Learning from the Pros
Published:
August 7, 2026
Updated:
April 21, 2026

10 Voice of Customer Marketing Tips to Create High-Converting Campaigns

Tara Robertson
Director of Growth Marketing at ContactMonkey
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Tara Robertson
Director of Growth Marketing at ContactMonkey

If I had to boil down my entire job as a marketer into one sentence, it’d be this: I listen to customers and then build campaigns that sound like them. 
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Voice of customer (VOC) isn’t just a tactic. It’s the strategy. It’s the thing AI can’t fake, dashboards can’t predict, and competitors can’t steal. It’s also where all my best ideas come from.
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Here are 10 detailed ways I collect, activate, and scale the voice of a customer across everything I do.

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1. Start every new role by talking to customers. Relentlessly.

When I joined ContactMonkey, the very first thing I did wasn’t digging into attribution models or revamping landing pages. It was scheduling as many customer and prospect conversations as I could fit into my calendar. 
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I even made it part of my official 30-60-90 plan. 
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In those early weeks when your brain is still fresh and your to-do list is short, there’s nothing more valuable than hearing firsthand what people love, hate, and don’t understand about your product or category. 
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One of my favorite moves? 
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Posting on LinkedIn asking if anyone in my network is willing to get on a quick call. In this case, I posted asking if anyone in my network owns internal comms and would be willing to chat (our ICP at ContactMonkey). 
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I offered to buy them a coffee in exchange for a chat (no sales pitch). 
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I got 12+ responses. If you don’t have a network in your space yet, no problem.
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Shadow your CS or AM teams. Listen to support calls. It’s not about volume, it’s about patterns. 
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When I start hearing the same pain points and language again and again, that’s when I know I’ve struck gold.
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2. Replace vague promises with oddly specific customer results


Years ago at Chili Piper, we ran one of our most successful landing page tests using a stat pulled directly from a customer. 
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The control copy said “Double your meetings”. A nice round promise. The variation said “Book 48% more meetings”. Not as flashy, but 100% real results from a real customer. 
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And it crushed. Why? 
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Because people can smell BS. “Double” sounds too good to be true.
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But “48%” feels like someone actually ran the numbers. The same logic applied to our newsletter sign-up. We swapped “Join 15k+ marketers” for the actual number, like “14,889 marketers”, and updated it monthly. Way better engagement. 
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I’ve learned that authenticity beats hyperbole every single time. 
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Whether it’s landing pages, ads, or CTAs, I always ask: can I anchor this in a real result? If I can, that’s the copy I go with.
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3. Scale testimonial collection


Most marketers want more testimonials. But very few make it easy for customers to give them. 
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That’s where tools like testimonial.io come in. At Chili Piper, we used it to collect both video and text testimonials at scale.
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What I loved is that it wasn’t just a form. It created a nice-looking landing page where we could showcase quotes, filter by industry or persona, and make it dead simple for sales to grab proof on demand. 


We even layered in rewards: For example, $10 for a written review, $20 for a video. 
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It made the process feel fun, not transactional. If you don’t have the budget for a tool, you can still make this work with forms and folders. It just requires more manual work. 
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But either way, the key is removing friction. Make it easy, incentivize smartly, and watch the social proof roll in.
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4. Map the moments when asking for testimonials feels natural


I used to be hesitant about asking happy customers for quotes or reviews. It felt too much like asking someone who’s already paying us for more favors.
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Now I’ve learned that timing is everything and when you get it right, people are actually eager to help. 
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At Chili Piper (and coming soon to ContactMonkey!), we built simple workflows around high-NPS scores.

If someone gave us a 9 or 10, they’d get an email asking if they’d share a quick testimonial (with an incentive if we needed it). 
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Renewal time is another great moment. If the CSM is having a positive QBR, that’s your window.
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And if you have an in-app experience, even better. Prompt people when they’ve just hit a milestone or seen a big win. 
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These are the moments when they’re feeling the value and that’s when you should make the ask. Not months later in a generic email blast.
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5. Mine sales calls using Gong alerts


If your sales team uses Gong, Clari, or any call recording tool, you’re sitting on a goldmine of unfiltered customer language. 
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At Chili Piper, I set up custom alerts for keywords like “love this,” “so helpful,” or “amazing”. 
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Whenever a prospect or customer said something positive, I’d get an alert. Sometimes we’d clip those and turn them into ads. Other times we’d just use them for internal messaging work. 
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At ContactMonkey, I’ve taken it further. I created an alert for the word “chaos” because we were testing a new homepage copy around that theme. 
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Now I can see in real time if that word is spiking in conversations. It’s like a heartbeat monitor for customer sentiment. 
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Pro tip: Make sure your alerts only track customer speech, not your reps. Otherwise, you’ll get a lot of noise. This is one of the lowest-lift, highest-impact VOC tactics I’ve ever used.
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6. I always prioritize real photos over polished stock


In one of my previous companies, we ran a bunch of Facebook ads targeting college professors. We tested beautifully lit, high-production images.
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We even went to a local university campus and took our own photos. 
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But the creative that won? 
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A grainy, dimly lit shot of a real professor with a projector half-illuminating his face. It looked like a scene from a low-budget documentary and it worked like magic. 
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Why? 
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Because it was instantly recognizable to our audience. They saw themselves in that ad. That lesson stuck with me. 
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I now prioritize real customer images (with permission, of course) over generic visuals, especially on social platforms like LinkedIn.
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Even if the photo isn’t perfect, the context is. It builds trust faster than any stock model with a laptop ever could.
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7. Engineer VOC moments at in-person events


One of the most underrated ways to capture and activate the voice of a customer is through small, curated in-person dinners. 
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At Chili Piper, we’d pick anchor events, like INBOUND or SaaStr, and then build a dinner party around them. We invited a mix of customers and high-fit prospects. No pitch. Just dinner.
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But the magic was in the seating chart. 
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When a prospect ends up next to a customer, the VOC starts flowing naturally. It’s not a case study. It’s a conversation. And it’s way more persuasive than sitting them beside someone from your sales team. 
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These dinners don’t have to break the bank. We’d partner with other Martech brands targeting the same ICP, split the cost, and divide the invite list. We typically budgeted around $200 per head depending on the city (this can vary wildly). 
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But if you can’t swing a dinner? Start by gifting tickets to customers so they can attend the event. That alone builds goodwill and puts your brand top of mind.
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8. Create memorable, feel-good moments for customers 


One of my favorite VOC plays was when we ran a billboard that was not about us, but celebrating our customers. 
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People took selfies with it. It created a moment. 
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You can apply the same principle with award nominations, speaking opportunities, or simply amplifying your customers’ successes. 
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These aren’t transactional gestures. I don’t do them expecting a quote or post in return. I do them because they’re the right thing to do. 
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People remember how you made them feel. When you make your customers feel seen and valued, they’re more likely to become your advocates. 
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Reciprocity is real but only when it’s authentic. Whether it’s putting them on stage, giving them swag, or celebrating their wins, this kind of VOC is quiet but powerful.
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9. Recycle everything into retargeting gold


Once you start collecting VOC, don’t let it sit in Notion or your testimonial page. Use it. In your retargeting campaigns especially. 
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At Chili Piper we  ran video snippets from customer calls as YouTube pre-roll. We sliced a single testimonial video into six different LinkedIn ads. We even ran static image ads that are just screenshots of nice LinkedIn posts or tweets. 
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If someone says something amazing about you on LinkedIn, screenshot it and run it as an ad. That’s what I used to do before Thought Leader ads were even a thing. 
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Don’t worry about fancy production. Don’t wait until you have a full video library. Start with what you have.
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Voice of the customer doesn’t always need tons of polish. It needs visibility.
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10. Amplify customers with Thought Leader ads (yes, from their accounts)


This one is super meta, but wildly effective. 
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If a customer writes a post about your event, product, or company, don’t just repost it from your brand page. 
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With LinkedIn’s Thought Leader ad type, you can run their post as an ad from their account. It’s voice of customer, directly from the customer’s mouth. 
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Chili Piper is doing this with people who attended their ChiliPalooza event. They encouraged them to post their takeaways, then promoted those posts with paid. I haven’t tested it yet at ContactMonkey, but it’s high on my list. 
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It’s a modern version of influencer marketing, except the influencer is your actual user. Just make sure they’re comfortable with it, and always get consent. 
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Bonus: If you can’t run it as an ad, screenshot it and use it in your retargeting. It still works.
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The voice of the customer isn’t a box I check. It’s the lens I try to apply to everything I do, from homepage headlines to how I design event experiences. 
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Because at the end of the day, no copy I write will ever be more compelling than something a real customer says when they don’t know they’re being marketed to.
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That’s the voice that cuts through the noise.
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Hope you found this article helpful! 
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‍If you’re looking to pick up an advertising course, check out these free courses that will teach you how to launch, optimize, and scale ad campaigns effectively. 
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And if you have any questions about using the voice of the customer in your campaigns, feel free to send me a message on LinkedIn, I love connecting with fellow marketers!

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