35 Ways To Turn Customer Marketing Into Your Strategic Advantage

We don’t stop to consider just how important our customers are. Maybe because as marketers we are largely incentivized on Net New? But as you and I know, trust is peer-led and most growth still comes from referrals and word of mouth.

Customer love is so important, but leveraging customers in your growth efforts is a huge (often missed) opportunity. 

So over the past season of Building With Buyers (Season 5) I’ve been exploring the role that customers play in helping companies build to their next level of growth. And fear not, because I’ve been busy uncovering some customer marketing gems.

I've talked to founders and marketers who've done pretty wild stuff, like making their AI bot insult SDRs while they eat hot sauce, flying in Reddit power-users to pre-launch feedback sessions, and turning PTA moms into mini-franchise operators.

And you know what? All of it worked.

These are real plays from real people (not suggestions from your fave AI tool) who've actually figured out how to turn their customers into their best marketing channel, product team, and sometimes even their sales force.

Everyone shared something unique, but they all had one common thread:

they stopped treating customers like transactions and started treating them like gold mines of insight, advocacy, and growth.

And if you know me, you know how much I LOVE that.

Whether you're trying to figure out how to activate free users without annoying them, wondering how to turn customer interviews into effective marketing assets, or just tired of making up your own ad copy when your customers are literally saying better stuff on calls, I guarantee there's something in here for you.

Fair warning: Some of these ideas will make you think "we could never do that." Try them anyway. The people who tried these marketing plays didn't always ask for permission.

Ready? Let’s go.

Turn Product Features Into User-Generated Content Challenges

When Nooks launched their AI training bot feature, they didn't just announce it, they turned it into an interactive challenge. They made the bot publicly accessible on their website and created a user-generated content campaign where SDRs tried to book a meeting with their rudest bot (named Jim Hardass!) while eating hot sauce. This approach worked because they understood their audience: SDRs are competitive, hungry to learn, comfortable with personal branding, and love a good challenge. Instead of traditional case studies, they let users create content by engaging with the product in a fun, shareable way that amplified both the users' voices and Nooks' brand. [Ep. 222 - Peter Mollins, Nooks]

Get Customers To Host Fundraiser Events

Shoott is a marketplace connecting photographers with customers. They created a fundraiser program where people can host a day of photo sessions for their community (PTAs, PTOs, firehouses, charities, etc.), with a portion of proceeds donated to the organization. This is brilliant customer marketing because: (1) it activates customers as organizers who bring in their entire community, (2) it aligns perfectly with their target audience (young families with kids in school who are naturally involved in PTAs/community groups), (3) it gives people a reason to gather for something meaningful while also getting professional photos, and (4) it turns what could be a simple referral program into a scalable, community-driven acquisition channel. Instead of asking customers to refer friends one-by-one, Shoott lets them host entire events that bring 20-50+ people together at once, essentially turning satisfied customers into mini-franchises. [Ep. 237 - Jennifer Tsay, Shoott]

The DTC-to-Retail Bridge Strategy

Hiyo is a stress-relieving social tonic (new category) mindfully crafted with natural adaptogens, nootropics, and functional botanicals to be a better-than-alcohol alternative. They're DTC and also in 6,000+ retail locations. What’s interesting is that Hiyo doesn't treat DTC as just another revenue channel. They use their online community as a strategic lever to unlock brick-and-mortar expansion. When they pitch retailers, they show them the data: "Look how many people are buying our drinks online and shipping heavy liquid across the country." That proves demand exists. Then once they're on shelves, they activate their DTC community to walk into those stores and buy, giving retailers increased basket sizes and new customer acquisition. They’re leveraging Hiyo superfan customers as proof of concept and then as boots-on-the-ground growth drivers for brick-and-mortar expansion. Two-thirds of their business is now wholesale because they built that bridge intentionally. [Ep. 250 - Evan Quinn, Hiyo]

Listen to Your Superconsumers on the Edges, Not the Averages

Most companies analyze customer data by looking at averages and medians, the fat part of the bell curve. Category designers do the opposite: they look for the weird, the outliers, the top 8-10% who are doing something dramatically different. When iRobot studied why some customers were buying 4-8 robot vacuums instead of one, they discovered gifting: super consumers loved the product so much they bought them as gifts for family and friends. iRobot built an entire gifting program around this insight, which didn't just drive revenue, it expanded the market through word-of-mouth. The Marshall Amplification story is another example: Pete Townshend (super consumer) wanted amps that were louder and grittier. Jim Marshall listened to this one weird customer on the edge, and the Marshall Stack was born, shaping hard rock forever. Talk to your supers. Find your Pete Townshend. [Ep. 234 - Christopher Lochhead, Category Pirates]

Gamify The Customer Experience

Navattic ran a six-month "Navattic Fanattic" program for their top power users and customers with monthly challenges including beta testing features, providing quotes for enablement content, posting on LinkedIn, etc. They kept an internal leaderboard, sent gifts and shoutouts, and the top performers earned perks like free hotel rooms at the final event. This wasn't just event prep, it was a sustained engagement play that got customers to know each other before they met in person, created friendly competition (customers literally joked "next year I'm gonna beat you"), and ensured the event was packed with engaged super-users who could teach each other advanced use cases. The result? Customers came to the event already connected, spent two days geeking out about intent data at levels even Natalie couldn't follow, and left with upsell opportunities and expanded product usage. [Ep. 228 - Natalie Marcotullio, Navattic]

Throw a Pre-Launch VIP Party

EA flies in their power players and influencers (all expenses paid) before major video game launches. It's a strategic feedback and advocacy-seeding session where they gather quotes, test narratives, and more importantly, turn potential detractors into invested partners by incorporating their feedback into the launch. When you've already gotten 10 quotes from reviewers before launch day, you've pre-built your social proof. Denny used this model at Wealthsimple, identifying 20 Reddit super-users who could make or break their launches, and built an advocacy program around winning them over early. [Ep. 255 - Denny Hollick, Puzzle]

Clay's Customer Hackathons Do Triple Duty

Clay runs go-to-market hackathons with specific customers like Vanta, OpenAI, and Canva. They document what gets produced during these sessions, share it publicly on social media (giving the customer social credit), and then create "how-to" content like "How to Run Your Own Clay Hackathon" so other customers can replicate the practice without Clay's team. This does triple duty: (1) deepens relationships with top customers through hands-on collaboration, (2) creates social proof by showcasing what amazing companies are building with Clay, and (3) generates educational content that makes prospects think "I could do that too." It transforms a simple customer training session into a multi-channel marketing asset [Ep. 238 - Emily Kramer, MKT1]

Pipe Live Reviews Into Slack to Create FOMO

GrowthMentor pipes every single review (800-900 per month!) into a Slack channel called #realtime-reviews in real-time. It accidentally became their best mentor discovery tool because mentees lurk in there watching reviews roll in like "OMG this person just crushed a Facebook ads session, let me book them." Instead of static testimonials buried on a website, this is live social proof creating FOMO and momentum. It energizes the community by showing "things are happening here" without anyone having to manufacture engagement. Use automated notifications to push interesting customer actions into your community space, and watch discovery happen organically. [Ep. 246 - Foti Panagiotakopoulos, GrowthMentor]

Survey Customers With Controversial Questions That Spark Debate

DataBox nailed this: survey your customers and ask polarizing questions that create "marketing moments." Like when DataBox found that only 1-in-3 marketers always use data, suddenly you've got a debate. Half your audience goes "that's insane, people are dumb!" and the other half defends taste over data. You've just turned boring survey results into a conversation your customers are having for you, complete with quotes from actual CMOs that make your content instantly more credible than anything Derek the first-year marketing intern could write alone. Survey your customers with questions that force them to pick sides on contentious topics in your industry. Package the results as debate fuel, not just data. The goal isn't consensus, it's conversation. When half your audience disagrees with the findings, you've created something worth sharing. [Ep. 245 - Brendan Hufford, Growth Sprints]

Turn Customer Events Into a Sales Content Library

Navattic recorded everything at their customer event. Not just presentations, but also audience reactions, candid conversations, and post-event testimonials. They walked away with eight customer presentations showing different use cases (conferences, website embeds, etc.), plus promo videos of customers and partners explaining what they learned. Now, when prospects ask about a specific use case, Navattic doesn't just share a case study, they show video of a real customer presenting that exact use case at a conference-style event, with other excited customers in the audience. It plants a seed: "Navattic throws cool events like this. If I become a customer, I'm part of this community." The event became evergreen sales content that showcases both product value and customer experience. Record everything at your next customer event (hallway conversations, Q&A sessions, testimonials) and walk away with 8-10 solid video clips. This is social proof that shows what it's like to be part of your customer community. [Ep. 228 - Natalie Macrotullio, Navattic]

Turn Power User Customers into Paid Influencers

Vector ran a three-month creator pilot where seven influencers promoted Vector on LinkedIn (three of them were existing customers). Those customers used one of their precious posting slots each month to talk about Vector’s launches, survey insights, and core product value in their own words. The budget was just $12K but it drove 45 demos and ~$1.1M in pipeline, showing how powerful it can be when happy customers act as visible creators for your brand. [Ep. 262 - Jess Cook, Vector]

The "How [Company] Does [Thing]" Interview Series

Brendan Hufford stole this play from Lenny Rachitsky and turned it into a customer goldmine: interview your customers about how they actually do the work your product enables. Not "how to use our tool" content, but "How Gong Builds Sales Teams" or "How ActiveCampaign Runs Marketing." He found CMOs were DMing these interviews to each other like insider secrets, and it only matters to a tiny group of people (which is exactly the point). Your customers get promoted to their entire peer network, you get credibility by association, and it probably increases retention because who cancels after you just made them look like a rockstar? [Ep. 245 - Brendan Hufford, Growth Sprints]

Help Customers Become Thought Leaders

Start with a customer advisory board of your loudest voices, not necessarily for product feedback, but to make them feel invested in what you're building. These are the people who are already talking about your space constantly (e.g. LinkedIn, Reddit, industry forums, conferences, etc.). Denny identified 20 Reddit power users who weren't neutral "it's fine" customers (they were actively reviewing every financial product out there, either ripping them apart or championing them). These weren't the biggest accounts, but they were the most influential in shaping narratives. Win over three or four of these people and they'll dominate comment threads, which become top Google search results, which seed journalist coverage. Once you've built that advisory board, find every opportunity to make them look great: fly them to conferences to speak on panels (your company is part of the conversation, not the main act), promote their personal brands, visibly incorporate their feedback. Beyond just partners, you're turning customers into industry thought leaders and their credibility becomes your credibility. [Ep. 255 - Denny Hollick, Puzzle]

Build Community as a Research Engine

Hummingbirds connects brands with local content creators (called "hummingbirds") who have buying power and influence in their communities. Emily created "The Charm" for their 15,000 creators. Not just a feel-good community space, but rather an ongoing dialogue and research machine. They're constantly asking questions: What do you want to see? Where do you have knowledge gaps? How can we support you to be a better creator? The community becomes a living focus group that informs product decisions, support content, and even who should or shouldn't join the platform. Customer research is embedded in who they are as a company, not an isolated quarterly or yearly activity. Community becomes your always-on research engine. Create a space where you can constantly ask: What do you struggle with? What do you want to learn? How can we support you better? The answers inform your product roadmap, content calendar, and even who should join your platform. [Ep. 223 - Emily Steele & Mari Tippman, Hummingbirds]

Film Customer Testimonials in One Weekend With Just an iPhone

When Gong had just 11 paying customers, their CEO went to a conference with a lapel mic, iPhone tripod, and light that Udi shipped to his hotel room. Armed with five questions and a diagram for setup, he filmed 12 customer testimonial videos in one weekend. Within a week, those videos were edited with intro/outro and live on Gong's website, creating social proof at the exact moment they needed it most. You don't need fancy equipment or a community platform when you're early. You need happy customers and a willingness to get scrappy. [Ep. 229 - Udi Ledergor, Gong]

Mine Customer Calls for Ad Copy Gold

Why keep making up your marketing copy when you can steal it straight from your customers' mouths? Hoop records customer conversations and pulls direct quotes that become their best-performing ad copy and website messaging. You can always tell when copy sounds like something a real person actually said versus marketing fluff. Stella's secret? The words customers use to describe their problems and your solution are almost always better than anything you'll dream up in a brainstorm. Record customer calls (with permission) and create a shared doc where your team drops exact phrases customers use to describe their problems and your solution. Review it for patterns. The words they use (especially emotional language like "finally" or "nightmare") become your ad copy, landing page headlines, and email subject lines. [Ep. 217 - Stella Garber, Hoop]

Create Playbook Case Studies That Teach

Instead of traditional case studies, Vector turns some customer stories into “playbooks” that break down the exact recipe a successful customer uses to build ad audiences. These assets show step-by-step how a real customer structures their campaigns using Vector, so prospects can copy the strategy. It’s customer proof + practical how-to content in one package, and Jess says these playbook-style case studies are some of their best-performing content. Next time you write a case study, don't just explain what the customer achieved, show the exact playbook they used to get there. You're giving away the recipe, which makes the case study educational content, not just social proof. [Ep. 262 - Jess Cook, Vector]

Gamify Customer Advocacy More Naturally

Nectar uses their own rewards and recognition platform to incentivize customer participation, giving customers points when they join sales calls, provide references, or participate in content creation. It's not a separate loyalty program, it's baked into the product they're already using daily. This makes the ask feel natural (you're already earning points for recognizing co-workers, now earn them for helping us grow) and it closes the loop between what the product enables for employees and what it enables for customer advocacy. For companies outside HR tech, the principle still applies: find ways to gamify engagement that feel native to your product experience, and not like a separate "do us a favor" program. [Ep. 256 - Holly Higgins, Nectar]

Co-Branded Launches That Look Like the Customer’s Campaign

For big announcements like Foxwoods, MoEngage doesn’t lead with its own logo or visuals, it uses the customer’s brand system. The asset looks and feels like a Foxwoods campaign: Foxwoods’ imagery, Foxwoods’ design, Foxwoods’ story about elevating the guest experience. MoEngage is present but secondary, which makes it feel like a genuine brand moment for the customer rather than a press release for the vendor. That framing also makes customers far more willing to participate and share. [Ep. 263 - Aditya Vempaty, MoEngage]

Avoid Echo Chambers

Nooks runs customer advisory boards, but they're actually strategic about who's in the room. They don't just invite one type of user, they bring together ICs (individual contributors like SDRs), managers who need reporting and coaching tools, and companies of different sizes. This prevents them from building in an echo chamber. Peter mentioned how some tools that started IC-focused would have missed the importance of manager-level reporting if they'd only listened to one group. By hearing opinions from multiple perspectives, they identify opportunities they wouldn't have seen otherwise, like realizing managers needed coaching and training features just as much as SDRs needed better dialing tools. The key insight: listen equally to everyone, then make strategic decisions offline about where to prioritize. [Ep. 222 - Peter Mollins, Nooks]

"Whole Person" Research Beyond Jobs To Be Done (JTBD)

Most founders laser-focus customer interviews on the specific problem their product solves, but Ivan and I talked about how stepping back reveals unique insights you'd otherwise miss. Instead of drilling into "how do you do QA testing today?", ask about their entire work context: What does their day look like? What goals do they have beyond your product category? What's happening in their world that creates the need for a solution? Ivan admits he sometimes gets lost in the weeds trying to extract pain points, but the best interviewers take time to understand the whole person: their personal context, daily frustrations, broader work challenges. It's like going to a party: you don't corner someone and interrogate them about one specific topic. You mingle, listen, and let the conversation breathe. Fascinating quotes, differentiated insights, and creative marketing efforts come from treating customers as whole humans (they really are!), not just users of your product. In your next customer interview, spend the first 15 minutes NOT talking about your product. Ask about their entire day, their goals, what's creating pressure in their world right now. Deeply understand the context that makes your product necessary. The best insights come from understanding humans, not just product users. [Ep. 224 - Ivan Barajas Vargas, Muuktest]

"Surprise and Delight" Fridays

Every Friday, Tofu's entire customer-facing team plus engineering meets to review customer requests and bugs from the week. They specifically look for small things (doable in a couple days by 1-2 engineers) that will unblock or delight customers and that will also benefit other customers. Then they ship it the following week. This creates a rapid feedback loop that can turn unhappy-but-using customers into raving fans. One of Elaine's co-founders nailed it: "The best customers are the ones who are unhappy but using" because they're giving feedback that makes the product better. You can also take Surprise and Delight Fridays a step further by going beyond customer requests and bugs and thinking “how can we uniquely delight this customer based on what we know about them?” [Ep. 226 - Elaine Zelby, Tofu]

Sales-Led Webinars That Activate Free Users

Free users are still product users, even though they're not customers (yet). When Navattic noticed their freemium users preferred to explore independently and weren't ready to talk to sales, their sales team organized webinars to take a more consultative approach. Instead of pushing for a sale, they help free users get activated and learn the product through educational sessions. It's a low-pressure way to build relationships with self-serve users while still providing the guidance they need to see value. [Ep. 218 - Natalie Marcotullio & Raman Khanna, Navattic]

Put Customers on Stage Instead of Your Pitch

At industry conferences like Gartner or Forrester, Gong gives their speaking slots to customers, often without even joining them on stage. Why? Because audiences don't want vendor pitches. They want to hear from respected peers in similar industries, geos, and company sizes. When customers tell their success stories with Gong woven in naturally, prospects see themselves in those stories and think "I want to be part of that too." Udi would attend conferences Gong didn't even sponsor and hear customers mention Gong on panels unprompted. That's when he knew it was working. The magic happens when customers become your evangelists without being asked. When you get invited to speak at a conference, give your slot to a customer instead. Help them craft a story where your product is woven in naturally, not pitched. [Ep. 229 - Udi Ledergor, Gong]

Turn Customer Marketing into your Strategic Advantage

Customer marketing becomes a strategic advantage when it stops being “extra” and starts being how you grow. That means designing programs that start with giving (career visibility, community, access, education) and naturally lead to advocacy, expansion, and richer product feedback. Then you translate all of that into the language leadership cares about: reduced time-to-close, higher win rates with references, improved NRR, and faster expansion from champion accounts. When customer marketing is tightly wired into product, sales, and field marketing, and you can show, with numbers, how customer stories and advocates move pipeline, you’re no longer a “nice-to-have”; you’re the engine that makes the whole GTM motion sharper, faster, and more trusted. [Ep. 266 - Melanie Paddock, Gainsight]

Reserve 50% of your Product Roadmap for Customers

Euler creates a dedicated Slack channel with every single customer during implementation and keeps it open ongoing. But instead of just for support, they reserve 50% of their entire product roadmap for customer (and prospect) requests that come through Slack. Greg filters requests to ensure they'll benefit other customers too, but this approach makes customers feel deeply heard and invested in the product's direction. It's also a competitive advantage: customers become co-creators who see their feedback turn into features quickly. This responsiveness drives retention and word-of-mouth because customers feel ownership over the product. Greg credits this customer-driven approach as a key reason Euler beats incumbents who've been around for decades, despite being only two years old. [Ep. 239 - Greg Portnoy, Euler]

Find Your Brand in the Three P's

Your real brand lives in what customers say when they're pissed, proud, or paying, not in your brand guidelines. Brendan's play: create forcing functions to capture these moments. Pipe customer calls into Slack. Set up channels for support tickets. When someone's about to sign, ask "is this the most perfect scope you've ever seen or what?" and then be quiet and listen to what they say. Marketing gets siloed from sales, support, and success, but these teams are swimming in brand gold. Stop waiting for quarterly meetings where nobody remembers anything. Get live feeds of customer conversations and listen for patterns that reveal what people actually think about you. [Ep. 245 - Brendan Hufford, Growth Sprints]

Stop Begging for Advocates

Most companies have to ask (beg?) customers to advocate for them. Freshworks flipped the script: their customers need to apply and prove they deserve it. Freshworks runs a selective Champions Program for 30-50 top customers who must apply and demonstrate their expertise. They sign a formal charter agreeing to specific activities (e.g. speaking at events, providing feedback, being brand ambassadors) in exchange for exclusive access and perks. This creates voluntary evangelists who become spokespeople, not because they're paid, but because they get value from the relationship (networking, career visibility, early access to product). When you make something selective and require commitment upfront, you create perceived value. Customers don't feel like they're doing you a favor, they feel like they've been chosen for something special. [Ep. 267 - Kevin Lau, Freshworks]