If two corporate departments were ever destined to be married - it’s corporate communications and customer success. In many ways, the two departments rely on the efforts of each other so much so that they simply cannot succeed independently.
Why? Here are three reasons:
1. Customers are a technology company’s best third-party validator. As a tech PR professional, I’d be remiss if I didn’t say that journalists and analysts are incredibly important third-party validators. But guess who journalists and analysts want to interview when trying to better understand your solutions? Your customers. In fact, many IT trade publications, like CRN, will not interview vendors anymore - only end-users of the technologies. Simply put, your customers have more industry credibility than your brand does. They are your most powerful proof points.
2. Your prospects are highly persuaded by customers, making customer success marketing a must in any revenue-generating activities. In fact, Software Advice found that buyers who sought feedback from customers prior to purchasing software were 2.5x more satisfied with their decision than those who failed to take this step. And Dimensional Research discovered that 90% of buyers who read positive customer success content claimed it influenced their purchasing decision.
At Alloy, we did our own research into this trend. Our 2019 Marketing Technology Report: The Role of Media Relations in the Sales Cycle found that press articles mentioning customers - either via a testimonial or a case study - had the highest ROI of any type of press. These media articles drove an average of 101 sessions to a tech vendor’s website per article, providing a nice stream of qualified top-of-funnel leads. Sometimes, these external communications can even lead to competitive-based selling, which your sales department will love.
Our 9-page playbook provides practical tips and actionable best practices for every tech corporate communications pro.
3. Strong customer success marketing makes your tech company an attractive place to work among today’s talent pool looking for careers where they can truly drive value. This alignment benefits not just customer success and corp comms departments but has ripple effects throughout the organization.
If your software company is ready to bolster customer success marketing, download The Modern Corporate Communications Playbook: How to Integrate PR into Every Department Within Your Technology Company. Alloy recently released this 9-page how-to guide, which provides practical tips and actionable best practices for every in-house communications pro. Read it today.