What IS Demand Generation?

WEBVTT 1 00:00:02.540 --> 00:00:02.740 Yeah, 2 00:00:05.240 --> 00:00:08.610 what's up everybody welcome back to BBB growth. My name is Leslie Cruise with 3 00:00:08.610 --> 00:00:12.590 Sweet fish media. If you are new here, you are coming in on the tail drive 4 00:00:12.590 --> 00:00:17.210 into demand generation every other month here on GDP growth, we're diving 5 00:00:17.210 --> 00:00:22.310 into a very specific topic. So february dan dove into the topic of a b. M. And 6 00:00:22.310 --> 00:00:25.690 the entire month of april. We've been covering demand generation. I cannot 7 00:00:25.690 --> 00:00:29.210 believe how fast this month has flown by, I can't believe that april is 8 00:00:29.210 --> 00:00:33.960 almost over. This deep dive has definitely kept me busy but I have 9 00:00:33.960 --> 00:00:37.020 learned so much, it has been so insightful for me and I think in my 10 00:00:37.020 --> 00:00:40.460 career going forward it's going to be great and I know that a lot of our 11 00:00:40.460 --> 00:00:44.370 listeners have gotten a lot of insight from it as well. So I'm so thankful for 12 00:00:44.370 --> 00:00:48.380 everyone I've talked to for those who are new and listening this idea all 13 00:00:48.380 --> 00:00:52.830 came about a few months ago when I was talking to dan Sanchez, our director of 14 00:00:52.830 --> 00:00:56.780 audience growth here at Sweet Fish. We were talking about how I've always been 15 00:00:56.790 --> 00:01:02.110 interested in kind of social media marketing, organic versus paid and kind 16 00:01:02.110 --> 00:01:07.440 of where it fits into before I started working for Sweet Fish uh 2.5 years ago 17 00:01:07.440 --> 00:01:10.440 I was actually working for a media company and I was doing social media 18 00:01:10.440 --> 00:01:13.920 for them and then my internships through college where all social media 19 00:01:13.920 --> 00:01:17.700 as well. So I've always had an interest there and um I think it's growing 20 00:01:17.700 --> 00:01:22.690 obviously and demand generation as part of that. And dan asked me what I knew 21 00:01:22.690 --> 00:01:28.230 about demand generation and I said not much honestly. And so he encouraged me 22 00:01:28.230 --> 00:01:32.750 to research the topic, find some of the best B2B marketers and practitioners 23 00:01:32.760 --> 00:01:36.750 who are practicing demand gen daily and then learn as much as I could about the 24 00:01:36.750 --> 00:01:40.390 topic, which is what brought on this deep dive. So for the past month I've 25 00:01:40.390 --> 00:01:44.330 been interviewing thought leaders and vendors who have implemented successful 26 00:01:44.330 --> 00:01:48.920 and not so successful dimension strategies in their organizations. I've 27 00:01:48.920 --> 00:01:53.190 talked to so many wonderful successful people in the last couple of weeks and 28 00:01:53.200 --> 00:01:57.170 I've learned something very different from each of these marketers. Everyone 29 00:01:57.170 --> 00:02:00.480 kind of seems to have a different definition on what demand generation 30 00:02:00.480 --> 00:02:05.140 really is. And coming to this as someone who knew nothing about demand 31 00:02:05.140 --> 00:02:08.509 generation. Over the past couple of weeks, I've been able to kind of craft 32 00:02:08.509 --> 00:02:13.330 my own definition as to what I think it is and how I feel about it. And for me, 33 00:02:13.340 --> 00:02:18.940 demand generation is creating interest in your products or services to build 34 00:02:18.950 --> 00:02:23.580 healthy pipeline of qualified leads for your sales team. So in my opinion, to 35 00:02:23.580 --> 00:02:27.350 break that down a little bit, demand generation is really about kind of 36 00:02:27.350 --> 00:02:31.790 taking a step back and making your target audience care about what you're 37 00:02:31.790 --> 00:02:36.590 selling, which is crucial. That's where it starts, right? So shifting that 38 00:02:36.600 --> 00:02:40.750 audience perspective so that they understand not just what you and your 39 00:02:40.750 --> 00:02:46.630 company do, but what problem you're trying to solve for them, Right? So how 40 00:02:46.630 --> 00:02:50.590 can you make their life and their day to day job easier rather than focusing 41 00:02:50.590 --> 00:02:54.170 on selling your products, selling your solution, demand generation kind of 42 00:02:54.170 --> 00:02:58.880 creates that awareness of a need at all, which is really taking it further back 43 00:02:58.880 --> 00:03:03.450 than people tend to think, right, so help your audience recognize that they 44 00:03:03.450 --> 00:03:07.890 need what you offer in order to create demand in your business. And if you're 45 00:03:07.890 --> 00:03:10.940 able to do this well with the right strategies, demand generation can 46 00:03:10.940 --> 00:03:15.740 really create awareness with your desired audience and beyond really 47 00:03:15.750 --> 00:03:19.480 delivering more qualified leads to your sales team and help link your marketing 48 00:03:19.480 --> 00:03:23.900 efforts back to revenue. And this is really important because if you're able 49 00:03:23.900 --> 00:03:27.070 to do this well with the right strategies, demand Generation can 50 00:03:27.070 --> 00:03:31.460 really create awareness with your desired audience and beyond uh deliver 51 00:03:31.460 --> 00:03:35.250 more qualified leads to your sales team and help link your marketing efforts 52 00:03:35.250 --> 00:03:39.580 back to revenue. The best demand jin strategies. Consider every single step 53 00:03:39.590 --> 00:03:43.430 in the buyer's journey. So from the first time someone interacts with your 54 00:03:43.430 --> 00:03:47.140 company, whether that be through linkedin social media through a podcast 55 00:03:47.140 --> 00:03:51.860 episode through an email marketing campaign, whatever it may be to the 56 00:03:51.860 --> 00:03:55.460 moment that they become a customer of yours. Demand generation initiatives 57 00:03:55.460 --> 00:03:59.480 should always align your marketing and sales teams to kind of help grow your 58 00:03:59.480 --> 00:04:03.430 business and drive revenue. And I know in the past there's kind of been this 59 00:04:03.430 --> 00:04:07.680 conflict of interest between, you know, marketing and sales, but it's really, 60 00:04:07.680 --> 00:04:11.040 really important and a good demand gen strategy that those to kind of come 61 00:04:11.040 --> 00:04:15.760 together, connect, work together and that will really grow your business and 62 00:04:15.760 --> 00:04:20.190 drive revenue. Another important aspect of demand gen that I think sometimes 63 00:04:20.190 --> 00:04:23.900 marketers tend to forget about is customer experience. I think that 64 00:04:23.900 --> 00:04:27.090 sometimes this can be a really big downfall of certain organizations 65 00:04:27.090 --> 00:04:31.000 because that customer experience aspect is not always there and it's not always 66 00:04:31.000 --> 00:04:36.060 prevalent. It should be simple, but marketers tend to make it so difficult, 67 00:04:36.070 --> 00:04:40.370 so make it easy for your customer to get information. Don't hide the prices 68 00:04:40.370 --> 00:04:44.990 on your website, don't be so slow to respond simple things. I spoke with 69 00:04:44.990 --> 00:04:49.450 someone yesterday actually who shared with me that they requested to demos on 70 00:04:49.450 --> 00:04:53.250 the same day from two different companies, both offering essentially 71 00:04:53.250 --> 00:04:57.840 the same thing. A couple hours later, one of those companies, let's say 72 00:04:57.850 --> 00:05:01.930 Company A immediately got in touch with this person, you know, connected with 73 00:05:01.930 --> 00:05:06.440 them on linkedin, set up a call and then they shared that multiple people 74 00:05:06.440 --> 00:05:11.020 from Company A even connected with them on linkedin and started engaging with 75 00:05:11.020 --> 00:05:15.180 their content, started interacting with them. This got them pumped up about not 76 00:05:15.180 --> 00:05:20.290 only the product but the brand and the organization as well. And by the time 77 00:05:20.290 --> 00:05:24.540 this person had the demo call with Company A Company B had still not gone 78 00:05:24.540 --> 00:05:28.920 in touch with them at all. This person shared with me that while Company B was 79 00:05:28.920 --> 00:05:31.510 actually the front runner in this industry that they were looking to buy 80 00:05:31.510 --> 00:05:35.730 into, they decided to go a second best which was company A simply because of 81 00:05:35.730 --> 00:05:40.560 their customer experience. So something so simple that can entirely transform 82 00:05:40.570 --> 00:05:44.900 your demand gen strategies. Just customer experience, shifting gears a 83 00:05:44.900 --> 00:05:49.120 bit here for anyone who's listening, who is fresh into marketing and it's 84 00:05:49.120 --> 00:05:52.100 really interested in diving into more of a demand general or maybe you're 85 00:05:52.100 --> 00:05:56.210 just trying to shift your career into demand gen some of the best advice I 86 00:05:56.210 --> 00:05:59.110 have received is from the episode that I did with chris walker. And if you 87 00:05:59.110 --> 00:06:02.480 haven't listened to that episode yet, I highly, highly, highly recommend it. 88 00:06:02.490 --> 00:06:06.660 Chris is very, very knowledgeable about this topic and he has a lot of great 89 00:06:06.660 --> 00:06:10.980 advice to provide to anyone who is interested in kind of growing in a role 90 00:06:10.990 --> 00:06:14.880 of demand jin Well, one thing I asked chris, you know, is what piece of 91 00:06:14.880 --> 00:06:18.370 advice do you have for early marketers who are new to this space and looking 92 00:06:18.370 --> 00:06:22.980 to evolve into more of a demand general? Specifically, maybe even a director of 93 00:06:22.980 --> 00:06:26.600 demand gen His advice was really insightful to me. It might be for a lot 94 00:06:26.600 --> 00:06:30.780 of those listening today. So I will summarize briefly, he said that if you 95 00:06:30.780 --> 00:06:36.040 want to run to me and jen you need to know the full scope of what it is. 96 00:06:36.040 --> 00:06:40.900 First of all, you know, ins and outs paid social organic creating content, 97 00:06:40.910 --> 00:06:43.860 all of it. You need to know what dimension is before you can run it. 98 00:06:44.440 --> 00:06:47.410 That's pretty obvious. But also understanding marketing fundamentals is 99 00:06:47.410 --> 00:06:51.220 so important. People are always wanting to move into tactics really quickly, 100 00:06:51.220 --> 00:06:55.470 but oftentimes they don't understand the foundation of what they're getting 101 00:06:55.470 --> 00:06:59.130 at. There are a ton of marketing books out there and if you actually go to be 102 00:06:59.130 --> 00:07:03.160 to be growth show dot com, go to the search bar and type in books. We have a 103 00:07:03.160 --> 00:07:07.200 ton of blog posts there on books that early marketers should be reading and 104 00:07:07.200 --> 00:07:10.250 it's a really, really insightful, um a lot of good resources. There's 105 00:07:10.250 --> 00:07:13.360 definitely check that out. Another great piece of advice that chris shared 106 00:07:13.360 --> 00:07:19.060 with me is to start an e commerce business selling a commodity product, 107 00:07:19.540 --> 00:07:24.350 whether it's T shirts, shoes, you know, you can buy a product and private label 108 00:07:24.350 --> 00:07:26.900 it and then figure out how to sell it to an audience. And I thought that this 109 00:07:26.900 --> 00:07:31.220 was so interesting because these types of commodity products do get sold 110 00:07:31.220 --> 00:07:35.320 through marketing and brand. Right? So you know, these are the kind of things 111 00:07:35.320 --> 00:07:38.390 you're seeing on instagram, you're seeing on your instagram ads, you say, 112 00:07:38.400 --> 00:07:43.220 oh I need a new shirt for my workout boom, three instagram ads for a workout 113 00:07:43.220 --> 00:07:48.410 shirt. Right? So through this, you'll learn a lot about organic social, paid 114 00:07:48.410 --> 00:07:52.560 social, you can kind of try and figure out how to acquire a customer using 115 00:07:52.560 --> 00:07:56.550 those paid instagram ads or you can try something else. But when you do those 116 00:07:56.550 --> 00:08:00.660 things and use your own money, you actually care whether or not it's 117 00:08:00.660 --> 00:08:04.060 working and a lot of B two B marketers don't have that experience. So they 118 00:08:04.060 --> 00:08:07.930 just kind of play around with monopoly money and collect those leads and 119 00:08:07.930 --> 00:08:11.770 metrics. But when you use your own money, you get invested and then once 120 00:08:11.770 --> 00:08:15.390 you spend 1000 plus dollars on your marketing, you'll know and care whether 121 00:08:15.390 --> 00:08:19.430 or not it works. I thought that was really great advice. So for those who 122 00:08:19.430 --> 00:08:22.460 have been following along throughout this journey, I hope that you've gained 123 00:08:22.470 --> 00:08:25.780 some knowledge, some insight. Hopefully these are things that you can take in 124 00:08:25.780 --> 00:08:28.700 your career and you can take in your company and kind of build out your 125 00:08:28.700 --> 00:08:33.010 demand gen strategy and I hope that you have more of an understanding on what 126 00:08:33.010 --> 00:08:37.159 demand gen is and what it's not. And you know, for the last few episodes in 127 00:08:37.159 --> 00:08:40.929 this series, I'm so excited to be diving more into brand awareness 128 00:08:40.940 --> 00:08:45.590 pipeline generation, you know, even how to utilize your marketing operations to 129 00:08:45.590 --> 00:08:48.930 have a more successful dimension strategies, so that's what's to come, 130 00:08:48.940 --> 00:08:52.430 and if you're not already, make sure you're subscribed to GDP growth, so you 131 00:08:52.430 --> 00:08:56.130 won't miss these next few episodes and if you're interested in keeping up with 132 00:08:56.130 --> 00:09:00.300 me and how I implement this deep dive into my career moving forward or for 133 00:09:00.300 --> 00:09:03.340 more advice on podcasting and production in general, because that is 134 00:09:03.350 --> 00:09:07.800 my niche. Um you can connect with me on linkedin at Leslie Cruz. My name is 135 00:09:07.800 --> 00:09:12.560 spelled L E S L E Y C R E W S so thanks so much for listening until next time. 136 00:09:14.140 --> 00:09:14.350 Mhm. 137 00:09:16.240 --> 00:09:19.890 One of the things we've learned about podcast audience growth is that word of 138 00:09:19.890 --> 00:09:24.580 mouth works. It works really, really well actually. So if you love this show, 139 00:09:24.580 --> 00:09:28.490 it would be awesome if you texted a friend to tell them about it. And if 140 00:09:28.490 --> 00:09:32.820 you send me a text with a screenshot of the text you sent to your friend meta, 141 00:09:32.830 --> 00:09:36.450 I know I'll send you a copy of my book, content based networking, how to 142 00:09:36.460 --> 00:09:40.210 instantly connect with anyone you want to know. My cell phone number is four 143 00:09:40.220 --> 00:09:45.160 74 nine 33 To eight. Happy texting.