It’s that time of year. Vendors and analysts are publishing their predictions for 2025. I recently came across 3 and here is my take on their predictions which impact customer marketers.

For Captivate Collective's first podcast of 2025, we discussed all things Customer Advocacy Database. With the rise of CM platforms, customer marketers are now in charge of the advocate database.

In this presentation, we will explore the crucial steps needed to support our champions in reaching the boardroom, thereby fostering lasting customer relationships. We'll delve into strategies for aligning customer success with their career advancement, emphasizing the opportunity to cultivate lifelong clients. Drawing from these insights, we'll transition to examining how to replicate this success for ourselves, securing our own "seat at the table." Through practical guidance, we'll outline effective approaches for positioning ourselves for career advancement during discussions with our managers. Join us as we navigate the path to elevating champions and achieving personal success in the professional arena.

Customer stories are a vital part of any customer marketer’s job. But many marketers are eager to move beyond the traditional challenge/solution/result format. Use case stories have just surpassed challenge/solution/results stories in terms of popularity, with other story types, like best practice, adoption, switcher and implementation stories, hot on their heels. But do we really even know what differentiates these story types? Do your interview questions reflect the story type you’re creating? How do you know which story type and format is right for your company, customers and buyers? Together, we’ll explore a variety of customer story types and formats—and discuss how to make the most of these assets. We’ll share our answers to the questions above and cover how to ideate and implement a strong, creative customer marketing content strategy to maximize your content. In this workshop, you’ll: 1.Review examples of different customer story types and formats, delve into the differences between them, understand their applications, and discover how to make your stories stand out. 2.Learn how to think holistically and strategically about customer content, taking your customer interviews beyond a single asset to maximize your customer’s time and your content production. 3.Get into the nitty gritty of your customer interviews. Understand how to pitch the activity, which questions to ask, and which assets to create.