What Customer Success Leaders Wish Marketing Knew About Retention

# Customer Success & Support

# Marketing & Growth

# Format: Playbooks

# GTM Strategy

Marketing can play a critical role in strengthening retention, but only if it understands what matters most to CS leaders.

September 22, 2025 · Last updated on March 3, 2026

Joshua Zerkel

Retention is one of the most powerful levers in go-to-market. It drives recurring revenue, creates opportunities for expansion, and fuels advocacy. Yet it is often misunderstood or underappreciated outside of customer success (CS). Marketing tends to focus on acquisition and awareness, while CS teams carry the responsibility of keeping customers engaged and delivering value over time.

This disconnect creates missed opportunities. Marketing can play a critical role in strengthening retention, but only if it understands what matters most to CS leaders. Here are some of the key lessons CS leaders often wish marketers knew.

Retention starts with expectations set during acquisition

One of the strongest predictors of churn is whether customers feel the product delivered on its initial promise. Marketing plays a decisive role in shaping those expectations. At ServiceNow, CS leaders emphasize that accurate positioning and messaging are just as important as post-sale enablement. Overpromising creates an uphill battle for CS, while realistic and outcome-driven positioning sets the stage for long-term success.

Key takeaways:

Align acquisition messaging with the outcomes the product can reliably deliver.

Test messaging with CS leaders before campaigns launch to ensure it reflects reality.

Highlight customer stories that demonstrate results, not just product features.

Treat marketing as the start of retention, not just the start of acquisition.

Engagement is not adoption

Marketing often equates clicks, opens, or event attendance with engagement, but CS leaders know that true adoption is deeper. Adoption means customers are embedding the product into workflows in a way that delivers measurable value. At Stripe, for instance, CS leaders track not just account activity, but how deeply APIs are integrated into customers’ systems. That depth of adoption, not surface-level activity, predicts retention.

Key takeaways:

Differentiate between engagement metrics and true adoption metrics.

Partner with CS to define what adoption looks like in practice.

Share adoption data back into marketing to refine messaging.

Focus campaigns on driving meaningful usage, not just activity.

Retention depends on customer education

Customers churn when they don’t know how to unlock value. Marketing can help by amplifying educational content and making it easier for customers to discover. Zendesk, for example, uses webinars and tutorials promoted through marketing channels to extend the reach of CS enablement. By partnering closely, CS and marketing ensure education is not siloed but integrated into the customer journey.

Key takeaways:

Treat educational content as a core part of marketing, not an afterthought.

Promote CS resources across campaigns, newsletters, and community channels.

Collaborate on customer lifecycle communications that extend beyond onboarding.

Position education as part of the brand promise, not just support material.

Advocacy is earned through retention

Marketing often seeks advocacy stories to fuel campaigns, but CS leaders know that advocacy only comes from customers who have seen sustained value. Airbnb’s host community is a strong example. Many of its most compelling stories come not from new users, but from long-standing hosts who feel invested in the platform. Marketing gains credibility by amplifying these voices, but only because CS created the conditions for advocacy through retention.

Key takeaways:

Source advocacy stories from customers with proven long-term value.

Partner with CS to identify who is ready for spotlighting.

Use advocacy stories to reinforce the retention strategies that made them possible.

Avoid pushing for advocacy too early in the customer journey.

Community is a retention multiplier

CS leaders increasingly view community as a critical retention tool. When customers can learn from each other, troubleshoot problems, and celebrate successes together, they stay engaged longer. LinkedIn’s learning community, for example, helps professionals share tips and connect around courses, which increases both adoption and renewal. Marketing teams that integrate community stories and data into GTM help reinforce the link between belonging and retention.

Key takeaways:

Position community as part of the product experience, not just an add-on.

Highlight community participation in marketing campaigns to reinforce value.

Use community discussions to identify at-risk customers early.

Celebrate community-driven wins as proof of long-term engagement.

Why this matters for GTM leaders

Retention is not just a CS issue. It is a cross-functional priority that starts with marketing. By aligning on expectations, focusing on true adoption, amplifying education, sourcing advocacy thoughtfully, and leveraging community, GTM leaders can build stronger, longer-lasting customer relationships.

Marketing and CS are not separate stages of the customer journey. They are partners in building durable growth, with retention as their shared responsibility.

What’s one way your marketing and CS teams have worked together to improve retention?

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