| 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, Jesse, Codex, Hermes, Windsurf, OpenCode, Gemini CLI, Copilot, Zed, VS Code, Goose |
| 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 — NPS (Net Promoter System, Fred Reichheld)","Gainsight — Customer Advocacy Maturity Model","Influitive — Advocate Marketing","SaaSquatch — Customer-Led Growth","Varun Anand (Clay) — Community Selling & Ecosystem GTM","Aneesh Lal (Wishly Group) — B2B Creator Partnerships & Advocacy","Dharmesh Shah (HubSpot) — Flywheel Delight & Customer Advocacy"]} |
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 — NPS (Net Promoter System, Fred Reichheld) — NPS (Net Promoter System, Fred Reichheld)
- Gainsight — Customer Advocacy Maturity Model — Customer Advocacy Maturity Model
- Influitive — Advocate Marketing — Advocate Marketing
- SaaSquatch — Customer-Led Growth — Customer-Led Growth
- Varun Anand (Clay) — Community Selling & Ecosystem GTM — Waterfall enrichment, Claygent research, and table-based GTM automation.
- Aneesh Lal (Wishly Group) — B2B Creator Partnerships & Advocacy — B2B Creator Partnerships & Advocacy
- Dharmesh Shah (HubSpot) — Flywheel Delight & Customer Advocacy — Lifecycle stages, object model, and workflow enrollment patterns.
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: skills/management-leadership/gtm-leadership/templates/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
Common Pitfalls
- 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.
- Over-using references. Same 3 customers do 10 reference calls each.
They burn out. Fix: Cap at 2-3/quarter. Rotate.
- Publishing case studies without metrics. "Acme Corp loves us" is not
a case study. Fix: Every case study has before/after metrics.
- 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:
Execution Artifacts
references/framework-notes.md — Expert anchors + skill routingtemplates/output-template.mdscripts/check-output.pyreferences/crisis-management-playbook.md — external comms during incidents (Pattern 33)references/saas-pr-crisis-experts.md — B2B SaaS PR voicesskills/management-leadership/gtm-leadership/templates/crisis-holding-statement.md · crisis-customer-email.md · crisis-faq-for-support.mdreferences/community-selling-varun.md — Clay ecosystem GTM, Slack-first, community infiltrationreferences/aneesh-wishly-b2b-influencer.md — Wishly Group / Aneesh Lal canonical playbookreferences/b2b-influencer-strategy.md — Master B2B influencer guide (program types, ICP selection)references/b2b-influencer-measurement.md — ROI, dark social, UTM limitstemplates/b2b-influencer-program-brief.md — Campaign brieftemplates/influencer-partnership-scorecard.md — Creator evaluationreferences/advocacy-program.md — Ladder, CRM fields, review triggerstemplates/case-study-interview-questions.mdtemplates/reference-program-spec.md
Related Skills
review-platforms — G2/TR generation and responsescase-study-builder — Case study creationcs-playbooks — Customer success foundationcontent-marketing — Distribution of customer contentreferral-programs — Customer referral enginegtm-leadership — executive crisis war room (canonical)investor-updates — stakeholder comms if reputational Sev 3+
