Cohesive B2B demand generation model
How to create a cohesive demand generation model to drive awareness and demand among strategic accounts with limited resources.
In today’s newsletter we share:
How to create a B2B demand generation model aligned with buyer journey and levels of demand.
What functions do you need to set up demand gen model
How to plan the demand and awareness activities with limited resources
A recent study by Trustradius and Pavilion called "The Year of Brand Crisis" revealed some interesting facts that we were all somewhat aware of:
86% of enterprise buyers short-listed a product they'd already heard of BEFORE starting the research process.
Just as buyers are shifting their focus to trusted brands, brands themselves have failed to adapt, with many allocating less of their marketing spend toward brand awareness initiatives (38%).
Sam Jacobs says:
“Where’s the disconnect? Buyers are sticking with know-and-try-before-you-buy while vendors are investing less in brand awareness. So, it’s no surprise that when vendors were asked about their GTM challenges, most responded with sales and marketing effectiveness (24%).”
Here is how we solve this challenge by developing a cohesive ABM and demand gen model.
Let’s dive in.
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B2B demand gen model
Here is an overview of a B2B demand generation model aligned with buyer journey and levels of demand (check this post where we explain the concept).
Here are key pillars.
1. GTM Fundamentals
Clusters (based on historical growth)
ICP (based on fastest and highest cluster deals)
Buying committee: roles, jobs-to-be-done, KPIs and challenges (based on account analysis)
Buyer journey (based on customer research)
Buying triggers
*We cover GTM fundamentals in the GTM strategy guide.
2. Demand generation strategy.
Cluster and prioritized buyers (who we want to influence)
Cluster decomposition: challenges, root reasons, ways how customers solve them, nurturing points, etc.
Brand awareness and demand generation: core activities & channels
Distribution
3. Brand awareness.
Most accounts are not in the market, but they actively consume content.
Map out content with identified cluster challenges, jobs-to-be-done and professional interests.
Define 3-5 core programs to create awareness among target accounts. Then, create a demand calendar to create a predictive process, not random acts of marketing.
4. Demand generation.
Demand generation = making your target accounts believe your product is one of the best possible solutions for their needs. It's aligned with the buyer's needs - demand for a solution.
Demand (or solution buy-in) is generated through:
Detailed cluster case studies and customer use cases
Practical overview of typical buyer challenges and ways to solve them with native integration of your product
Frameworks or product in action where buyer can see a solution to a specific challenge
Solution-based content hubs - collection of content around specific challenge and solution (e.g. How to generate enterprise sales opportunities with account-based marketing)
I separated it from brand awareness to visually demonstrate the difference between demand levels.
Demand for content that should be created through the awareness activities I've mentioned above.
Demand for a solution through demand gen activities.
Demand for vendor - through demand gen and demand capturing.
5. Distribution.
Make sure you leverage all 4 levels of content and messaging distribution.
Organic
Paid
1-1 (DMs, emails)
Distribution through partners, thought leaders, communities
6. Demand capturing.
B2B demand capturing ≠ retargeting with the request for a demo. Here are the other 6 activities.
High-intent pages visits (check how we capture demand with intent data)
Product-related content hubs.
Product webinars
Product free courses.
Progressive profiling
Here are 7 sources you'd leverage.
a. 𝐇𝐢𝐠𝐡-𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐩𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐬.
Look for a spark in repetitive visits of high-intent pages (book a demo, pricing, case studies/customer stories) by a target account or set up engagement threshold and automated alerts. Most intent data providers have this feature.
b. 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭-𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐡𝐮𝐛𝐬.
Instead of having multiple pages on your website for multiple verticals and solutions, develop product-related content hubs and add them:
Vertical use cases
Product overview/tour
Feature breakdown
FAQ
Pricing
Comparison reports, etc.
You can track the engagement with each piece of the content and personalize outreach/follow-up based on the collected insights.
c. 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭-𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐰𝐞𝐛𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐫𝐬.
Send to sign-ups for the product content hubs and add an option for 1-1 debriefing/product demo/free consultation.
d. 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭-𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐬.
Help your buyers with their jobs to be done and integrate examples of using your product.
Add links to relevant content hubs, product overviews, and product demo.
Check out free GTM course to see a practical example.
5. 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐟𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠.
Try to evaluate where the potential buyer is in their buying process, what they are currently interested in, and how you can help.
Example: I ask people who sign up for a free ABM course about their goals with ABM: do they want to learn basic concepts, are they running ABM, or plan to launch. Based on this, I suggest relevant help.
6. 𝐒𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠.
Create personalized experiences and suggest 1-1 interactions with accounts that demonstrate interest and are likely to convert.
Example.
Based on the insights from the previous step, I suggest a review of an ABM strategy for companies that already run ABM with ideas on how to improve them or create a personalized content hub with relevant examples for companies that plan to launch ABM.
Retargeting became a synonym for demand capturing, but this is just a piece of the puzzle. You need to have a holistic demand-capturing strategy, and retargeting can enhance it.
7. Metrics and reports.
Define:
Individual set of metrics and reports for brand awareness programs
Set up blended attribution (self-attribution + digital analytics + customer interviews) to identify what works
Track sales pipeline velocity
Get step-by-step guidance in our Full-Funnel ABM on-demand course.
What's included with the course access:
12 modules covering step-by-step ABM strategy development: goal decomposition, ICP, account list building, ABM team, warm-up and activation playbooks, reporting, scaling ABM and building a cohesive ABM & demand gen function.
Short explanation videos and "how to" examples. We believe it's better one time to see a practical example then listen to the theory hundreds of times.
5 orchestrated and ready-to-use ABM playbooks and a detailed explanation
Report dashboard for 4 types of ABM programs: new revenue, pipeline acceleration, expansion and churn prevention
Live case studies and examples of the campaigns we implemented with the clients of Fullfunnel.io in the past few years
17 templates to simplify your ABM strategy launch: ICP, revenue analysis, intent data tracking, account warm-up cadence, customer research, account scoring and prioritization, ABM budget planning and forecasting, account planning, reports, personalized offers, and many more.
Planning & Presenting a Pilot ABM Program to Execs and Sales Framework
Minimal viable stack recommendation and guidelines on how to use it to avoid ramping up budget and being pressured to show ROI for the purchased $50k software
Functions and responsibilities you need to create and run this model
Here is how I see the necessary functions in the B2B demand gen team.
Note: Functions ≠ team members.
One person can maintain 2–3 functions. E.g. demand gen marketer could execute "head of demand" function, content writing and/or ads managements which is very relevant for smaller marketing teams.
Here is a break-down of responsibilities (that, of course, should be adjusted to your needs and programs you run).
Inhouse mandatory functions.
1. HEAD OF DEMAND GEN.
Responsibilities:
Demand gen strategy
Program & team coordination (including agencies)
Programs/playbooks orchestration
Demand calendar and capacity planning
Budgeting
Thought leadership
2. DEMAND GEN MARKETER.
Responsibilities:
Demand gen strategy
Programs/playbooks execution
Tech set up (e.g. webinar landing page)
Reporting
Collaborations with media, thought leaders, partners and customers
Thought leadership
Customer research & interviews
Demand capturing (intent data, content hubs, etc.)
3. SME (Subject-matter expert).
Responsibilities:
Demand gen strategy input
Content input
Hosting a podcast
Running webinars
4. CONTENT WRITER.
I firmly believe you need to have inhouse content writers (which is different for low-ticket / mass market B2B products).
SME interviews
Content for thought leadership
Blog articles
Case studies
Buyer & sales enablement
Newsletters
5. DESIGN.
This function can be outsourced on the pilot stage, but later you'll need this function inhouse.
Responisbilities:
Diagrams & graphs for proprietary data and workflows
Slides / decks
Infographics
Banners
Content repurposing (e.g. text -> diagram, text -> decks, etc.).
OPTIONAL FUNCTIONS
6. SALES DEVELOPMENT.
I mentioned it as an "optional" function to explain that it shouldn't be a program launch blocker. It's hard to involve sales, but I firmly believe that your BDMs should be a part of the program.
They can leverage thought leadership content to create awareness, initiate conversations, connect and engage with target buyers.
Check this post where we explain the role of SDRs in ABM programs:
Responsibilities:
Strategy input
Content distribution
Thought leadership
Invites to the events
7. ADS MANAGEMENT.
Ads management and optimization might require a full-time position. If you don't have a budget for FTE, you can outsource it (there are great vendors like Impactable for LinkedIn, Omni Labs for multichannel).
Make sure you have clear workflows and instructions for your partner to avoid working in silos.
Ads optimization
Program maintenance
Reporting
Demand capturing
8. SEO.
Pretty much aligned with the previous point.
I mentioned multiple functions should be involved in thought leadership.
Here is a reason behind it.
The bigger is your buying committee, the more people you should influence.
By diversifying your content and engagement with different buying committee members and by increasing # of meaningful touchpoints you simply accelerate the pipeline generation.
I don't talk about cross-functional teams here. I feel Marketing Operations or Rev Ops is a standalone function like Product marketing or ABM.
I'm sharing the functions you need to run a demand gen model I presented in the beginning.
How to run demand gen function with limited resources
A lot of B2B teams complain they don't have time, stack, budget or resources. But I think the root reason is lack of prioritization and proper planning.
You don't need 15 different programs.
You need 3–5 programs which are split between daily, weekly, monthly, quarter and annual activities that you excel at. Use a demand generation calendar to structure these programs.
Here is how we create it.
1. Define core programs.
Define core awareness, demand gen and demand capturing programs.
If you don't have a mature function, select 1–2 programs per pillar (awareness, demand gen, demand capturing) and run them until you excel at them.
2. Define daily activities.
We do:
Thought leadership on LinkedIn (and now trying Substack notes)
Engaging with our target accounts, clients and peers
Engaging in our Trenches - B2B marketing community
3. Define weekly activities.
Questions that resonate with our ICP we cover in-depth on our weekly Full-Funnel Live podcast and our newsletter that you are reading now.
4. Define monthly activities.
We either host a live workshop, deep dives, or webinars where we explain a specific concept or work on a specific challenge. Once a month we also aim to release a new practical case study with our clients either in the format of an interview or a written case study.
Live ABM workshops in Amsterdam and London
We'll host 2 live workshops on launching a pilot ABM program: 30.09 in Amsterdam and 3.10 in London.
If you're interested in attending, learn more and sign up here.
5. Define quarter activities.
Depending on market trends and demand we either host a live bootcamp, record a new on-demand course or create a free email course to maximize the nurturing of our market on broader pillars of full-funnel B2B marketing:
GTM strategy
Demand generation
ABM
Thought leadership and social selling on LinkedIn
6. Define annual activities.
Once a year we run two major programs: Full-funnel summit and The State of Full-Funnel B2B marketing research.
These programs help us to engage with a broader community and amplify brand awareness.
TLDR
Make sure your demand gen strategy is not focused on demand capturing only, but also includes awareness, demand generation and distribution programs.
Don’t try to launch multiple programs. Select 1–2 programs from each of the pillars and run them until you excel at them.
Align # of programs with the current team’s capacity. Don’t think that you can outsource part of the programs and forget. Your partners should be treated as team members.
Make sure you have the necessary functions involved.
Drive pipeline THIS quarter with our help.
If any of these challenges sound familiar:
You are aligned in theory with sales but don’t do anything in practice aside from receiving wish lists from sales and sharing with them your marketing plan. In reality, you work in silos and miss the revenue targets and are being pressured by your executives.
You understand that your marketing and sales playbook is broken (mqls, gated content) but despite many attempts you don’t know how to fix it
Your outbound, paid ads and organic pipeline drastically decreased while CAC increased mostly because most of your market is problem unaware and not buying.
You lack brand awareness among target accounts and sales can’t get even a reply.
You clearly see that you're already behind your revenue targets
We can help.
We'll develop a custom full-funnel ABM strategy aligned with your resources, budget and stack and execute it together to drive results THIS quarter.