Celebrating the TOP100 Influencers & Strategists
in Customer Marketing and Advocacy
Follow - and Learn From - The Customer Marketing and Advocacy Leaders for 2023
In keeping pace with the Customer Marketing practice, this year's TOP100 program is an evolution of the inaugural program held in 2022. This is not to say that the first-ever awards program was not a success; it was phenomenal and everyone was thrilled to both recognize and be recognized. But just like the practice and its people, we're constantly learning, and hopefully, improving. So, we've made a few updates and we've also been taking notes so we can continue to tweak for years to come.
In a still-evolving practice, our people are our best resource.
This year, we remained focused on recognizing everyone in our space. But, although we love and appreciate our A-listers, we took steps to avoid the program becoming an all-out popularity contest. Realizing there are so many great practitioners that we don't yet know, and may not ever get to know via social platforms or community conversations, we added another step to the nomination process. All nominees were asked to fill out a short questionnaire about the nominee's programs and metrics used to measure their impact. We knew this was risky, because being marketers means we know all about engagement, friction, and conversion optimizations, but we believed in our nominees and were delighted to see this pan out.
We not only received almost 500 nominations, but over half of our nominees took the time to fill out the Nominee form and tell the judges about their programs and their impact metrics. This information helped to inform the judges during their phase of the awards program.
Knowledge-sharing is Customer Marketing's Middle Name.
The team here have all been in B2B for an accumulated century or so, and we can all confirm: we have never been members of such a collaborative, supportive community. Knowledge-sharing in our community is largely free, open, and even brand-agnostic. That's why we decided the TOP100 program should be anchored in this concept. The 100 influential, strategic Customer Marketing practitioners that make the final list will be enrolled to help others grow from their own experiences. In line with the framework that best suits each of our TOP100 winners, whether it's teaching a course, presenting in a webinar, recording a podcast conversation, or sharing a useful template, they will be given a stage for their lessons learned.
And, although we're giving the TOP100 precedence, we want everyone to be involved. So, we're reiterating here, how much we believe in practitioner-led learning, and calling upon every one of you to reach out with a knowledge-sharing initiative when you are inspired. Let's keep this exceptional tradition alive!
2023 is a Great Year to Commit to Elevating Others
Although brands can sometimes get competitive, people can and should see past this. And, as we come to the end of another great practitioner-led program, we are inspired by the fact that we can all align around the most exciting thing about Customer Marketing: the vision of elevating others.
It's the reason we're here, and it's what keeps us going, so thank you ALL for everything you do! Here's to the world's greatest practitioner community!
Rona Aharonson
Head of CLG Programs
Base
Awards Methodology
For this year's TOP100 Influencers & Strategists in Customer Marketing & Advocacy (CMA) we opened nominations to everyone in the industry and encouraged practitioners on all levels to nominate themselves and their peers. We were thrilled to have almost 500 nominees flow in from every corner of the SaaS landscape!
Nominees
This year, we asked nominees to go the extra mile and give us a high-level overview of their program/s and the metrics they use to measure their impact. This information was collected and is privacy protected, while the voting polls were open to the public.
TOP100 Voting
Once we had our nominee list, we opened voting to everyone and anyone. Nominees were invited to promote their votes and we provided a wealth of graphics for social posts that they could use to grab attention. An industry-wide celebration of creativity and mutual support soon commenced and we were blown away by the responses! Some colleagues went so far as to make a great t-shirt and market it on their Customer Marketing swag store. We counted over 7700 votes!
TOP100 Judging
Once we had our votes in, we put a vetting process into motion to make sure all was objective and legit. We granted an extra baseline of points to the nominees that took the extra step of filling out the Nominee form for the judges. This is where the judge's hard work began, as we presented them with 185 finalists for their judging process! The top 185 were narrowed down by the judges based on their impact as delivered in their forms.
Your Top CMA
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