1 · 2 | the demand gen marketer’s guide to the galaxy introduction ok, maybe not the...

1 | The Demand Gen Marketer’s Guide to the Galaxy


IntroductionOk, maybe not the galaxy…but B2B demand gen feels that way with the amount of tools, data, strategies and channels available to marketers. Let’s out line a few of the most pressing issues for B2B marketers today. Leadspace has partnered with some of the greatest marketers around to get their insights, tips, and advice on how to be the most effective marketer possible. When we think about how marketers build their demand generation strategies, how they plan their programs and campaigns, weaving in relevant search engine optimization (SEO), paid advertising, social media and content marketing…there are many areas to cover. And where does the technology fit it? How do you plan your data acquisition? What about your marketing automation strategy? How do you maximize all demand generation efforts to generate the best leads, the leads that convert the fastest and drive the highest return on investment (ROI)? This guide will help you scope out where to focus in the ever-increasing marketing ecosystem and how to get the best results from your marketing and sales efforts. After all—what matters is that you drive pipeline and contribute to the bottom line revenue. Otherwise, what’s the point? Today’s modern marketers drive revenue, not clicks. Let’s start with Big Data and what it means to marketers. The advent of Big Data mining has certainly increased accessibility to names. Names are not a problem. But the RIGHT names—now that is an ongoing challenge.It’s especially challenging because marketing and sales may—and often do—have very different opinions about what constitutes a “good” or “qualified” lead. What makes for a good lead? There are a few different scenarios and more than a few definitions:Ideal marketing lead: One that appears to have complete, current contact information, the right job title, and was cheaply bought.Ideal sales lead: One that has complete, current contact information, the authority to purchase instantly, and rolls over like a puppy. Actual ideal lead: One that fits a well-crafted buyer persona, with complete, current contact infor-mation. One that has responded to content, participated in a webinar, or otherwise indicated (via social activity, perhaps) an interest in addressing a problem that your product/service solves. One that was obtained at a target cost based on predictive scoring. And yes, ideally, rolls over like a puppy.

This guide will help you scope out where to focus in the ever-increasing marketing ecosystem and how to get the best results from your marketing and sales efforts. After all—what matters is that you drive pipeline and contribute to the bottom line revenue. Otherwise, what’s the point? Today’s modern marketers drive revenue, not clicks.


Fortunately for those who make their living discovering new leads and converting them into buyers, some clear best practices in demand generation are coalescing and solidifying. Effective solutions can now dive into the social and professional website miasma, find relevant, real-time lead information wherever it may be, organize it, and present it in an actionable format.

More sophisticated and strategic content marketing is being put into play to connect with the buyer throughout their buyer’s journey and tracking and metrics are now accurate and accessible making reporting and revenue performance management a real possibility. A sea change in sales mindset is underway and gaining substantial traction (see “Buyer’s Journey,” in Chapter 2) which is helping drive sales and marketing alignment.

Best of all, industry experts and thought leaders have emerged specializing in various modern marketing topics, and they have generously shared their demand generation expertise in recent interviews via Leadspace Radio. We thank them for their contributions, and we quote them freely and frequently in this book to help guide marketers through this complex galaxy of all things marketing.

With that, let’s dig in. Let’s reveal “The Demand Gen Marketers Guide to the Galaxy”…


Chapter 1: The Buyer Persona

Stage 1: “We Know You’re Out There…And We Know What You Look Like.”

Not long ago in a galaxy far, far away…as a marketer or sales exec you had two basic tools to use when prospecting for customers: general demographics, (age, income level, gender, marital status) and a bulletproof ability to handle more rejection than the debate team captain at the school dance.

Now, thanks to Big Data and social enrichment, you know so much more about your customers. You know what they’ve bought and when they bought it. You know they just got promoted, and you know their new job title. You could even know their spouse’s name, how many kids they have, their golf handicap, their favorite band, and where they went on vacation.

So, marketing logic says this: Why not build a “model” customer using common traits and elements found in a statistically significant sampling of your best existing customers?

Armed with that model—that “persona”—you should be able to scour the universe like Phillip Marlowe with a mugshot, searching every nook and cranny for prospects who look just like your best prospect so you can begin the conversation.

Sounds great. But does it really work that way?

Stage 2: Face Up to Your Persona

Let’s talk about the true value of a buyer persona. After all, every shopkeeper knows you can’t always tell a lookie-loo from a “whale.” Sometimes your biggest sales come from the most unexpected places. So why miss out on those, simply because you’re focusing on prospects who look most like customers you already have?

Mostly, it’s a matter of cost efficiency. Sure, it’s possible you might miss a random sale here and there, but by focusing your efforts on the prospects statistics tell you that you are mostly likely to buy, you’re going to optimize your time and energy and come out ahead. Look for those prospects that most resemble current customers. It’s not to say you shouldn’t try to connect with other buyers in some low-touch campaigns, however, the numbers don’t lie. Conversions of a similar buyer persona to your current customers are much higher than random prospects.

Tony Zambito is a leading authority on buyer insights and buyer personas for B2B Marketing. In 2001, Tony

established the first buyer insight and buyer persona development methodology designed specifically for B2B Marketing and Sales.

Jeffrey Eisenberg is a recognized authority and pioneer of Internet marketing strategy; improving online conversion rates for sales

and lead generation and co-author of the New York Times best sellers, “Call to Action” and “Waiting for Your Cat to Bark.”

Carlos Hidalgo is CEO and Principal of ANNUITAS, a demand generation strategy firm that helps B2B marketing and

sales leaders at large enterprise organizations transform their Demand Process.

Contributors

http://www.twitter.com/TonyZambito

http://www.twitter.com/JeffreyGroks

http://www.twitter.com/cahidalgo


Tony Zambito states, “Buyer persona is really a communication platform based on research and insights. It’s an archetypal representation of who your buyers are, what they’re trying to accomplish, the specific goals they have, how they think and why they buy. The overriding benefit is that it does help you to be informed on which strategies and tactics you need to execute. That’s really helpful for planning. The second thing it does is help you understand a problem that you may be having.”

For instance, suppose your company is experiencing an attrition problem. Perfectly good customers seem to be falling off the radar. Zambito says, “Buyer persona helps you understand why that’s happening. We’re not meeting the goals of our buyers for some reason and we need to know why.” Zambito urges companies to define a problem right up front. “It helps you face the truth about some shortcomings you may have in terms of meeting customer needs.” And of course, when you know what needs fixing, you’ve taken the first step towards fixing it.

Stage 3: The Reality of Buyer Persona

So now you’re sold on the idea of developing buyer personas. Now you need to create a walking, talking buyer persona. One who looks, sounds, and acts exactly like your current best customers. What’s the best way to get started?

According to Zambito, “Your buyer persona should be based on interviews with real people. That’s the real foundation of things. Your buyer persona should be a representation of real people that you talk to.”

In other words, the buyer persona isn’t just a duplicate of a real person who happens to be a good customer. It’s a composite, and to assemble that composite, yes…you’re going to have to climb out of your comfy cube back there in the marketing department hinterlands and get face-to-face with customers. And not just your best current customers, either.

Here’s how Zambito explains it:

“You definitely want a good representation not only of existing customers but of customers who may have defected as long as two years ago. You want customers that may have run into issues that you know your organization is struggling with.

“Buyer persona is really a communication platform based on research and insights. It’s an archetypal representation of who your buyers are, what they’re trying to accomplish, the specific goals they have, how they think and why they buy.”

Tony Zambito


“You also want to have prospects to interview as well, meaning non-customers. This is the best way to really help you understand what is happening in the world you don’t live in right now. You may learn some critical things that could really help you be included in their world.”

The point is, in conducting your pre-persona interviews, you should strive for a solid representation across many facets of your customer base.

When you’ve completed the interview process, take the time to distill all the information. Identify the patterns. Look for insights that may be less clearly articulated, but are potentially quite meaningful in terms of understanding your buyers.

In this way, you’re able to learn the “back story” of your buyer. You’re not just profiling. You are driving towards the intent of the buyer. You are finding out what drives them.

Stage 4: Understanding Your Buyer

Learning the person, not the profile, is how a truly effective buyer persona is born. Your interest goes beyond superficial “looks.” After all, this is a marriage, not a speed date. You want to set up a long-term relationship, so you’ve got to go deep. You’ve got to learn exactly what influences the buying decisions of your prospects:

• What is the “mental model” that starts them on their way towards a purchase, their buying trigger

• Where do they consume content? Most importantly, what behaviors do they exhibit that might provide you with cues to start the conversation?

“When we do scenario narratives with clients,” says Eisenberg, “we’ll sit with a group and we’ll get them to tell us stories. As they do, we see that there are certain turning points in those stories. We can then test those stories, and determine that it takes ‘x’ or ‘y’ to happen and then somebody turns the corner.”

As an example, Eisenberg pointed to a piece of content that was sent in support of a financial product. The content piece focused on the ROI of the product. “What we knew is that after that had been forwarded, the deals closed like 90% of the time,” says Eisenberg. “What had happened

“You also want to have prospects to interview as well, meaning non- customers. This is the best way to really help you understand what is happening in the world you don’t live in right now. You may learn some criti-cal things that could really help you be included in their world.”

Tony Zambito


was they knew that the numbers would work. At that point they were probably sharing it with the finance person, or probably sharing it with their boss to get a final approval. But it was evident that we had gotten past all the other objections and now we were working on the details.”

Keep in mind: to truly understand your buyer persona you have to understand their pain threshold. Because one of the key mistakes many marketers and sales organizations make is they think they can “sell to the problem.” But as Eisenberg notes, “Just because I have a problem does not mean I’m in search of a solution, because the solution may be more painful than doing nothing.” Which means that a lot of qualifying techniques used in both marketing and sales are inadequate. “The first thing you really need to know is what the pain threshold is,” says Eisenberg. “What is the need, and what is the level of desire for change?”

Stage 5: Be Picky and Honest

Using your buyer persona as a modeling tool, you cast your net and haul back a boatload of prospects. To stay with the fishing analogy, it’s inevitable that they’re not all going to be keepers. In fact, some might clearly not be your best catch.

Here’s where Predictive Lead Scoring comes to the rescue, right?

Well…yes. To an extent. And only if it’s done right. After all, at its most fundamental definition, “Predictive Scoring” is really an educated guess based on the best data available.

In fact, Jeffrey Eisenberg believes there may be too much emphasis placed on lead scoring. “If half that emphasis would be given to actually responding to calls more quickly, the value of the leads would go way up.” Eisenberg asserts that studies have shown that speed of response is the number one factor in increasing conversion. “The bottom line is that most of the time if sales people could respond fast enough, they’d have perfectly good leads that they could sell. On the other hand, when they take even thirty minutes to respond that lead has already cooled off, and who knows what’s going to happen.”

“Just because I have a problem does not mean I’m in search of a solution, because the solution may be more painful than doing nothing.”

Jeffrey Eisenberg


That said, even Eisenberg admits that lead scoring is something that needs to be done, if only for the sake of efficiency. “It’s a prioritization. But it’s just that, a prioritization. It doesn’t mean that a lead that’s an “A” is necessarily going to close better than a lead that’s a “C.” It only means that all things being equal—and they never are—we think it’s better.”

It could be that the somewhat ambiguous nature of lead scoring arises from the scoring parameters themselves. Carlos Hidalgo thinks so. “The way that most organizations do lead scoring today is really, really poor. What we’ve done is say every white paper is going to be 25 points. Maybe if a CEO or CMO downloads it, they get more points for their title. But we really shouldn’t be basing our lead scoring on the asset type.”

Instead, Hidalgo feels we should use a scoring approach that also takes into account where in the “buyer’s journey” that content was consumed. In other words, if a white paper is downloaded during a latter stages of a nurturing process, that should accrue more value than something downloaded during the initial engagement. Which seems logical. After all, at that point a prospect has spent more time with you, and gotten to know you a little better.

All of which makes it clear that your lead scoring protocol deserves the same thoughtful analysis as the building of your buyer persona. As your leads come in, the ones that most closely match your ideal customer persona in terms of “looks” get a good score. The ones that also match in terms of behavior get a higher score. And the ones who do both, and have interacted with your company over a period of time, should ring the bell with the highest score.

“The way that most organizations do lead scoring today is really, really poor. What we’ve done is say every white paper is going to be 25 points. Maybe if a CEO or CMO downloads it, they get more points for their title. But we really shouldn’t be basing our lead scoring on the asset type.”

Carlos Hidalgo


Chapter 2: The Buyer’s Journey

“Come With Me if You Want to Buy”

A buyer’s journey begins with a challenge, a pain the journey itself is a quest to ease...And the end of the journey—well, ideally it’s when they see that your product or service is the salvation they’ve been seeking.

Bob is the VP of Operations at a large phone center. For the fifth time in a month, his system dropped calls, routed inbound leads incorrectly, and caused Bob to start smoking again. In a stormy meeting with the CFO, the President, the Executive VP of Sales and her counterpart in Marketing, Bob finally got the okay to research and eventually propose a new telecom software solution.

Bob’s journey has begun. Bob is actively scouring the web, downloading relevant content and studying his options for the exact kind of software you happen to sell. Don’t forget he’s looking into your competitors’ products as well. Lucky you, Bob bears a striking resemblance to your ideal customer profile and his buyer persona is just about spot-on. Time to hit Bob up with a call and sell him on the wonders of your product, right?

You can try. But chances are, Bob isn’t going to be receptive to your intrusion at this point and his journey will continue without you. A better option would be to get a full understanding of the Bob’s journey, and understand the role you can play as a trusted advisor to help him along the way. After all, it’s not about what we want to sell, but rather, what the customers wants and needs to hear.

Trish Bertuzzi is the principal of The Bridge Group, a sales consulting firm which has worked with over 220 B2B technology

clients to build, expand and optimize their inside sales efforts.

Tony Zambito is a leading authority on buyer insights and buyer personas for B2B Marketing. In 2001, Tony

established the first buyer insight and buyer persona development methodology designed specifically for B2B Marketing and Sales.

Brian Carroll is Executive Director, Revenue Optimization at MECLABS, CEO of InTouch and author of an industry-

defining book, “Lead Generation for the Complex Sale.”

Contributors

It’s not about what we want to sell, but rather, what the customers wants and needs to hear.

http://www.twitter.com/brianjcarroll


Stop Thinking about Yourself

It starts with some simple advice from Brian Carroll, “Stop being interested, and start being interesting.” In other words, it’s not about you, it’s about your buyer.

Carroll says that marketers, sellers, or entire companies, often engage in what he calls “sociopathic marketing.”

“The definition of sociopathic really is being focused on getting what you want at the expense of someone else. There isn’t a fair value exchange taking place. In simple terms, ‘How do I get what I want?’

“Instead, we need to think like our customers, and put ourselves in their place. Rather than trying to optimize our marketing, we need to understand what our customers are thinking and feeling, and what it is they want. That’s how we can help them with our solutions, products or services.”

That’s often easier said than done, because there’s the constant pressure—and need—for results. In the interest of driving revenue, marketers can be in the uncomfortable and often counter-productive position of getting whatever they can right now.

When that happens, Carroll says, “We’re forced to roll out those tired and weak strategies that no longer work very well, if at all. Most of our customers ignore our efforts and we miss that opportunity to really connect and add value.”

Connect. Add value. You’ve got to do both if you’re going to become a trusted advisor on Bob’s journey.

That’s the Signpost Up Ahead…Ahhh, You Passed It.

The path of a buyer’s journey is not always a well-marked one. In fact, it’s never a straight path. Bob may start at the beginning, but his access to information can take him all over the map. He may travel many miles before talking with you and you might not even know Bob exists until he fills out a contact us form or a formal request for an RFP. He has been active on your site for months, but he didn’t exhibit enough buying signals to warrant a conversation…he just wasn’t ready.

“Rather than trying to optimize our marketing, we need to understand what our customers are thinking and feeling, and what it is they want. That’s how we can help them with our solutions, products or services.”

Brian Carroll


“There is this stat floating around out there that a buyer is 65% of the way through the journey before they talk to sales,” says Trish Bertuzzi. “Personally I think that’s an urban myth, but everybody quotes it so it’s become part of our dialogue. In any event, buyers are smarter. Buyers have more information at their fingertips; they know more about what they are looking for than ever before.”

Remember the good ol’ days, when you could say things like, “We’re the only ones who do this!” or “You won’t find anything like it!” because our customer didn’t necessarily have the time or resources to see if we were being truthful or just exercising our bulging hyperbole muscles? You just can’t do that anymore.

More and more, B2B buyers are doing exactly what consumers do before making a purchase decision. They check out features lists and competitive pricing. They scan reviews. They visit social and professional networking sites to get peer feedback. They do their research and then, come to the vendor as part of final steps to purchase.

“Our customers are more sophisticated and have access to more information,” says Brian Carroll. “They are really looking to understand what they want, and how they get it. (As marketers) we need to know what that is, and give it to them.”

The good news is, that same access to a wealth of information works both ways. Bob may be able to compare and contrast loads of telecom software online, but at the same time, you can learn a whole lot about Bob the same way. You can keep up with Bob as he devours content from your site, asks questions on relevant LinkedIn groups, and you can strategically reach out at exactly the right time. Precisely when Bob needs a little guidance and direction to stay on track.

And then, because you understand Bob, your buyer, you know where and how to guide him, right?

The Journey of a Thousand Miles…Of course, Bob’s journey doesn’t end when you make contact. Now, the nurturing process begins. You’ve got that part down, right? Send an email every couple weeks. Shoot out a webinar invitation. Run a series of white papers past him. And of course, fire off that LinkedIn “connect” request. Those are all tactics of the nurturing process. But they are not truly nurturing.

“There is this stat floating around out there that a buyer is 65% of the way through the journey before they talk to sales....Personally I think that’s an urban myth, but everybody quotes it so it’s become part of our dialogue. In any event, buyers are smarter. Buyers have more information at their fingertips; they know more about what they are looking for than ever before.”

Trish Bertuzzi


During this part of Bob’s journey, he needs to have his curiosity aroused. He needs to have a clear understanding of how your telecom software is going to solve his problem. He needs to see the value. All to one end.“In a business-to-business purchase, we need to be able to provide people with confidence,” says Jeffrey Eisenberg. “Confidence is the only difference between a buyer and a non-buyer. How much confidence do they have that you can provide the solution to their problem? That’s about it. That’s the difference between a great sales person and a mediocre sales person. It’s the difference between a great marketing program and a mediocre one. It’s how well they are able to transmit confidence.”

So, think of the nurturing process as the part of the buyer’s journey where Bob goes from a dubious, skeptical, and somewhat overwhelmed guy to a man armed with knowledge. A man who trusts that he has found a solution. A man who is ready to march into another meeting with the CFO, the President, and the two Exec VPs and say, “This is what we need. With this, we will achieve our cost-efficiency goals, we will add more clients and close more sales than ever before, and I will become the Most Interesting Man in the World!”

Or something like that.

So now, Bob is a Buyer. He’s completed his buyer’s journey, right?

Nope. The sale is not the end of the Journey. In fact, it’s incumbent upon your team to continue to provide Bob with the opportunity to take advantage of service enhancements, technology upgrades, additional products, and so on. Then you want Bob to be so thrilled with his purchase, that he becomes an advocate for your solution and tells his friends and colleagues. Remember, the customer you already have is many times more valuable than the one you’re trying to get, and your marketing efforts should reflect that. The sale is just the beginning for marketers.

In our B2B Universe, the Journey doesn’t really end (for you, at least) if for some reason Bob decides to go with some other vendor years down the road. Even as he leaves, Bob is a potential source of valuable information; the kind that can be used to improve customer service and retention, enrich future prospecting campaigns, enhance product offerings, and so on.

“Confidence is the only difference between a buyer and a non-buyer. How much confidence do they have that you can provide the solution to their problem?”

Jeffrey Eisenberg


Chapter 3: Reorganizing for Conversion Optimization

“Today We Settle All Family Business”

As our demand generation efforts become more hyper-targeted and individualized, we have to beware the trap of allowing our marketing and sales entities to fragment into small factions with narrow focus, responsibilities, and accountability.

You may see this happening in your own company, right now. The dynamic and evolving world of Demand Generation has spawned all manner of specialized, one-hat-wearing departments, or silos without shared goals or metrics including:

• The Field Marketing Team• The Email Team• The Campaign Team• The Events Team• The Digital Team

• The Inbound Team• The Outbound Team• The Healthcare Vertical Team• The Top-of-Funnel Team• The Mid-Funnel Team

We didn’t make those up. And the obvious question is, if revenue and conversion goals are not attained, who is accountable? (Hint: With this kind of specialization, the easy answer is, “Not me!”)

Along with the problems that come with silo creation, there’s the flood of demand gen technology designed to exponentially increase our effectiveness across all of marketing. Then there’s having technology, and there’s actually using technology effectively.

According to Carlos Hidalgo, less than one in ten companies that own marketing automation technology ever use it for more than top of funnel activity. Which means they’re getting a lot of names, but as we all know, names are not neces sarily leads. And especially not qualified leads.

“A year ago Marketing Sherpa found that over 72% of the marketers surveyed send leads directly to sales without qualifying them,” says Brian Carroll. “So that’s why 80% of leads are being lost or being, ignored or discarded when marketing hands them to sales. They really don’t match the sales teams expectations.”

Trish Bertuzzi is the principal of The Bridge Group, a sales consulting firm which has worked with over 220 B2B technology clients to build, expand and optimize their inside sales efforts.

Tony Zambito is a leading authority on buyer insights and buyer personas for B2B Marketing. In 2001, Tony established the first buyer insight and buyer persona development methodology

designed specifically for B2B Marketing and Sales.

Brian Carroll is Executive Director, Revenue Optimization at MECLABS, CEO of InTouch and author of an industry-defining book, “Lead Generation for the Complex Sale.”

Kevin Akeroyd is SVP and GM of the marketing cloud at Oracle. Akeroyd is focused on reshaping modern digital, social, and mobile marketing globally.

Carlos Hidalgo is CEO and Principal of ANNUITAS, a demand generation strategy firm that helps B2B marketing and sales leaders at large enterprise organizations transform their Demand Process.

Jeffrey Eisenberg is a recognized authority and pioneer of Internet marketing strategy; improv-ing online conversion rates for sales and lead generation and co-author of the New York Times

best sellers, “Call to Action” and “Waiting for Your Cat to Bark.”

Jesse Noyes is Senior Director for Content Marketing at Kapost. Noyes is an ever-present speaker on content marketing and social media and previously worked at Offerpop and Eloqua.

Contributors

http://www.twitter.com/bridgegroupinc


http://www.twitter.com/brianjcarroll

http://www.twitter.com/akeroyd

http://www.twitter.com/cahidalgo

http://www.twitter.com/JeffreyGroks

http://www.twitter.com/noyesjesse


The Sales team expects Marketing to deliver qualified leads. The Campaign team expects Sales to convert the leads they give them. The Event team expects more support from the Email team. And they all feel the Digital team spends too much time practicing for the company ping pong tournament.

It’s time to shake things out, and get everyone on the same page. It’s time to regroup, reorganize, and refocus. And it starts with the silos.

The Lonely Planet

We may focus on one lonely planet, but we need to remember there is an entire galaxy or universe out there. You can’t gain an understanding of the universe by studying only one planet. In any given large company you may have, “the VP of online, the VP of catalog, VP of store, VP of mobile, VP of advertising, VP of lead gen, VP of loyalty, VP of this, VP of that.” Those silos need to be broken down and incentives all realigned to everyone has shared metrics and goals, according to Kevin Akeroyd.

Says Akeroyd, “Customers don’t think in different channels, or in different stages of the funnel. They just want a relationship with the brand and the service.”

Exactly. Organization for the sake of organization results in the focus shifting away from the customer. The organization becomes the end, not the means. “Cross-functional meetings” spring up to “enhance interaction,” but typically muddy the waters with turf battles and endless approval chains. We have all heard of marketing and sales misalignment, a common occurrence in many organizations. How to break down the silos that are so common today? Hidalgo believes it starts with the wallet. “I think one of the first things you can do is put everybody on a very similar comp plan. People react to money. I love when I hear marketers kind of roll their eyes and say, ‘Sales is so coin-operated.’ If marketing was comped accordingly they would become coin-operated too, and quite honestly I want both my sales people and my marketing people coin-operated.”

In any given large company you may have, “the VP of online, the VP of catalog, VP of store, VP of mobile, VP of advertising, VP of lead gen, VP of loyalty, VP of this, VP of that.” Those silos need to be broken down and incentives all realigned to everyone has shared metrics and goals, according to Kevin Akeroyd.


“I also think CMOs or CEOs who are looking at a re-org first need to understand how it should all go back to the buyer. What is the best way to engage my buyer from the beginning—the trigger point insertion into the buying process—all the way through to conversion. And that also goes for current customers. Engagement, Nurturing and Conversion—how can I align my organization most effectively? What is the best way to provide a customer experience that is seamless and has continuity across the buying process for my buyer?”

When compensation is aligned, goals are aligned. Revenue, sales productivity, conversion, profitability—everyone knows them, works towards them, and shares in the responsibility for achieving them. Not to mention, the organization can review and analyze results easily with shared reports from their CRM or marketing automation platform for “one view of the truth.” No more excel spreadsheets from finance or marketing to interpret. A single source for reporting and metrics becomes an invaluable tool for evaluating marketing and sales effectiveness and for identifying areas for improvement.

Speaking of goals, it’s a good idea to set some that relate directly to your buyer. Akeroyd does this at Oracle. “There’s a set of goals around the customer; customer experience, customer continuity, customer advocacy, customer relationships.”

Once everyone is speaking a common language and viewing the same metrics, the common cause follows. “The language we speak, the reports we look at, the numbers we use and what we measure to determine success all fall into place pretty easily,” says Akeroyd. “It’s when you don’t have that common goal in mind internally, or that common goal in mind for the customer, that you allow yourself to get back into that dangerous trap of different silos and different languages.”

“The language we speak, the reports we look at, the numbers we use and what we measure to determine success all fall into place pretty easily…It’s when you don’t have that common goal in mind internally, or that common goal in mind for the customer, that you allow yourself to get back into that dangerous trap of different silos and different languages.”

Kevin Akeroyd


Next Up, Changes Ahead

Everyone loves change, right? Nothing like a little organizational shake-up to have everyone busting out in smiles and song.

Organizational change is always challenging, to be sure. Change triggers uncertainty, fear of the unknown, insecurity about one’s position and future, and just general nervousness and unrest. But there are things you can do to mitigate all that, and make change more of a seamless transition.

1. Start with people’s mindset. Everyone needs to understand the reasons for the reorganization or change. They need to clearly see why this change will be for the better for the entire organization.

Says Hidalgo, “For people to buy into the bigger picture, there has to be a broader vision. It’s not just about, ‘We’re going to reorganize you,’ it’s really ‘Why are we going to reorganize you? How are we going to reorganize you? What’s your new role going to be? How is your new role contributing to the success of the organization?’ When people see that their roles are going to contribute to success, they are much more likely to not only accept, but even embrace the change.”

2. Use the things that are going well as your foundation to set the examples for change. This is the old baby and the bathwater axiom, (not a positive image, but applicable nonetheless).

Hidalgo advises, “If you have an individual in the organization who really understands the stuff, start to use that individual as a poster child to say, ‘Look, we want you all to experience this kind success.’“

3. Clearly show the upside. Reorganization, done well, offers ongoing opportunities for upward mobility and career advancement. When people understand that the new tasks or skills they’ll learn in their redefined role can lead to greater things, they’ll drop their defenses and get on board.

4. In the immediate aftermath of the re-org, provide feedback. Show everyone how and where they are making a positive contribution to the sales pipeline, seeing the customer lifetime value climb, seeing that the new automation tools are saving time and costs, and so forth.

“If you have an individual in the organi-zation who really understands the stuff, start to use that individual as a poster child to say, ‘Look, we want you all to experience this kind success.’”

Carlos Hidalgo


We’ll let Hidalgo sum it up: “There is no better time to be in B2B marketing. However, part of being a B2B marketer is change. If you can get people to see the bigger picture and buy into the group success that can be enjoyed by doing things differently, they’ll turn the corner. They’ll start thinking in terms of, ‘What needs to happen? How do I need to get there? What is the process I need to do personally, and what do we all need to do as an organization, to move things forward?’”

The Next Generation

As you refine your organization to maximize your demand generation success, there will almost certainly be some hiring involved. So who do you hire, and how do you find them?

First, let’s take a step back. Your people have bought into your re-org, and they’re ready for change. So why not equip the people you already have with the skills and capabilities that they need to be successful in demand generation?

More often than not, we neglect training as part of our corporate culture, especially in marketing. A Business Marketing Association report showed that 96% of B2B CMOs said, “We’re having skill set problems.” That is no surprise considering that and average investment in marketing training per individual is less than $1,000 a year. That barely covers the cost of one trade show. When we do, we find that an overwhelming percentage invests less than $1000 a year!

To build the best team, start identifying any skills gaps required to meet your objective and then start by training the people you already have. But like a baseball team that wants to make a pennant run, when the trading deadline comes around they’re looking for top talent they can bring aboard, so they can win RIGHT NOW.

Timing is always important and finding the right person is critical so you may want to bring in a few heavy hitters of your own. So where do you find them?

Trish Bertuzzi puts it bluntly: “You’ve got to go steal them from someone else. And that’s an art form. You’d better have a whiz-bang culture. You’d better have a learning environment. You’d better have an attractive career path. You’d better have a physical layout that’s appealing.”

“You’ve got to go steal them from someone else. And that’s an art form. You’d better have a whiz-bang culture. You’d better have a learning environment. You’d better have an attractive career path. You’d better have a physical layout that’s appealing.”

Trish Bertuzzi


“And by the way, once you get them, they are going to get recruited away from you. So once you sell that candy, you keep selling. Just because you hire them doesn’t mean you own them. You need to keep selling them. They are the most precious commodity.”

And what qualities are you looking for in these rainmakers? First, open up their heads. See if they use both sides of the brain.

“Marketing used to be mostly art and a little bit of science. It was branding, it was awareness, it was campaigns, it was billboards, it was TV commercials, it was top of funnel advertising,” says Kevin Akeroyd. “Now, it’s everything. It is awareness, advocacy, cost of acquisition, conversion, nurturing, cost to get the second order, cost to retain, cost to make loyal… And it’s fragmented across all these channels. It’s not just the store and the television anymore. It’s web, it’s mobile, it’s social, it’s display, it’s second screen, it’s commerce.”

“The DNA of very successful companies and marketing departments has gotten a lot more analytical. There’s a lot more critical thinking, a lot more process, measurements, etc. At the same time, maintaining the art and the creative genius. While we can never lose the art and creativity of being brilliant marketers, you’ve got to have science along with it.”

So, what are you looking for when you hire real difference-makers? The challenge is to find creative minds who can also sit with the CFO and CEO and discuss the performance of marketing as it relates to the business. They need to be able to say, “Look how well this campaign is performing by day, by week, by month, and by quarter. And look, here’s how it’s doing per channel. Now, let’s see it broken down by customer segment. And this shows its impact on customer lifecycle stages.” according to Akeroyd.

No wonder you have to steal them.

“The DNA of very successful companies and marketing departments has gotten a lot more analytical. There’s a lot more critical thinking, a lot more process, measurements, etc. At the same time, maintaining the art and the creative genius. While we can never lose the art and creativity of being brilliant marketers, you’ve got to have science along with it.”

Kevin Akeroyd


Chapter 4: Content Marketing

“Tell Me Something Good”Content is king. Seems like everyone’s jumped on the content marketing bandwagon. But how many are doing it effectively, and how many are just jamming email boxes with unwanted, unread lists of “10 Ways to...” and “Surefire Tips for…” and “What Baseball Taught Us About…”?

In truth, it’s not so hard to define good content. Just think about what you take the time to read when you see those articles on LinkedIn.

Here’s how Jesse Noyes describes good content, “Materials or assets that are going to be independently valuable to my intended audience. My intended audience might be future buyers of my product or service, current customers, or even just my market in general.”

The operative phrase there is “independently valuable.” In other words, if your product or service didn’t exist at all, would the content consumer still find value in your white paper, or ebook, or infographic? If so, you’ve delivered good content.

Of course, your product or service does exist, and the whole point of sending out that cool infographic was to entice people, bring them into your site, and set up the beginning of a dialog that ideally leads to a sale, and best-case scenario, a long-term, mutually beneficial relationship.

Still, it’s important to remember that your content must deliver value regardless of whether it fills your pipeline. It must enlighten the audience about important trends; or provide information that will shape the way that they approach their market or their job. As Noyes says, “Content that is really going to help them be better at the careers that they have chosen for themselves.”

So, how do you produce content like that?

Jesse Noyes is Senior Director for Content Marketing at Kapost. Noyes is an ever-present speaker on content marketing and social media

and previously workedat Offerpop and Eloqua.

Tony Zambito is a leading authority on buyer insights and buyer personas for B2B Marketing. In 2001, Tony established the first

buyer insight and buyer persona development methodology designed specifically for B2B Marketing and Sales.

Contributors

http://www.twitter.com/noyesjesse



First, Think About the BuyerWhat are you trying to accomplish with your piece of content? It’s not enough to do it simply because your competition is doing it. Everyone wants to be a “thought leader,” but that title isn’t earned by volume. So, start by setting specific goals. Then, figure out what kind of content will speak to your buyer to drive towards that goal. What’s your strategy for content delivery throughout the pipeline process? How will you measure its effectiveness? And another important question: how much is too much? Says Tony Zambito, “I have done buyer interviews for a number of companies the last two years, probably well over 300. And a common theme is, ‘Is there any way you can shut that spigot (of content in the mailboxes) off?’ They don’t read it. They automatically delete it. The volume is just overwhelming.”Explains Zambito, “Content marketing means you’re producing very meaningful content that maps back to your buyers, and clearly shows you understand their specific goals and the scenarios they are involved in every day. Marketing content is when you figure you need to get a piece out every week, no matter what.” So ask yourself an important question: Am I doing content marketing, or am I actually marketing content?

And Then, Think Some More about the Buyer…Once you have goals and an over-arching content marketing strategy in place, it’s time to drill down to the intention behind each individual piece. Advises Noyes, “Behind every solution is a problem. We often forget that when buyers are still trying to get their heads wrapped around their problem, we’re already started to talk about solutions.” That’s too early. Instead, consider the problem. Then, consider how a person would likely go about investigating and researching that problem. Now, create content that relates directly to that process. Finally, have a method in place to measure the impact of the piece. Wondering about the best format? White paper, eBook, video…you have to decide which will best deliver the key information and where you buyers like to consume content. Of course, you also have to take into consideration how your buyers like to consume content as well.

Tony Zambito

“Content marketing means you’re producing very meaningful content that maps back to your buyers, and clearly shows you understand their specific goals and the scenarios they are involved in every day. Marketing content is when you figure you need to get a piece out every week, no matter what.”


Noyes suggests that high-level, “big questions” get answered via eBook (such as this one), whereas a more smaller, more “wonky” question might not require as much length. “We like to think of the overall issue we are trying to address, the objective we are trying to meet, and then decide what type of content format is most suitable.”

And Now, Produce

Content marketing may have begun with somewhat staid (can we say boring?) white papers, but it’s come a long way. Creative marketers are using video, radio shows, eBooks, infographics, even cookbooks and comic books to deliver content. It’s all about creating content people want and need to consume.

Maybe the most important thing: don’t shortchange the visual design. “Visual momentum is the hottest thing in content marketing today,” says Noyes. “Content that is highly engaging to the eye, that is more visually stimulating, that really strives to use great design to emphasize the lesson you’re teaching, or the insight you’re trying to communicate.”

Beyond visual design is the subject matter’s timeliness. Are you getting it out to the right people, at the right time? Not just chronologically, but in terms of their progress along the pipeline path? “A lot of content may be evergreen,” says Noyes, “but that doesn’t mean that timeliness or topicality is optional.”

To sum it up, a great piece of content:• Teaches or passes along fresh insights• Is well-timed with your buyer’s journey • Is purposeful part of an over-arching content marketing strategy• Is visually designed to support and enhance the message, not distract from it• Is a pleasure to consume

As with anything today, the world of B2B marketing is always in flux. There are new trends, news topics and certainly new ways to connect with your buyer in the marketing universe. However, the end goal is always to connect with your buyer, to help them solve a problem or to answer a question and in return, to be able to engage in meaningful dialogue that may lead to a sale.

“Content that is highly engaging to the eye, that is more visually stimulating, that really strives to use great design to emphasize the lesson you’re teaching, or the insight you’re trying to communicate.”

Jesse Noyes

Many thanks to our marketing experts who have helped us in sharing their wisdom throughout these chapters. Much of the content was pulled from interviews conducted with them via Leadspace Radio, our ongoing program to share marketing and sales best practices with

professionals across industries. The marketing universe is vast…but a few best practices go a long way to helping us connect with our buyers and drive revenue.

To hear more from our contributing experts via Leadspace Radio please listen in at radio.leadspace.com or visit leadspace.com to learn more about how our social demand gen

platform helps you build more pipeline by finding the right prospects, in real-time.

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