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
- Name: Andrei Faji
- What he does: He's the Director of Engagement Marketing at PandaDoc.
- Company: PandaDoc
- Noteworthy: Andrei has dedicated over 12 years to the practice of using stories to connect ideas and products with people.
Key Insights
- What are customer stories? Unlike case studies, where the focus is primarily on the product and its benefits, customer stories focus more on customers. By allowing your customers to share their thoughts, you create more engagement and connection, which are key to customer success. Andrei explains, "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. [...] 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."
- Putting the spotlight on the customer is a marketing game-changer. According to Andrei, the biggest mistake that most SaaS companies make when doing customer stories is that they actually don't do them at all. They focus so much on highlighting the benefits of their product that they neglect the key aspect of their business — their customers. Andrei talks about the sole goal of customer stories. "It should be a practice as a marketer. And from that practice, you can absolutely develop assets. However, the pursuit should be, 'I really want to understand you on a genuine human level. Because I know that if I can connect emotionally, the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ is the easy part; it's the ‘why’ part [of what you do] that’s hard to win.' [...] It's about putting the spotlight on the customer and really treating them as the hero versus your solution, your product, your offering, or your own ROI that you're just going to use to sell more."
- Does your content serve and inspire your customers? If your content doesn't inspire your customers, it might be time to rethink your strategy. That's how Andrei and his team at PandaDoc came up with the idea of customer stories, and it was a huge game-changer for their business. "We almost always start with inspiration. 'What has been done before? Who's doing awesome things? How can I learn from that?' And then try to apply it to our specific areas of focus. And that was, I think, one of the catalysts — probably the main one — that presented us with this insight that we need more inspirational content and there's nobody better to inspire the market than our customers because they've got some incredible stories. We just have to know how to ask to get those stories."
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.”