Dos
&
Don'ts
1. Define Demand Gen.
Do
Define Demand Gen based on your sales and marketing needs. Develop a vision for your strategy and make sure your team fully understands both.
Don't
Lose sight of what you are working toward and be sure to set and manage performance expectations along the way.
2. Align your business and marketing objectives.
Do
Keep the business' and your marketing objectives top-of-mind throughout your efforts. If the business objectives evolve, so should your marketing and approach.
Don't
Get complacent and settle for a general understanding of what the business is trying to accomplish and the role you, as a marketing lead, play in helping to attain them.
3. Understand your market and competitors.
Do
Go to school on the markets you're interested in pursuing. Create a SWOT analysis to provide an unbiased view of your position in the market and then prioritize your challenges.
Don't
Use a one-size-fits-all approach to your Demand Gen efforts. Markets, market dynamic, competitor offerings and buying groups are in a constant state of change.
4. Know your buyer and buying groups.
Do
Use what you know about your customers and the market to develop a Suspect Target Profile – a set of criteria you will use to work with list vendors to identify your audience.
Don't
Think your target customer STP is transferrable from market-to-market and role-to-role. While there may be similarities, there will always be noticeable differences.
5. Align your content with your buyer's journey.
Do
A content audit to determine what is performing, what can be repurposed and what should be retired. Then re-align your content according to the buyer's needs.
Don't
Haphazardly make content available without some expectation of how it should perform at various stages of the buyer's journey and sales funnel.
6. Channel strategy = inbound and outbound.
Do
Plan for both inbound and outbound strategies to be easy-to-find by buyers proactively searching, as well as finding those passively seeking solutions to their needs.
Don't
Convince yourself you can "make do" with your current approach if it isn't producing the results your business needs. Enable change for the better of the campaign.
7. Score, qualify and nurture your leads.
Do
Work with your sales team to develop a scoring system and nurturing campaign that is based on their experience in converting leads. Then monitor response and adapt.
Don't
Treat all leads the same. It is an inefficient, time-consuming way to keep the sales team busy with activity, but not with progress in getting closer to converting leads.
8. Adapt to your learnings and your audience.
Do
Commit to monitoring campaign performance and audience behavior. Establish an open feedback loop with sales and adapt your efforts to your learnings.
Don't
"Set it and forget it." Marketing automation is a great tool, but not a sound strategy. Don't lose sight of the need for a human to monitor performance and adapt to behavior.

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