The secret to creating customer stories people actually like featuring Andrei Faji

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Episode Summary

Customer happiness is key to the success of every business. And many SaaS companies pride themselves on putting the customer first and prioritizing customer experience over other aspects of the business.

But how many of them actually hear what their customers are saying? The time has come to put the spotlight on customer stories.

In this episode of the Content Logistics podcast, our host Camille Trent welcomes Andrei Faji, the Director of Engagement Marketing at PandaDoc. They get into the incredible value of customer stories, the difference between customer stories and case studies, and how to create content that serves and inspires customers.

Guest Profile

andrei-faji-bio-pic

Key Insights

Episode Highlights

Case Studies Vs. Customer Stories

“In its most simplistic form, a case study is self-serving, proving the value of our product and the ROI it generates for our customer. A customer story is actually not a self-centric conversation. It goes beyond using the product to what are the jobs to be done by this customer and how are they improving within their role and their organization and their business. […] At the end of the day, case studies are like sponsored ads. They’re just like, ‘I know the brand is paying money to have this person talk about how great this product is.’ And a customer story can’t be that. It actually has to be a day in the life of Camille. And what does Camille wake up every morning thinking about when it comes to her work? What are her personal and professional aspirations? Because at the end of the day, we connect with stories.”

What is the Search Motivation Framework and How Do You Develop Content Around it?

“The search motivation framework is really about designing content for inspiration, education, or execution. What are the reasons that people go online and search? I may need to get inspired by something. I’m either looking to learn something, or I have a job to be done, so I’m very specific and tactical with what I’m searching for. And at the beginning of last year, when we did an audit of all of the great content that the team produced, we used the search motivation framework — ‘How much inspirational content do we really have? How much education, how much tactical execution content do we have?’ And we realized that we over-indexed on tactical execution and a lot of education, but not a lot of inspiration.”

Let Your Customers Take the Lead

“If you’re the one doing the interview, you have to follow their lead. It’s like when two people are dancing, there’s usually somebody who is the lead in that pair. So you have to actually be on the passenger side of it like, ‘I’m going where you’re going with this.’ And I might be able to steer certain things when you say something interesting, but I’m going to let you take this where you want to go because you know your career and you know your story way better than I.”