Customer Marketing as a Growth Engine: Building Influence, Insight, and Impact

1:15 pm
-
2:15 pm
CT

Antu Buck, who built the customer marketing function from the ground up at Gigamon and previously led programs at McAfee and Intel, challenges the common misconception that customer marketing is merely a content function. Instead, she positions it as a core growth driver that directly influences revenue, retention, and product direction.

In this session, Antu breaks customer marketing into three strategic pillars: customer advocacy (testimonials, case studies, and reference programs), community engagement (executive briefings, advisory boards, and social channels), and customer lifecycle management (onboarding, renewal, and expansion in close partnership with customer success). She shares how maintaining authentic voice-of-the-customer requires resisting over-scripted narratives—favoring open-ended questions that surface real insights and credible stories.

Through real-world examples, Antu demonstrates how customer feedback reshaped Gigamon’s messaging from public cloud to hybrid cloud, and how a customer advisory board directly influenced the launch of precryption. She also introduces her “credibility loop,” powered by transparent internal communication and executive dashboards tied to business outcomes.

Attendees will walk away with a practical starter playbook: align to business goals first, implement foundational tools within 30 days, establish advocacy and reference programs early, and progressively layer in win-loss research and advisory boards. This session is ideal for marketers looking to elevate customer marketing into a measurable, strategic growth function

Session Agenda

  • 1. Run customer marketing as three pillars, not a content desk: customer advocacy (testimonials, case studies, reference programs), community engagement (executive briefings, advisory boards, social), and customer lifecycle management (onboarding, renewal, expansion in partnership with customer success).
  • 2. Refuse to let brand or corporate marketing script customer quotes. Use open-ended prompts like "what made you almost stop buying from us," "what keeps you up at night," and "what would you tell someone in your position six months ago" so the human voice and business outcome both come through.
  • 3. Tie every program to a business outcome and prove ROI by sharing it internally. Antu publishes an executive dashboard showing what her team shipped, the impact, and how it ladders to company goals, because customer marketing has to champion itself the same way it champions customers.
  • 4. Treat advisory boards as a two-way product signal, not a thank-you tour
  • 5. When voice-of-customer data conflicts with leadership's narrative, bring the data. Antu's research showed Gigamon's sweet spot was hybrid and private cloud, not public cloud, and she partnered with PM to shift the company's messaging accordingly.

Speakers

Antu Buck

Senior Director, Customer Marketing, Advocacy & Community

Cyera

Antu Buck

Senior Director, Customer Marketing, Advocacy & Community

Cyera

Global Customer Marketing Executive | 4x TOP100 CMA Influencer & Strategist | Speaker 🎤 | Leading B2B Customer Advocacy, Community, Engagement, Events, and Lifecycle Management

Antu Buck is an accomplished and award-winning leader whose expertise seamlessly bridges the worlds of both Sales and Marketing. She currently is serving as the Senior Director of Customer Marketing, Advocacy, & Community at Cyera. With over a decade of experience at McAfee, Antu has demonstrated success in steering customer marketing initiatives through a unique blend of creativity and analytical expertise.

Antu is dedicated to fostering customer communities that drive advocacy, engagement, innovation, and overall success. As a forward-thinking visionary, Antu is committed to continuous improvement and innovation, making her a respected figure in the field of customer marketing in the security space. Antu’s work has also received industry-wide recognition, she’s been named a Top 100 Customer Marketing & Advocacy Influencer by Base.ai for four consecutive years, Customer Marketing Ambassador, and named Customer Marketing Team of the year in 2025.

Antu holds Bachelor of Science from University of California, Davis.

About this Session's Track

Community & Customer Marketing

Master the art of building vibrant customer and user communities, driving retention through advocacy programs, peer‑to‑peer engagement, and customer‑led events.