As peers, Anna and Zach took time once a month to go out to lunch to share ideas and for professional support. This past year, these lunches took them on a wild ride. Here’s a look back on the conversations that turned them both into marketing superstars!

1. Demand Gen and
Customer Marketing
just did something amazing

2. Here’s a little story about...
and
Zachary (Zach)
An ambitious Director of
Digital Marketing
Anna
A restless Director of
Customer Marketing

3. As peers, they took time once a month to go
out to lunch to share ideas and for
professional support. This past year, these
lunches took them on a wild ride. Here’s a
look back on the conversations that turned
them both into marketing superstars!

4. January
New Year’s Day is born.
Sound the horns.
Unfortunately, your budget is
looking a little forlorn.

5. “Did you get your
budget turned in?”
“Yeah, but it isn’t
looking so good.”
“We just aren’t getting
the lead quality we
used to from digital
demand gen and for
the first time in 3 years
I was told to keep my
budget flat.”

6. “I know.”
“Well if it makes you
feel any better I was
told the same thing.
I just feel like there is
so much more that I
could be doing to keep
our customer’s happy.”

7. February
Cupid’s arrows fly.
They miss his mark and
hit you in the eye.
Maybe there’s a different
approach he could try.

8. “Are things getting any
better with your digital
campaigns?”
“No. It doesn’t matter
what we do, our CPL is
going up while lead
quality is going down.
How about you?”

9. “Same old thing here.
I feel like I’ve turned into
a librarian for customer
references and events.
I just don’t feel like I’m
doing anything strategic
at all.”
“Things will look up
once we get through
the winter and
everyone gets out of
their foul moods.”

10. March
The Madness of March sets in.
Your team doesn’t win.
It may be time for them to put
more work in.

11. “Hmmm. Well,
have you looked at
new tech recently
“All right, we’ve got to
get ourselves out of this
funk! What can we do to
improve our situation?”
to see if there is something
new that could generate
high quality leads?”

12. “Huh. I guess I
haven’t really
looked in a while.”
“I’ll do some
research!”

13. “Yeah, I guess I haven’t
really talked to them about
anything other than
references. I can definitely
set up some meetings and
see where they lead!”
“But what about you?”
“If you want to be more strategic
maybe you should try to talk to all the
players that touch the customer after
purchase like sales and support?”

14. April
April Fools.
Don’t let yourself get overruled.
Instead discover new tools.

15. “They went great – almost too
great. Sales wants cross sell
and up sell. Support wants
“How did your meetings go?
Did you get any ideas?”
Client Success said we
should be doing more for
customers that give us a
high NPS. The ideas are
great, but overwhelming.”
user community
improvements.

16. “Wow. It sounds like
you could get
involved in some
really cool things.”
“Yeah, but with a flat budget
and a small team, I’m just not
sure what I can do. Maybe I just
need to work on a strategic plan
and pitch it for next year.”

17. May
April Showers,
Bring May Flowers,
Which means it’s the time to
get empowered.

18. “Hey! How did your
research go on new
demand gen technology?”
“Actually, I think I
found the answer to
both of our problems
- referral marketing!”
“Yeah. Umm. I don’t
know about that.”

19. “Referral marketing has come a long
way recently. Now they have platforms
that can automate the programs at
scale. Our advocates can reach out to
their networks via email, social media or
even offline. And it is all 100% trackable
so that we can attribute the closed deal
to the advocate who made the referral.”
“All the high-growth, disruptive
companies are doing referral
marketing. I can’t believe I never
considered it.”

20. “Well, I’m up for looking
into it. If it would help to
keep our customers
engaged and get me
involved in influencing
cross-sell without
increasing my team, then
I’m game!”
“Awesome!
I’ll set up a demo!”

21. June
The sun shines bright.
You’re finally back in the light.
Maybe now you can share
your insight.

22. “I know, right?! You
get happy customers
who feel engaged and
recognized for the
relationship and . . .”
“That referral automation
demo was awesome! It just
makes sense!”

23. “. . . and, you get a steady
stream of high quality
leads! I can’t even tell you
how cool it is that we can
use referral marketing for
cross sell too!”
“Let’s put a
proposal
together.”

24. July
Red, white, and blue.
Your troops support you anew.
Your position has greatly
improved.

25. “I can’t wait to get
started!”
“Everyone was so excited
about our proposal for
referral marketing.”
“I know! When sales chimed
in and said that the referral
automation platform would
get the sales team to follow
up on our leads I knew we
had it locked!”

26. August
As summer develops a chill,
Your sales funnel soon will fill.
Let yourself soak up the thrill.

27. “It’s amazing how
supportive everyone is of
the referral program.”
“I know! Did you hear
that the Customer Success
team is incorporating an
invitation to the program
in their calls?”

28. “Sweet! You know what else
would be cool? What if when
new customers fill out the
satisfaction survey and we ask
them if they would recommend
us to a friend it triggers an invite
to become an advocate?!”
“Brilliant! I’ll make sure you
are in the next meeting with
Customer Success so we can
make that happen.”

29. September
Labor Day arrives.
It honors your work for which
you strive.
Your business starts to thrive.

30. “Are you nervous
about the launch?”
“Nah. Totally excited, actually!
The creative team came up with
an amazing campaign for the
referral program and my team
hasn’t been this happy in years.
We’re integrating
the program with
our website, user
community,
product and social
media. But the
best part is the
CRM integration.”

31. “How so?”
“Well, sales can see that the
leads came from referrals, but
they can also see who made the
referral and all their program info
so that they can call them up and
get great briefing on the lead
before making contact.”
“That’s awesome!”

32. October
Trick or Treat,
We accomplished a great feat,
Advocate’s referrals will soon
complete.

33. “That’s great, news! And initial
results are promising. We’re
getting a lot of customers
signed up for the program and
making referrals.”
“Great job on the launch! I checked
in with some of the customers I
have relationships with and they
love the program! They said they’re
extremely happy with us and would
love to refer us to their network,
they just never thought about doing
it because no one ever asked.”

34. “Nice!”
“Customer Marketing is
unleashing its power!”
“Awesome! Soon we’ll have the
program integrated in our user
events with on-site kiosks too.
And we’re already planning a
cross sell referral program to
launch next month.”

35. November
Turkeys may die,
But you continue to rise,
As your business is
increasingly optimized.

36. “That’s awesome! I am totally
loving the data I am getting
out of the program.
The most common
communication
channel our customers
use is LinkedIn?
I’m totally stepping up my
efforts for engagement there.”
“I’m on a total professional high right
now! We’re getting great leads and
they are converting to opportunities at
a much higher rate than expected.
We’ve even had a handful of leads
close already. This is a record for our
shortest sales cycle ever!”

37. “I guess when a
program works as well
as referrals, it is worth
putting in the effort!”
“That’s great. And get this, sales
wants to add leaderboards and
enablement emails to
encourage sales participation.
I’ve never had sales work so
hard on a marketing program.”

38. December
The holidays arrive.
And you’re brimming with ROI.
No need to be shy
you deserve this high.

39. “Have you started working
on your budget yet?”
“Yup. And I can already tell
it is going to go so much
better than last year.”
“I know. I’ve been told to plan
an increase in my team so we
can get more involved in the
customer journey.”

40. “I’ve never gotten such good
results from a demand
generation program. I am looking
to add an employee referral
program next and the Partner
Marketing team is asking about a
partner referral program.
My team is having so much fun!”
“Who would have thought
that Digital Marketing and
Customer Marketing could
do something so amazing!
We are an awesome team!”

41. Amplifinity’s referral amplification software turns
customer, employee and partner advocacy into
revenue. Our platform provides complete referral
tracking and management with 100% accuracy
so none are missed. Enterprises like ADP and
DirecTV trust Amplifinity to enable high-quality
acquisition while providing an engaging, fully-
branded experience for their advocates. !
AMPLIFINITY.COM