The Evolution of Demand Gen

WEBVTT 1 00:00:02.540 --> 00:00:02.740 Yeah 2 00:00:05.140 --> 00:00:10.290 welcome back to be to be growth. I'm Leslie Cruise with Swedish media and we 3 00:00:10.290 --> 00:00:14.710 are continuing on our journey into demand generation. Um Today I'm joined 4 00:00:14.710 --> 00:00:18.930 by Sarah Anderson who is the head of marketing at Origin. Sarah thanks so 5 00:00:18.930 --> 00:00:22.010 much for coming on the show today. Thank you very much. I'm happy to be 6 00:00:22.010 --> 00:00:25.580 here. Yeah. So I want to start off by talking a little bit about 7 00:00:25.580 --> 00:00:30.240 transformation and obviously demand jin has really taken off in the past few 8 00:00:30.240 --> 00:00:34.730 years and has evolved tremendously. So do you mind sharing a little bit about 9 00:00:34.730 --> 00:00:39.260 how the evolution of marketing has kind of transformed your role over the past 10 00:00:39.260 --> 00:00:46.840 several years? Yeah, sure I am. I think what's good here is to first look at 11 00:00:46.850 --> 00:00:51.870 just how demand generation has changed in the past 15 years. When I look back 12 00:00:51.880 --> 00:00:56.440 at what I was doing 15 years ago, it was all about the M. P. U. L. Uh we 13 00:00:56.440 --> 00:01:00.470 were just getting the technology, we needed to track our leads and 14 00:01:00.470 --> 00:01:05.200 ultimately be considered in the revenue discussions. So that was very exciting 15 00:01:05.200 --> 00:01:10.010 time. But, you know, quickly and then I think somewhere in between then and now 16 00:01:10.010 --> 00:01:14.380 we quickly realized, you know, content was king. They started producing these 17 00:01:14.380 --> 00:01:20.080 just massive amounts of content helped fuel the funnel. And, and, and then 18 00:01:20.090 --> 00:01:25.330 today, I feel like we've just, we've evolved into this group that we like, 19 00:01:25.340 --> 00:01:30.360 not only do, we need to be very creative and create these compelling, 20 00:01:30.360 --> 00:01:34.760 engaging campaigns, but also we have to have this tech background that, that 21 00:01:34.760 --> 00:01:40.160 wasn't necessarily required 15, 20 years ago. Uh, and that's to, you know, 22 00:01:40.160 --> 00:01:45.560 track every interaction our buyers have from, from the start of the campaign to 23 00:01:45.560 --> 00:01:49.670 the end. And, and, you know, that was pretty simple years ago. There was a 24 00:01:49.670 --> 00:01:56.060 few touch points and now we, you know, there's, there's so many chances for a 25 00:01:56.070 --> 00:01:59.630 prospect to interact with our brand and we want to make sure that we're 26 00:01:59.630 --> 00:02:04.320 tracking all that and that takes a lot of technical Background for sure. And I 27 00:02:04.320 --> 00:02:08.560 think it's also just important to talk about the last 12 months because our 28 00:02:08.560 --> 00:02:13.770 roles have changed drastically in in just this year. Uh and I think for me 29 00:02:13.770 --> 00:02:19.110 it's it's really in two areas. So one like I I relied heavily on in person 30 00:02:19.120 --> 00:02:23.450 engagement like conferences and and like more intimate dinners with our 31 00:02:23.450 --> 00:02:29.110 prospects and so that obviously went out the window and got thrown out. And 32 00:02:29.110 --> 00:02:34.980 now we've pivoted very quickly to, we did last year very quickly to try some 33 00:02:34.980 --> 00:02:42.010 new things. And then on top of that we also we're seeing our marketing budgets 34 00:02:42.010 --> 00:02:48.440 really tighten and as a result of the pandemic, we either lost budget or just 35 00:02:48.440 --> 00:02:52.890 really had to tighten up, tighten up on spending. And so we were kind of 36 00:02:52.900 --> 00:02:58.520 automatically all turned into growth marketers overnight and coming up with 37 00:02:58.520 --> 00:03:04.300 all these really interesting strategies to just get more from less. So that's 38 00:03:04.300 --> 00:03:09.450 yeah, it's changed so much and it's really exciting field to be in for sure 39 00:03:10.340 --> 00:03:14.350 and becoming more of a marketing role rather than you know, a sales role. I 40 00:03:14.350 --> 00:03:18.330 think that people are so accustomed in the past two sales generating all the 41 00:03:18.330 --> 00:03:22.020 revenue and really that's not so much the case anymore. Like a big percentage 42 00:03:22.020 --> 00:03:26.830 of that revenue really falls on marketing as well. Yeah. Yeah. You're 43 00:03:26.830 --> 00:03:33.040 right. You know, at the start of my career, even even um 10 years ago or so 44 00:03:33.050 --> 00:03:37.250 I was tied to different metrics than I am today. Like today it's all about the 45 00:03:37.250 --> 00:03:44.800 percentage marketing is is producing in revenue. So it's we have the technology, 46 00:03:44.800 --> 00:03:51.170 we have the skills and so why not be a part of that at that level? Sure. Well, 47 00:03:51.170 --> 00:03:55.280 you know, demand jin just a term that gets thrown around and be to be a lot 48 00:03:55.280 --> 00:03:58.800 and everybody kind of seems to have a different take on what it is, what it's 49 00:03:58.800 --> 00:04:02.950 not what it should be, where it's going. So do you mind just sharing, what is 50 00:04:02.950 --> 00:04:09.370 your definition of demand generation? Yeah, I have no idea. I still every 51 00:04:09.370 --> 00:04:13.440 once in a while just google, you know, the definition of demand jin or 52 00:04:13.440 --> 00:04:18.459 demanding versus legion or because it always comes up uh my whole career 53 00:04:18.459 --> 00:04:23.850 really like getting confused, especially outside of marketing. Um So 54 00:04:23.850 --> 00:04:30.140 I I honestly just no, I I do have some ideas in my opinion. I think demand 55 00:04:30.140 --> 00:04:35.350 generation is, I think it's easy to talk about demanding versus legion. So 56 00:04:35.350 --> 00:04:40.140 I think the difference there is demand generation is the bigger picture and 57 00:04:40.140 --> 00:04:45.000 it's, it's really selling, uh not just a particular product, but like the 58 00:04:45.000 --> 00:04:51.380 whole experience or solution that whatever it is for, for me, it's 59 00:04:51.380 --> 00:04:57.240 financial wellness benefits. So it's not necessarily selling my company, my 60 00:04:57.240 --> 00:05:02.760 products, it's about understand making sure that the prospects understand why 61 00:05:02.770 --> 00:05:07.120 this particular thing is important, should be important. Um, so it's just, 62 00:05:07.130 --> 00:05:12.850 it's just a much bigger thing and I think lead generation plays a big role 63 00:05:12.880 --> 00:05:18.510 in demand generation and that that's, that's the way you get them to the 64 00:05:18.510 --> 00:05:23.520 point of saying, oh, I want that particular one, like I want that 65 00:05:23.530 --> 00:05:28.350 particular benefit for in my, in my case. And so that's, that's how I see 66 00:05:28.350 --> 00:05:35.080 it, but it's, it's evolved so much like, I just feel like in the early days I am 67 00:05:35.080 --> 00:05:44.070 guilty of jumping on the demand shin as the hot new title bandwagon and you 68 00:05:44.070 --> 00:05:50.070 know, it's now just it's so such a big part of marketing. Like I feel like in 69 00:05:50.070 --> 00:05:57.240 a lot of ways I do most parts of marketing, the exclusion being I don't 70 00:05:57.240 --> 00:06:02.310 really touch pr and product marketing, but in a way I kind of do actually, 71 00:06:02.310 --> 00:06:06.390 because even with when we're planning out pr campaigns, I'm always thinking 72 00:06:06.390 --> 00:06:12.640 about how to leverage that for demand generation. So yeah, it's it's just so 73 00:06:12.650 --> 00:06:17.770 it's such a large area of marketing today and I previously talked about how 74 00:06:17.780 --> 00:06:21.480 it kind of started as this like fancy title and it's just grown so much over 75 00:06:21.480 --> 00:06:25.850 the past couple of years. And, you know, we talked about kind of getting going 76 00:06:25.850 --> 00:06:31.080 on those measurable things. Yeah, for me, I think on measuring, I think 77 00:06:31.080 --> 00:06:36.170 that's a big part of it. Like I I think my role specifically is is very much in 78 00:06:36.170 --> 00:06:41.880 the marketing operations world to have a very successful, demanding campaign. 79 00:06:41.880 --> 00:06:45.310 I think you really have to have that, that knowledge of how to track 80 00:06:45.310 --> 00:06:51.510 everything. So yeah, it's all, it's very, very measurable part of marketing 81 00:06:51.520 --> 00:06:55.890 for sure. We talked a little bit earlier about kind of filling the 82 00:06:55.890 --> 00:07:00.880 funnel and really optimizing on that quality over quantity. So let's dive 83 00:07:00.880 --> 00:07:05.480 into that a little bit. Can you describe your campaign optimization 84 00:07:05.480 --> 00:07:09.730 process and what that looks like? Yeah, sure for me, I've always been a part of 85 00:07:09.730 --> 00:07:15.310 a Lien marketing team, a lots of startups and, and typically the first 86 00:07:15.310 --> 00:07:20.380 marketing higher. And so my first thought when you say campaign 87 00:07:20.380 --> 00:07:26.380 optimization is is just to repurpose everything. So An example of that if 88 00:07:26.380 --> 00:07:30.930 you pay $10,000 to speak at a conference, like don't let the campaign 89 00:07:30.930 --> 00:07:37.140 end there, like grab the recording, turn it into a podcast or transcribe it 90 00:07:37.140 --> 00:07:42.800 and write a blog post or an e book on the session. And so there you have 91 00:07:42.800 --> 00:07:46.680 another piece of lead generation content and then go even further and 92 00:07:46.680 --> 00:07:50.760 edit the video down into small little clips and put that on your website. 93 00:07:50.760 --> 00:07:56.270 Give it to sales to use for prospecting. So yeah, every every little effort, 94 00:07:56.280 --> 00:08:01.150 like those tiny little like with a little bit of effort and not much 95 00:08:01.160 --> 00:08:06.960 additional budget, you've extended the life of every campaign indefinitely. So 96 00:08:07.640 --> 00:08:11.710 that's my secret sauce, especially in the early days of building out a 97 00:08:11.710 --> 00:08:16.750 marketing team is is just to make sure that you're leveraging Everything you 98 00:08:16.750 --> 00:08:22.360 can and you know that $10,000 investment can produce so much more 99 00:08:22.740 --> 00:08:27.660 when you are repurposing things, we're looking at that campaign, How do you 100 00:08:27.660 --> 00:08:34.340 measure success there? Yeah, I think tracking everything, uh, just, you know, 101 00:08:34.340 --> 00:08:39.710 I'd say the one thing I would say there is like, just don't wait for the length 102 00:08:39.710 --> 00:08:46.030 of the deal cycle to know if a campaign is working. So what I do specifically 103 00:08:46.040 --> 00:08:51.570 is I break up the steps of the buyer journey quite a bit like a bit overkill 104 00:08:51.580 --> 00:08:57.070 and then measure every conversion through the funnel and that will 105 00:08:57.070 --> 00:09:02.020 quickly tell me like what's working and what's not and so you can much more 106 00:09:02.020 --> 00:09:05.930 quickly see like which top of funnel initiatives are working. And if you 107 00:09:05.930 --> 00:09:10.670 wait, you know, if your sales cycle is 30 days, 90 days, whatever you don't 108 00:09:10.670 --> 00:09:16.050 want to wait to see the R. O. Y. At the end, you've already wasted so much time. 109 00:09:16.060 --> 00:09:20.550 And in the start up world, you just, you just, you're moving fast. So I 110 00:09:20.550 --> 00:09:24.570 would say, yeah, that would be, that's that's one way to do it is just make 111 00:09:24.570 --> 00:09:29.930 sure you're not just looking at traditional return, like break it down 112 00:09:29.930 --> 00:09:33.460 into all the steps and that could be, you know, your marketing qualified 113 00:09:33.460 --> 00:09:39.340 leads, sales, qualified leads, whatever, but just have it broken out and in your 114 00:09:39.350 --> 00:09:43.660 marketing automation tools so that you can really hone in on where things are 115 00:09:43.660 --> 00:09:47.890 falling and you can quickly get an idea of which programs are moving forward 116 00:09:47.890 --> 00:09:52.340 and which ones are stalling out. So that's that's my recommendation there, 117 00:09:52.350 --> 00:09:58.070 let's say, a small startup organization like you mentioned, um, wants to start 118 00:09:58.080 --> 00:10:02.010 a demand gen um, strategy completely from scratch and they've never done 119 00:10:02.010 --> 00:10:08.390 this before. Where would you recommend for them to start? Good question. I'd 120 00:10:08.390 --> 00:10:12.770 say, first of all I'd say keep it simple and then keep it highly 121 00:10:12.770 --> 00:10:18.960 measurable. So you walk in and the Ceo says they want a giant billboard, you 122 00:10:18.960 --> 00:10:25.740 politely respectfully decline that and just start with, you know, 3 to 4 123 00:10:25.740 --> 00:10:29.830 programs, you know, have worked in the past for you, ones that don't take a 124 00:10:29.830 --> 00:10:36.120 ton of resources if that's a limiting factor for you and just get those up 125 00:10:36.130 --> 00:10:39.660 and running and you know, like I mentioned, make sure you're tracking 126 00:10:39.660 --> 00:10:44.460 every step of the funnel and you know, while those are kind of getting up to 127 00:10:44.460 --> 00:10:51.300 speed, you can also have a little more flexibility to um have a little what I 128 00:10:51.300 --> 00:10:56.600 what I did early on is I had like the budget and all my predictions of 129 00:10:56.610 --> 00:11:00.590 outcomes. And then I had this separate budget that I was always allowed to 130 00:11:00.590 --> 00:11:04.530 just do whatever I wanted with. And that was really helpful because when 131 00:11:04.530 --> 00:11:08.760 you're starting out in an organization, you're just spinning up marketing, you 132 00:11:08.760 --> 00:11:14.300 don't really know what's going to work for that particular product or service 133 00:11:14.310 --> 00:11:19.210 or scenario. So if you have the things you know, work maybe that's webinars 134 00:11:19.210 --> 00:11:24.210 and you just start doing a couple webinars a quarter a month and then 135 00:11:24.210 --> 00:11:28.910 meanwhile you have maybe this small budget that you can do things that 136 00:11:28.910 --> 00:11:34.610 you're unsure of and you're not getting, they're kind of like removed from the 137 00:11:34.620 --> 00:11:38.940 leadership discussion. You know, it's not you're not getting asked what's the 138 00:11:38.940 --> 00:11:44.370 return on that every week or every month? So you have some flexibility to 139 00:11:44.370 --> 00:11:49.860 try banner advertising or whatever it is, social media stuff like whatever it 140 00:11:49.860 --> 00:11:56.040 is that you're unsure of and that's a great way to build consistency, build 141 00:11:56.040 --> 00:12:00.800 the pipeline, but also make sure that you're trying a lot of new things for 142 00:12:00.810 --> 00:12:06.800 what might work. And so they also being new to origin, I kind of went through 143 00:12:06.800 --> 00:12:11.380 this scenario is think through the funnel and if you're going to be tied 144 00:12:11.380 --> 00:12:17.620 to a revenue goal Map out from the revenue goal what like say you were 145 00:12:17.620 --> 00:12:24.020 going to contribute 20 or 25 30 of the revenue goal, track that all back to 146 00:12:24.020 --> 00:12:28.230 the number of leads you'll need. And you might not know all the specifics on 147 00:12:28.230 --> 00:12:34.630 conversion rates from, from, let's say like an MQ L to an SQL or that sort of 148 00:12:34.640 --> 00:12:40.310 granularity. But go with some industry, um numbers to start and just get 149 00:12:40.310 --> 00:12:44.590 something tracked and then you can slowly start tightening up those 150 00:12:44.590 --> 00:12:49.860 numbers. So if you are going to contribute X amount of to the revenue 151 00:12:49.860 --> 00:12:53.760 goal, then that means you need this many opportunities because you know 152 00:12:53.760 --> 00:12:58.640 that those clothes at a rate of whatever percent and the average deal 153 00:12:58.640 --> 00:13:03.950 size is X. And it's all just a big math equation. But the way I do it is just 154 00:13:03.960 --> 00:13:08.780 in a spreadsheet and uh, you know, no fancy tools required, just a tiny bit 155 00:13:08.780 --> 00:13:14.430 of math and uh, and just track it back all the way from each step, all the way 156 00:13:14.430 --> 00:13:21.210 down to the number of Mosul's. And then from there, I think of those very 157 00:13:21.210 --> 00:13:26.470 specific programs that you think are like golden, the ones that are that you 158 00:13:26.470 --> 00:13:31.020 think are going to be successful and map what you think you're going to get 159 00:13:31.030 --> 00:13:34.940 out of those programs and map that all the way back. So if you need whatever 160 00:13:34.940 --> 00:13:40.890 200 mq Ls in the quarter, then that looks like this mini programs in that 161 00:13:40.890 --> 00:13:45.250 quarter. And here's the mix, the actual mix of programs that we're going to, 162 00:13:46.040 --> 00:13:50.410 we're going to focus on for the quarter to hit those goals. And do you have any 163 00:13:50.420 --> 00:13:56.070 other tools even that you lean on when you're developing a strategy like this 164 00:13:56.070 --> 00:14:02.780 that you would like to share? Sure. Yeah. I mean spreadsheets. Uh so I do 165 00:14:02.780 --> 00:14:09.680 have I have kind of like the scrappy scrappy marketers tech stack that I can 166 00:14:09.680 --> 00:14:14.450 always recommend to new marketing organizations. But if you're if you're 167 00:14:14.450 --> 00:14:21.700 short on content writers or producing visuals or you know, images and things 168 00:14:21.700 --> 00:14:26.880 for your blog, then I'd say just use whatever technology you can you can get 169 00:14:26.880 --> 00:14:33.840 the budget for to augment. So in my scenario, I think hubspot is great for 170 00:14:33.850 --> 00:14:38.620 early marketing teams because because they have not just the typical 171 00:14:38.620 --> 00:14:42.320 marketing automation platform, but there's a lot of these little add ons, 172 00:14:42.320 --> 00:14:46.160 you know that you can you have your blog, you can do landing pages, you can 173 00:14:46.540 --> 00:14:50.300 have like the chat going like there's some other things that tools that you 174 00:14:50.300 --> 00:14:56.210 can access that can help you give the appearance of a much larger marketing 175 00:14:56.210 --> 00:15:02.710 organization. Another like one that I love is Canada. And I think in any any 176 00:15:02.710 --> 00:15:08.360 marketer that doesn't have a designer is probably familiar with that tool is 177 00:15:08.740 --> 00:15:12.750 as a way to quickly create social images or things like that to help 178 00:15:12.750 --> 00:15:18.960 promote your upcoming webinar, whatever it is. I think, you know, if you if you 179 00:15:18.970 --> 00:15:23.600 if you're going to have lee generating pieces of content and I think it's also 180 00:15:23.600 --> 00:15:28.220 great to have a good good landing page editor and just make sure that your 181 00:15:28.220 --> 00:15:33.380 whatever you're using for email marketing is very easy to use. Like I 182 00:15:33.380 --> 00:15:38.690 think even mail chimp is is great for email marketing starting out. So 183 00:15:38.690 --> 00:15:44.870 there's there's tons of tools like that that are accessible and camera and it's 184 00:15:44.870 --> 00:15:48.990 funny, we don't use it. We have great, great designers. Um but in other 185 00:15:48.990 --> 00:15:51.680 organizations I've worked and it's kind of funny, I'm like, man, how did we 186 00:15:51.680 --> 00:15:55.790 live without camba, like it's such a simple thing and it's just, it's like 187 00:15:55.800 --> 00:16:00.200 who wants to start their own business and might not have the budget of you 188 00:16:00.200 --> 00:16:03.510 know, okay, I have to hire all these designers, I have to hire freelancers 189 00:16:03.520 --> 00:16:09.080 or whatever. Just do Cambon, do it yourself, it's great. Yeah. And I would 190 00:16:09.080 --> 00:16:14.260 also say leveraging all the access we have to freelancers nowadays is amazing, 191 00:16:14.640 --> 00:16:20.140 you know, up work and the like, so if you if you have the budget to do that 192 00:16:20.140 --> 00:16:25.530 then definitely do that. Like leverage find content writers that are just that 193 00:16:25.530 --> 00:16:30.830 are good. Like you don't want to, we're over the days of quantity. We, you know, 194 00:16:30.830 --> 00:16:34.830 if you can find a writer that can deliver really good quality, lock them 195 00:16:34.830 --> 00:16:38.780 in and same with designers as well. Well, Sarah, this has been so 196 00:16:38.780 --> 00:16:42.400 insightful. Thank you so much for joining me today. Um where can people 197 00:16:42.400 --> 00:16:47.460 find you online if they're interested in learning more on Lincoln for sure. I 198 00:16:47.470 --> 00:16:52.860 don't have the most unique last name. So I'm not sure how easy I am to find 199 00:16:52.860 --> 00:16:58.030 on linkedin, but Sarah Anderson, I would love to connect with other those 200 00:16:58.030 --> 00:17:00.780 are marketers for sure. This has been fantastic. Thanks again so much for 201 00:17:00.780 --> 00:17:05.550 joining me here and GDP Growth. Yeah, you bet. Is the decision maker for your 202 00:17:05.550 --> 00:17:09.569 product or service at BBB marketer. Are you looking to reach those buyers 203 00:17:09.569 --> 00:17:14.300 through the medium of podcasting? Considered becoming a co host of GDP 204 00:17:14.300 --> 00:17:18.589 growth. This show is consistently ranked as a top 100 podcast in the 205 00:17:18.589 --> 00:17:23.560 marketing category of apple podcasts And the show gets more than 130,000 206 00:17:23.560 --> 00:17:27.849 downloads each month. We've already done the work of building the audience 207 00:17:27.859 --> 00:17:32.200 so you can focus on delivering incredible content to our listeners. If 208 00:17:32.200 --> 00:17:35.660 you're interested, email Logan at Sweet Fish Media dot com.