Turn retention into revenue: customer marketing builds advocates

In this session, Proxi’s Christelle Blanchet-Aissaoui and Jane Smallfield show how customer marketing drives growth beyond acquisition, moving users from onboarding to adoption, retention, expansion, and advocacy. They unpack the “bow tie” model, why churn bleeds growth, and how to align teams, tech, and metrics so recurring impact fuels recurring revenue.

Key themes include:

1. Why SaaS needs a different lens
   The classic funnel ends at “closed won,” but SaaS growth depends on renewals and expansion. “Recurring revenue in and of itself is not a goal. It’s the result of recurring impact.” 

2. Own the right-hand side of the bow tie
   Post-sale ownership is often murky; define who leads adoption and retention. Start by acquiring the right customers so they’re primed to expand and advocate.

3. Build your customer marketing strategy
   Give marketing a seat at the leadership table; set SMART goals, align on roles, budget, and timeline. Create an integrated stack and a single source of truth: CRM, marketing automation, customer service, plus product analytics/experience. “Leverage the tools that already exist.”

4. Accelerate adoption and ongoing value
   Onboarding: Don’t “set and forget.” Focus on time-to-value, high-impact features and use cases. Run monthly AMAs, invite users into community channels, communicate new features via in-app, release notes, email and social. 

5. Coordinate comms and advocacy
   Don’t “call it a newsletter”. Instead create segmented, personalised customer updates timed with onboarding and other comms. Maintain a shared comms calendar across teams, including finance. Remember, advocacy takes time: use case studies ( anonymous if required), testimonials and promoter referral programmes. “Customer marketing is a team sport.”

Key takeaways:

• Map who leads onboarding, expansion, conflicts and advocacy; aim to eliminate gaps and overlaps.

• Pair onboarding with in-app guidance and communicate new features consistently.

• Integrate your stack: Align CRM, automation, support, and product analytics; agree the source of truth and make data hygiene a KPI.

• Track the right metrics: active users, email open rates, net revenue retention and gross churn.

• Budget smart: start by allocating ~5% of expansion revenue to customer marketing and coordinate spend across teams.

Watch the recording for more practical takeaways