GABRIELA CONTRERAS
CUSTOMER MARKETING
Driving Revenue Through Advocacy Programs
Challenge
As a hyper-growth startup focused on growing revenue and scaling, Observe.AI needed to increase overall win rates and arm the sales team with social proof with its biggest asset: the customers base.
Approach
My customer advocacy strategy targeted these goals in three core ways:
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Building a pipeline of advocates for social proof
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Shaping an efficient reference-selling motion
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Driving credibility with buyers through G2
After getting buy-in from executive stakeholders in CS and Sales, I focused on building a pipeline of customers for activities spanning the three impact areas outlined above. I segmented our customer base and aligned customer proof points to existing campaigns.
Then, I created an initiative geared towards obtaining stories, identifying reference candidates, and uncovering new advocates all in one. I launched an initiative called the success story contest in which customers were invited to submit their stories for a chance to win a $500 flight credit and a free pass to an industry trade show. The best stories submitted were included in a customer spotlight campaign and the winner was featured on a testimonial video, shown below.
Results
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Built a $2.5M ARR base of customer advocates, which represents approximately 30% of our total customer base
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Built an efficient reference-selling motion that influenced $1.5M of closed-won business in 2021. For context, our average deal size was $121K, and that year saw a 2x growth in ARR from the previous year.
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Grew our third party review presence on G2 Crowd, growing our presence by over 100% with a 4.7 out of 5 overall rating leading two categories and ranking #1 in Enterprise Support
PRODUCT MARKETING
Re-Positioning Our Product to Close More Deals
Challenge
With the evolution of its product, Observe.AI needed to re-define messaging and positioning of its product suite to better target our ideal customer profile in a rapidly evolving market.
Approach
First, we conducted research to understand where the market was headed and how our product suite fit into the CX automation ecosystem. Then, I ran point on interviewing our top users and buyers to understand our true product value in the eyes of our customers, extrapolating trends and insights to validate our value propositions, marketecture, and messaging and positioning framework. The research also informed our first launch of the product's core use cases, which I drafted, edited, and validated with learnings from 50+ customer interviews conducted over a span of 6 months.
Deliverables:
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Website re-launch
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Brand refresh
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Messaging and positioning document
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Core use cases
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Employee-generated social media strategy
Next, we created the following rollout plan to educate the entire company on our new positioning:
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FAQ document
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Sales enablement sessions
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Company-wide marketing all-hands takeover
Results
With a comprehensive rollout plan and a more responsive and accessible website, we drove adoption by GTM teams on our new naming conventions and increased website traffic by 18% in one month.
CAMPAIGN EXECUTION
Executing a High Visibility Raise Announcement
Challenge
With its Series C raise, Observe.AI needed to differentiate its announcement to showcase innovation momentum culminated in investor bullishness on company valuation, future trajectory, category growth/leadership, and market potential/leadership position.
Approach
As campaign lead, I focused on brand awareness and pipeline acceleration, leveraging the network of our net-new board member, investors, and advertisement to amplify reach of the announcement.
In additional to traditional PR and media tactics, I led a creative approach to showcasing our Series C announcement in the following ways:
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Ran a NASDAQ advertisement in New York City to drive brand awareness
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Led investor relations with Softbank and Zoom and secured leadership amplification from CPO Oded Gal to share the news, packaging soundbites into micro-audio clips and graphics for social
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Produced a unique announcement video concept in which team members were surprised on camera with our news of the raise before the company-wide announcement to capture candid reactions
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Hosted company-wide gala to celebrate the raise and align company on company trajectory and investment priorities with new round, hosting our new board member for a fireside chat
Results
Observe.AI landed an exclusive from TechCrunch as well as mentions by VentureBeat, the Wall Street Journal, and other prominent India publications such as The Economic Times. The Series C campaign resulted in 3x increase in website traffic, 30% growth in social media followers, and intangible outcomes such as improvements in company morale and cross-functional collaboration with the first in-person event after nearly three years of remote work.
