Lead quality is probably the number one beef that sales teams have with marketing.  Most lead gen strategies are focused on capturing as many leads or "MQLs" as possible.  This leads to driving leads that simply aren't ready for sales.

This week's episode we discuss how marketing can help dive better leads through a demand gen strategy rather than lead gen.

Additionally we discuss how marketing can solve for the top 5 reasons sales says leads are not qualified:

1) Problem Awareness - Ahh we don't need that.
2) Buy In - Your solution isn't the right one
3) Authority to Purchase - My boss has to approve this
4) Budget - We don't have the budget or don't see the value.
5) Timeline - Now isn't the time

How do you decide whether or not it makes more sense to work with an agency or hire in house?  Well, a big part of it comes down to how your team is structured.  While agencies are most used for specific subject matter expertise, the ability to see trends across brands, & access to tools, the makeup of an internal team is the biggest factor you should consider when looking at an agency.

The agency world has shifted a lot in the last 10 years, we want a seat at the table and to be viewed as a partner and not a vendor. Agencies heavily rely on brands for customer insights, pinpoints, common objections, unique selling props, etc.  We need the tools to to inform the strategy.  The reality is that the way a team is built plays a lot into being able to provide those insights. 

Join Zach & James as they discuss how different organizational structures can have an impact on an agency partnership.

Google Ads,  our favorite demand capture tool.  Unfortunately we feel like it may be falling off the rails.  After the pandemic killed any form of customer service we had with Google, the ad platform is pushing us harder and harder to fully adopt new AI that just isn't a fit for everyone.

In a world where tracking is becoming more and more difficult, how are we supposed to let an algorithm optimize towards metrics we can barely track?

The future is certainly going to be interesting, but also presents us an opportunity to go back to being marketers and not a bunch of tech people.

Resist Performance Max and lets keep control over our media strategy! 

Join us this week as we discuss the future of google with a couple of certified google wizzard/gurus who have been through it all.

The 2022 State of Marketing Budget & Strategy report by Gartner released a stat that saying 25.4% of marketing budgets is spent on technology.  After reading this stat, it has become pretty evident that tech is taking over.

Join Zach and James as they discuss the pros & cons of marketing technology and the future looks like for humans in marketing.

We always complain about bad content.. Boring content, gated content, salesy content, etc.. But what we haven’t talked about much is what is good content? What works?  Join Andy and James this week as we dive into a very simple content strategy framework that will help you join results.

There are 3 types of content that you need to create:

1. Short form branded content that focuses on customer education, unique selling points & market positioning.  Let's end the logo tagline messaging in ads.
2. Entertaining or controversial content (Go Viral)... more like having a point of view worth listening to.
3. Bring me back content.  Episodic content that keeps people coming back for more.

These 3 content types distributed through the right channels will help build brand growth, community & ultimately revenue. 

Join Zach & James as they provide advice on how to overcome the top 5 biggest challenges for B2B marketers.

1) Using customer intelligence to overcome the markets resistance to change.
2) Balancing quick wins vs long term growth.
3) Developing unique market positioning
4) Creating a testing framework that allows for innovation
5) Measurement & attribution

Is the full funnel AIDA model for marketing outdated?  We believe it is, and here is why:  Marketers & sales teams for years, have been making customers buy on their terms, by forcing them through a curated user journey.  Marketers and sales teams need to shift to building strategies based on how today's buyers want to buy.

Join Zach and James and our special guest Andy as we talk through how a shift in mentality can help you scale revenue more efficiently.

Creating demand is the most difficult part of marketing.  Our goal when creating demand is to focus on educating potential customers about a problem and driving them to the point where they are ready to act.  The easy part then becomes capturing that demand.

Join Zach and James as they talk through how to develop creative and messaging across all the different stages of demand creation.

In a time of diminishing demand,  we are being asked frequently, "How can we steal from the competition"..."Lets run some competitor campaigns"...  Well, This almost never works unless it is very carefully thought out.

Join Zach and James as they discuss the Do's and Don'ts of competitive campaigns as well as how to properly develop a competitive conquesting strategy.

Over the last few months we have seen the onset of a recession.  We have now seen layoffs across many different industries, and budget cuts across the board.

Brands are competing over less demand and customer acquisition costs are rising.  Shifting from a demand capture strategy to demand generation can help your brand come out on top.

Join Zach, James and our special guest Andy Groller, as we discuss how brands need to pivot going into H2.