The New (New) Era of Customer Marketing

Something big is happening in B2B marketing, and it’s not just another refresh of advocacy programs.

Customer marketing is entering a new (new) era. Not just the era of testimonials, reference calls, and post-sale newsletters. That was the first wave. This one is more ambitious, more strategic, and more embedded in how companies grow. It’s no longer a nice-to-have. It’s the connective tissue of go-to-market success.

The Customer Marketing Summit in San Francisco brought this shift into sharp focus. Here’s what stood out.

1. We’re Done Playing Small

Customer marketing is no longer a downstream function. The best teams are influencing product roadmaps, enabling sales with real-time proof, driving adoption and retention, and powering expansion plays.

Advocacy is still part of the puzzle, but it’s not the whole picture. Sessions like “The Post-Sale Power Play” challenged attendees to stop treating customer marketing as an afterthought and start aligning it to real business outcomes like pipeline influence, win rate acceleration, and expansion revenue.

2. Automation and AI Are the Only Way to Scale

Scaling the old way isn’t working. Spreadsheets, one-off emails, and static PDF case studies slow everyone down and waste time.

In sessions like “From Hype to Habit,” customer marketers shared how they are leaning into AI and automation to identify advocates in real time, collect content without extra lift, match stories to deals automatically, and score sentiment to prevent burnout.

The goal isn’t to lose the human element. It’s to reduce the chaos and give marketers space to focus on what really matters—strategy, relationships, and impact.

3. Cross-Functional or Bust

This new (new) era of customer marketing is built on cross-functional collaboration. Sales needs high-trust proof. Product needs real-time feedback. CS needs engagement signals. Demand Gen needs credible content.

The most effective programs are embedded across teams and workflows. Customer marketing has become a critical operator across the GTM motion, supporting sales with proof, helping PMM validate messaging, and giving CS the insights they need to keep customers engaged and growing.

4. Dropbox’s Playbook: From Reactive to Strategic

One of the most energizing sessions came from Emily Gover at Dropbox, who shared how Dropbox evolved its customer marketing program from reactive and manual to strategic and scalable.

Dropbox had a strong base of customer advocates, but advocacy efforts were scattered. Customer data lived across Salesforce, Airtable, Slack, Influitive, and spreadsheets. Sales didn’t find the old system useful, and reference requests felt like a scramble.

Emily brought focus, vision, and structure to the program. She led Dropbox’s shift to a modern customer marketing model, with a guiding principle: deliver the right customer voice, at the right time, in the right moment.

She helped the team secure executive sponsorship, pilot new workflows, and align stakeholders across Sales, CS, Enablement, and Product. With Deeto’s flexibility and AI-powered tools, Dropbox created a system that could scale and deliver impact.

Here’s how Emily and her team did it:

• Ran milestone-triggered Deeto campaigns to invite new advocates
• Synced Deeto with Influitive to automate advocate invitations
• Embedded personalized Microsites in SDR and AE workflows
• Partnered with Sales Enablement to launch a nomination SPIFF
• Trained reps through Dropbox’s internal Customer Reference Council
• Launched with 100+ advocates, 125+ assets, and 12 Microsites—all ready on Day 1

Sales began to trust and use the program. Reference calls were streamlined. Customer stories became easier to deliver. And everything was measurable.

Dropbox used AI to solve common problems. Volume? They grew the pool without extra lift. Speed? They delivered proof in real time. Trust? They protected advocates with sentiment scoring and approval workflows.

Emily’s leadership showed what’s possible when customer marketing is given the tools, support, and strategic focus it deserves.

5. Proof is Just the Beginning

The summit reinforced that proof is only the beginning. Customer marketers are influencing far more than advocacy.

Retention wins are becoming core KPIs. Product teams are co-creating launch plans with customer marketers. Expansion plays are powered by persona-specific content. And executive dashboards are tracking lifecycle impact—not just activity volume.

The future is about outcomes, not outputs.

6. Thank You to Our Hostess

Special shoutout to Bridget Heaton, Head of Customer Marketing at WRITER, who hosted the day with humor, warmth, and absolute pro-level energy. And who inspired the title of this blog post! She kept the sessions flowing, the crowd engaged, and the vibe on point. She set the tone for an event that felt both thoughtful and fun.

7. Congrats to Our Winners

Big thanks to everyone who visited the Deeto booth and joined us at the Topgolf Swing Suite for happy hour. It was such a joy to connect in person.

And congratulations to our giveaway winners:

• Britany Dowell, Intuit
• Kristin Martinez, SAP
• Rachel Pruitt, Microsoft

We’ll be in touch to ship out your prizes.

Final Thought: This Is the Moment

The old era of customer marketing is behind us. What’s ahead is smarter, more strategic, and more essential to growth than ever before.

This new (new) era is powered by AI. It is full-funnel and cross-functional. It is advocate-first and revenue-aligned.

Customer marketers are no longer operating in the background. They’re leading the way.

And if Emily’s session taught us anything, it’s this: when you give customer marketers a seat at the table, they build systems that move the business forward.

Want to see how Dropbox did it with Deeto? Let’s talk!

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