Building DoiT's Customer Alliance Program

A pilot event during COVID. A full ISV program after.

Year :

2020-2022

Company

DoiT

Building a Customer Marketing Program That Drives Value to the Customer

Most customer marketing program try extracts value from customers — case studies, testimonials, referrals. I am passionate that the best customer marketing drives value to the customer, and decided to build something to that effect.

DoiT's customer portfolio was full of innovative global startups and scaleups doing remarkable things in cloud and data. Many of them needed exactly what another DoiT customer could offer: a new go-to-market partner, a complementary product, or a new GTM channel. The connections were already there — they just needed someone to make them.

So I built the program to do exactly that.

Part One: Customer Product Exchange

Before the full alliance program existed, I ran a pilot: a virtual Customer Product Exchange event produced during COVID — 12 global customers on one virtual stage, making real business introductions.

Participation was selective, ensuring the right mix of companies in the room. Each customer pitched their product or service to the group with a clear goal: find new partners, new channels, new customers among their fellow DoiT clients.

Post-event, DoiT's strategic account management team made 4 direct introductions between participants — turning a one-hour virtual event into real business relationships. The event was recorded and promoted to DoiT's broader customer base. Watch the recap →

Part Two — The Alliance Program (2021)

Building on the success of the Product Exchange event, in March 2021 I began building a formal customer (and later partner) alliance program — a structured framework for DoiT's strategic customers to be partners with DoiT in co-sell, co-market activities that would drive real tangible value both to them and to DoiT.

I developed the full program foundation: the concept and strategic framework, program structure and guidelines, initial marketing materials, a website wireframe, and a customer communications. By the time I left DoiT, the program was at pre-launch stage — a fully built foundation ready to go live.

After my departure, the program launched, and was rebranded into a full-scale partnership program at ISV Go Global.

The Results

1. Real value delivered to real customers

The Product Exchange event generated 4 direct business introductions between DoiT customers — connecting global startups with potential go-to-market partners they wouldn't have found otherwise. This was customer marketing that gave back, not just extracted.

2. A program built to outlast me — and it did

I handed off a fully structured, pre-launch program with concept, guidelines, marketing materials, wireframe, and community in place. It launched after I left and continues to operate today as ISV Go Global — a program I'm proud to have originated.

3. Proof that customer marketing can be genuinely customer-first

This program proved a principle I believe in deeply: the best customer marketing drives value to customers, not just from them. The goodwill, loyalty, and relationships it created reflected directly back on DoiT — and on what a truly customer-centric marketing approach can look like. To hear more about my customer-centric approach to customer marketing, check out this podcast episode.