15+ years building online communities and Customer Advisory Boards
Get to know me!
Growth, Customer Loyalty, Retention and Time To Value
About me
Chris is an experienced Digital Community Strategist known for his versatility in owning community vision, strategy, and execution. He has created and built customer advisory boards, leading discussions with senior executives within and outside the company. With a proven track record in developing and executing community engagement programs, Chris creates compelling content for customer communities and is a strong advocate for the customer. He believes that data should be the driving force behind any successful, long-term strategy. He built Reltio, Imperva and Rexel’s Technical Customer Communities from scratch and increases customer engagement and participation in the executive board while recruiting new participants as needed.
Chris's expertise includes delivering, evolving, and growing the Customer Advisory Board (CAB) and Executive Engagement Program within Reltio, Forrester Research, Rexel and Imperva, supporting Enterprise Sales teams and go-to-market strategies by furthering C-Suite relationships with the company's most important customers.
Building CAB's and Communities for Loyalty and Growth
The Benefits and Best Practices of Customer Advisory Boards
CABs aid in obtaining insights, boosting customer loyalty, and enhancing customer connections. Key advantages of CABs include:
Boost loyalty
Involving customers in product and service development shows appreciation for their opinions and caters to their needs, increasing loyalty and reducing churn.
Gain customer insight
CAB members offer valuable feedback on customer needs, preferences, and challenges, helping companies tailor offerings and identify new opportunities. They also provide input on prototypes and beta products, enabling pre-launch adjustments.
Improve product development
CABs support better product development by sharing insights on what succeeds or fails. Members' feedback on prototypes and beta products allows for pre-launch refinements, reducing costs and enhancing adoption.
Elevate satisfaction
Involving customers in decision-making leads to products and services that better address their needs, resulting in higher satisfaction and positive recommendations. CAB members help identify areas for customer service improvement.
Fortify relationships
CABs enable open dialogue between companies and customers, fostering stronger relationships. This increases trust and likelihood of future sales.
Measuring What Matters: How to Demonstrate Your Community’s Impact
In a discussion with Hivebrite, we discuss the importance of measuring metrics for a successful community. I recommend focusing on simple metrics like registrations and page views to understand user behavior when you first start an online community. It is importance of tracking organic SEO for customers to easily find solutions to their problems.
As you get a bit more mature you could start including customer accounts, webinars, and pipeline influenced. They emphasize the importance of showcasing insights and accomplishments in a dashboard to help others understand their work.
Creating a custom dashboard and tailoring data to different audiences is important.
Customer Advisory Boards: A Win Win for Companies and customers
There are several reasons why a product company may choose to have a Customer Advisory Board (CAB):
- A CAB can provide valuable insights into the needs, preferences, and pain points of the customers, which can help the company to improve its products and services.
- CAB members can offer constructive feedback on the company's products, including features, pricing, and packaging, helping the company to develop more customer-focused products.
- A CAB can provide strategic guidance on the direction of the company's product development, helping the company to align its offerings with the changing needs of the market.
- A CAB can help the company to build stronger relationships with its customers, demonstrating that the company values their opinions and is committed to meeting their needs.
- By engaging with a CAB, a product company can gain a competitive advantage by developing products that better meet the needs of its customers, resulting in increased customer loyalty and retention.
Best Practices for Recruiting Customer Advisory Board Members
Companies can derive immense value from Customer Advisory Boards (CABs) as they provide a platform for gathering valuable feedback, insights, and ideas from customers. However, the success of a CAB hinges on the recruitment of suitable members. This blog post highlights some key best practices to consider when recruiting members for your CAB.
It is essential to define the criteria for selecting CAB members. This involves identifying specific qualities, such as demographics, job roles, industries, and characteristics, that would make a member valuable to your CAB. You should also consider your desired outcomes and the kind of insights necessary to achieve your goals.
One way to identify potential CAB members is by tapping into existing relationships, such as your customer base or partners. This approach can leverage the existing interest these individuals have in your company's success, as well as their established relationship with your brand. You can also consider reaching out to your social media followers, website visitors, or email list subscribers to gauge their interest in joining your CAB. Another option is to involve your internal stakeholders, such as Customer Success Managers, Account Executives, and executives, to suggest potential CAB members.
Leveraging Community Engagement for Pipeline Success
The Reltio Community employs a powerful engagement strategy through its Community shows program, which effectively connects with customers, partners, and prospects. By sharing valuable information and showcasing the company's products and services, the program drives adoption and satisfaction while positioning Reltio as a thought leader in the industry.
To measure the program's impact on revenue, Reltio integrates several tools, including Zoom for webinars, Higher Logic for community engagement, Salesforce for CRM, Marketo for marketing automation, and Tableau for data visualization and reporting. This integration allows Reltio to track and measure the program's effectiveness, including the number of leads generated from webinars, the conversion rate of leads to opportunities, and the resulting revenue.
Overall, the Community shows program is a valuable tool for Reltio to engage with its audience, provide relevant information, and influence the sales pipeline, while generating leads and increasing revenue. With a data-driven approach, Reltio can optimize the program for maximum impact.
The Power of SEO for Business Growth for Online Communities
In today's digital world, businesses need to embrace technology and digital marketing strategies to stay relevant and thrive. One of the most crucial elements of digital marketing is Search Engine Optimization (SEO). In this article, we explore how SEO can help businesses grow and succeed.
Why SEO is Critical for Business Success
SEO is the process of optimizing your website to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). It involves several techniques and strategies that help your website to appear at the top of search engine results when users search for specific keywords or phrases related to your business. Here are some reasons why SEO is essential for businesses:
- Increased Website Traffic: SEO helps businesses attract more visitors to their website by improving their visibility on search engine results pages. This, in turn, increases the chances of generating more leads and sales.
- Higher ROI: SEO is a cost-effective marketing strategy that offers a higher Return on Investment (ROI) than traditional marketing channels like TV, print, and radio.
- Builds Credibility and Trust: Ranking higher on search engine results pages establishes your business as an authoritative source in your industry, which builds credibility and trust with potential customers.
- Competitive Advantage: By implementing effective SEO strategies, businesses can gain a competitive advantage over their competitors in search engine results pages.
How SEO Benefits Organizations
Organizations should recognize the importance of SEO for business growth. Here are some benefits of SEO for organizations that build online communities:
- Attracts New Customers: By ranking higher in search engine results pages, Organizations can attract potential customers who are searching for information related to its products or services. These potential customers may have never heard of the organization before, but SEO can help them discover the company and its offerings.
- Builds Community: SEO can help organizations build a community of loyal customers who trust the company and its products. By consistently creating high-quality content optimized for search engines, organizations can establish itself as an authoritative source in the their specific industry.
- Increases Brand Awareness: By ranking higher in search engine results pages, organizations can increase its brand awareness and visibility. This can lead to more people knowing about the company and its offerings, which can result in more leads and sales.
SEO is a powerful marketing strategy that can help businesses of all sizes grow and succeed in today's digital world. By optimizing their website for search engines, businesses can attract more visitors to their website, generate more leads and sales, build credibility, and trust with potential customers, and gain a competitive advantage over their competitors. SEO can help businesses attract new customers, build a loyal community, and increase brand awareness. Therefore, businesses that want to stay relevant and succeed in today's digital age must embrace SEO as an essential element of their marketing strategy.