The Customer Success Manager, or CSM, is a potent position that’s come to prominence over the past few years in B2B marketing. This emergent role is in direct response to the inherent challenges of the SaaS subscription business model — chiefly customer retention and optimization (e.g., upselling and cross selling). When the growth of your business relies on expanding and optimizing your subscriber base it’s critical to have someone whose number one priority is managing those all-important relationships. As Matter client Influitive points out, it costs 6X more to attract a new customer than it does to keep an existing one. Yet, many companies still focus more on landing new clients than cultivating existing ones.
Traditional wisdom is finally catching up to the reality that your greatest marketing ally is an army of passionate customer advocates. In 2017, The majority of B2B business leaders agreed that customer marketing and engagement was their #1 priority, with customer references/testimonials well-acknowledged as the most popular, effective strategy.
Our Creative Team has long recognized that prospects trust peers more than marketers. That’s why, for the better part of a decade, we’ve touted Customer Success Stories (aka video testimonials) as one of the best tools in the modern marketer’s toolkit. Nearly every client who has created their first Customer Success Story video with us remarks how the they precipitated better-than-anticipated ROI and strengthened their relationship with those customers, leading to word-of-mouth referrals and genuinely helpful product feedback. Moreover, your customers not only receive a free content marketing piece, but they see that you respect and value their business in selecting them as a surrogate for your own brand story. Don’t take our word for it; watch the short testimonial below to hear from Bigtincan’s Director of Marketing about how well our four Customer Success Story videos have performed from a variety of angles:
“Before Matter, we really didn’t have much of a video presence. Matter has really helped us drive brand awareness and creating relationships with new clients as well has helping move forward relationships with existing clients. We’ve actually had clients reach out and say, ‘Hey, that was really great.’ It ended up being a great promotional piece for Bigtincan as well as our clients.”
–Stephanie Schalow, Director of Marketing, Bigtincan
The conclusion is clear in our book — as a CSM, a suite of compelling Customer Success Story videos is a critical component in developing your brand ambassadors and generating revenue. However, we understand these can’t be your only pet project; you have a laundry list of other ideas and initiatives. That’s precisely why we make it easy to get effective, beautiful testimonials at a price point that makes sense. We aim to be, in the words of Bigtincan, “an extension of your own marketing team.” Everything we do stems from wanting to help drive measurable business impact for your company.
We also know there are other agencies who are, at first blush at least, capable of creating comparable videos at a similar price point. But what really separates Matter is our refined process. We’ve honed our strategy and execution considerably over the course of 8+ years and 500+ Customer Success Stories, all with an eye for making it more frictionless each time for not just our client, but our client’s client. Here’s a small sampling of the unique services we include in every Customer Success Story to ensure a seamless process:
Pre Production
- Independently create the “script,” interview questions, and shot list (for your approval)
- Share timely assets, like our own “How to Ensure a Smooth Shoot,” which demonstrate what the process is like and alleviate concerns
- Plan and arrange logistics, as well as book all travel (unless directed otherwise)
Production
- A light crew with a small footprint of video gear means minimal disruption to your customer’s workplace
- Optimized use of time on-site; we’re in and out in about a ½-day
- We keep our interviews conversational and friendly, so your client is always comfortable
Post Production
- Provide interview transcripts so you always know the best sound bites were included. This is also a tremendous tool for you to have in your quiver
- We only share V1s we feel could “go live” as we deliver it. That means you only have to review polished pieces, eliminating inefficiencies during feedback
- Deliver custom, optimized thumbnails to help drive clicks (a random screenshot from the video usually doesn’t cut it)
- Deliver “cut-down” 30-second and 15-second versions of the premier video to leverage across your social channels
If you’re a CSM looking to drive serious business impact in your role, it would be our pleasure to work with you on creating Customer Success Story videos. You can be heavily involved or hands off; either way, you can rely on world-class videos that speak to the heart of your prospect’s concerns, impress and flatter your star client and clearly demonstrate your value to your C-suite. When done right, Customer Success Story videos are a signature accomplishment for every B2B marketing team. Let’s spearhead some together today.
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