B2B_Demand_Gen_Marketing_Playbook

The B2B

Plus

Contentfor

DemandGeneration

IN THE AGE OF THE CUSTOMER

HOW TO REVERSE-ENGINEER THE FUNNEL FOR A MORE ACCURATE

PIPELINE STRATEGY

INDEX

THE B2B Demand Gen MARKETING PLAYBOOK X2

Introduction 5 » Introducing the Modern B2B Demand Gen Marketer ................................ 5

* Who Is the All-Star Demand Gen Marketer? ........................... 6

» A "Where There's a Will, There's a Way" Attitude .......................................8

* In Love with Data .................................................................. 9* A People Expert .................................................................... 9* Willing to Blow the Whistle .................................................... 9

» Your B2B Demand Gen Playbook ...........................................................................10

INDEXC l i c k o n t i t l e t o j u m p

t o D e s i r e d S e c t i o n

INDEX


Plan 11 » Identify your Pipeline Goals ................................................................................. 11

* Reverse Engineering the Funnel .......................................... 12

» Plan an Agile Demand Gen Strategy ..................................................................18* The Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) ......................................... 18

Create 20 » Awareness/Investigation Stages:

Mapping Top-of-Funnel Content .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22

» Comparison Stage: Mapping Mid-Funnel Content.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

* Content and Demand Generation: Chicken or the Egg?......... 24* Content and Demand Gen Alignment .................................... 25* Demand Gen and Sales Enablement ..................................... 26

» Consideration/Purchase Stages: Mapping Bottom-of-Funnel Content .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

INDEX


Distribute 27 » Marketing Pipeline Support Model- Demand Gen .................................... 28

» Awareness and Investigation Stages ............................................................. 29* SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and

SEM (Search Engine Marketing) ........................................... 29* Website and Call-to-Action Strategy .................................... 30* Email .................................................................................. 30

» Comparison Stage ..........................................................................................................31

* Account-Based Demand Gen ................................................ 31* Regional and Virtual Events ................................................ 31

» Consideration and Purchase Stages ............................................................... 32

Optimize 33 » Top of Funnel Woes:

When Leads Aren't Converting .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

* Problems and Solutions ....................................................... 34

» Avoid the Mid-funnel stall .................................................................................... 36

Introduction

5THE B2B Demand Gen MARKETING PLAYBOOK

Introducing the Modern B2B Demand Gen Marketer

[D]emand generation marketing has gained momentum over the last decade, quickly becoming

a pivotal role in modern B2B marketing. Revenue is the primary success metric for this position, both at the enterprise and mid-market levels, with demand generation teams responsible for tracking and reporting marketing-driven pipeline within the sales cycle.

Demand gen marketers bridge the gap between marketing and revenue, and in many ways, exemplify modern marketing’s powerful transition from cost center to revenue-driver.

THE B2B DEMAND GEN MARKETING

P L A Y B O O K

The Demand Gen Marketer

Introduction


Who Is the All-Star Demand Gen Marketer?A successful B2B demand gen marketer must be part-scientist and part-psychologist.

[T]he scientist side is highly analytical and able to make sense of trends and patterns from multiple sources of data. The psychologist

intuitively understands what makes people tick. The combination is a powerful one. Not only do demand gen marketers know the subject lines that drive email opens, the most compelling CTAs, and how well content converts buyers through the funnel, but they have the data to back up their strategies and insight into how B2B buyers make decisions.

#1

Introduction


If your company experiences any of the following challenges, you’d likely benefit greatly from the scientist/psychologist expertise of a demand gen marketer.

The challenges that demand gen marketers solve are many, and those listed above are an all-star demand gen marketer’s bread and butter. As B2B companies continue to invest in technology to improve their marketing efforts, the need for talented demand gen professionals will continue to increase.

However, expert demand gen marketers aren’t easy to come by, especially since the role is relatively new. Many transitioned from traditional marketing communications into demand gen, and the role is continually refined as technology gets smarter. But there are some key qualities to be on the lookout for when adding a demand gen all-star to your B2B marketing team.

» Is your CRM database filled with names that don’t fit your company’s ideal customer profile? Are you unsure how to attract and convert new leads that DO fit the profile?

» Is your team struggling to effectively leverage and measure digital channels to push leads deeper into the purchase process?

» Is your sales team disgruntled that marketing-generated leads a) aren’t ready for a purchase conversation, b) don’t fit the ideal customer profile, or c) aren’t being delivered at the volume needed to hit their monthly or quarterly pipeline quotas?

Introduction


A “Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way” Attitude

[D]emand gen marketers love to problem-solve and perform under pressure. To thrive, they can’t be easily rattled by funnel issues and

steep pipeline goals.

Let’s say that your company’s top-of-funnel traffic has mysteriously dropped steadily every month over the last quarter, but you’re not sure why. When negative performance data would frighten many a modern marketer, this is the fuel that drives the demand gen marketer to greatness. They will deep-dive into traffic data, marketing automation, the CRM, and other tools to look for answers. They will audit SEO performance to evaluate existing keyword effectiveness, and define more effective keywords. They will collaborate with social and content marketing teams to see how current top-of-funnel content performs, and make suggestions based on that data.

Bottom line: the all-star demand gen marketer eats funnel problems for breakfast, and washes it down with data-backed, actionable solutions.

Introduction


In Love with DataThe demand gen marketer likely swoons over the term “data-driven marketing.” Gleaning actionable insights from scores of data, pulled from overlapping tools in your company’s marketing technology stack, is the stuff of their dreams. Highly analytical, the successful demand gen marketer can draw intelligent recommendations from often convoluted sources.

A People ExpertA successful demand gen marketer truly is a unicorn—equal parts analytical genius and creative guru. They must solve problems using their data-driven brains, digging into metrics and proposing innovative solutions and strategies.

But they must also be experts on people. They don’t just know their audience’s title, lead score, and company size, they understand the person behind the persona: who they are, what motivates them, where they go for information and how they like to consume it, and more.

Willing to Blow the Whistle Obsessed with data-driven marketing, demand gen marketers are the voices of reason. They make decisions based on hard numbers, not just instinct. Occasionally, this can sometimes feel like a wet blanket for your creative team.

For example, let’s say your team did a major push for video last year, but received little to no engagement from leads. The answer is not, “Let’s just make better, more awesome (*cough* expensive) videos next time.”

Good demand gen marketers will raise their hands, and remind their colleagues that whitepapers perform better. In this way, the demand gen marketer must blow the whistle on certain ideas, guiding their teams to be more strategic and efficient. This is modern marketing—lead with the data, and adjust your creative strategy accordingly.

1 2 3

Introduction


Your B2B Demand Gen PlaybookWe’ve created this playbook to layout the key steps an all-star marketer must take to accomplish the following:

» Plan a demand gen strategy according to funnel and pipeline status

» Create an agile strategy that responds to the changing needs of the funnel

» Distribute content through digital channels in a way that is integrated, targeted, and results-driven

» Optimize around data-driven insights to shorten the sales cycle and consistently meet needs of potential customers

Let’s get this game started!

CH 1: Plan


01Identify Your Pipeline Goals

[F]or the demand gen marketer, planning must start with an audit of the entire funnel: top to bottom. The goal is to get an accurate picture

of how many leads, MQLs, and opportunities are needed and the rate of conversion at each stage to hit quarterly and annual revenue goals. These metrics are crucial to defining goals, and optimizing your strategy for success down the line.

CH 1: Plan


Reverse Engineering the FunnelIn the world of modern marketing, revenue is your ultimate success metric. With that fact in mind, set revenue as your foundational goal and use average conversion rates to determine your goals at every stage of the funnel. Working bottom-up, you’ll be able to anticipate the total volume of new leads and overall traffic necessary to meet your bottom-of-the-funnel goals.

Here’s an example of how a demand gen marketer plans quarterly and yearly goals:

1 Step 1:Determine total revenue goals for the upcoming quarters and year. You can also break these goals down monthly to track progress. Calculate the average length of the sales cycle to determine how far in advance marketing needs to deliver opportunities to sales. For example, if it takes sales an average of 90 days to close a deal, marketing needs to deliver the right number of opportunities 90 days (one quarter) in advance, so sales has enough time to close these deals and meet their quota for the quarter.

CH 1: Plan


Step 2:Calculate the contribution goals, meaning determine what percent of revenue marketing has agreed with sales to contribute on an annual and quarterly basis. Then, working backward, demand gen can define the volume of leads and opportunities that will ultimately result in X percent of total revenue.

For most mid-market sized companies, the ownership/contribution between sales and marketing is close to 50/50. For more mature organizations with highly established sales structures, ownership/contribution looks more like 25(marketing)/75(sales). You’ll want to define goals on where revenue comes from: net new or from existing accounts, and cross-sell or upsell with an existing customer. Even further, determine revenue goals based on sales segments like enterprise, mid-market, SMB, etc.

So to calculate how much revenue needs to be generated by marketing for the next sales cycle, follow this simple calculation:

2

Percent Ownership(eg. 50% would be .50)

Revenue Contribution

Owned By Marketing

($ Dollar Amount)

Total Revenue($ Dollar Amount)

R x O = M

CH 1: Plan


Revenue Owned by Marketing

($ Dollar Amount)

Average Deal Size($ Dollar Amount)

# of Marketing-Generated

Closed-win Deals

Step 3:Next, figure out how many closed-won deals marketing needs to generate to meet their contribution number. Here’s an easy calculation to help you get there:

MA = G

This calculation tells you exactly how many closed deals marketing must generate in the next sales cycle.

3

CH 1: Plan


Step 4:Using average or target conversion rates, work backwards from revenue to calculate traffic, net new names, leads, and MQLs required from stage to stage to meet revenue goals.

To determine how many leads you need at each stage by the end of the sales cycle, you’ll need to determine what conversion model you want to use as standard practice. Perhaps your company has one, but if not, below is an example depicting each stage in the sales funnel, and the conversion formulas for each taken from SiriusDecisions Demand Waterfall® stage conversions average benchmarks. Once you’ve made this calculation for each stage, you’ll know exactly how many leads you’ll need to convert from the top of the funnel to MQL (see diagram on p.17), all the way to opportunity stages. These terms may differ from organization to organization, so you can use this as your template and fill out the appropriate terms for your company. These numbers now represent the baseline metrics for all marketing activity targeted at revenue generation.

The formula for this stage looks like this:

4

GC = S

#leads from current stage

% Conversion rate of previous stage to current stage

# of Leads needed at

previous stage

CH 1: Plan


Lets put it all together with an example:

[L]ets say in stage one you determine that your revenue goal for the quarter is two

million dollars and marketing’s percent ownership of that two million is 50%. With those two values in place we can determine the dollar amount of revenue owned by marketing using the formula: R x O = M.

Now that we know the amount of revenue owned by marketing, and given your average deal generates $10,000 in revenue, we can determine the number of closed deals required as a result of marketing activity using the formula: M/A = G.

Finally, we can begin reverse engineering our funnel using the formula G/C = S to solve for the stage. For this example we are using SiriusDecisions Demand Waterfall Stage Conversions Average Benchmarks. (Shown to the right)

Then we will repeat the formula to find the value for SAL by replacing G with the found value from OPP stage and C with the SAL to OPP Conversion rate found in the SiriusDecisions Demand Waterfall stage conversions average benchmarks chart.

To find the remaining values we will repeat this process for each of the following stages until your funnel is complete. Your reverse funnel should look something like the example on the following page.

1,000,000

10,000= 100

100

.231= 433

433

.491= 882

$ 2,000,000 x .50 = $ 1,000,000

SiriusDecisions Demand Waterfall® Stage Conversions Average

Benchmarks

OPP » REV 23.1%

SAL » OPP 49.1%

MQL » SAL 58.3%

LEAD » MQL 3.9%Opportunities Required

SAL Required

CH 1: Plan


Your reverse engineered funnel should look something like this:

CLOSED WON REVENUE

OPPORTUNITY

SALES ACCEPTED LEADS

MARKETING QUALIFIED LEADS

ALL LEADS FROM FILLED OUT GATED FORMS

REV

OPP

SAL

MQL

LEADS

100

.231= 433

433

.491= 882

882

.583= 1,513

1,513

.039= 38,795

Your complete Funnel for one sales cycle:

REV

OPP

SAL

MQL

LEADS38,795

1,513

882

433

100

# of

Lea

ds a

t ea

ch s

tage

CH 1: Plan


Before you can determine what personas to target and how many leads you need to drive a healthy pipeline for your company, you must know your ideal customer profile like the back of your hand.

Dig into the situations/problems your product addresses and solves, and identify the types of prospects or companies (size, industry, etc.) that:

» Experience the pains your product or solution solves

» Have a plan and buy-in for onboarding or implementing your solution

» Have budget and purchase authority

Plan an Agile Demand-Gen Strategy The Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)

[T]o achieve a healthy pipeline, your database must be evaluated constantly to ensure that your marketing efforts attract leads that will become good and

valuable customers for your company. Traffic and form fill-outs are meaningless for a demand gen team if they don’t convert into actual revenue.

http://sixteenventures.com/ideal-customer-profile

CH 1: Plan


If you notice unqualified leads in your pipeline, the demand gen marketer is responsible for stepping up to the plate to determine why, and consults respective teams on how they can adjust their marketing efforts to pivot quickly and turn the trend around. This is challenging, iterative, and highly collaborative work that needs to be treated like a marathon, not a sprint.

Executive-level staff or strategy teams typically define ideal customer profiles (ICPs), but a demand gen marketer must constantly monitor the leads captured at the top of the funnel to ensure they align with ICP criteria. If they don’t, then your database will not accurately reflect projected pipeline, and sales will struggle to bring in revenue from the leads your marketing team generates.

Here are some standard elements to consider when mapping out your ideal customer profile:

Set your spreadsheets on fire. With Kapost Content Planner, you can see what content is in production and monitor campaign progress all in one place.

SEE it in action

» What do your most successful customers have in common?

» What size company is the best fit for your product (enterprise, mid-market, start-up)?

» Who must engage in the purchase process (who holds the checkbook, who is your company’s champion, who is the end user)?

http://kapost.com/kapost-content-planner/

CH 2: create


02

[A] winning demand generation strategy is 100% dictated by the evolving needs and challenges that arise in your funnel. Other marketing

teams rely on your data and expertise to help them determine the best content types for attracting or moving leads quickly through the buyer’s journey.

An all-star demand gen marketer is highly regarded across other marketing functions, and acts as a metrics-driven support system for content, product, customer success, and creative teams. But the success of a demand gen marketer is directly proportional to the quality and volume of content they receive from the very teams they help consult.

CH 2: create


With each channel that demand gen manages, there must be appropriate content to feed to it. Likewise, content must be created for each stage of the funnel—from awareness stage to closed deal to repeat customer. Demand gen teams must collaborate with respective content creators—often on totally different teams—depending on pipeline stage and content type.

The chart below depicts examples of content driving demand gen at each stage in the marketing pipeline.

Awareness Investigation Comparison Consideration Purchase Post-Sale

Team Marcom, digital, social

Demand gen, marketing ops, field marketing,

sales

Product marketing,

sales consulting,

sales

Sales, product marketing,

product mgmt, consulting

Sales, customer support,

consulting

Customer support, customer marketing

Content Types

Press releases, blog posts, videos, infographics, social posts

eBooks, landing pages, emails,

webinars, events

Fact sheets, case studies,

videos, testimonials,

webinars

FAQ sheets, brochures, tech

guides

Onboarding docs, help articles,

presentations

Product collateral,

events, webinars

Content Goals

Thought leadership, engagement

Lead acquisition, lead

qualification

Lead qualification,

lead flow

Equip sales team, build consensus

Confirm value, define next

steps

Onboard, ensure success

Key Metrics

Referral traffic, social

shares, channel

engagement, downloads

Registration, downloads,

new leads, lead attribution

Opens, click-throughs,

downloads, conversion attribution

Content usage, downloads,

opens, conversion attribution

Content usage,

downloads, revenue

attribution

Downloads, opens, content

usage, online engagement

CH 2: create


Awareness/Investigation Stages: Mapping Top-of-Funnel Content

[I]n the awareness and investigation stages, potential buyers have their first impression of your brand. This isn’t the time to inundate

them with product demos and data sheets. This is the time to engage visitors with easy-to-consume content that is compelling and positions your company as an industry thought leader.

At this stage in the buyer’s journey, content creation generally lives with social and content marketing teams. Sometimes, demand gen teams will own top-funnel content creation as well. Top-of-funnel engagement generally requires content such as brief 30-second videos, thought leadership pieces, blog posts, eBooks, infographics, interactive media, and social media. The content goal of this stage is to engage a visitor enough to make them curious about your product, and interact with more content until they become a marketing qualified lead (MQL).

Top-of-Funnel Video from an All-Star

Kapost customer, Lenovo, created this bite-sized video comparing the strength of an NFL player to a fourth grader, to demonstrate how their new laptop can twist 360 degrees.

“This isn’t the time to inundate them with product demos and data sheets. This is the time to engage visitors with easy-to-consume content that is compelling and positions your company as an industry thought leader.”

http://www.sbnation.com/sponsored/9096677/watch-eddie-lacey-try-to-break-a-lenovo-yoga-in-half#ooid=xxdjhvdzprce83pYL2wQdtLly6j2oMxx

CH 2: create


Comparison Stage: Mapping Mid-Funnel Content

[O]nce a lead has been flagged as marketing qualified (MQL), content should tie high-level themes to the value of your product or

solution, preparing prospects for a conversation with sales. In a standard waterfall model, MQL conversions to sales accepted leads (SALs) can range anywhere from 15-40%.

However, don’t confuse this stage as your opportunity to share long-winded product demos. At this stage, a lead is still getting to know your brand, but is now curious as to what value your product brings and how it alleviates their challenges.

Content at this stage must be guided by messaging and product positioning. If your content doesn’t immediately address your ICP’s pain points and offer them a clear and easy path to solve that, then you’ve likely lost their attention.

Appropriate content at this stage includes short, value-focused product videos, event promotions, customer case studies and videos, webinars, and product sheets.

15-40%In a standard waterfall model, MQL

conversions to sales accepted leads (SALs) can range anywhere from 15-40%

CH 2: create


Content and Demand Generation: Chicken or the Egg?In most companies, content creation lives across many teams and departments. While demand teams are responsible for content creation as well, they must leverage the content created across the company to develop and track demand gen programs and campaigns for the entire buyer’s journey.

This is, inevitably, where conflict arises.

Shar Berwick, Senior Director of Demand Gen at Kapost, had this to say about the challenges between content creation and demand gen.

Content and demand teams should meet regularly, or have an established system of communication, ideation, and planning to ensure alignment of these two important teams. Despite the power struggle, the truth is, both functions are mutually dependent on the success of the other. However, there are some ways to align better with your content team in producing the right content, for the right channels and programs.

“As a demand gen marketer, I need to understand if campaigns are effective. I need to know if we are driving the right engagement with the right content to the right

audience at the top of the funnel, and if that engagement impacts conversion further down the funnel. Without

these metrics, it makes it tough to make good decisions on what content to produce, for what audience, and at what stage. Often times, a lot of gut instinct goes into decision-making, but that’s where my role comes in.”

CH 2: create


Content and Demand Gen AlignmentAs a demand gen marketer, you are the data guru and keeper of quantitative insights for the entire funnel. While plenty of technology exists to measure specific functions of content marketing, such as social media analytics tools, demand gen typically maintains a holistic view of the funnel and provides insights to the content team that they may not have considered.

Bring these insights to the table with your content team, and use that data to discuss what content resonates with your company’s target audience, drives ICP leads, and supports a fast-moving sales cycle.

For example, your content team may be spending the majority of their time developing their blog strategy. But if video content has a higher lead-to-MQL conversion rate, your analysis can help steer the content strategy toward efforts that convert most successfully.

There’s less need for speculation when data is involved. Leverage that when discussing upcoming campaigns and the content fueling them. When demand gen and content succeeds, your company ultimately succeeds.

The primary content creators at this stage are product marketers and field marketers. The primary goal for mid-funnel content is sales enablement. Once a lead has been handed off to sales, content must focus on supporting those responsible for nurturing the opportunity.

Kapost on KapostOne Customer Story, Several Demand Gen Touchpoints

[D]atavail marketers use Kapost

at both the manager and CMO-level. In order to leverage their story for multiple inbound purposes, we created two case studies, one from each user perspective, for different demand gen objectives.

Top of Funnel →— Blog post covering the summarized Datavail story from the implementers’ perspective, with a call to action (CTA) to read the formal case study.

Middle of Funnel — Case study from the CMO perspective, delivered through marketing automation channels with CTA to demo the Kapost product.

http://marketeer.kapost.com/digital-content-marketing-datavail/#axzz3qMbxHHmh

http://resources.kapost.com/rs/389-IOX-111/images/success-stories-datavail-case-study.pdf

CH 2: create


Demand Gen and Sales EnablementBut this hand-off process is far from easy, and it’s where demand gen plays a large role. Demand gen marketers must take a hard look at the conversion criteria to determine if their lead scoring is either too stringent or too lenient to consider a lead MQL.

This phenomenon is often called “mid-funnel stall.” To read more about how

Kapost tackles this, CLICK HERE!

Consideration/Purchase Stages: Mapping Bottom-of-Funnel Content

[A]t the consideration and purchase stages of the funnel, demand gen marketers play more of a supporting role to sales.

For demand gen marketers, programs at this stage are built upon the needs of sales staff and B2B buyers on their path to purchase.

This could look like setting up a program to target different job roles within companies being pursued by sales. Content that might be pushed through demand generation channels at this stage might include FAQ sheets, technology guides, and presentations as needed.

Ditch the company shared drive. See how Kapost Content Gallery organizes, shares, and tracks all of the content you need across regions, verticals, and personas in a single place.

SEE IT in Action

http://kapost.com/kapost-content-gallery/

Ch 3: Distribute


03

[A]t the end of the day, a demand gen marketer is responsible for closed-won revenue for the company, through programs developed with

content and tailored for various distribution channels.

The distribution strategies of a demand gen team vary from company to company, but below is an example of a pipeline support model, mapping out primary channels leveraged across the funnel.

Ch 3: Distribute


Product, Brand, Content/Messaging, Events, Demand Gen.Brand/Messaging/PR• PR, AR, Social, Awareness• Website

SEO• Keyword optimization• SEO Audit/Analytics

Strategic Events• Trade shows• Webinars

Thought Leadership• Themes• Product updates

Demand Gen, Content, Events.

Inbound Campaigns• Paid digital/search• Social marketing• Retargeting

Outbound Campaigns• Email• Mobile

Virtual Events• Webinars• Sponsored webinars• Virtual event

Nurture• Pre-MQL nurture

Demand Gen, Content, Events.

Account Based Marketing• ABM Advertising/Retargeting• ABM outbound emails• ABM nurture emails

Regional/Virtual Events• Sponsored events• Channel/Partner events

Nurture• Sales nurture (dynamic)• SDR engagement emails• OPP nurtures

Product, Events, Customer, Demand Gen“Closer” Events• Assist with face-to-face intros to other clients (validation), meeting

executives• Key Account Marketing Program• Special Events, Ad hoc

Customer, Events, Demand Gen, Content

Customer Enablement /Engagement /Growth• Key Account Marketing Programs• Special Events, Ad hoc

Awar

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Marketing Pipeline Support Model - Demand Gen

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Com

pari

son

(MOF

U)Co

nsid

erat

ion/

Purc

hase

(BOF

U)PO

ST-S

ALE

TOFU - Top-of-FunnelMOFU - Middle-of-FunnelBOFU - Bottom-of-Funnel

Ch 3: Distribute


Awareness and Investigation StagesProduct, Brand, Content/Messaging, Events, Demand Gen.

Brand/Messaging/PR• PR, AR, Social, Awareness• Website

SEO• Keyword optimization• SEO Audit/Analytics

Strategic Events• Trade shows• Webinars

Thought Leadership• Themes• Product updates

Demand Gen, Content, Events.Inbound Campaigns• Paid digital/search• Social marketing• Retargeting

Outbound Campaigns• Email• Mobile

Virtual Events• Webinars• Sponsored webinars• Virtual event

Nurture• Pre-MQL nurture

At the awareness and investigation stages, leveraging your inbound and outbound channels is critical to the health of your pipeline. Here are a few key channels to focus on in your demand gen role:

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and SEM (Search Engine Marketing)Going beyond content, top-of-funnel activity also needs to include SEO and SEM, whether outsourced or in-house. SEO is often an afterthought in a marketing strategy, but it’s critical that you bring in enough organic so that you can reach the conversion projections for the following pipeline stages.

Without a high volume of top-funnel traffic coming from organic and paid traffic, your numbers are sure to fall short of your revenue goals per sales cycle.

Inve

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Ch 3: Distribute


Website and Call-to-Action StrategyOne of the most important elements of successful top-of-funnel content is calls to action (CTAs). A clearly defined and tested CTA strategy will not only guide your visitors on an exciting, intuitive journey through your website, but will convert more people faster.

Building out a successful CTA strategy is not for the faint of heart, however. It takes an iterative testing methodology. Before you begin testing, start with designing an engagement path—from call to action to conversion—that is quick, consistent, potent, and testable. Remember that every extra step creates a higher barrier to conversion, and you risk losing a percentage of your audience.

EmailDemand gen marketers are often email marketing superstars. When a lead enters your marketing database, demand gen is responsible for setting up automated email programs to nurture that lead and move them closer to purchase. Using technology like marketing automation to deliver targeted, relevant content to the right people at the right time, and monitoring their behavior for high-value actions (for example, visiting pricing pages or requesting to be contacted by sales), demand gen marketers move B2B buyers more quickly toward a conversation with sales. Also, tracking how and when buyers engage allows demand gen teams to optimize their strategies based on valuable data.

http://marketeer.kapost.com/ctas-drive-conversions/#axzz3rftBIr54

Ch 3: Distribute


Account-Based Demand GenOne strategy many B2B marketing teams leverage during the consideration stage is account-based marketing (ABM). In order to target top accounts and build out targeted programs, it requires a collaborative effort across demand gen, product marketing, and sales teams.

The stakes are much higher when executing an ABM strategy. To miss one account is to burn major revenue opportunities for your company. To be successful, demand gen marketers will need to develop an inbound strategy tightly coordinated with outbound and nurture campaigns to specific individuals within a target account. This approach requires laser-focused messaging and CTAs, so be sure to consider pain points and value props specific to the role that each individual has within the account company.

Regional and Virtual EventsAnother mid-funnel demand gen strategy revolves around regional and digital events. Regional events can be in-person workshops, dinners, or conferences, and provide an important opportunity to engage directly with prospects and your target audience. Digital events, such as webinars or online summits, are cost-effective ways to interact with buyers and move them toward purchase. For MQLs early in the sales process, an interactive event allows them to engage with real people and other industry peers. This can be the difference between lukewarm interest and a valuable champion that will rally decision-makers around your product as their ultimate solution.

Demand Gen, Content, Events.Account Based Marketing• ABM Advertising/Retargeting• ABM outbound emails• ABM nurture emails

Regional/Virtual Events• Kapost events• Channel/Partner events

Nurture• Sales nurture (dynamic)• SDR engagement emails• OPP NurturesCo

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Ch 3: Distribute


[A]s mentioned previously, demand generation’s role in this stage is largely that of support, and responding to account-specific needs

and requests from sales. Likewise, demand gen may need to create campaigns around events aimed to close target accounts that are close to purchase, but need that last push. It’s also important to remember that, at this stage, it’s critical to pull and evaluate the data around closed-won and closed-lost opportunities. This helps demand gen marketers gain further insight into ICP accuracy, and incorporate this information into ongoing strategy for content and distribution at every stage of the funnel.

Product, Events, Customer, Demand Gen

“Closer” Events• Assist with face-to-face intros to other clients (validation), meeting

executives• Key Account Marketing Program• Special events, ad hocCo

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U)Consideration and Purchase Stages

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[O]ptimizing channels and programs is the sweet spot in the demand gen game. A primary responsibility is to monitor pipeline activity

as it pertains to identified goals. These will shift quarterly or annually as the company’s needs change, so it’s important to remain agile in your ability to refocus energy on addressing and optimizing funnel challenges that occur for different reasons, and support the respective teams responsible with data-backed suggestions.

Here are some of the more common challenges that plague most demand gen marketers at each major stage in the funnel.

When negative performance data would frighten many a modern marketer, this is the fuel that drives the demand gen marketer to greatness.

Ch 4: Optimize


Top-of-Funnel Woes: When Leads Aren’t Converting

[A] common issue among B2B marketing teams is stalled conversions from stage to stage, or a lack in traffic to their website in general.

Problem: Web traffic is low.Possible Solutions:

» Invest in SEO/SEM. Either ramp up your in-house team of experts, or consider hiring a consultant to do an SEO audit of your site.

» Do a thorough social media audit. If any of your social channels are performing particularly poorly, consider investing more time in the channels that are working more effectively or testing new ways to engage your target audience. Social media requires time and bandwidth. If your team is stretched too thin over too many platforms, less is often more.

» Leverage the power of Google Analytics. This tool can provide powerful insight into your most engaged with pages, and how customers move through your owned web properties. You can also see where on your website visitors decide to leave. With this insight, you can focus on improving pages and optimizing the user journey.

Ch 4: Optimize


Problem: The site gets a lot of activity, but doesn’t capture enough new leads.

Possible Solutions: » Provide more high-value content that can be gated (ie. requires filling out a form to receive the content).

» Take advantage of opportunities and calls to action across your site to drive more traffic to relevant, dynamic landing pages.

» Test your landing pages to find easy-to-implement changes that can significantly increase conversion. This can include testing messaging, calls to action, button color and placement, etc.

» Decrease the number of form fields visitors need to fill out on your contact or landing pages. Consider technology solutions that append data to minimize the barriers to entry.

» Evaluate your website UX. It should be intuitive for visitors to find the content they need, so they convert quickly based on their interests and needs.

All of these possible solutions can be tested using tools such as marketing automation and website evaluation tools. The process of optimizing top-of-funnel channels is iterative—and you can’t do everything at once. Prioritize what you test based on the most important end results, and use an if-then approach. Otherwise you may be running around the problem, rather than tackling it head on.

Ch 4: Optimize


Avoid the Mid-Funnel Stall

[M]id-funnel stall is a common challenge among product marketing, sales enablement, and other functions engaged at the advancement stage of the buyer’s

journey. The database will reflect plenty of leads and MQLs, but they may be slow to convert to an actual opportunity. It’s not a problem marketing teams like to have, but luckily, it’s the kind of challenge demand gen marketers know how to tackle head on. It takes ongoing communication, collaboration, and iteration with sales to pivot effectively according to what the funnel needs at the time.

For example, perhaps those that MQL are primarily admirers of your thought leadership material, but have no need for your product. This suggests that your MQL criteria is too weak and needs to be adjusted to filter leads that better fit your ideal customer profile (ICP). With a weaker MQL criteria, sales will find themselves excited by a high volume of leads, but eventually will get frustrated by their lack of quality. Despite being pleasantly busy with prospect calls, few of them will lead to closed revenue.

On the other hand, if MQL criteria is too strict, sales will start to sweat because their volume of incoming leads is high quality, but too few in number to meet their own individual and departmental quotas. Demand gen teams must be constantly diligent about assessing their criteria alongside an appropriate volume and quality of MQL hand-offs.

Demand gen must constantly comb through CRM data to ensure that the balance between volume and quality is healthy for the organization, and determine actionable steps when adjustment is necessary. Perhaps content must change, or a new channel needs to be leveraged, or MQL criteria to be refined. Demand gen marketers must act as investigators in this process.

Learn how Kapost takes marketing/sales alignment from a buzzword to a reality.

http://marketeer.kapost.com/sales-marketing/#axzz3rftBIr54





OFF TO THE RACES!You have your playbook in hand—you know how to plan, create, distribute, and optimize for demand gen. Now get out there and execute a winning demand gen marketing strategy.

On your mark—get set—go!

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B2B_Demand_Gen_Marketing_Playbook

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