Why marketers must stay close to customers

It’s not enough to just chat with the product team about what’s working and what’s not. Every marketer needs to stay ultra close to their customers—here’s why.

Postmates lesson

Let me take you back to 2018. I was fresh out of college and had just landed a full-time growth role at Postmates in San Francisco. Not long after joining, I walked into a meeting where they announced that every employee had to deliver food as a courier (aka delivery driver).

This wasn’t just some gimmick—it was a game-changer. It forced us to experience what couriers went through firsthand: receiving delivery notifications, using the app, waiting for food pickups (side note: I still miss the wings from San Tung in SF), and handing off orders to customers.

Looking back, this was a genius move by management. It gave us a deep understanding of the courier experience—both the good and the bad. And trust me, that’s very different from just staring at an Amplitude chart, trying to figure out why users are churning. Data is great, but it only tells half the story. Real-world experience and direct user feedback fill in the rest.

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Two recent “aha moments”

This week alone, I had two moments that reinforced why this is so important:

1. My partner deleted a utility app she used weekly because the company had “changed too much.” Just like that, she became another data point on a churn report.
2. I had a conversation with my friend Tuan Hoang (former Head of Growth at NTWRK), who told me how their team was obsessive about user research—and it paid off.

So how do you actually stay close to customers?

Here are some simple ways to stay in the loop:

• Pay users for feedback – Offer a small incentive for a quick 15-minute chat. Talk to both power users and churned users to get a full picture of what’s working and what’s not.
• Use platforms like UserTesting – Automate and streamline customer feedback sessions.
• Just start dialing and emailing – If you’re in a Seed or Series A startup, don’t overcomplicate it. Get on calls and talk to users directly.
• Watch sales and implementation calls (for B2B teams) – This is gold. Listening in on real conversations helps you understand common objections, pain points, and what excites customers.
• Use the product yourself – Marketers should always be customers of the product they’re marketing—even if they’re not in the ideal customer profile (ICP). Go through the full experience of signing up, using the product, and troubleshooting issues.

Why marketing founders have an edge

I’m obviously biased (since I’m a marketer-turned-founder), but I genuinely believe marketing founders have a massive advantage.

At GrowthPair, I’ve personally taken over 100+ discovery calls in just the last three months. And guess what? Those conversations have shaped everything—from the messaging on our website to how we target paid ads.

Here’s why staying close to customers gives me an edge:

• I figured out my ICP of 1 way faster than if I had a sales team doing all the talking.
• I’ve tweaked my messaging and offering countless times based on specific comments from discovery calls.
• Since I’m involved in onboarding, I know firsthand what new clients expect and what questions they ask.

All of this gives me an unfair advantage over competitors. I don’t care if we’re at $1M, $10M, or $100M in revenue—I’m staying as close to customers as possible. Boots on the ground.

It’s a shame that shows like Undercover Boss make customer research seem like a once-in-a-while thing when in reality, it should be a daily practice.

My advice? Think like a founder. Care about the product you’re marketing. Talk to customers. Your KPIs will reflect it way more than any “growth hack” ever could.

This isn’t a playbook—it’s a PSA. The best marketers don’t just run campaigns; they deeply understand the people they’re marketing to.