customer-advocacylisted

# Customer Advocacy ## Overview This skill covers how B2B marketers can build and operationalize customer advocacy — from establishing dedicated ownership and capturing reviews, to activating key opinion leaders and running community events. All practices are sourced exclusively from guests on the Exit Five podcast; no outside frameworks or general best practices have been added. Where the source material does not address a topic, this skill leaves it uncovered. --- ## Building the Advocacy Function **Establish dedicated ownership for customer reference marketing.** Do not let case studies, testimonials, and customer references scatter across product marketing, demand gen, or customer success without a clear owner. Create a dedicated customer reference marketing role (sometimes called customer marketing) responsible for identifying willing customers, telling their stories, and deploying those stories across trade shows, webinars, and videos. This role is distinct from lifecycle marketing and can be filled by someone transitioning from customer success. (Source: Jeff Hardison, Episode #335) **Treat high-profile customer partnerships as multi-month activations, not one-off shoots.** Model your most important customer relationships after sports sponsorships. Develop an activation plan that spans multiple months and includes: a customer story film, branded experiences at major industry conferences, and multiple content touchpoints throughout the year. This generates richer a