While my whole career represents the depth of my marketing experience, work at one startup in particular is the most relevant to the type of work that I love the most -- the social aspect. I enjoy working directly with customers to develop evangelism/advocacy programs and using external channels such as social media, digital marketing and PR to elevate their voices and share stories.
Below is a story about my work at Mindjet. I think it's my most relevant example of being customer-driven.
Below is a story about my work at Mindjet. I think it's my most relevant example of being customer-driven.
Mindjet
Sample mind map I created for reporters.
A few years ago, I joined a software startup called Mindjet in San Francisco. We made mind mapping software that helped people visually organize thoughts, ideas and information. The company had about 750,000 customers at the time. I was hired to create a global customer advocacy program to support products in four different languages. My team included one local direct report, a PR professional in Germany and three regional PR agencies.
In the first year, my direct report and I focused on building relationships with 800+ evangelists. The evangelists were from all over the world. Many were technical types. Software developers. Certified project managers. Engineers. The rest represented a diverse assortment of vocations. Champion wine sommelier. Arctic explorer a.k.a the "Ice Warrior." Teachers. New York Times best-selling authors. Sales professionals. Photographers. They all had two things in common. Their passion for the Mindjet product and a direct line into the company via my colleague and me.
Bringing the customers' voice in to the company was critical for our product marketing, engineering, sales and customer support teams to hear feedback directly and influence future direction.
These are a few of the ways we involved evangelists internally:
+ Hosted Mindjet's first customer focus group
+ Recruited hundreds of evangelists to participate in multiple beta tests and usability feedback sessions
+ Invited evangelists to participate in Town Hall meetings with engineering, customer service and product marketing teams
+ Engaged with evangelists to meet with our executives regularly
+ Enlisted evangelists to be on call as customer references as needed by our sales team
By involving customers in every department across Mindjet, we changed the company's culture to be more in tune with what the customer needed.
In the first year, my direct report and I focused on building relationships with 800+ evangelists. The evangelists were from all over the world. Many were technical types. Software developers. Certified project managers. Engineers. The rest represented a diverse assortment of vocations. Champion wine sommelier. Arctic explorer a.k.a the "Ice Warrior." Teachers. New York Times best-selling authors. Sales professionals. Photographers. They all had two things in common. Their passion for the Mindjet product and a direct line into the company via my colleague and me.
Bringing the customers' voice in to the company was critical for our product marketing, engineering, sales and customer support teams to hear feedback directly and influence future direction.
These are a few of the ways we involved evangelists internally:
+ Hosted Mindjet's first customer focus group
+ Recruited hundreds of evangelists to participate in multiple beta tests and usability feedback sessions
+ Invited evangelists to participate in Town Hall meetings with engineering, customer service and product marketing teams
+ Engaged with evangelists to meet with our executives regularly
+ Enlisted evangelists to be on call as customer references as needed by our sales team
By involving customers in every department across Mindjet, we changed the company's culture to be more in tune with what the customer needed.
Interviewed by the press about his story of hiking the Arctic for cancer and environmental research, Mindjet evangelist Jim McNeil used MindManager to organize extreme routes and contingency plans.
"I use mind-mapping software an awful lot for making safety plans and planning decisions. These expeditions are logistically very complicated and visualization software has been a revelation in planning for it. As a team we have used the tool to visualize and brainstorm different event scenarios that we might face in the Arctic even the unexpected and highly unlikely." Jim McNeil, Team Leader of Arctic Expedition Read full article by ComputerWeekly.com |
In addition to bringing the customer voice internally, we also engaged with evangelists to tell their stories externally. Together, we developed webinars, case studies, vignettes, conference presentations, blog interviews and video testimonials. Conversations turned into content and used by all members of our marketing team on demand generation email campaigns, landing pages, e-commerce transaction pages, Facebook, Twitter, Mindjet blog, and our newsletters. Customers' stories brought color and life to our main message points.
In preparation of all product launches, we invited evangelists to sneak peek webinars before announcements so they were aware of news first and could help spread the word upon press date.
With the help of evangelists, we accomplished the biggest PR media blitz in Mindjet history with over 200 press and blog coverage pieces within a week of the product launch.
More PR results for 2007:
+ Published 19 global press releases
+ Garnered 700 articles published in worldwide press
+ Covered by 14,362 blogs
+ Received 15 different product reviews
Also with the help of our evangelists, Mindjet won 3 awards --
+ CRN Top 100 Emerging Vendors
+ Inc Magazine list of one of the Fastest Growing Private Companies
+ San Francisco's Business Times list of 100 Fastest Growing Companies
In preparation of all product launches, we invited evangelists to sneak peek webinars before announcements so they were aware of news first and could help spread the word upon press date.
With the help of evangelists, we accomplished the biggest PR media blitz in Mindjet history with over 200 press and blog coverage pieces within a week of the product launch.
More PR results for 2007:
+ Published 19 global press releases
+ Garnered 700 articles published in worldwide press
+ Covered by 14,362 blogs
+ Received 15 different product reviews
Also with the help of our evangelists, Mindjet won 3 awards --
+ CRN Top 100 Emerging Vendors
+ Inc Magazine list of one of the Fastest Growing Private Companies
+ San Francisco's Business Times list of 100 Fastest Growing Companies
Champion sommelier and Mindjet evangelist, Aldo Sohm was interviewed about how he is able to memorize thousands of tasting notes and outperform his competition.
After being named the top sommelier in Austria four times since 2002 and the best in America earlier this year by the American Sommelier Association, 35-year-old Sohm is one of 46 candidates due to arrive on the Greek island of Rhodes next month to compete for the International Association of Sommeliers' top prize. Sohm is clearly out to win. The competition involves a written test of global wine knowledge, plus challenges including blind tasting and identification of wines and pairing wine with food. Sohm has advisers to help him prepare for each trial. He has adapted German author Vera Birkenbihl's strategies for memory training and improvement, and he uses Mindjet Corp.'s MindManager software to create "mind maps" that help him visualize the links among wines, regions, soils and more. Read full article by The Washington Post |
As our relationships and trust with evangelists deepened over time, we experimented with various pilot projects. Here's one example with results. We selected 30 blogger evangelists and provided trackable links to them with various call-to-actions. In just one month, the evangelists generated 3,232 unique new visitors to the Mindjet website, 37 new product activations and sold $12,600 in revenue.
In the second year of the program, our network of evangelists surpassed 1,000 -- approximately 88% bloggers. Our advocacy program continued to contribute to Mindjet's bottom line -- 69% of product sales that year came from customer referrals or "word of mouth" marketing efforts. Our customer base had doubled from 750,000 to 1.5 million.
Influence marketing and social media are effective ways to generate revenue and customer growth, but the core objective must be developing relationships and trust directly with customers for a program to succeed.
In the second year of the program, our network of evangelists surpassed 1,000 -- approximately 88% bloggers. Our advocacy program continued to contribute to Mindjet's bottom line -- 69% of product sales that year came from customer referrals or "word of mouth" marketing efforts. Our customer base had doubled from 750,000 to 1.5 million.
Influence marketing and social media are effective ways to generate revenue and customer growth, but the core objective must be developing relationships and trust directly with customers for a program to succeed.