What this post covers
- How to run customer user groups that generate real insights, not just engagement
- Using Gong calls as a Voice of Customer research source
- Mining G2 reviews for product intelligence and sales proof
- The Product Hero Program: a feedback engine for customers who won't advocate publicly
- How AI can scale insights from customer conversations into content and proof
If customer marketing had a love language, it would be quality time.
Not the fake kind. Not the "we sent an NPS survey once" kind. I mean the real work. The kind where you sit in customer calls, search for signals in Gong recordings, read every G2 review, host peer conversations, and actually connect the dots between what customers are saying and what your business needs to do next.
At Rally Customer Marketing, we believe customer trust is built in those moments. The best customer marketing programs don't start with campaigns — they start with listening.
That's where the real gold lives.
Not in the polished case study. In the offhand comment during a call. In the "honestly, here's what's frustrating me" moment. In the review someone leaves at 11 PM because they finally had time.
That's where you find the signals. And if you're paying attention, those signals become strategy.
User Groups: Where Customers Tell You Everything
One of the most impactful programs I designed at Invoca was our Customer User Group initiative.
The goal was simple: create a peer-to-peer forum where customers with similar industries or use cases could share best practices, learn from one another, and deepen engagement with the platform.
Each session featured a spotlight customer walking through their use case, outcomes, and lessons learned. After that, we opened the floor for discussion, moderated by our internal subject matter experts.
But here's the part that made it work:
We asked customers what they wanted to talk about before the session.
During registration, we collected topic requests so the content was driven by real customer priorities, not what we assumed they cared about. That small shift made every session sharper, more relevant, and significantly more valuable.
We also sent recordings and key takeaways to every registrant, even if they couldn't attend live — because customer value should never depend on calendar availability.
For more niche sessions, we invited late-stage prospects to attend as guests. That move helped accelerate deal cycles because prospects got authentic peer validation directly from customers, not from sales decks pretending to be objective.
This program succeeded because it wasn't marketing pushing content. It was customers teaching customers. And customers trust customers more than they trust us. Always.
AI Helped Us Scale What We Heard
After every user group, I layered in an AI-enabled workflow to extend the impact.
Using Claude (we call it Claudia), I pulled out the top takeaways and supporting customer quotes, then refined the language so those insights were sharper, clearer, and more directly tied to Invoca's value.
Customers actually loved this. Approvals moved faster because they felt represented accurately — and sometimes better than they thought they sounded live, which honestly is the dream.
From there, I turned those insights into short-form scripts under 60 seconds and partnered with design to create externally facing video content using AI voice tools. These became polished, high-impact assets built directly from customer conversations. Not manufactured messaging. Actual proof.
That multiplied the reach of every session and created a scalable, creative way to recruit future advocates. Because nothing recruits advocates like showing customers how well you champion the ones you already have.
Gong Calls: Your Best Research Is Already Sitting There
Gong calls are one of the richest VoC sources in a B2B SaaS company because they capture what customers say in their own words, unprompted — across sales, renewal, escalation, and success conversations.
If you're not regularly listening to Gong calls, you're missing one of the richest Voice of Customer sources in your business. Sales calls. Success calls. Renewal calls. Escalation calls. It's all there.
You don't need another survey if your customers are already telling you exactly what they need. You need pattern recognition.
8 signals to track in your Gong calls
That last one matters a lot. Your messaging should sound like your customer — not your product marketing brainstorm from six months ago.
When multiple customers start saying the same thing, that's not anecdotal. That's a signal. And signals deserve action.
G2 Reviews: Your Customers Are Writing Your Messaging for You
Your G2 page is not just a review platform. It's a live focus group.
Most teams look at G2 and ask: "How do we get more reviews?"
Wrong question. The better question is: "What are customers repeatedly telling us here?"
G2 reviews tell you:
- What customers value most
- What they wish was better
- What competitors they compare you against
- What words they use to describe success
- What proof your sales team should be using immediately
We treated G2 reviews like product intelligence and proof mining. Positive reviews fed advocacy and sales enablement. Constructive reviews created feedback loops with product and customer success. Both were valuable.
Honestly, your three-star reviews might teach you more than your five-star ones. Painful, but true.
The Product Hero Program: Feedback Beyond Advocacy
One of my favorite programs I created was our Product Hero Program.
This wasn't an advocacy play. It was a direct feedback engine.
The Product Hero Program is a structured feedback mechanism designed for B2B SaaS companies who want customer input on their roadmap from customers who aren't interested in public advocacy. Unlike a standard beta program, it separates feedback participation from advocacy asks entirely — making it accessible to a much broader slice of the customer base.
Customers could sign up to provide product feedback straight to our internal teams. Some were strong advocates who wanted early access, strategic visibility, and a stronger relationship with the brand. Others had zero interest in being public advocates.
They didn't want to do references. They didn't want to speak at events. They definitely did not want a LinkedIn spotlight.
They just wanted to help improve the product.
Perfect.
That feedback was just as valuable — sometimes even more valuable — because not every great customer insight comes from your loudest champions. Sometimes your quietest customers tell you the most important things.
We captured both: advocates and non-advocates, promoters and practical operators. Then we routed those insights back to product teams so customer feedback wasn't trapped inside a spreadsheet graveyard.
That created stronger product alignment, better roadmap conversations, and a much healthier trust loop between customers and internal teams.
Listening without action is just performance art.
The Real Job of Customer Marketing
Customer marketing is not just case studies and webinars.
It's signal detection. It's identifying what customers are telling you before churn, before expansion, before advocacy, and before product issues become public. It's building systems where trust becomes visible.
At Rally, that's exactly how we think. Customer-led growth starts with customer listening.
Not vanity metrics. Not campaign volume. Not random acts of advocacy. Real listening.
Because the companies that win are not the loudest. They're the ones paying attention.
And honestly, your customers have been telling you the answer the whole time.
Frequently asked questions
How do customer marketing teams use Gong calls for VoC research?
Gong captures every sales, renewal, success, and escalation call. Customer marketers use it by listening across call types for repeated objections, competitor mentions, feature gaps, expansion signals, and the exact language customers use to describe outcomes. Patterns across multiple calls signal what messaging, content, and product feedback loops to prioritize.
What are the best ways to get VoC data without running more surveys?
The richest VoC sources are already inside most B2B SaaS companies: Gong call recordings capture unfiltered customer language; G2 reviews reveal what customers value, what frustrates them, and who they compare you against; customer user groups surface peer-validated insights; and product feedback programs like the Product Hero Program collect roadmap input from customers who won't participate in public advocacy.
How do B2B SaaS companies run customer user groups that generate real insights?
The key is collecting topic requests at registration so content is driven by actual customer priorities, not internal assumptions. Invite a spotlight customer to share outcomes and lessons, open the floor for peer discussion, and send recordings to all registrants regardless of attendance. For niche sessions, late-stage prospects can attend as guests to get peer validation that accelerates deal cycles.
What is a Product Hero Program?
A Product Hero Program is a structured feedback mechanism that separates product input from public advocacy asks. Customers opt in to provide roadmap feedback directly to internal teams — without being asked to do references, speak at events, or create public content. This makes it accessible to customers who have valuable insights but no interest in being advocates, and often surfaces the most candid feedback.
How do customer marketers use G2 reviews as research?
G2 reviews function as a live focus group. They show what customers value most, what they wish was better, which competitors they compare you against, and the specific words they use to describe success. Positive reviews feed advocacy and sales enablement; constructive reviews create feedback loops with product and CS. Three-star reviews often contain the most actionable signal.
Nina Stephens is co-founder of Rally, a B2B SaaS customer marketing consultancy. Rally builds customer marketing programs as connected systems — reference, lifecycle, advocacy, community, user groups and CABs — tied to the metrics that matter to revenue leadership.
Nina Stephens is co-founder of Rally, a B2B SaaS customer marketing consultancy. Rally builds reference programs, lifecycle, advocacy, community, and CABs as connected systems tied to the metrics that matter to revenue leadership.