In part 2 of our conversation with Matt Torman, content marketing pro at work tech company, Brex, we continue exploring why moving away from marketing that attempts to be “everything to everyone” helps you breakthrough and standout in a crowded HR tech market.  

Listen now to learn why taking calculated, creative risks with a blend of innovative ideas and data-driven decision making is crucial in a content-saturated landscape.  

00:55    Taking creative risks that stay true to your company’s brand  
01:34    Why understanding and targeting your core audience is so important 
05:15    Fears and challenges that prevent marketing teams from taking risks  
12:23    Taking the time you need to create engaging, authentic content  
14:52    How to create unique content that stands out and connects with your core audience 
16:55    Why collaborating on ideas and gaining new perspectives fuels innovative strategies 
17:31    Testing and learning how your marketing performs is a critical component
18:37    Making data-driven decisions and gaining leadership support 

The Demand Gen Fix is hosted by Deanna Shimota, CEO of GrowthMode Marketing. Listen to our team of marketing experts and featured guests drop knowledge on how HR tech companies can maximize the success of their marketing for today’s B2B prospects. Learn more at www.growthmodemarketing.com.

In the very crowded HR and work tech space, too many marketers play it safe with their marketing campaigns. It creates a “sea of sameness” where businesses get lost in a multitude of messages across many different brands that blend and sound the same.

Listen in to explore this topic with our guest and content marketing pro, Matt Torman. He’s the content marketing principal at Brex, an AI-powered spending platform that helps employees make smarter financial decisions for their employers. 

If your company is tied to a marketing approach that safely conforms, but you want to try pushing the envelope, this is a great episode for you! Taking risks can be scary, but listen as we talk through that together. See why focusing on breaking through can capture better results.

01:09 Learn why it’s essential to differentiate your business and solutions 
02:43  The value of storytelling and using AI to support content creation
09:31  Why marketing to a broad audience is a common mistake
11:14  An example of a bold marketing campaign by Brex
17:16  Why making an emotional connection is a better way to speak to buyers’ pain points
21:05  How to transform surface-level messaging into content that digs deeper and resonates more with decision makers

The Demand Gen Fix is hosted by Deanna Shimota, CEO of GrowthMode Marketing. Listen to our team of marketing experts and featured guests drop knowledge on how HR tech companies can maximize the success of their marketing for today’s B2B prospects. Learn more at www.growthmodemarketing.com.

A lot of really good HR tech companies get lost in a crowded market. That’s because you’re vying for attention with more than 21,000 HR tech businesses selling technology platforms—with new start-ups joining the industry all the time. 

Listen to this episode to find out what three challenges consistently impede marketing outcomes and results for HR tech companies. Learn why positioning your business and solutions is at the heart of how to successfully gain traction. Because touting the same features and functionality as your competitors isn’t saying anything at all about your true differentiators.  

01:09 Why it’s essential to differentiate your business and solutions 

09:31 Why marketing to a broad audience is a common mistake

17:16 How to understand and make an emotional connection that speaks to buyers’ pain points

21:05 A look at surface-level messaging and how to dig deeper to connect with prospects

23:49 Why it’s important that your messages resonate with decision makers

The Demand Gen Fix is hosted by Deanna Shimota, CEO of GrowthMode Marketing. Listen to our team of marketing experts and featured guests drop knowledge on how HR tech companies can maximize the success of their marketing for today’s B2B prospects. Learn more at www.growthmodemarketing.com.

The HR tech market is extremely crowded – and many brands get lost in the sea of sameness. Defining your differentiation is a critical step to breaking through the clutter. But how do you go about it?

This is often the job of product marketing. Listen to this episode to hear from guest Noelle Bloomfield, senior director of product marketing at HR tech company, Gloat. We talk about the important role of product marketing in gathering market insights, aligning strategy and building out message positioning to differentiate form the competition. Hear why she believes a test and learn approach is important to ultimately creating more value for customers by constantly iterating based on market changes.   

00:20   The important role of product marketing in the HR tech industry
01:17   Integrating product marketing and aligning with other teams
03:31   Quarterbacking the go-to-market journey to connect with buyers
08:00   How to stand out in a crowded market through differentiation
12:24   How to build a product marketing team designed to align with other teams
15:35   How to prioritize and focus
18:23   Why the buyer’s journey needs to be personal to connect more effectively
21:24   Continuous learning is key in product marketing
23:38   Why product marketing is a connector helping to drive better business results

The Demand Gen Fix is hosted by Deanna Shimota, CEO of GrowthMode Marketing. Listen to our team of marketing experts and featured guests drop knowledge on how HR tech companies can maximize the success of their marketing for today’s B2B prospects. Learn more at www.growthmodemarketing.com.

Traditional sales processes that work a cold lead through a buyer journey defined by a HR tech businesses is fading fast. Prospects want to self-educate and be in control of their buying process and timeline. However, that doesn’t diminish the importance of the sales role and closing deals. But how and when you engage with buyers is a whole new ballgame.

Collaboration and regular communication with sales on how demand generation marketing meets buyers on their timeline is key. Find out how to work with your sales team to identify opportunities to engage—near the end of the journey. Listen to this episode to hear about why creating synergies between marketing and sales can help you win more deals and build critical rapport. 

01:02   The changing buyer landscape means marketing plays a bigger role in the purchase decision
01:17   Helping your sales team shift how and when they engage with buyers
02:51   How marketing can help support self-service buying behaviors
04:20   Why good content is so important
06:09   HR tech buyers are engaging with a sales rep much later in the decision process
13:36   How to build trust and connect with prospects
16:49   Creating a sales process that offers a better experience for HR tech prospects
18:03   Why sales and marketing alignment is critical in meeting prospects in a self-service journey
25:13   Help the sales team better understand how to effectively use marketing content

The Demand Gen Fix is hosted by Deanna Shimota, CEO of GrowthMode Marketing. Listen to our team of marketing experts and featured guests drop knowledge on how HR tech companies can maximize the success of their marketing for today’s B2B prospects. Learn more at www.growthmodemarketing.com.

Are you seeing the performance of your lead generation marketing efforts dip? As prospect buying behaviors evolve, many tried and true marketing methods aren’t driving the results they once did. We’re hearing it from fellow marketing colleagues and we’re experiencing it ourselves. 

In this episode, we talk through why gated content and more aggressive lead generation strategies aren’t as effective for prospects who want more control of the B2B buying process. Listen now to learn ways to adapt and improve your results.

00:57 Why traditional lead generation isn’t as effective anymore 
01:14 Comparison of lead generation and demand generation strategies and a short-term vs. long-term approach
05:36 Why evolving prospect behavior is changing everything 
10:43 How is demand generation marketing different?
14:40 The drawbacks of using lead capture forms with today’s prospects
16:34 How to use lead generation marketing as part of a demand generation strategy for more traction and growth

The Demand Gen Fix is hosted by Deanna Shimota, CEO of GrowthMode Marketing. Listen to our team of marketing experts and featured guests drop knowledge on how HR tech companies can maximize the success of their marketing for today’s B2B prospects. Learn more at www.growthmodemarketing.com.

Building brand awareness in the market can take many forms – and it doesn’t always have to come with a big price tag. As an employee, you can help amplify your company’s brand to drive bigger brand awareness in the market.

One way to become a brand ambassador for your company is to use your personal brand on LinkedIn to bolster your company's profile. It’s a way to consistently stay in front of potential prospects and clients – without feeling intrusive – which can build credibility and trust over time. So take the leap, invest time in your personal brand and turn it into an impactful marketing channel for your company.

In this episode, Logan Mallory, Vice President of Marketing, joins us to talk about his experience driving greater brand awareness for his company, Motivosity. 

00:21 Becoming a brand ambassador on LinkedIn
08:36   Defining your content strategy
10:20   Driving business and customer interactions
13:09   Becoming an example for other employees on building a personal brand
15:21   Building brand ambassadors across the company to amplify the company brand
17:33   Engaging with customers through social selling and creating a presence
18:37   Convincing executives to build their personal brands
22:24   Creating meaningful interactions
26:12   Being intentional about building your audience
33:32   Consistency is key 
36:46   Focusing on engagement over impressions
37:15   Building credibility and trust 

The Demand Gen Fix is hosted by Deanna Shimota, CEO of GrowthMode Marketing. Listen to our team of marketing experts and featured guests drop knowledge on how HR tech companies can maximize the success of their marketing for today’s B2B prospects. Learn more at www.growthmodemarketing.com.

You know that buying behaviors are changing, but are you aligning your sales and marketing strategies to meet prospects with the targeted content they want for a self-service experience? If not, remember that your competition is. And they’re just a click away.

Listen to this episode to learn about both practical and revelatory ways to build a demand generation engine. Like this one: Narrowing your audience and targeting your content to a specific market or company type can help improve your market traction. 

Hear why it’s time to ramp up your demand generation efforts and how expert guidance can help set you on the path quicker. It’s how we help clients every day at GrowthMode Marketing.

00:20 Why creating a demand generation engine is so important for growth
01:53 The 3 pillars of demand generation: Strategy, content and distribution
03:23 Strategy: A hyper-focused plan for content and distribution
05:33 Content: The foundation for creating demand
06:23 Distribution: How to show up in the right place to reach your buyers
07:26 Target your ideal customer 
11:04Differentiate from competitors with a unique point of view
15:03 Create a content marketing + demand generation plan 
18:58 How to create and repurpose content for different channels
21:11 Why you should test and learn how your content performs 
21:58 Optimize distribution efforts for content performance and audience engagement
23:17 Why you need a full funnel digital footprint
24:36 How content works to guide prospects through awareness and consideration
27:33 Build an audience with managed channels like podcasts, webinars and email campaigns
29:40 Expand your digital footprint with partnerships and third party channels
33:59 How to manage your demand generation program for continuous success

The Demand Gen Fix is hosted by Deanna Shimota, CEO of GrowthMode Marketing. Listen to our team of marketing experts and featured guests drop knowledge on how HR tech companies can maximize the success of their marketing for today’s B2B prospects. Learn more at www.growthmodemarketing.com.

Just a small portion of your target audience is ever in-market to buy at any given time. Investing in lead generation programs that focus only on this sliver of the market (about 5%) puts you behind in a fiercely competitive situation where companies are busy building awareness about their capabilities and solutions. 

In this episode, we help you rethink the panic cycles of lead generation with strategies that take you from trying to find a needle in a haystack to creating demand marketing that helps you get in front of prospects—long before they’re thinking about researching their next HR tech solution.

Listen now to learn how to create, balance and maximize a demand generation program that helps you hit your growth targets. 

0:00:00 | Introduction 
0:01:10 | Creating demand is important to achieving long-term growth
0:03:38 | The need to balance demand creation and demand capture programs
0:05:37 | The vast majority of the market isn’t buying right now
0:06:43 | Why building brand awareness and trust is critical
0:08:29 | The risk of relying solely on demand capture programs
0:10:12 | The cycle of panic when revenue falls short
0:11:19 | The challenge of uncovering leads without prior demand creation efforts
0:15:10 | Differentiate between demand creation and demand capture programs
0:20:18 | Convincing prospects who aren’t in-market to buy is unlikely
0:21:25 | Plant seeds, capture consideration and convince with targeted marketing
0:24:53 | Building a demand generation engine leads to better results
0:25:39 | Focusing on getting more hand raisers instead of chasing leads
0:26:10 | You’re limiting potential future growth when you don’t create demand with prospects before they are in market to buy  

The Demand Gen Fix is hosted by Deanna Shimota, CEO of GrowthMode Marketing. Listen to our team of marketing experts and featured guests drop knowledge on how HR tech companies can maximize the success of their marketing for today’s B2B prospects. Learn more at www.growthmodemarketing.com.

Engineers analyze and solve problems using systematic, iterative processes. It’s an approach that avoids making costly assumptions. While many B2B marketers measure data to prove marketing program ROI, often the data doesn’t tell the whole story and can actually hinder the drive for results.

Listen to this episode to hear guest Omer Maman, Vice President of Marketing at HR tech company, Healthee, and the GrowthMode team talk about why it makes sense to dig deeper into your data, especially in situations where the numbers don’t add up - like high lead volumes but missed revenue targets. Hear why approaching your marketing like an engineer by creating hypotheses, validating and making continuous adjustments can lead to uncovering the answers to what marketing programs truly drive the biggest results. 

0:00:00 | Introduction
0:01:00 | The engineering mindset in marketing
0:03:11 | Importance of analyzing data beyond surface-level metrics
0:04:40 | Flaws in measuring MQLs and SQLs for marketing success
0:07:18 | Exploring additional data sources for a holistic view of marketing
0:08:55 | Misalignment between marketing and sales with MQLs
0:11:03 | Long-term strategic approach to marketing beyond lead generation
0:11:44 | The need for an omnichannel presence and multiple touchpoints
0:12:42 | The challenge of measuring tactics that can’t easily be measured
0:16:15 | Complexity of marketing and the need for a strong brand
0:18:09 | Considering multiple buyers and influencers in the decision-making process
0:19:23 | Challenges with lead scoring and the importance of real buying intent
0:23:30 | Applying an engineering mindset to marketing strategies
0:27:28 | Conclusion

The Demand Gen Fix is hosted by Deanna Shimota, CEO of GrowthMode Marketing. Listen to our team of marketing experts and featured guests drop knowledge on how HR tech companies can maximize the success of their marketing for today’s B2B prospects. Learn more at www.growthmodemarketing.com.