Demand Generation

I have learned quite a bit in my nearly 30+ year marketing career. Probably the most significant is the importance of strategic demand generation and the value of great B2B marketing, supported by data- and insights-driven decision making. And as I have discussed before, the best organizations also give back – my tenure at SAP included community service and participating in world-class instances of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Along the…

Many marketers rely on demand generation to drive their business's growth. In light of the current marketing landscape, many B2B companies are aiming to ramp up their efforts and build a strong customer base. However, the effectiveness of demand generation lies in finding the right balance. When marketers fail to fit all the pieces together, their marketing tactics become a confusing mix instead of a well-crafted masterpiece. Think of business…

It’s time to start thinking about your holiday marketing campaign. No matter what your business, there’s always a way to work in a little holiday cheer into your end-of-year marketing. There’s one character, though, you don’t want to creep through. Scrooge. But what if your employees think you’re a bit of a Scrooge? How engaged are they at work? Only about 30 percent of the nation’s employees are engaged on the job,…

It’s a given that one of the best ways to fuel business growth is through lead generation: the generation of new sales leads though marketing activities. Marketing teams spend all their time and effort to find the best sales leads for their company. Without leads, there wouldn’t be any sales, and without sales, companies would not achieve revenue goals. Branding would be a futile exercise. Studies have shown – if…

It’s a given that one of the best ways to fuel business growth is through lead generation: the generation of new sales leads though marketing activities. But even the best marketing teams can struggle with identifying and pursing high value leads. Studies have shown – if it isn’t already, lead generation should be a top priority for sales and marketing teams. While the nature of business has evolved, one thing…

When you think of the word optimization, you might think of writing keyword-optimized posts for search engine optimization or running AB split tests for landing page optimization. But, in reality, any marketing process can be optimized from demand generation, account-based marketing and, lead generation. I’ll review the basics of reviewing your demand generation funnel. We’ll provide a few back-to-the-basics tactics that you can consider as you work on planning your…

My dad taught me many lessons growing up, and one that stands out as relevant to demand generation is this: He said, “Choose your friends carefully because [like it or not] you are judged by the company you keep.” He didn’t know it the time, but he explained a cognitive bias called the halo effect. In this post, I’m going to explain how the halo effect applies to demand marketing…

You might be thinking, “isn’t the answer obvious?” It’s not. Let me explain. I hear the same problem over and over. Sales and marketing aren’t doing a great job of executing lead generation because they both believe it’s the others job. And you know what? They’re both right.  Here’s what I mean. Companies don’t typically call what salespeople do “lead generation” or “demand generation.” Instead, they use terms like prospecting,…

Social media is no longer just a fun, helpful supplement to a marketing mix. For many companies, it has become the primary vehicle for customer engagement. In fact, a report by LinkedIn found that 90% top performing sales representatives incorporate social media into their tactics. Using the right tools and data, you can find compelling ways to distribute content to the most interested people at the most opportune time. In…

Working with your team in the same space has a lot of benefits. You see each other day, so you can get to know each other personally. You can see right away if one team member is tired, or struggling with something. You can just wander over to their work station if you need to chat with them, too. Remote working has a lot of benefits, but a lot of…