Torchora
Back to Home

Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Head of Customer Marketing

💰 $150,000 - $220,000

MarketingCustomer SuccessLeadershipStrategy

🎯 Role Definition

The Head of Customer Marketing is a strategic leadership role focused on nurturing and growing the relationship with our existing customer base. This individual is the architect of the post-sale customer journey, responsible for turning satisfied customers into vocal brand advocates. More than just retention, this role is about driving measurable business impact through customer loyalty, expansion revenue (upsell/cross-sell), and powerful success stories.

As the "CEO of the customer base," the Head of Customer Marketing works at the intersection of Marketing, Sales, and Customer Success. They champion the voice of the customer internally, leveraging insights to influence product roadmaps, go-to-market strategies, and overall company messaging. This position requires a unique blend of strategic vision, data-driven execution, creative storytelling, and empathetic leadership to build a world-class customer marketing engine.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Senior Customer Marketing Manager
  • Director of Demand Generation / Growth Marketing
  • Senior Product Marketing Manager

Advancement To:

  • Vice President (VP) of Marketing
  • Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)
  • Chief Customer Officer (CCO)

Lateral Moves:

  • Head of Product Marketing
  • Head of Corporate Marketing / Communications

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Develop, own, and execute a comprehensive, multi-channel customer marketing strategy designed to increase customer retention, loyalty, advocacy, and lifetime value.
  • Lead, mentor, and scale a high-performing customer marketing team, fostering a culture of collaboration, innovation, and accountability.
  • Own the customer lifecycle marketing communications strategy, creating automated and personalized journeys for onboarding, adoption, engagement, and renewal.
  • Establish and manage a robust customer advocacy and reference program, identifying, nurturing, and mobilizing customer champions for testimonials, case studies, and speaking opportunities.
  • Drive the creation of compelling customer success stories, case studies, video testimonials, and data-backed proof points to fuel sales enablement and demand generation efforts.
  • Partner closely with Product and Product Marketing teams to develop and execute communication plans for new features, product updates, and value realization to the existing customer base.
  • Design and implement targeted campaigns to drive expansion revenue, identifying and acting on cross-sell and upsell opportunities in close collaboration with Sales and Account Management.
  • Oversee the end-to-end strategy and execution of customer-facing events, including virtual and in-person user groups, customer advisory boards, annual conferences, and recognition awards.
  • Build and foster a vibrant customer community strategy, leveraging online platforms and events to encourage peer-to-peer connection, knowledge sharing, and organic advocacy.
  • Define, track, and report on key performance indicators (KPIs) for customer marketing, including Net Revenue Retention (NRR), Customer Lifetime Value (CLV), churn rates, and advocacy engagement.
  • Serve as the primary "voice of the customer" within the organization, synthesizing feedback and insights to inform product strategy, go-to-market messaging, and corporate priorities.
  • Develop sophisticated customer segmentation strategies based on product usage, firmographics, health scores, and other behavioral data to deliver highly relevant and personalized experiences.
  • Master and manage the customer marketing technology stack, including marketing automation, CRM, and advocacy platforms to optimize campaign performance and reporting.
  • Collaborate with the Demand Generation team to integrate customer stories and voice-of-customer insights into top-of-funnel campaigns to improve conversion and credibility.
  • Build strong, collaborative relationships with executive and cross-functional leaders across Sales, Customer Success, Product, and Finance to ensure alignment on customer-centric goals.
  • Manage the customer marketing budget, ensuring strategic allocation of resources to initiatives that deliver the highest return on investment.
  • Develop and maintain an internal repository of customer evidence and advocacy assets, ensuring it is easily accessible and utilized by sales and marketing teams.
  • Conduct regular analysis of campaign performance and customer data to uncover trends, insights, and opportunities for continuous optimization and program improvement.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis related to customer engagement, sentiment, and retention metrics.
  • Contribute to the organization's overall marketing strategy and annual planning process with a customer-centric perspective.
  • Collaborate with business units to translate customer insights and needs into actionable marketing, sales, and product requirements.
  • Participate in leadership meetings, sprint planning, and agile ceremonies, representing the customer marketing function and its strategic initiatives.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Marketing Automation Platforms: Deep expertise in systems like HubSpot, Marketo, or Pardot for building complex nurture streams and lifecycle campaigns.
  • CRM Proficiency: Advanced knowledge of Salesforce (or similar CRM) for reporting, segmentation, and campaign tracking.
  • Data Analysis & Reporting: Ability to analyze campaign and customer data, build dashboards, and derive actionable insights to measure ROI and KPIs like NRR and LTV.
  • Customer Advocacy Platforms: Experience with tools like Influitive, ReferenceEdge, or similar platforms to manage and scale advocacy programs.
  • Project Management: Proven ability to manage complex, cross-functional projects from inception to completion, on time and within budget.
  • Content & Video Production: Familiarity with the process of creating high-quality written case studies and video testimonials.

Soft Skills

  • Strategic & Visionary Thinking: Ability to see the big picture, define a long-term strategy, and translate it into an actionable plan.
  • Inspirational Leadership: Proven experience in leading, mentoring, and growing a team of marketing professionals.
  • Exceptional Storytelling: A natural ability to craft compelling narratives from customer data and experiences that resonate with various audiences.
  • Cross-Functional Collaboration: A master of building alliances and working effectively across departments, particularly with Sales and Customer Success.
  • Deep Customer Empathy: An innate curiosity and passion for understanding customer challenges, needs, and motivations.
  • Influence & Stakeholder Management: The ability to influence decisions and gain buy-in from peers and senior leadership without direct authority.
  • Results-Oriented & Data-Driven: A strong bias for action, grounded in measurable results and a continuous drive for optimization.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor’s Degree

Preferred Education:

  • Master of Business Administration (MBA) or a Master's degree in a related field.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Marketing
  • Business Administration
  • Communications

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

  • 8-12+ years of progressive experience in a marketing function, with at least 4-5 years in a leadership role specifically focused on customer marketing, lifecycle marketing, or a closely related field.

Preferred:

  • Direct experience in a B2B SaaS or technology environment is highly preferred.
  • A proven track record of building and scaling a customer marketing function from the ground up.
  • Demonstrable success in driving measurable business outcomes, such as increased net revenue retention, reduced churn, and a thriving customer advocacy program.
Explore More Careers