Expanding Content with Sara Feldman
In this episode, Neal Travis is joined once again by Sara Feldman, Director of Member Engagement at the Consortium for Service Innovation, to talk about how content can drive truly impactful customer experiences. They explore how support teams can borrow tactics from marketing (like re-marketing, segmentation, and nurture campaigns) to create smarter, more human experiences that anticipate needs, build trust, and drive value long after the product is delivered.
Key Topics Discussed
1. Applying Marketing Tactics to Post-Sale CX
Sara makes the case that many classic marketing tools can be repurposed for customer success and support:
“What if we set aside the belief that marketing tactics are only for sales and looked at how they can enhance post-sale content?”
She dives into remarketing, segmentation, and nurture campaigns as useful inspirations for customer education, feature adoption, and engagement.
Borrow proven marketing playbooks to elevate your support experience.
2. Content That Expands the Use Case
Great content doesn’t just answer today’s question, it allows you to take the experience further.
“Let me do the thinking for you… let me show you what else is possible.”
Sara shares examples from retail (like Nordstrom and Barilla) to show how content can introduce new use cases customers deal with in their real environment like hemmed jeans with pockets to playlists timed for cooking pasta.
Support content can surprise and delight, not just troubleshoot.
3. Embracing the 360° Customer View
Customer journey maps are useful, but often incomplete:
“Your customers aren’t just sitting in your software… their lives are bigger than that.”
Sara and Neal discuss the importance of context-aware content: How can you bring value into the customer’s world instead of waiting for them to come to yours?
Help customers where they are — not just where you are.
4. Collaboration Between Support and Marketing
Neal shares how his team actively partners with marketing to retarget, re-engage, and nurture users with value-driven content:
“We’re marketing groupies, and we work closely to build the community digest, highlight trending conversations, and drive engagement.”
By treating content like a cross-functional asset, support and marketing together can create richer post-sale journeys.
When teams align, customers win.
5. From Limitation to Opportunity
Sara offers a challenge to every support leader:
“The next time something frustrates you, pause and ask: “Is this a limiting belief? Or is this an opportunity to collaborate differently?”
Whether it’s budget, ownership, or decision-making, she encourages support pros to bring ideas to the table and reframe constraints as creative openings.
Constraints can spark innovation if you’re willing to lead.
Memorable Quotes
“Nurture campaigns aren’t just for prospects. They can drive feature adoption, skills growth, and advocacy too.”
“If your customers don’t know what’s possible, they won’t ask for it. Great content anticipates the ask.”
“Your product doesn’t live in isolation. Your customers live entire lives around it.”
“Support leaders have some of the best customer insight and it’s time we used it beyond the help center.”
Takeaways
Look to marketing for inspiration: Use re-marketing, segmentation, and nurture techniques to engage post-sale customers.
Expand the story: Help customers discover new value in your product through proactive, creative content.
Context is everything: Frame content in the world of the customer, not just your product interface.
Support + marketing = more impact: Collaboration unlocks smarter content and better engagement.
Turn frustration into leadership: Advocate for customer needs across the org by reframing constraints as opportunities.
