As an active member of the CMA weekly community, I recently had the opportunity to beta test Kevin Lau's new comprehensive customer marketing and advocacy course. Coming from a background in community management, I was excited to dive into this course, because he often discusses communities as an arm of advocacy.
After rushing through the 4-hour course content at 1.5x speed, I came away with some key takeaways. First, the depth of strategic frameworks and practical templates Kevin provides is incredibly valuable. From customer advocacy program models to reference program workflows, the course covers a wide range of customer marketing initiatives in detail.
However, the sheer amount of content also means it's not a course you can just breeze through and be done.
"This isn't a course that you take for four hours and you walk away, you're gonna keep going back and referencing this for a while as you're building out all of these functions in your company."
The course gives you the building blocks, but implementing them will take time and continued reference.
In comparing Kevin's course to Lesley Bennett's customer advocacy metrics course, here's how they are complementary:
"Lesley's is very hyper-focused on a very particular thing, which is how do you bake something in Salesforce, to report on the ROI of your advocacy efforts? That's it, it does not extend beyond that.
It's a 45-minute course, it's not what this is. This is the complete umbrella of everything that you need with templates and everything else."
So for customer marketers looking to level up their strategic thinking and toolbox, Kevin's course provides a comprehensive foundation. But Lesley's course drills deeper into the critical area of measurement and proving impact - something every customer marketer needs to master.
Overall, there is immense value in these courses for customer marketing and advocacy practitioners, whether you're new to the field or a seasoned veteran. With the wealth of practical knowledge and templates, they are essential resources to have in your toolkit.
