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The Biggest Mistake Demand Generation Marketers Make

Posted on June 20, 2019June 30, 2023 By Vikas Bhatt

Let’s get straight to the point. The biggest mistake demand generation marketers make is to either think they don’t follow any attribution model (in which case they end up using last touch model) or follow one model to take all the decisions (and most of them ending up selecting last touch model). But, before we go onto discuss why is this the biggest mistake demand generation marketers make, we need to understand what is attribution. It simply refers to attributing which marketing campaign, tool or channels helped transformed a visitor into a customer. Now, that we understand what attribution in, let’s answer the much awaited question – why is this the biggest mistake demand generation marketers make? It is because last touch attribution does not give the correct picture required to take major decisions. There are similar problems with other attribution models as well (discussed below). According to Johnny butler in an article on Adgo, No one modeL is correct (or incorrect), as no single one will paint a full picture of your marketing performance. The key is to understand which models tell you what information and when you should be using each one. Fergal Glynn, in an article on SalesForce blog, says that it often takes several touches for a consumer to make the choice to request information, and even more for marketing to gather the information needed to determine if a lead is ready to be passed to sales. The point being – we need to understand that an average online purchase is preceded by as many as 5 to 10 interactions and sometimes more. It is important to understand which marketing channels are effective and which are not in order to focus on developing the right demand generation strategy. Lets understand the types of attribution models. Must Read: How to make your Demand Generation Plan Fool-proof 1. Last-Touch Attribution model This model gives the credit to the last channel that the visitor used before they converted. Last click model is the best to understand which tactics are helpful in closing the deals or pushing the quality leads towards it. But, it has limitations. Lets say you have deployed 4-5 tactics in your demand generation efforts. By the time the lead reaches a stage of buying, he has interacted with you on multiple levels. However, when you implement last touch model, you are giving credit for your conversions to the final channel a customer used. You are ignoring all other media or marketing channels that would have played an important role in lead nurturing throughout the buyer’s journey. How is this the biggest mistake demand generation marketers make? because you end up ignoring the role played by the top of the funnel and mid of the funnel channels. This will end up in misallocated budgets and time, bad choices and increase in cost per lead over time (instead of decreasing) Look at the example below. Source: Adgo The marketer will end up concentrating on SEO and other tactics to improve organic results instead of having a budget and planning for facebook ads. 2. First-Touch Model The first touch as the name suggests, gives credit to the first source that the visitor used in their journey to a conversion. It helps in understanding the most effective top of the funnel brand awareness and demand generation tools. Must Read: Demand Generation Etiquettes 3. Linear Model or Multi-touch attribution This is the simplest form of multi-touch attribution and evenly applies the credit to every single touch in the buyer’s journey. It – Provides detailed insights and information on how all the marketing channels work and contribute to a buyers journey. For example, you can decide which marketing channel is the least effective and remove it. Help channelize budget, time and efforts in the right direction According to Bizible, the negative is that it doesnt take into account the potential for varying impact of marketing touches. For example, if a prospect spends two days at one of your user conferences and then goes home and visits your site 19 times via Direct and then converts, your user conference will get 5% of the credit, even though it likely did most of the heavy lifting. Direct, on the other hand, will get 95% of the credit. Source: Marketo 4. Time Decay Model This model attributes credit to every marketing channel that a buyer touches on the journey to conversion. However, it places more emphasis on the channels that push visitors towards conversion. So, what do we learn? Each attribution model provides you a certain part of data but does not give you the complete picture. For example, first touch model may show you how a PPC campaign resulted in $1 mn revenue and is the best strategy to generate B2B leads but the last touch model tells you that a webinar is the best way to push these leads towards closing and resulted into $ 9mn revenue. Therefore, following one model to develop a strategy and analyze the effectiveness of marketing efforts is the biggest mistake demand generation marketers make. So, what should we do to avoid this mistake? First, understand that marketing in any form needs to generate revenue and you need marketing attribution to track that. Second, understand what you should be known to increase the effectiveness of demand generation efforts and then select a relevant model. Most of the times, you will need to understand more than one set of data to be effective in your strategies. In such cases, you should implement 1-2 models Third, do not merge reports. Read all the reports separately and thoroughly to understand what is really going on. Fourth (and for beginners) – if you are starting out, the safest option is to start by implementing a multi-touch attribution model. If you follow this 4-step-strategy, you can avoid the biggest mistake demand generation marketers make. Final words Attribution is the best way to gain insights on the marketing impact and get the 360 view of your customer. With attribution analysis, you will understand all the touch points of your customer thoroughly. It is only when you encompass all this information and understand buyer’s journey can help you strategize effectively. Understand why we

Lead vs Prospect Explained in Simple Terms

Posted on May 28, 2019July 16, 2026 By Vikas Bhatt

What is lead and what is a prospect? this question has eaten many peoples head. If you have been blindly using these terms until now with not much of difference, thats okay! We all get confused with these 2 terms but let’s see what they exactly mean. Lets take below example You use Lead generation and someone fills the form on your landing page – that is a lead. There are different sources which might direct traffic to your website such as social media, email marketing, blog posts, cold calling, direct mail, etc. No matter what the source the actions such as, filling the form online or responding to CTA on your landing page shows that the person is interested in you. Any person who gives their contact information and is interested in you can be called a lead. Source: https://aeroleads.com/blog/ Just as the name indicates a prospect is a person who can develop an interest in your product if they fit into your buyers persona. Lets put it this way, If you are a business who offers female beauty products to the customers. You use social media network like Facebook, Linkedin very well for your e-commerce and you also have a number of existing customers joined to your Facebook business page. While doing marketing campaigns on Facebook, you will use a very useful tool such as lookalike audience, where you can attract a similar group of people as your customers to your product. Lookalike audiences are people who could be interested in your products if they come to know about your products. You can use demand generation strategies to target these people and create your brand awareness. As you sell female products, basically any female who you think could buy your product can be called your prospect. People usually decide their target audience based on different criteria such as demographic info, their career info, etc. It is advised that we create buyers persona and tailor our marketing services to their needs. As said by Ann Handley, a content marketer and the author of the book everybody writes, you should write with one person in mind. This is the person who would define your ideal buyers attributes. Once you have set this in mind, it becomes easy to target people that fit into your buyers persona. There is a lot of difference though in a lead and a prospect? How so? Lets see below lead vs prospect difference. What can you tell from the following statistics taken from Jumplead Read More: 7 Lead Management Strategy Best Practices Above statistics give us an idea that not many leads that you get fit into your buyers persona. Though giving contact information, signing up for the newsletter is a major indication of someone’s interest in your brand, it isn’t true in more than 50% of cases. Did you get it? Leads are just someone who signed up for the newsletter but doesn’t mean they are likely to buy. That is why many apply BANTs criteria to qualify the leads further. The leads when qualified (Marketing qualified or Sales qualified) can be called as prospects as they are your ideal buyers who have shown continued interest which cannot be mistaken. As defined prospect is a potential customer as they come under your target market, want to buy and have the budget and authority too. Prospects are at first leads, or in different words, another opportunity to turn someone into a potential customer. If you are selling software solutions to small businesses, the small business managers are your prospects but if they are not in charge of making a decision for this then they are not your prospects. However, if you haven’t qualified any contact as a prospect, it is to be called lead. This is how a general sales process carries on. Source: https://www.zoho.com/crm/help/img/sales-funnel.jpg 1. Prospecting: Here you gather as many leads as possible. 2. Qualifying leads into prospects: This doesn’t have to a lengthy process but only a few questions such as below would help you identify if they are prospects. 3. Selling Phase: Once the prospects are qualified because of further interest they show, the selling cycle begins. The selling phase can be short or long depending on your products. I hope above all points helped you understand the difference between a lead and a prospect. If it gets any hard with the terms with similar meaning like, you can feel free to ask us through email. We are ready to solve your questions like What is the difference between Demand Generation and lead generation? Is Data cleaning and data scrubbing the same? Read more about it in our blog posts. Thank you 🙂

Why You Should Be Using Social Media Customer Service

Posted on November 23, 2018July 17, 2026 By Vikas Bhatt

Social media is a platform where customer service is very important. Jay Baer knows all about this, as the mastermind behind Convince & Convert. This digital marketing agency provides services to organizations like Allstate, Cisco, and even The United Nations. His book, Hug Your Haters, functions like a modernized manual on customer service. This work has helped companies increase feedback and decrease complaints. He is a New York Times and Amazon best-selling author. Baers blog is rated as the best global content marketing blog by The Content Marketing Institute. He recently spoke with us about how companies can use social media customer service. Understanding How Customer Service Has Changed There was a time when customer service was a much more personal matter. A customers grievance would only be known by a small group of people. With social media (LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter), a complaint from a customer can generate significant attention. Social media, alongside customer reviews, can work to the detriment of even the largest and most successful company. Without a proper way to handle complaints and provide customer service, companies can suffer from a damaged reputation and loss of revenue. Taking the Main Step in Improving Customer Service Baer extensively researched the different aspects of customer service online. While he originally guessed speed was the most important factor customers looked for, this isn’t the case. The most important thing for companies is to respond to all complaints and concerns. With a third of complaints going unanswered, customers are ending their relationship with a company on a negative note. No response at all is the worst response a customer can receive. Even if a company cant answer a customers question, a two-way conversation is still a good idea. Must Read: Why You Should Be Using Social Media Customer Service Benefits of Responding to Customers Finding the Value in Customers with Complaints It may seem counterintuitive, but customers who have had issues with a company in the past may be the most financially valuable. Retaining customers is a cost-efficient move, and a customer who gets their questions answered is more likely to make another purchase. Discover Card is a great example of a company that answers every customer within 20 minutes, 24/7. By doing so, they retain their customer base and add to it. Why Businesses Should Do a Customer Service Audit A regular audit helps companies find out how many inquiries they receive and from which sources. It can also reveal how long it takes for customers to get responses and how things may be improved. But the question remains: How do companies address complaints? Baer says offstage complainers usually respond by phone or email. Onstage complainers have no issue voicing their problems in a public forum. Responding to them can surprise them, and in some cases win their loyalty. Baer notes that the best action a company can take is to develop strategies for each type of complainer and take a serious approach to customer service. Must Read: Best Social Media to generate B2B Leads Facebook vs Twitter vs LinkedIn This article is contributed by Dave Reimherr who is the founder @ Magnificent Marketing LLC. Magnificent is a full-service digital marketing agency with a specialization in content marketing and social media marketing and advertising. David has 20 years of experience in sales, marketing, strategy & branding.

How To Justify Demand Generation Budget For 2019

Posted on October 2, 2018June 9, 2023 By Vikas Bhatt

We are dangerously close to the budgeting season – this is the time when marketers are busy working on a new budget and finding ways to justify it. Finding ways? Yes. Every year, marketers across the industries, get push back on their budgets from the C suite because they analyze every component of the demand generation budget based on ROI and past results. According to Hubspot, 27% of marketers say securing enough budget is their top marketing challenge. Marketers have to justify every dollar that they plan to spend and that is DIFFICULT (because many marketing efforts take time to see results). But, if it is the marketer’s job to present the budget in a manner which answers the concerns of the c-suite. In this post, we will talk about 5 ways in which you can just demand generation budget for 2019. By the way, did you know that In 2018, 70% of marketers say their demand gen budgets will increase and 34% say their spending will grow by more than 20% . Must Read: B2B Content Ideas to Boost Demand Generation 1. Establish your Marketing Budget Ratio Marketing Budget Ratio (MBR) is a good start to justify demand generation budget for 2019. It not only helps connect marketing investments to revenue but lets you benchmark budget levels to other companies. According to emedia, to get the Marketing Budget Ratio to divide your total marketing spend by revenue. The resulting quotient is presented as a % of gross sales. When we say, it helps you benchmark your budget against companies, we look for similar companies in terms of stage of growth. The best picks are your competitors. But, do not get swept away with the percentages as no two businesses are the same. Apple invested 7% of its revenue on marketing in 2014; while Salesforce put 53% of its revenue into marketing in the same year. You see at the difference? So, analyze the average MBR (which gives you the idea of the market) and look into your business objectives, revenue, etc to make the decision on the percentage you want to invest back in. 2. Know your objectives and how you will achieve it You are not going anywhere if you draw a budget without knowing the objectives of the organization. So, obtain all the required information (for example, new business goals, objectives and expectations from a new launch, product or campaign etc). Without knowing these details, you cannot show how marketing budget aligns with organizational goals. And, if you did, you just lost your credibility as a marketer. Once you have obtained the information and worked on a preliminary draft, get your sales partner for feedback – ask them whatever input they can provide on the budget plan. Sales team know a lot about your audience and how everything blends in – so their feedback is of utmost value. Plus, sales agreement is a great thing when presenting the demand generation budget to the CMO. Must Read: Demand Generation Strategies Which Work! 3. Show past results, ROI and talk about challenges It is mandatory to talk about the past results you have driven and the return on investment with demand generation strategies or efforts. So, assess everything and showcase what worked and what did not. You are looking at Cost per acquisition Customer lifetime value Close rate per channel Campaign specific reporting etc. Relevant reads – Talking about past results, ROI and challenges will reinforce the fact that you are result driven. For future analysis, define the key performance indicators (KPIs) that align with business goals. Based on this information, you can justify changes in the budget (where there is an increase or cuts). Must Read: Account Based Marketing – An Important Aspect Of Demand Generation Channel Marketers that calculate ROI are 1.6 times more likely to receive higher budgets. (HubSpot, 2016) 4. Remove unsuccessful means and tools from last year Once you have given an overview of what works and what does not, it is important that you leave out any demand generation tool which did not give an impressive ROI. If you keep everything from last year without justifying, it is easy to believe that you are just trying to land grab for more budget allocation. So, cut down items that were unsuccessful, highlight them and explain why. If you have a replacement strategy, mention it there. It will help you justify demand generation budget and showcase yourself as a rationale marketer. 5. Talk about the forecasted results So, you have made changes and put forth the idea of hiring new staff or investing in a new martech tool. Don’t leave it there – highlight what you plan to achieve with it. Let’s say, you forecast that your blog should create x amount of SALs. By investing in a new writer, you can generate x amount of content which will generate x new leads. Meaning, x% of revenue increment. Always analyze the alternatives you have. Should I do this in-house or outsource? Do I need to invest in this tool or can I do without it? Should I just hire a freelancer to handle this? Etc. Ask questions and include the most feasible options in your budget. Remember, your aim is to justify budget (not get as much as money as you can!). Focus on maximum returns, with minimum investment. Last but not the least, don’t hard sell. Be ready to take feedback, suggestions and rework on the budget. You have a much better chance of getting the budget approved if you are open to change and hearing everyone, rather than being closed off to new ideas. Over to you – What are you planning to do for getting approval on the demand generation budget? We would love to hear about it. Must Read: Demand Generation Books Every Marketing Expert Should Read

7 Amazing ToFU Hacks To Try Right Now

Posted on September 21, 2018July 9, 2026 By Vikas Bhatt

ToFU! As we all know can be read as Top of the funnel and describes initial efforts put in order to grow sales. When we talk about sales, why do we always consider the sales funnel and its different stages? A very simple thought can help us understand and that is where did the word Funnel come from in Sales? What is the idea behind it? Can you think of Sales Funnel as an ordinary funnel? What is the job of the ordinary funnel? Isn’t it to make things easier and cleaner? You, of course, don’t want to spill all the oil so, you use a funnel to make sure that most of the oil goes into the engine. Sales funnel is also meant for the same purpose and that is to decrease the probability of spilling(losing) potential customers. Every activity in the sales funnel can be divided into different stages: In every stage buyers needs have to be addressed but doing so can be at times challenging. Thus, to begin we are discussing here the 7 amazing ToFu hacks to try right now. Made easy? We know! 1. Have Lead magnet in a place on your website – pop-up ToFu is also called as attention or awareness phase where instead of just waiting for people to come and Read information or call you to find out about your products and services, you take initiative to inform them about these things. One of the techniques for this is to make a website pop-up. Landing pages lead to more sign-ups and it is best to include lead magnets or a pop-up on your website. The Lead magnets can be made to educate prospects in order to make them ready for entering into your sales funnel. Examples of such content can be condensed Ebooks, checklists made as a summary of your blog posts, or short video courses. And I tell you just one lead magnet or pop-up would be enough. 2. Attract more visitors to your website using compelling content Do we see the need as to why our content should be compelling enough to attract the visitors to the website? Your content helps buyers to connect the dots from the problems to how they may be able to solve them. This is why you need to create educational content which will address buyers needs in the initial stage of a buyerâ€™s journey. Whether it is blog content or email content, high quality has to be maintained. What content can increase your email open rate? Or how is it that you keep your visitors engaged in regularly reading your blogs. It has to be a combinational effort of both email marketing and SEO optimized content & website collectively. A to-do list for with regards to content A lot of other points can be added to this and finally, when your content is ready it has to be syndicated. Must Read: How to Build an Email List Fast? 3. Submit your website to directories As we have been discussing for long, how would someone come to know if you have not told hem about yourself first? My point is how would Google or any other search engine come to know that your website, more precisely your products exist unless you have them? Or how would people recommend you unless the other ones have seen your potential? It is this important to submit your website to different directories related to your niche so that you are shown in the results when buyers search for products like yours on the internet on these directories. Submitting your website to the directories is one way making an impression that you are recommended by people or whatsoever. Have you ever been inclined to download an application that is listed as Editors choice? I have, a lot of times! Well, that’s impact directories are going to have for you. 4. Optimize your email strategy for maximum clicks If how to increase email open rate is your question I am going to restate pretty much the same things you might have been hearing all the time. It is those simple things that make your job great. Thinking of basketball, what is the good practice? Wouldnâ€™t you say – Dribble! Dribble! Dribble? It takes nothing extraordinary to make anything ordinary sound perfect! What is simple Dribble formula for optimizing your email strategy for maximum clicks? I have listed below – 5. Make research reports to grab the attention of customers Numbers speak a lot! If that is true how can numbers do the work for you? There are different ways in which research reports and all the statistics in it can help you. Doing a market research as the beginning and making a report on it can give you valuable information about your competitors, economic shifts, demographics, the current market trends, etc and this information can be used to grab the attention of your prospects. 6. Add a value to your website by creating a video Could I have done better use of GIFs available than I did? If you your answer is yes, you know the impact the videos can have on the human mind. Humor, laughter, and video are long remembered than anything else, in this case, information! Exactly the point! Videos have made our job easy. The information that photos can not provide can be conveyed easily using moving pictures and that’s why WebdesignerDepot encourages to show and not tell. To make your video drive more traffic for you, write a full transcript of the video and add it on the page where you put your video & use optimized meta tags to increase your SEO ranking. 7. Format your messages for mobile devices According to Movable Ink, 66% of emails were opened on either a smartphone or tablets and thus you know that ignoring mobile-friendly email or website guidelines is a big mistake you would

How Web Analytics Can Help Generate More Leads

Posted on September 17, 2018July 7, 2023 By Vikas Bhatt

Almost every business, small or big, has a website today. And, we all, know that good design, structure, and content helps generate more leads. However, many businesses are unaware (or struggling) of how to use web analytics to their advantage. One thing is clear, website analytics is the key but it can be intimidating at first. They are indeed difficult to make sense of in the beginning. In this post, we will go over 8 ways web analytics can help generate more quality leads for you. Analyse your search words You want to aim for organic traffic. So, look up the keywords that your potential leads are putting in the search engine to find you. Are they typing in your business name? Are they typing in your product name? What are the phrases generally used? However, most leads, will not find you by business name. They tend to put in words that relate your product or services and that is why it is utmost important to rank for the right keywords and search terms. Must Read: Best Way to Generate Leads Focus on bounce rate If your bounce rate is higher than 50%, you need to work on engaging your leads. Bounce rate is the percentage of your visitors that exit your blog without visiting another page. So, it is important to test with different designs and strategies. To reduce bounce rate, you can Put navigation bar on every page for easy searchability Insert videos so they stay on the page for a longer time and engage with your content Pay attention to interlinking content at the right places Must Read: How the lead generation in USA market differ from the rest of the world Optimize popular landing pages Every 3-4 months, go to your web analytics, see which are the popular pages and optimize them. You can Put a strong call to actions Insert your lead generation strategy content Ask them to sign up for your newsletter Besides this, you can also understand the conversion rate of each landing page. Lets take a look at this report on Google Analytics Source: Vertical Measures You can see that the 5th Â landing page has a conversion rate of 4.5% even though it received 463 sessions. However, the 7th landing page received 2004 sessions with a conversion rate of 1%. With this data, you know that it is better to drive traffic to the 5th landing page and work on optimizing the 7th landing page for better conversion. If you work on data (like the example above), you will generate more leads in no time. Must Read: Sales Success Secrets: The Critical Role of Lead Generation and Appointment Setting A device used to view your website Mobile devices are projected to reach 79% of global internet use by the end of 2018 And, hence, it is utmost important to know what devices are used to reach your website. In case, most of your visitors are using mobile, you need to ensure that your entire website is responsive Did you know that 57% of internet users say they won’t recommend a business with a poorly designed website on mobile. Must Read: A Beginner’s Guide to Generating Business Leads Understand your traffic As a business, we tend to use as many strategies for building traffic. But, at the same time, it is important that we know which ones are working the best. Is it Facebook, Pinterest, retargeting, content syndication, email marketing etc? Once you know which ones are driving the maximum traffic, you can divert funds and time towards that. For example, if Facebook is getting you 40% of your traffic, you want to spend more on advertising your product and services on that platform. If email marketing has a higher ROI, you want to expand your campaign reach. Similarly, you will be informed about referral traffic sources. If you see certain websites sending referral traffic your way, you want to reach out to them and discuss potential partnership or advertising options. Must Read: High-Performance Inbound Marketing Techniques for Successful Lead Generation Campaigns Find out which call to actions drive maximum conversion In order to generate more leads for your business, concentrate on in-page analytics to understand which call to actions is driving maximum conversion. For example, Google Analytics, lets you see which links on a page are clicked the most. This not only helps you understand where exactly does your visitor leave your page, but it also helps in understand optimized placement for CTAs as well as content for CTAs that work (or don’t) You can further hone your message, convince your visitors to take an action and generate more leads. Must Read: Best Practices and Examples for Call to Action in Cold Emails Use demographics to understand your audience While this is one of the most obvious uses of web analytics data to generate B2B leads, we often tend to ignore it. It gives you information about age, gender, technology, geography and segments that are engaged with your business. Based on this data, you can optimize your paid advertising channels for better targeting Considering you also know where most of your visitors are located, you can also focus on location-specific advertising campaigns Funnel conversion rate This web analytics is grossly underutilized by businesses. A funnel is a process that takes the visitor through the conversion cycle. The conversion rate is realized by dividing the number of visitors to the page and visitors that have successfully converted. Based on this data, you can understand what works on the page. If the conversion rate for single step funnel (ones where there is only step involved, for example, contact page to thank you page) is too low, you can reduce no. of exits on the page, redesign the page, decrease no. of fields on the form etc. There you go. When taking any marketing decision, analytics is your best friend. It allows you to take steps to generate more leads for your business. Remember, this is an ongoing process. You will have to constantly use web analytics to improve your website and user experience. The more informed decision you make, the better it is for your business. Over to

How To Syndicate Content That Drives 7x Results

Posted on August 27, 2018July 13, 2026 By Vikas Bhatt

In the last few months, we have discussed many ways to syndicate content and how it can drive huge results for your business. For those of you who are still unaware of this strategy, content syndication is a process of re-publishing content (this is termed as a process to syndicate content) on third party websites that have a reach higher than yours. So, you are basically aiming at websites like TechCrunch, TNW, Huffington Post etc but in your niche. One question we almost always get after explaining this is – why would you give away your best content to someone else? Well, in short – There are endless benefits to syndicating content, like, extensive reach, increased targeting of leads at all levels of the buyer’s cycle, and higher return on investment. Relevant reads: Why is content syndication called the new SEO, How to find places to syndicate content And, yes, there is absolutely no doubt that we are fans of this marketing tactic. We have driven impressive and tangible results for our clients. But, how do we syndicate content so as to get 7X results? In this post, we will discuss exactly what – things to keep in mind before you start to syndicate content for your business or brand. After all, knowing to syndicate content and being aware of its benefits is only half the battle won. Without further ado, lets start 1. Know your target audience Just like every (literally!) other marketing strategies, if you are looking to syndicate content, you have to target the right audience. You cannot be a B2B SaaS business trying to syndicate content on a relationship or dating website or the other way round. It wont yield the desired results. In simpler terms, your audience will not be able to find you. So, before you jump into the race to syndicate content, employing effective B2B content syndication strategies is crucial. These strategies involve identifying the websites and publications frequented by your target audience within your industry. This ensures your content reaches the right people who are most likely to be interested in what you have to offer. a. Build a buyer profile Good news is that you dont have to work without data or guess anymore. Analytics software, like Google Analytics and the like, offers you information on demographics, the technology they use, gender, countries etc. Besides this, you can gather a lot of relevant information from marketing, sales and customer support teams of your business. They interact with potential buyers at different levels and know exactly who your ideal customer is. So you will know Put all the information together and create an avatar, i.e., the person you will be targeting when you begin to syndicate content. This will also help you in knowing where your audience hangs out and selecting the best platforms to syndicate content accordingly. Additionally, there are various content syndication tools available that can help you identify relevant websites and platforms based on your target audience demographics and interests. These tools can save you time and effort in the research process. Must Read: 14 Expert Tips to Boost Your Blog Traffic with Content Syndication b. Align it with buyers journey Once you have built an ideal customer profile, you can brainstorm content ideas that your avatar would like to read. Align these with buyer journey. Read more about it here. Most of the times, if you are republishing content on third party websites, it will be to secure the top of the funnel qualified leads (Sales qualified or Marketing qualified). So, think about topics that highlight the problem your product/service solves. For example, if you have a learning app, write about how gamification of learning is beneficial or how technology and games are being merged together to develop the interest in students etc. Consider creating video content as well, as it can be a powerful tool for top-of-the-funnel lead generation. Video content syndication can be highly effective on platforms like YouTube and social media, allowing you to reach a wider audience and engage them in a more interactive way. 2. Build credibility Before you start to syndicate content, you need to remember the bigger goal you are trying to achieve. Focus on – a. Established places Decide places to syndicate content carefully. Focus on established places that can actually drive results and provide you a positive ROI. b. Invest in paid CS If you are looking to achieve results at a faster pace, you should invest in paid content syndication. You ca get in touch with us (Only B2B). All things kept aside, you need to understand the pain points of your buyer and demonstrate how your solution can alleviate those problems. It is worth noting that the best content is well researched, actionable, and provokes innovative thinking. Relevant reads: Beginners guide to free content syndication 3. Right partner to syndicate content It is difficult to handle content syndication by yourself. So, it is best to outsource the work to an agency. Not only does it save you time, it also saves you money and resources. The best agency is always on the top of content marketing and content syndication trends. They also know how to get your content in front of your relevant audience and get maximum ROI. When hiring a partner, these questions can help you 4. Measure and track progress Look, there is no cookie cutter approach to content syndication. If it were, all businesses would have seen equal amounts of ROI. But, the process to syndicate content evolves. You need to put in trial and error to understand what works for your business (and, what doesnt) Because of this, it is imperative to measure the effectiveness at regular intervals. Measure traffic from these sources, MQL to SQL and SQL to SAL ratio, % of revenue in pipeline etc. This article lists out metrics that you can use to measure the efforts. A/B testing is another effective tactic to measure success. Keep testing different types of content styles, topics, websites and see what resonates with your audience. By implementing a

How To Tell If You Are Doing Demand Generation The Right Way

Posted on August 23, 2018July 10, 2026 By Vikas Bhatt

Are you implementing demand generation the right way? Yes? No? Maybe? Demand generation activities deal with creating an effective sales pipeline for your business. Meaning, it is not ONE tactic. It is a culmination of tactics, strategy, tech stack, etc for an end to end optimization of the sales cycle in a given organization. This also means that it is important to know if you are doing demand generation the right way. But, how do we know that? By measuring the success of strategies and tactics at each stage of the sales cycle. In order to achieve the maximum return on investments in every activity, you need to analyze the right data. According to Integrate, marketers in charge of demand generation are tasked with the challenge of understanding marketing and sales performance at a far more granular level. Measuring the right prospect and demand gen program insights, allows you to optimize programs to generate higher quality leads that convert to a new customer. Without any further delay, lets look at the top metrics you need to look at if you want to implement demand generation the right way. That said, these are not the only ones you need to measure. Here is an infographic by Bizible that can help you with others Now, lets discuss the 4 metrics. Must Read: 9 demand generation books every marker should read 1. Cost Per Acquisition As the name suggests, cost per acquisition is the amount of money you have spent in taking the lead through the buyer’s cycle and finally, converting them into a buyer. This is not just an important metrics for doing demand generation the right way, it is an integral part of assessing the effectiveness of demand generation as a whole. In simpler terms, if the cost per acquisition is at a higher side or exceed average customer lifetime value, it is near to possible for any organization to achieve profitability. Calculating CPA for campaigns isnt rocket science. Calculate the total cost spent on acquiring buyers (only marketing related expenses) and divide it by the number of customers acquired for the period that campaign ran. CPA formula looks like this – Source: TheOnlineAdvertisingGuide For example, the total cost of the campaign is $1000 for 100 customers, then the cost per acquisition is $10. The lower the value, the better it is. Must Read: What Is Demand Generation Marketing and Why Is It Important? 2. Marketing qualified leads (MQL) to Sales qualified lead (SQL) For those of you who are not aware of the term MQL, an MQL is a lead that is qualified for nurturing based on pre-defined criterion and lead metrics information. Similarly, an SQL is a lead that is ready to invest in your product and services if nurtured properly and given the right offers. The formula to calculate MQL to SQL conversion is not complicated. It looks something like this – Number of SQL’s / Number of MQLs = MQL to SQL Conversion Rate This formula will help you understand the percentage conversion at this point in the sales funnel. You can read about this metrics in detail here. Similarly, you should analyze lead to MQL conversion for knowing if you are doing demand generation the right way. Everything put together will help you understand the gaps in the sales funnel. For example, you can know if most of your leads drop out after being checked as MQL. Meaning, you can work on your tactics, content, and strategy at that stage. Here are how the formulas for each stage of the funnel conversion look like (MQLs/SQLs) x 100 = Top-to-Middle Funnel Conversion Rate (SQLs/Customers) x 100 = Middle-to-Bottom Funnel Conversion Rate (MQLs/Customers) x 100 = Top-to-Funnel Conversion Rate. 3. Closing percentage This is the stage where SQL becomes a buyer. It is important to understand how many of the SQL’s your sales team is able to close. It is also an important factor in how effectively you are converting, qualifying and nurturing marketing qualified leads and sales qualified leads. Not only that, it highlights any bottom of the funnel weaknesses The formula would look something like this (Deals Closed Number/Sales Proposals Number) x 100 = Closing Percentage 4. Lifetime customer value LCV is the total profitability of a customer over the total period of your relationship with your business. Not only does this metric reveals the effectiveness of closing deals, it also highlights the quality of account management and customer engagement practices. This infographic from Hubspot shows how a customer lifetime value graph should look like. A climbing CLV not only shows that effectiveness of conversion but also shows that you are doing demand generation the right way because you are generating high-value customers. Source: Kissmetrics That said, demand generation strategy and lead generation funnels play a crucial role in identifying these high-value customers and elevating them to your sales team And, the good part again is, it is not difficult to calculate. CLV takes into account the average size of each customer, no. of purchases one customer makes in a year, and average profit margins for that customer. It is then read with the customer retention rate. Here is a graphic to help you out. Source: Finnchat If you are looking to do Demand generation the right way, it is important to focus on the right metrics. In fact, it also requires you to take into consideration the right information and act on it at the right time. According to this article, with real-time performance measurement and optimization tools, demand marketers can unify data from across lead sources, the MAP and CRM to understand and fine-tune full-funnel marketing performance without any lag in accessing intelligence. Meaning, you will know if you are doing demand generation the right way! So, what do you think? Are you doing demand generation the right way? Must Read: Hack: Unlimited Demand Generation With Content Marketing

Simple Ways To Optimize Your Site For Lead Generation

Posted on August 20, 2018July 17, 2026 By Vikas Bhatt

You Must Sew As You Intend To Harvest If you are going to reap B2B leads from the digital fields of the modern market, it is absolutely essential that you sew marketing seeds properly. The Native Americans would put corn kernels inside a fish to provide the seeds with nutrients for growth. That, in many ways, could be a metaphor for marketing solutions as attained through a specialized SEO agency. One method of ensuring you increase leads is to avoid reinventing the wheel. As a business large or small, branching out into digital marketing territory solo will definitely put you in positions where mistakes will be made. The worst ideas will yield surprisingly good results, and the best ideas will yield negative ones. An SEO agency helps you avoid treading down paths you don’t need to. But there are common sense ways you can design your site such that it is appealing to a broad variety of potential clientele beyond simple SEO. For example, consider your content. How qualitative is it? Are you giving your readers value, or are you giving them advertisement copy? Following are seven tips to help you optimize your site. 1. Ensure Site Content Is Engaging And Value-Rich Say you are a vehicular maintenance facility. People visiting your site are likely looking for something they can buy, or some way to diagnose their issue conveniently. Many vehicular issues require a professional garage to address with any effectiveness. If you give your market a step-by-step process on what they can do themselves, and even what they cant, they’ll come to rely on you as a resource, and even come to trust you before ever entering your store. You’ve got to be continuous with such content, though. You cant apply some one-and-done strategy. Many high-profile sources believe at least sixteen blog-posts a month are necessary. You might go as high as fifty. Posts should average no lower than 500 words per”dont be afraid to go long! Just put it in digestible chunks, include keywords, and make sure there are images to support the content. Must Read: Top 6 Strategies For Increasing Lead Quality For Your B2B Business 2. Plan Perpetual Positive Prospect Perception Another means of lead generation (Lead generation strategies in USA market differ from the rest of the world) involving your site pertains to perception. Your site needs to be regularly updated, as that which is contemporary transitions on a regular basis. There’s a thing called Moores Law. If you’re unfamiliar, this is a principle which helps to define the forward progression of technology. About every 18 months, tech doubles on itself. That is to say, in terms of computation, the abilities of computers double every year and a half. So websites which are designed by such computers must necessarily transition. You don’t see a lot of HTML-based sites with flashing .gifs and other visual techniques that are anathema today. In ten years, what was contemporary today will likewise look antiquated. You’ve always got to be renewing your site. Must Read: Lead VS Prospect 3. Maximizing The Mobile Component Ensure, additionally, that your site is properly optimized for mobile outreach. Smartphones, smartwatches, smartphones, tablets, smart refrigerators, LED lights, HVAC systems, and more all define the modern market. You want your content optimized and visible on any platform which yields navigable internet interaction. 4. Lucrative Partnerships And Guest Blogging Next, you want to have your website partnered with other online locations through back-linking. Avoid competitors, of course; but vendors and non-competitive peers who either focus on other aspects of service delivery or product provision can act as marketing energy turbines if you will. The more partners you get, the higher your marketing rocket can go, and the more associated leads can be generated. Blogs are a big part of this. You want to find the most popular blogs which pertain to the products/services of your business. Ensure you get yourself featured on those blogs in a guest capacity, and be careful to include backlinks to your site. When clients look on your site for products or services that you don’t provide, but which companies providing you guest-blogging opportunities do, you can link to them from your home page to return the favor. Since you’ve got material on their digital premises as well, you don’t necessarily lose leads that way. Must Read: Crazy Leads Generation Methods 5. Comprehensively Employing Analytic Solutions Certainly, you want to examine site data, as well”that which is on-site, and that which is off-site; as it can drive clients to you. Where do those who are trafficked to your site spend time, and where do they click away? Loading times can be a big issue. You want easy-to-peruse simplicity to surfeit everything on your site. Contact information, products, services, blogs, testimonials, and about us links should be organized in a conveniently visible location on your home page. You can read more in order to help you make the best choice in terms of lead generation; the linked site can help you with outreach tools like SEO, which are known to increase the credibility of a given business. Essentially, the right optimization measures utilizing cutting-edge outreach tools like SEO stand to transform an unknown business into a known institution given time. Such transformation ultimately facilitates increased lead generation, as your business increasingly becomes the go-to option for whatever specialty represents operational profitability. By being a relevant part of the digital community which continuously provides useful content, you become trustworthy. People like to establish patterns of activity that are predictable, sustainable, and comfortable; your goal is to get in such a niche. 6. Dont Forget Social Media Social media is additionally an absolutely integral component of your sites visibility to potential leads. Maximize social media for demand generation. You want links to all social media profiles and vice versa. Ensure Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Gab.ai, Minds.com, Reddit, YouTube, and any other site you have a social media presence on includes links back to your homepage. 7. Continuous Outreach Upgrade For Reliable Inbound Traffic You’ll

Does your Company Need a Demand Generation Expert or Agency? Find out

Posted on August 13, 2018July 10, 2026 By Vikas Bhatt

So, you are considering what to opt – a demand generation expert or agency? Congrats. A lot of businesses do not give this question a thought (which is a BIG mistake!) Look,B2B Demand generation marketing is NOT easy. If it were, every B2B company would be acing it. There are so many strategies to use and as much effort to be put into each of them to ACTUALLY work. As a result, many businesses tend to outsource demand generation or hire an expert (depending on their needs). Frankly, there are pros and cons to both (demand generation expert or agency). According to Gartner, 58% of businesses are increasing marketing spend every year. Meaning, it is important to ensure that you are investing money into a solution (demand generation expert or agency) that works for you. Although, in the end, the right choice between demand generation expert or agency, depends on your business, motivation, priorities, and end goals. In this post, we will go over a few questions you need to ask yourself which will allow you to decide between a demand generation expert or agency. Lets get started Must Read: 40+ Demand Generation Blogs You Should Follow Now! Before you decide between demand generation expert or agency, take out the time to detail your end goals. Ask yourself 1. What is your budget? Once you understand your demand generation needs, it is easier to create a budget for it. No doubt, the cost is one of the deciding elements. If you notice, you will always ask – What is more cost effective solution? We are not asking to compromise on the quality of services but your marketing solution needs to be cost effective for your business. So, what is more effective – demand generation expert or agency? A lot of depends on your need, again. Demand generation agency The price depends on your individual project requirements. They generally charge hourly or go by a project rate. Demand generation agencies account for every minute they spend and will provide extensive reports on campaigns Basically, you pay for EXACTLY what you need Considering the agency bears the cost of tools, investments, human resources and others; it is 0 overhead costs for you. You dont have to worry about taxes, payroll, office space, benefits, vacations, nothing! Nada! Demand generation expert Look, recruiting top talent requires a lot of time headhunting and money. It is NOT easy! You will have to bear overhead costs if you are hiring a demand generation expert – competitive salary, benefits etc. Besides this, you will also need to invest in tools, training, workshops etc to keep him/her updated Not only that, employees can be lured away or they can leave your organization. It can happen with agency employees but it wont be your headache But, remember one thing – most often than not, one person cannot handle all your needs and requirements. You will need an entire team of experts if you want to scale your campaigns! Must Read: What Is Demand Generation Marketing and Why Is It Important? 2. Time You will need to analyze how much time do you have to be involved in any marketing campaign. Whether you decide to go with demand generation agency or expert, know whether or not you can get involved in it Demand generation agency or expert? Well, agencies take the load off of you. They offer end to end solution and will do all the work. You will only be involved in major decision and analysis of campaigns (what is working, why something is not working etc) In other words, you can concentrate on other important tasks related to running a business. Expert – You will need to take out time to supervise the work. For many businesses, that is equivalent to no peace of mind. That said, many agencies nowadays want you to be involved as much as possible. It allows them to personalize and target your audience in a better fashion. Still, when compared to experts, this will not take a lot of your time because agencies understand time is money. 3. Niche and expertise of demand generation agency or expert? Have you heard the saying – riches in the niches? Most marketers nowadays are experts in one part of marketing (for example, demand generation, B2B lead generation, content syndication etc) Meaning, you need to be very clear on your marketing needs before you hire an expert. In either situation, you will need to constantly spend resources on training them on the latest technologies and tactics. On the contrary, agencies have a team of experts. You are not responsible for finding and deciding the strategies even before you have actually tested it out (which is absurd, to begin with) You don’t go to the doctor telling him you have this problem and this solution works. You let the doctor tell you what is the best treatment. Similarly, agencies can tell you exactly what CAN work for you, put in into practice and see if you need a change of strategy. Experts can also recommend the change of strategy but they might not be great at ALL other tactics. So, what is the conclusion? Still confused between demand generation expert or agency? Outsourcing it to demand generation agency will give you access to multiple experts that you cannot afford to hire and put them to work on your marketing campaigns. As stated above, you will have ZERO overhead costs. That said, both demand generation expert or agency is not hands-off. Someone has to manage the third party relationship or coordinate with the expert to ensure that the goals are met. In either case, do your due diligence and research on multiple agencies and interview experts to find the right fit. Over to you – What do you think? What is a great fit for your business – demand generation expert or agency and why? Must Read: Unlimited Demand Generation With Content Marketing

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