Quarterly customer marketing recommended reading [part 1]

Post by Nick Venturella

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While the concept of customer marketing is not new the dedicated discipline of it in a B2B setting is still relatively new.

As a result, if you're trying to learn and apply all the lessons you can grasp related to customer marketing you may be falling shorter than you'd like if you lack access to the few good mentors that exists in this discipline.

There is another way to gain mentorship from talented customer marketers, though...

Books can serve as a great alternative to connecting with mentors when you don't have direct access to such experienced professionals.

With that said, I'm introducing to you a quarterly customer marketing recommended reading list.

• Three books listed at a time (read one a month)
• The books are shared in a particular order to help you build upon the concepts of the previous book
• Read the books, take notes, highlight useful passages, apply what you've learned in your customer marketing work and analyze what is working and not for your organization - tweak and repeat.

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Dale Carnegie's classic, How to win friends and influence people, is a good place to start.

Today, winning in business, and especially customer marketing, is about being human-first in your approach.

​This book simply breaks down basics of building relationships with other people in a practical way that you can begin to apply.

It's important to understand these concepts as a foundational starting point to genuinely and authentically build relationships with others in a way that builds respect and trust...authenticity, genuine interest, sincere empathy, respect, and trust are requirements of building long-lasting relationships, personally or professionally.

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Bill Lee's The hidden wealth of customers, is more specifically about customer marketing.

It outlines the basis for what is really the modern approach to customer marketing, especially in B2B. 

The premise is simple, yet profound for so many companies - take care of your customers and they'll take care of you/your business.

Here's a bit of what's involved:

• nurture your existing customers,
  
• build mutually beneficial, long-lasting relationships with them, and
  
• those customers' lifetime value to your organization (renewals, up-sells/cross-sells) will increase, and
  
• they'll become a brand/product advocate for you to lend credibility to your message and help influence future sales.

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Donald Miller's Building a story brand, is something I recommend all marketers, regardless of specialized discipline, to read.

This book is about understanding the elements of a writing and depicting a clear message that resonates with your target audience in the way you want, which if done right and targeted to the right audience, will increase your ability to have that audience take the action you desire.

I can't stress the power of copy and messaging enough. So much of our daily lives (especially being connect online all the time) starts narratives and story arcs that drive particular outcomes.

Those marketers who are good at telling a story that moves the reader/viewer/listener across a specific story arc will be able to better connect with their audience in a human way that endears that audience to you/your brand and the results you want for your organization.

​Story can accomplish this by bringing the right message and value to the right audience, at the right time, in the right way that makes the relationship (between customer and company) mutually beneficial. 

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Tune in next time for another three recommended books!