Does your demand gen strategy stack up in 2022?
Jason Widup, VP of Marketing, and Mark Huber, Head of Brand & Product Marketing at Metadata, break down what marketers should be doing for demand gen, how it’s changed over the years, and which bad habits we need to throw out.
Listen to the full session to learn more about creating a demand gen strategy fit for 2022 – and not the same one everyone else has been running the last 10 years.
Watch the full episode
Three top takeaways:
In the meantime, here are three important takeaways from the episode:
Takeaway 1: Don’t assume everyone’s ready to buy
Traditional demand gen tactics often assume that everyone’s ready to buy. But we know that’s not true. People like to browse different solutions and find out what’s out there way before they’re ready to part with their cash.
So, if all your paid ads are running under the assumption that people are ready to buy, it’s not going to end well for you or your budget.
But waiting for people to be ready to buy is also a bad tactic.
Because by the time people are ready, you’re often too late. Most of the time, when people are showing real intent, they’ve already done the research. They already have a few solutions on their shortlist and an idea of who to buy from. Unless you’re planting those seeds early, you’re probably not even on the shortlist.
You have to start far earlier in the process. And educate your audience way before you even think of trying to sell to them.
Takeaway 2: Leave behind outdated demand gen tactics
One of the most common demand gen tactics is getting people to request a demo. The old-school way of doing things usually involved a demo request campaign ad on social media targeted to a cold audience.
The result? Poor conversion rates.
The truth is that most people by now know how to request a demo if they want one. Filling your site, social media, and ads with this call to action is not really how buying works anymore.
In fact, demos are not what they once were. By the time someone signs up for a demo, they’ve likely already done their research. They’ll have a good idea of what you do and how you do It already. The demo just validates their research. It’s no longer about first impressions.
Another outdated idea is using content ads for gated content. A potential buyer puts their email address in and inadvertently signs up for one of the worst marketing nurture strategies possible – a bombardment of sales emails and calls.
When was the last time you entered your email address for a free resource and really hoped a salesperson would suddenly get in touch to sign you up?
Probably never.
So don’t do it to your audience. They haven’t shown an intent to buy just by entering an email address. It’s more likely to put them off ever buying from you.
Takeaway 3: Sell how people want to be sold to
How do people like to buy? This should be one of the top questions your team asks when trying to drive sales and revenue.
All buyers are different, of course, but the vast majority won’t say, “I love it when Sales emails or calls me non-stop.” Would you?
Instead of using this very traditional, pushy way to get people to buy from you, consider how buyers prefer to buy. A lot of them like to do their own research, find out exactly what they need to know, and read reviews before they ever come into contact with the sales department.
Buyers are going to ask themselves, “why should I buy from you?” Some will even look beyond features and benefits and wonder about company culture, how you treat your employees, and what you’re like to work with on a personal level.
All of these things affect buy-in.
A lot of this is done with branding. Your brand helps to amplify everything you’re doing, and that’s why it’s so important in demand gen right now.
If you’re looking to drive demand, make sure you revisit your brand and what it’s saying to the market.
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