Customer marketing is a relationship-based approach that helps you surface and land ideal B2B customers. By nurturing current customer relationships, you turn them into advocates for your company. Whether it’s through references calls, testimonials, or product feedback, your advocates will share their positive experiences to prove you are able to solve their problems. At Orca, we know that customer marketing is essential to gaining insights into the types of customer characteristics your advocates share. An efficient customer advocacy and referral campaign can lure in new and exciting customers. But what types of B2B customer marketing are most effective? 

What Are 4 Types of Customer Marketing Initiatives?

To expand your B2B customer base, strengthen relationships with existing customers, and recruit new advocates for your business, you can employ these four customer marketing strategies:

Referrals

Referral marketing is a strategy that leverages the power of recommendations and word-of-mouth to grow a company's customer base by tapping into the networks of existing consumers. Encouraging referrals can successfully transform your satisfied consumers into highly-persuasive advocates. Not only that, but customers who have made a significant financial investment in your product and are satisfied with its performance—and the resulting ROI—can serve as a compelling marketing tool to potential buyers. Altogether, referrals are so effective that 92% of customers trust recommendations from people they know, according to Nielsen. 

Reference Calls

In the midst of an increasingly competitive sales environment, The primary goal of a B2B reference call is to provide potential customers with a third-party endorsement and social proof, helping to build trust and credibility for the product or service being offered. The reference customer shares their positive experience, answers questions, and helps potential customers make informed decisions. The ultimate goal is to foster positive relationships and drive sales.Of course, you need reliable customers willing to be a reference to make it a successful campaign. But building a customer reference library makes it simple for your company to use current customers as a touchpoint. As a reference, customers can help:

1. Provide social proof: Describe the benefits your company provides over the competitors and give tangible examples of how your product solves existing problems.
2. Build trust and credibility: TSpecify the sorts of clients you serve, verify your business's experience in relevant industries, and provide a positive experience and answer questions to build trust and credibility with potential customers.
3. Drive sales: Emphasize the benefits of the product or service, provide real-world examples of how it has helped them, and address any concerns or objections the potential customer may have to help drive sales for the business.

Case Studies

One of the most effective ways to showcase your product and attract customers is by conducting a case study. The emphasis of case studies is on concrete results that can be tracked, such as an increase in revenue, site traffic, or production time. They should also include an abundance of supporting research and numerical data. But they’re not just advertisements for products with encouraging statistics. In fact, case studies frequently use customer endorsements—and, as we noted earlier, nothing sells better than a recommendation from someone knowledgeable of your product and how it resolves their issues. 

There are three types of marketing case studies you can implement:

• A third-person case study focuses on the experience of one customer and includes testimonials, typically as direct quotes.
• An explanatory case study explains how an event or strategy has an effect on your business, like a new marketing campaign increasing conversions by 8%.
• An implementation case study informs you about a problem, how it was solved, and the outcome.

Community Programs Public Events

Community programs aim to build a sense of community around your brand by providing customers with exclusive access to events, products, or other perks. These programs foster loyalty and encourage customers to promote your brand to their network as well as engage with other customers on best practices, product functionality, and professional networking. Whether online or in person, the goal of event marketing is the same: to educate consumers about your company's product or services. And almost two-thirds of attendees agree that firsthand experience is essential for making a decision about a product or service. To add to your success, with the help of customer data gathered from Salesforce, you can get to know your attendees on a personal level before the event to find better connections.

Implementing Orca can be an effective way for businesses to streamline their customer marketing initiatives. With Orca, businesses can easily manage and track their referral, review and feedback, community, and influencer programs. Tasks can be automated such as identifying satisfied customers, tracking rewards, and measuring the success of the program. Additionally, Orca can provide valuable insights and analytics to help businesses refine and optimize their customer advocacy efforts. Overall, Orca can help businesses establish a successful customer advocacy program and turn their satisfied customers into brand advocates.

Types of Customers in Marketing

There are four types of customers—loyal, new, need-based, and insistent—you should identify when implementing a customer marketing program and engaging your customer advocates. Here are the various categories of customers you will come across in your B2B customer marketing strategy:

• Loyal customers usually make up a small amount of your market share, but they stay with your business for a long time. They often become devoted brand advocates, eagerly spreading the word about their excellent experiences with your company whenever they get the chance.
• New customers exhibit higher levels of engagement and responsiveness when compared to other types of customers. There is a good chance of nurturing brand loyalty and maybe turning a client into a repeat customer if their initial interaction with customer service is positive.
• Need-based customers prioritize their needs when making a purchase. Retaining this customer segment requires close communication. Effective and positive interactions can build loyalty among need-based customers.
• Insistent customers tend to conduct extensive research prior to making any purchases. When working with an insistent customer, it is crucial to provide evidence that you offer an effective strategy for resolving their issue.

A significant number of these types of business customers find it beneficial to speak with a loyal brand advocate before making their decision. Using referrals, references, or even events, advocates can provide a valuable perspective and persuade new and prospective customers that your product or service is the long-term solution to their specific problem. By focusing on needs and providing evidence your product or service works, you’ll gain more ideal customers. With Orca, you can connect your brand advocates with prospective customers, so they can share how your company exceeded their expectations. 

Orca-strate Your Customer Marketing

At Orca, we understand the significance of B2B customer marketing to a company's success. With our native Salesforce solution, you can easily identify and engage with your brand advocates to increase customer retention and drive revenue growth. With our solution’s automations, you can spend more time nurturing advocates rather than wasting valuable time on ineffective marketing strategies. Using Orca, you’ll be closing more deals and building better customer relationships. 

If you’d like to book a demo, reach out to us today!