Called to Action

I think this is a step that marketers
don't often necessarily think about.

I think it's happening more, but
it's like you've got this whole webinar,

you can turn this into a downloadable PDF.

Absolutely. Why wouldn't you?

So this is one that that we did
with 3CLogic

And we've done with, with other,
customers.

And it's really seen a lot of success
there.

Hello marketers,

listeners, leaders, all those out there
in the world tuning in today.

Thanks for joining us.

I'm Janet Mesh, CEO of Aimtal
and this is Called to Action.

In each episode, we are going to analyze

and discuss the latest trends, tactics,
and hot takes in B2B marketing.

So we also conclude every episode
with one call to action.

So that means an actionable steps
you can take to your own business

with your team and implement
and try something new.

This episode though,
we're taking you a little bit different.

My co-host and I, Tucker, we're testing,
you know, we have some longer form

content, or we talk for
way too long about all things marketing.

But we're content on shorter format,
so definitely let us know what you think.

And this one, I will
it will be a little bit more tactical.

We'll definitely share
some strategic direction and insights,

but using this to kind of share
a little bit more behind the scenes

of what we actually do for clients
and the success that they've had.

So with that, Tucker,
do you want to share

kind of what we're going to focus on
of our overall topic for today's episode?

Absolutely. Janet.
Yeah, happy to be here. Today.

We are going to talk about how to drive
visibility and awareness using customer

stories and customer marketing campaigns,
a theme very near and dear to my heart.

You know, there's yeah,

if you're not talking to customers,
then that's step one.

Okay. Yeah, I know exactly.

And I was thinking about kind of like,
you know, three questions I often get from

from marketers, like,
how can we generate awareness?

One, two.

How can we run an actual campaign?

Like what's the basis behind,

you know, a real,
fully integrated campaign we should run?

And then something else we often hear
is, oh, we have all these great customers.

What what can we do with that?

We know we need to do something,
but what can we

actually do with these customers
and how can we leverage those?

So the answer to all three,
just a bit of a spoiler

alert, is fully integrated customer
marketing campaigns.

So that's
why we'll be taking a look at today,

kind of poking around, understanding
how that works, the why behind it,

and how you can actually leverage
and deploy customer marketing campaigns.

Yeah, I think another term
maybe people don't understand,

like integrated campaign.

It would be the similar
the omnichannel campaign is another term

getting, flown around in the industry.

So pretty much one on the same,

they're all mean, the same thing
that you're across multiple channels.

You're not only just focusing on,
you know, one, I mean, it's

showing up in a where your audience is
across, multiple platforms and channels.

Exactly.

I feel like every five years
there's a new term for the same thing.

It was like omni channel
and then integrated.

So I feel like we need to figure out
what the holistic is coming out now too.

So I would say
they're all pretty much the same.

Do things in coordination?

Yes. Coordinated across your different
channels?

Yeah, I think so. Completely agree.

So yeah, before we dive into the campaign
proper, though, Janet,

I'd be curious to hear from you.

Like, why are we focusing on customer
stories specifically?

Why why is there
you know, we're talking about B2B.

So business and business marketing
businesses working with other businesses.

But at the end of the day,
it's still human to human like.

It's humans working with humans.

We're not

at the point where we've built all these
AI agents that can just work together

on our behalf.

So with

that, you know, humans,
we are social people.

We we want we need to understand.

And we're going to trust something
if someone else has made done it

or tried it or said that this works.

So really that's that's the core of
it is like showing that social proof.

And also like,
you know, in this industry,

like these purchase decisions aren't,
you know, a flash in the pan,

even I mean, in some cases, you know,
there are some products and platforms

that, you know, with the SAS model
can be pretty manageable at the same time,

if you're, you know, implementing

a new CRM system,
it's a it's a pretty massive commitment.

And you have a lot of people involved
in the buying committee who,

you know, are going to participate
and make sure that they feel like that

they're represented and that it's going
to be a good investment for the company.

So really, that's where,

you know,
making sure that that is considered.

And if you're hearing that other
customers, especially in your industry,

have done that or have had success
with your product or even your services,

then you're just, you know, really helping
to facilitate that social proof

make it pretty clear, like,
hey, we do have expertise in this,

any other thing is that like kind of
when it comes down to it, like people,

you know,

if someone's going in
and advocating internal,

I think that's like
a very emotional part of this to you.

You have to think of that like,
what are people protecting or not?

So I guess an example would be like,

I think a lot of people
probably will consider if you're part

of that buying community, like,
are you the one going to advocate

for purchasing something
but you don't want your,

you know, maybe like your job
to be on the line or something?

Like it can be pretty intense, you know,
like you don't want to be the one

that makes the mistake or feels like,
you kind of invented the wrong solution.

So that's why I think
also considering like, that's why buying

cycles are so long,
because it does take a lot of analysis

and time, to convince folks internally.

But we've

definitely seen
when we incorporate the customer voice

into our clients marketing,
that really helps to kind of shorten

those conversations,
bring that social proof

and, really give those
like pretty concrete examples.

Really, at the end of the day,
it just still works.

Totally. Yeah.

I feel like the only other analogy
I would say.

Tucker, I'm curious of you.

Like, do you,
when you go out to a restaurant, like,

what's one of the first things you do
before you like go to the restaurant?

Probably go on Yelp and say, look up.

Exactly. Yeah, totally.

Yeah, exactly.

It's like exactly like you're
looking at here,

you know, you're going to go
check out what the maybe their menu is

and their social media and their pictures,
but then you really get like the truth

of the situation

through the customers who love to review
and and talking about the experience.

That's a great point.
That's 100% what I do every time. Like

a little bit.

And then therefore,
am I going to have a good time, right?

Or like someone recommended like,
oh, you got to go check out that place.

Like you're going to miss out.

So it's kind of that what we're saying
here is like it's kind of the same,

the same thing. But just. Yeah,
I think so.

Yeah.

I kind of think of your own like kind of
day to day experience as a consumer.

It applies in business and, and yeah,
I mean I love that.

Love that. Yeah.

So I can't do you have any other thing
anything else to add?

I'm just like kind of why
customer stories.

And then you can kind of
bring us into the example we have to share

how we turn this into a campaign. Tucker.
But I love to hear your why.

You have a different one
three on the spot a little bit.

No, I like that.

I it's funny, your your description
made me think about the term social proof.

And I feel like

ever since I learned the term, it
immediately always felt like a buzzword.

And like I get I know what it means.

But when you actually think
about the two words

proof,
like oh, proof that a word like I want,

I want proof,

especially what you're saying,
where there's jobs on the line,

it's like these people,
the buyer needs to show proof

to their buying committee,
which might be ten, maybe even 15.

Oh yeah, especially a big company.
So they need proof.

And it's social, right?

It's other people,
other companies that I know.

It's like, oh, social proof.
This actually makes a lot of sense.

And I thinking
about it that way. It's like

as you

said, other people
want to know that it works beforehand

so that then they can go back
to their team and be like, we have proof,

you know, this works.

So yeah, I just think that's a great way
of putting it and thinking about it.

Let's share. Get right into it.

Kind of how we,
we think about this for clients.

And we have an example, campaign
that we ran

that was very successful
and actually turned

into kind of a whole program
that we did for them of, yes.

Not even just a campaign,
but I actually ran up into a program

that we're doing pretty consistently
of quarterly campaign.

Right. Tucker. So, exactly.

I want you to walk us through that.

Walk us through.

Yeah.

It's almost
now I'm thinking it's kind of like a

we had kind of a social proof
campaign engine we were running.

Yeah.

What we're talking about
is fully integrated customer

marketing campaigns or social proof
campaigns.

We're going to look at one

that was run by Aimtal for your,
3Clogic and three sale.

Logic is a service. Now, partner.

For those of you who know service now,
it's a very crowded space for partners.

There's a lot of technology partners,

consulting partners,
and they're all trying to stand out.

So a big question was, okay, well, how
can we help the three see logic stand out?

And receiving a technology partner

and AI powered contact center solution
that's purpose built for service.

Now, they had a ton of great customers and
have a ton of great customers worldwide.

They've done a great job
and continue to do so.

Growing their brand,
growing their business.

One customer they had with Nissan,
a very well known brand,

and you might not know three C logic.

But you certainly know Nissan.

So you know the talk with three
theological as well.

How do we tell this story

of how three C logic supported
Nissan to leverage service?

Now specifically

streamlining global air operations
with both service down three C logic.

So let's take a look at, how we did that.

So what we've got here

is, yeah, the the kind of outline
of our customer campaign.

And you talked about earlier, Janna,
when we were saying that the omnichannel

or integrated or holistic,
but this is an example of how you can take

one customer story and repurpose it
for many different channels

and many different content formats,
and ultimately many different stages

of the funnel, all using that one
same customer story, but in different ways

to kind of attract customers, convert them
and move them down the funnel.

Also, just plug real quick,
if you want the deep dive

of how to use video
as like the centerpiece of your campaigns,

I mean, we're going to talk about it right
now, but even further, like really

in the weeds of exactly how and why
to do that, we have another episode

all about video marketing
and repurposing your content that way.

So we'll link it in the show notes.

Great plug. Great plug. Yeah. Right.

Absolutely.

I think and I think what
we've touched on there and a great place

to start
here is with any integrated campaign.

And I mean, you know, there's the bastion.

You kind of need something to anchor
the entire ground.

Right.

And obviously
we're talking about a customer story,

but I think a great anchor
and even entry point, there

is a webinar with a customer.

And I guess just to flip it

back to you, Jen,
and not to put you on the spot, but,

do you want to share
a little bit about like,

why kind of a webinar is a great format
to start with,

especially with a customer,
just to tease out that customer story?

Yeah, definitely.

I mean, I think it in a way
it's a bit of a lower effort

for the customer to come on
and like speak to their experience.

Yeah.

It also really like

spotlights, like their thought leadership
and their success in the industry.

It's not just about like

your company, it's about their company
and how they're growing and excelling.

Like for Nissan,
like the topic was like how Nissan Nissan

streamlined global air operations
with service sound really logic.

So that's just really showing
that they're like a leader in that space.

And and you know, they're a car company,
but like they're going to be like, no,

we actually we've really structured things
in a way to support our people.

And that's really important
for a large organization.

Any company, of course.

So, I think then,
I mean, what we're going to get into

is that you can then take that webinar,
you kind of,

you know, build out the programing,
bring them on, but then it just becomes

a ton of content
that you can share across channels.

So, as you can see here, and what we're
gonna talk was like, we promoted em.

We did it.

You have to do promotion via email.

Really like sharing.

And it's not just be like this webinar
or attend this webinar.

I think that's like
we're in the got creative, right?

And saying like,

obviously we want to drive registrations
for the webinar,

but also use that as an opportunity
to maybe

like share different types of content,
like maybe showing the speaker

or sharing a little bit of their story
on social before the webinar to get

a little bit more engaged,
instead of just being like, sign up here.

It's like you really to provide the value.
Like what?

What am I going to get from this?
What am I going to learn?

Why should I show up?

And then after the webinar,
which you can talk through, Tucker,

is like it just turns
into a ton of content for email,

like nurturing the leads.

Just kind of resharing it
just kind of especially

what I like about it
is that that customer story just becomes

part of your overall,
like messaging and marketing,

and it allows to just be very consistent
in what you're saying.

And not as hopefully not as confusing
to your audience.

Or if you have,
this is a really good place to

if you have several audience segments,
then you can target it better too.

But these types of webinars actually.

Oh yeah. Wow.

You touched on so many great things.

But I think just going back
to what you said kind of at the jump

is like with a customer webinar,
you basically

it allows you to get your customer
in the room with someone from your team

and just talk and kind of hash it out.

And obviously there's structure

you behind there,
but it's a little bit loose in that.

You just allow people

to have a natural conversation
about the problem they were facing,

how they leveraged your company's solution
or consulting services,

and then the results
that they were able to drive.

So having that webinar be
the first piece is great.

And as you touched on already,
okay, we've got a bit of a campaign here.

We're doing things like email,

and organic social on LinkedIn
to promote the webinar.

And the second thing I love that
you said too, is, you know, gone

are the days of just being like webinars
happening attended.

We yeah to the why right.

Right. Yeah.

Like share a little bit of the story.

Not like too much but give some teasers.

Like everyone doesn't need to just be like
the webinar graphic, but like honestly

visioning it like in show like the
the guest and like share their story

in a carousel

on LinkedIn for example, like like swipe
through and get a little bit of like

the context of the company
and what they're doing

and how they're kind of
leading in their industry.

And when I say in the company,
I'm saying the customer, it's like,

put the focus on the customer.
That's the point.

Exactly, exactly.

Okay.

So we've talked about we've
got the webinar and you do a campaign.

Part of the first part of the campaign

is kind of both preparing the webinar
and then also the promotion of it.

So get gearing up, getting

driving as many registrations
to the live webinar as you can.

So that's kind of just the beginning.

So after we have the webinar,
what's great is that then

if we're doing our integrated
kind of repurposing strategy,

we can repurpose this and produce
an on demand,

YouTube video or an on demand webinar

that you can put on your website
and you can, you know, share throughout.

And this is now you have,
an evergreen asset

that, you know, all the people
who weren't able to attend your hour

is most of the people, they can access it
any time, and you've immediately

got an asset that can be shared,
and tell that story for you.

So this is just another piece that I think
is one thing I want to touch on.

Actually, real quick on that
with the on demand webinar.

I think we get this question
a lot from clients.

It's like,
well, should be gated or un gated.

And what that means is, like we're saying
to put it on YouTube off of the webinar.

And we do recommend that
because I, we found that like,

even if you open it up and
give access to it pretty much for free,

it's much better because you're increasing
your visibility and chances

pretty much for it
to, like organically rank on YouTube

and Google for more discoverability
of your brand and content.

I find that we haven't found as much like

the benefits of that
outweigh maybe a couple leads coming in

after the webinar, if that makes sense
of like people registering afterward.

And I think a lot of people register
because they want to get the recording

and watch it later.

So you're just it just helps
to kind of land and expand further.

I think also, usually people
are finding you in different channels.

So as we're saying, as many channels
as you can be to be aware, invisible

and show up in those places
where people are searching the better.

Totally.

And I've even seen places where, like,
I remember having this conversation

with, with a customer
a while back where they're like,

you know, we kind of landed on, well,
what if we do both?

Like, let's put the on demand webinar
on you, right?

That's also works better than blogs,
but on your website you can still get it.

And I don't think that's like nefarious.

I think it's depending on the channel.

If they're on your website,
you still want to use it as a lead magnet.

You can do it there, but you're also
capturing the SEO traffic, as you said.

So yeah, I think that just, you know,
great strategies all around.

That brings us to the next point.

I actually want to talk about the next
area where we repurpose the content.

Absolutely.

So I think this is a big
a big transition here. Right.

It's like you've got a webinar,
you've promoted it.

You now you have an on demand asset,
but then you can convert

that video into a downloadable
written, designed case study.

So what we're looking at here
is that same customer story,

but it's now,
a beautifully designed, PDF that,

you know, your sales team can share as
kind of a leave behind after a sales call.

It's also something that you can
and should absolutely make available

on your website.

Again, can be dated,

could not be, definitely sharing it
through different channels.

But having now
you've got basically a video asset

and a more designed
branded asset that you can share.

So this is really key.

And I think this is a step that marketers
don't often necessarily think about.

I think it's happening more, but
it's like you've got this whole webinar,

you can turn this into a downloadable PDF.

Absolutely. Why wouldn't you?

So this is one that, that we did
with through logic.

And we've done with, with other,
customers and has really seen a lot of

success there.

Yeah.

And of course, once you have this
downloadable case study, absolutely.

You want to put it on the website,
you want to have a landing page,

and again, it's
that's kind of a strategy conversation

you would have with your team about
do we get it or not.

But certainly then using it for nurture.

We haven't even said the nurture word yet,
but that's a huge piece.

That's not just attracting new leads.

I would say the majority of the B2B cycle
is nurturing the leads you have, right?

Right.

These are the kind of assets
where you can put it in an email and,

you know, share it out with people.

And the other thing
we haven't even talked about

is the back end of tracking
and lead scoring.

But everything we're talking about here
gets assigned a score.

Do you have a call
action episode about that?

Attribution? Yes.

Yes. So how it's changing.

That's a very important part to 100%.

But if you have all the leads.

But to your point,
like if you have them already in your CRM,

then yeah, you can and you can track,

like their activity if you have all your
everything set up properly. So.

Right, right.

And I think historically here
what we saw was, you know, yes,

a lot of new leads came in here.

But the ability to use this to engage

existing leads and nurture existing leads
was just as key, if not more.

And the final piece here too is okay.

We've got an on demand webinar asset.

We've now got a, designed
branded case study asset.

Both of these are now lead magnets
that you can use to generate

leads and nurture
existing leads, promoting them on

organic, social, but also in ads as well.

So I mean, if we go back here, it's

like we've had a live webinar,
we've promoted it via email and social.

We've turned it into an on demand webinar.

We turned that into a downloadable case
study.

We promoted
both on the website and landing pages.

We use them in email nurture.

We put them in ads and social. Right.

That's an integrated campaign for you.

And I think what we're looking at too, is,

again, those questions at the beginning,
how do we leverage these customer stories?

How can we do a campaign
that uses all the channels?

This is how and I think I'm curious
to hear what you think, Jenna,

but I think when you have one
single customer story, that's your anchor

for a campaign, even from an operation
standpoint, it becomes so much easier

to do all this stuff.

You don't have to build
anything from scratch.

You've got something to go off of.

It just it's just awesome

in that it's it's not like your brand
talking about your brand all the time.

Yes, yes, like place no one loves.

No one loves the person at the party.

That just doesn't
stop talking about themselves, right?

Right.

Oh, you're bringing in those folks

who trust you and like
you and already have had success.

So you know much better experience
and comes back to that.

Yeah, the trust factor really in the day.

So I guess just to recap all this
because we had a lot of talk or like

how like we had a lot of like area.

So how do you look at this and how does it
fit into like every stage of the funnel?

Because you talked about lead generation
nurturing to conversion.

Like it's pretty much just it's a it's
holistic and across

channels,
but also like the life cycle of a lead.

So curious for you to kind of just recap
that of the start to finish briefly

if you can. Sure.

So what I would say is most marketers
and even sales folks

that I've talked to don't
think of a customer story

as a driving force for an entire campaign
across the funnel.

They think of it as a one off, right?

They're like, oh, we have it.

We'll just put it on our website or oh,
we can share with prospects

that we talked to.

What we have here is basically the idea
that you can use customer stories

to activate buyers at every stage
of the journey across the entire funnel.

So, you know, we've got a chart here

where we're looking at everything
from prospects to customers, right?

There's different tactics
and different strategies

you want to employ for those buyers

that each stage they're at
as they move through the funnel.

And all we're saying here is that you can
truly use customer stories in each place.

And we just gave a bunch of examples.

But, you know, there's even more
we didn't talk about retargeting ads

and how it might make sense, especially
maybe if you're doing an ABM strategy,

to retarget folks with a customer story
that are midway down the funnel

so that they can get that social
proof that moves the needle.

Sales enablement, we

we talked about a little bit,
but having customer stories that,

teams can use that trade shows
they know or on a

sit on a call like,
we want to be able to speak to it

like, hey,
we did this in the other thing, right?

Put it right in the sales deck.
You know, like, yeah.

Huge. Absolutely.

Yeah. Yeah.

So I think that is just to say
we're very passionate about using customer

stories as kind of the, the driving
vehicle across the entire funnel.

Not the only thing you need to do,
but it's a great way to really build

successful campaigns
that everybody can kind of rally around,

including sales, too, because I think
they brought in the customer.

They're excited about it, too.

It's a great way to unify marketing sales.

Another thing

for sure.

Yeah.

Awesome. Thanks, Tucker. Good stuff.

Of course.

I guess we got to close it out with our
one call to action to the audience.

And I think we hit them
with a lot of good things.

But what's your
what would be your number one,

takeaway for those listening in today?

Yeah.

You know,
in the spirit of starting small, I would

I would challenge listeners
if you have a customer story already,

you know, trying to take the action
of thinking what's one way

I can repurpose it into another channel
that would help nurture prospects?

Just one. Just start with one.

That would be my,
my call to action for folks.

What about you, Janet?

I like it.

I think if you don't have
a customer story, my local action would be

go identify those customers.

Meet with your sales team.

If you don't have, you know,
a couple from Friendly's that you can,

email today, but I don't know, you know,
reach out to 1 or 2,

you see if they're interested in proposed,
like, pitch it, pitch it to them.

See, if they would like, you know,
everyone wants visibility

and to be promoting their expertise
and their services.

So thank you. Don't have a cause.
You have a customer. Sorry.

Do you have a tiger side?

If you don't go talk to your customer,
get them to at least jump on a video

or on a call that you can then turn that
into some content for your audience.

Love it.

Awesome.

Well thank you, Tucker, as always,
for joining me to drop all that knowledge.

We hope that you enjoyed today's episode.

A little bit of a shorter format.

Very kind of wanting to share

a little bit more of behind the scenes
of how we think about and do these things.

So if you've enjoyed the call to action,

please, you know, definitely
like subscribe, share with your network.

And let us know if you're any other topics
or things that you're seeing

that's working well or that you'd like us
to research and kind of, dive into,

we would love to do that.

So, please
let us know. And thanks for tuning in.