.

**Target:** 2–4 new reviews/month (recency beats annual bursts). Respond to
negatives <48h. Check platform ToS before cash/gift incentives.

### Phase 4: Reference Program

**Formalize:** `templates/reference-program-spec.md` — CRM fields, caps,
rotation, rewards. Advocacy spend → `gtm-spend-management`.

### Phase 5: Customer Community

**Formats:** Slack community, LinkedIn group, annual user conference, regional
meetups, virtual roundtables. Start small. One format. Grow from there.

### Phase 6: Crisis & Reputation (External Comms)

When incidents threaten advocacy and pipeline trust — load **`references/crisis-management-playbook.md`** (Pattern 33). Executive war room → `gtm-leadership`.

| Crisis signal          | Marketing action                                                      |
| ---------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Outage / breach        | Pause scheduled campaigns; unify with status page + holding statement |
| Viral negative G2/TR   | Respond <24h; no cash incentives for positive reviews during incident |
| Bad press              | CEO/comms lead only; counsel for Sev 3+                               |
| Churn wave / NRR story | Stop reference asks; honest customer email if product-related         |

**Chris Walker — dark social:** Buyers discuss vendor failures in Slack/DMs — monitor via CS/sales, not just public mentions. → `references/chris-walker-mental-models.md`

**Templates:** the `gtm-leadership` skill (crisis-holding-statement.md), `crisis-faq-for-support.md`  
**Experts:** `references/saas-pr-crisis-experts.md` (Highwire, Offleash for retained PR)

### Phase 7: B2B Creator & Influencer Partnerships

**External creators** (paid) vs **employee advocates** (enabled) vs **customer
champions** (advocacy ladder) — three different programs; do not conflate.

| Program                | Owner          | Canonical reference                     |
| ---------------------- | -------------- | --------------------------------------- |
| Paid LinkedIn creators | Marketing      | `references/b2b-influencer-strategy.md` |
| Employee advocacy      | Marketing + HR | Advocacy ladder + `social-selling` SSI  |
| Customer champions     | CS + Marketing | Levels 4–8 above                        |

**Wishly-aligned minimum:** 90-day bundle (posts + newsletter + co-authored asset);
ICP overlap check before sign; bi-weekly reviews; measurement →
`references/b2b-influencer-measurement.md`. Brief template →
`templates/b2b-influencer-program-brief.md`.

## Implementation Checklist

- [ ] Case study pipeline: 3 candidates in progress, 1 published/month target
- [ ] 20+ G2 reviews (respond to every one)
- [ ] Reference program: 10+ referenceable customers, capped calls/quarter
- [ ] Logo usage: permission obtained for all logos on website
- [ ] Advocacy ladder documented with levels, triggers, and rewards

## Common Pitfalls

1. **Asking for favors without rewards.** "Can you write a review?" with nothing
   in return. Fix: Every advocacy request includes a reward — charity donation, swag,
   early access, co-marketing.
2. **Over-using references.** Same 3 customers do 10 reference calls each.
   They burn out. Fix: Cap at 2-3/quarter. Rotate.
3. **Publishing case studies without metrics.** "Acme Corp loves us" is not
   a case study. Fix: Every case study has before/after metrics.
4. **No review response.** Negative G2 review sits unanswered for months.
   Prospects see it. Trust evaporates. Fix: Respond within 24 hours. Every time.

## Output Format

Customer marketing program plan containing: (1) advocacy ladder — all eight
levels from logo usage to advisory board, with required NPS threshold, health
criteria, and reward for each level; (2) case study pipeline — active candidates
list, interview question set, and monthly production target; (3) review generation
playbook — G2/Capterra NPS Promoter identification sequence, incentive structure,
and 24-hour response SLA for negative reviews; (4) reference program spec — CRM
field configuration, quarterly call cap per reference, and rotation schedule;
(5) community format recommendation (Slack, LinkedIn group, or virtual roundtable)
with launch scope and moderation plan; (6) implementation checklist with measurable
milestones for each program component.

## Quality Check

Before delivering, verify:

- [ ] All required sections complete
- [ ] Output matches the user's stated need
- [ ] No vague or unsupported claims
- [ ] Frameworks cited where applicable

## Execution Artifacts

- `references/framework-notes.md` — Expert anchors + skill routing
- `templates/output-template.md`
- `scripts/check-output.py`
- `references/crisis-management-playbook.md` — external comms during incidents (Pattern 33)
- `references/saas-pr-crisis-experts.md` — B2B SaaS PR voices
- the `gtm-leadership` skill (crisis-holding-statement.md) · `crisis-customer-email.md` · `crisis-faq-for-support.md`
- `references/community-selling-varun.md` — Clay ecosystem GTM, Slack-first, community infiltration
- `references/aneesh-wishly-b2b-influencer.md` — Wishly Group / Aneesh Lal canonical playbook
- `references/b2b-influencer-strategy.md` — Master B2B influencer guide (program types, ICP selection)
- `references/b2b-influencer-measurement.md` — ROI, dark social, UTM limits
- `templates/b2b-influencer-program-brief.md` — Campaign brief
- `templates/influencer-partnership-scorecard.md` — Creator evaluation
- `references/advocacy-program.md` — Ladder, CRM fields, review triggers
- `templates/case-study-interview-questions.md`
- `templates/reference-program-spec.md`

## Related Skills

- `review-platforms` — G2/TR generation and responses
- `case-study-builder` — Case study creation
- `cs-playbooks` — Customer success foundation
- `content-marketing` — Distribution of customer content
- `referral-programs` — Customer referral engine
- `gtm-leadership` — executive crisis war room (canonical)
- `investor-updates` — stakeholder comms if reputational Sev 3+