This episode was repurposed from when Chris joined Dave Gerhardt (CMO at Privy) for a conversation on the B2B Marketing Leaders podcast. They talked about unconventional growth levers, problem solving as a marketer, the importance of being in the details, and why a strong team makes everything easier. Chris dove into why measurement is flawed in marketing and how to use correlation and social cues as a means of measurement, and Dave shared that one thing marketers are not good at doing is thinking about both short-term pipeline generators and long term brand/revenue plays, like a podcast.

Chris and Dave are putting on a recurring live event the first Thursday of every month. Registration is required (and free), so make sure to save your spot here and add it to your calendar.

Sam Kuehnle, Director of Demand Gen @ Refine Labs, hosted a Back to Basics session with Chris Walker about the buyer experience. They talked through the importance of reverse engineering your own buying process by challenging the ways people have previously done things and mapping the journey back to how people buy things today. Keep yourself honest by asking yourself when the last time a tactic you are currently employing worked on yourself. Sam and Chris talked through some of the most common mistakes companies make as well as assumptions and stereotypes that need to be replaced with actual customer insights from people who are in the market.

“The journey is not linear.”

Chris Walker and Megan Bowen host this week's episode of Demand Gen Live. This episode covers some new topics in depth:  

Strategy: 

1. Why most companies don't create demand 

2. How to use data to actually improve marketing performance 

3. Just because it's inbound doesn't mean it's a good marketing strategy 

4. It's' time to rethink what a website is for  

Paid Social Deep Dive: 

5. Copy in the creative is the #1 variable that determines whether or not your ad is successful 

6. When to invest in a targeting tool like Metadata or Clearbit 

7. Why creative is your secret weapon for maximizing smaller budgets 

8. Why your lookalike audiences might be a trap 9. How to measure the success of a retargeting campaign

Register here for our recurring live event with Dave Gerhardt (CMO at Privy).

Collin Cadmus, Founder of Collin Cadmus LLC, joined Chris on the podcast to dissect his recent LinkedIn post that started with "Marketing is more important than sales." They discussed the importance in investing in building out your marketing team before scaling your sales team, and the challenges of rebalancing both teams when you've over-hired for sales. Collin shared the signals to look out for to tell you that you have too many sales reps. Marketing is the foundation for sales, and it's easier and more efficient to put that foundation in place before scaling the sales team so the reps are well equipped to do their job. 

This week on Demand Gen Live, Chris Walker and Megan Bowen broke down the difference between marketing sourced revenue and marketing influenced revenue, and which you should be focusing on. They also talked about how word of mouth amplified your marketing and the role of email nurture in B2B marketing and how to nurture prospects by other distribution means. After covering the agenda, Chris and Megan answered questions in regards to nurture campaigns, LinkedIn paid ads, and the importance of having an SME on board with creating content.

Dave Gerhardt, CMO at Privy, joined us for another live session to dive into the power shift from sellers to buyers and how that affects your marketing strategy. Half of their session consisted of a live AMA in which they answered questions in regards to: questions marketers should be able to answer about their customers, solutions to podcast & organic content roadblocks, the key players for each type of marketing team, the importance of consistency, and getting executive buy-in for organic brand activities.

Last night we celebrated the one year anniversary of Demand Gen Live! We hosted a special episode and had some of our loyal community members share their success stories as they related to the impact Demand Gen Live has had on their careers. Chris and Megan also answered questions revolving around topics like: when it makes sense to move towards being a specialist over a generalist, what to look for when hiring demand marketers, personal branding, and moving from typical lead gen activities to more focus on brand.

Register here for our event with Dave Gerhardt (CMO at Privy), taking place April 1st at 12pm EDT. 

Chris Walker joined Nick Bennett on the Rep Your Brand podcast to talk about the impact of having a strong personal brand on your business. He shares that everyone has a personal brand, whether they think they do or not. If there are inconsistencies between who you are and what you say, you are diminishing your brand. Chris and Nick unveil the misconceptions behind sharing content openly on social platforms as well as the positive repercussions doing so can have, especially in the B2B SaaS space.