When Kevin and I started Catalyst, we didn’t want to build an aimless product with an equally aimless marketing strategy. But neither did we want to be gimmicky, controversial, and offensive. 

Our product had to actually help CSMs, and we wanted our marketing to do the same. We didn’t want to just lecture people through our content; we wanted to have a tangible effect on the CS community. 

Thanks to supreme effort from Mike, our Head of Marketing, and Ben, our Community Manager, we’ve managed to do just that.

We’ve become famous (or infamous?) within the industry for our memes, and that’s by design. We want to gain a reputation for not taking ourselves too seriously: for being the company that’ll say the things nobody else will, and do things others won’t. 

We carry this mindset into all of our marketing. Just take a look at some of our other marketing initiatives. We’ve covered areas such as:

‍Career Development‍

I remember struggling and feeling overwhelmed in my early career and hoping for a mentor. I never did get one. But now, we’re using Catalyst to give others opportunities that I wished I had. ‍

• Coaching Corner. We built a program that helps CS professionals from all over the world connect and nurture each other. Hundreds of people have gotten sound career advice and advanced their careers. 
• CSMs for Hire. Through the Coaching Corner, we discovered plenty of talented and willing CSM candidates that just weren’t getting their fair shot. So we decided to fix that problem ourselves and shared their profiles with the industry. We’re happy to say that at least 3 out of 10 people we’ve highlighted so far have gotten jobs!
• Learning from the FBI. This fun panel taught lessons in human behavior from former FBI Special Agent Jack Schafer: a man whose job it was to detect the truth and win people over.

Mental health and wellness‍

Customer success has always been a stressful career path, but in today’s times it’s even more so. We wanted to use our reach to get CSM’s the help they need to get through the day. 

• Mental Health Initiative. We started the Mental Health Initiative, a collection of wellness resources for the CS community. It’s got meditations, breathing exercises, and reflection templates.
• Mental Health Awareness panel. Mental health is still a taboo topic in the workplace, and it shouldn’t be. The more people know about it, the better we can deal with it, and that was the objective of our panel. For instance, at Catalyst we have Mental Health Fridays and emphasize the view that nobody should feel guilty for taking time off.‍

‍‍Community Building‍

This is the decade of CS. It’s time to recognize it as one of the most important business categories, and to push CS to the center of our operations. We aim to unite CS professionals across all industries.‍

• The Unicornian. Laughter brings people together, and we want to unify the startup community by poking fun at an industry that takes itself way too seriously. The amount of attention this received is proof the Unicorn is the hero we need right now. 

• NPS I Love You. One of the hottest CS podcasts in the business with fantastic industry guests, Ben Winn keeps things grounded by covering topics important to CS professionals at any level. 

• The Great CS Debate. We brought the CS community together to debate on the most controversial topics. And their opinions did not disappoint.

I’m proud of what our team has accomplished in such a short time. Thanks to our efforts, CS professionals from all over the world have been reaching out to us to show their support and appreciation. 

We are uniting the CS community. One blog, program, and meme at a time. 

I have full confidence that whatever our marketing team does next, it’ll be to everyone’s benefit: to Catalyst, to our CSM community, and to the customers they serve.  

If you’re interested in getting involved, or have a fantastic idea that would bring value to the community, message me or Ben.

Let’s push CS to the center together.