What Role Should Marketing Play in Customer Success?
Marketing is the growth engine with Customer Success—not just before the sale. Unite acquisition signals, onboarding, adoption, and value realization into a governed lifecycle that increases retention, expansion, and advocacy.
Marketing should co-own customer outcomes with CS by designing and operating programs that drive time-to-value, product adoption, expansion, renewal, and advocacy. That means: mapping lifecycle plays across land → onboard → adopt → expand → renew → advocate; instrumenting leading indicators; enabling CS with content and plays; and governing the portfolio with a revenue council tied to gross/net retention and revenue expansion.
Where Marketing Adds the Most CS Value
The Marketing × Customer Success Operating Model
Use this sequence to operationalize value delivery and revenue growth after the sale.
Define → Instrument → Onboard → Adopt → Expand → Renew → Advocate
- Define outcomes & plays: Agree on ICP-by-use-case outcomes; design lifecycle plays and SLAs across marketing, CS, sales, and product.
- Instrument health & value: Track onboarding milestones, feature adoption, executive engagement, and value metrics (time saved, revenue gained).
- Onboard with intent: Role-based checklists, guided tours, and implementation content; weekly nudges until first value is realized.
- Drive adoption: Trigger campaigns from telemetry (gaps, plateaus); spotlight use cases; offer office hours and learning paths.
- Expand thoughtfully: When value is proven, run outcome-aligned upsell/cross-sell plays, co-owned by CS and marketing.
- Secure renewal: Executive-ready QBR stories, value dashboards, and risk rescue sequences for lagging health signals.
- Activate advocacy: Capture wins; recruit references; develop case studies and peer events; feed advocacy back into demand.
Lifecycle KPI Matrix
| Stage | Primary KPI | Leading Indicators | Owner | Enablement |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Onboard | Time-to-First-Value (TTFV) | Milestone completion %, training attendance | CS (with Marketing) | Welcome series, setup guides, implementation templates |
| Adopt | Activation & Feature Adoption | WAU/MAU, usage depth, champions identified | CS/Product | Use-case campaigns, in-app tips, office hours |
| Expand | Expansion Revenue | Health ≥ threshold, outcome achieved | CS (with Sales/Marketing) | Outcome playbooks, ROI calculators, executive one-pagers |
| Renew | Gross / Net Retention | QBR completion, exec sponsor engagement | CS | QBR storytelling kit, renewal sequences |
| Advocate | References & Case Studies | NPS/CSAT, community participation | Marketing | Reference program, user groups, CABs |
Client Snapshot: Marketing-Led Value Communication
With a shared lifecycle and executive storytelling kit, teams accelerated onboarding, raised adoption, and unlocked expansion—fueling advocacy and new pipeline. See an example of outcome-driven storytelling: Transforming Lead Management: Comcast Business
Align lifecycle plays to Key Principles of Revenue Marketing and operationalize with RM6™ insights on revenue marketing to connect customer outcomes to growth.
Frequently Asked Questions about Marketing’s Role in Customer Success
Operationalize Marketing × CS
Stand up lifecycle plays, instrumentation, and enablement that improve retention, expansion, and advocacy.
Revenue Marketing eGuide See What Metrics Belong in a Revenue Marketing Dashboard