For those interested in pursuing a career in B2B demand generation, congratulations! You’re in for an exciting, yet incredibly challenging future ahead of you.
So, future demand gen marketers, let’s take a look at a few fundamentals of demand generation marketing.
When it Comes to Digital Campaigns—Be Ready to Play the Long Game
Demand generation marketers are responsible for building campaigns that push prospective buyers deeper into the sales process, be it through events, email campaigns, blog posts, and other channels. It’s easy to center your campaigns around one major email blast or a few basic banner ads, but effective demand gen marketing requires you to dive a little deeper, build credibility over time with prospective customers, and look at the broader picture. In other words, you’ll have to play the long game.
Rather than scheduling one major announcement for your product, consider a gradual approach. Each week you can roll out more and more details of a campaign via social media announcements and email blasts. This method builds trust and credibility of your brand over time, rather than inundating their inboxes for a single event or update.
Be Both a Calculated Data Hound and a Creative Evel Knievel
In an age of heavy social media-oriented campaigns, it’s easy to leave email out of the marketing equation. But e-mail is still a practical way of reaching potential clients. A recent survey by Marketo found that 77% of consumers prefer e-mail marketing over other methods. Running an effective email campaign requires some heavy A/B testing though.
Much like your social updates, you can’t just post a generic catch-all message and hope that it reaches sector of users. To be a successful demand gen marketer, you’ll need to experiment with different tones, and even subject lines with your emails. Gather data from each approach and take note which styles generate more open rates and click throughs.
Be a People Person—Build Allies Across Departments
In any enterprise there’s a tendency for different teams and departments to become siloed over time. But for a successful B2B marketing campaign, getting the right eyes on your content and communicating the right message and value props takes a comprehensive strategy that includes multiple departments. The tendency for teams and departments to become siloed is natural, so it will be your job to build allies across departments to run successful campaigns.
Demand gen marketers are just as accountable for sales results as the salesperson building the business relationship with a potential client. That’s why ensuring all departments are on the same page is crucial. Gather feedback from external users of your content and share it your sales team to see what kind of feedback they’ve received from clients. It’ll help you narrow down where there are inconsistencies in your branding and messaging.
Don’t Be a Hermit—Get Out of the Office and Into the Market
Of course this might sound like a bit of a contradiction. We just finished talking about how important it is to be in touch with all scopes of your digital reach. But getting on the ground floor of the market at events and trade shows can be beneficial for demand gen marketers.
This is just a brief overview on what to expect as a demand gen marketer—good luck!
This article was syndicated from Business 2 Community: So You Want to Be a B2B Demand Gen Marketer? Here Are the Basics
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