Since customers moved from buying perpetual licenses to buying subscriptions a couple of decades back, it is now on us, the SaaS companies, to ensure our customers use the software in the most effective way to generate clear ROI, and ultimately – revenue. Some of that might be great onboarding and support, but a lot of it can actually be marketing best practices (gates or ungated?), strategic thinking (offer / audience / channel) and tactical chops (gift card campaigns, sales acceleration playbook)

That’s why we decided to remove CS from our org altogether, and create a top 1% marketing services team, made exclusively for our customers, and formed by top b2b performance marketing talent. 

But let me back up. 

My name is Logan Neveau. I just celebrated my 6 year anniversary. I started as an SDR back in 2017.

I’ve worn almost every hat on Metadata’s go-to-market (GTM) side of the house. Sales. Demand generation. Rev Ops. Sales engineering and enablement. You name it, I’ve done it. Recently, I stepped into a new role—this time as the VP of Marketing Services. 

I can hear your questions already. Logan, what does that even mean? And what’s the big deal with this move?

This starts a whole new chapter for Metadata that doesn’t include a Customer Success (CS) team. Shocking, I know, so let me explain why we moved away from CS and what it means for our current and future customers. 

Why Metadata is moving away from CS

I won’t beat around the bush: traditional CS often falls flat. 

Why? 

Because the customer journey at almost every SaaS company looks something like this:

I’m generalizing quite a bit, but those are the broad strokes. Theoretically, these steps keep customers happy and retention rates high. 

In reality, they don’t keep customers happy, and retention drops. Worst off – you know about when it’s too late.

This journey doesn’t make sense for most companies anymore and certainly doesn’t cut it for Metadata customers. For all intents and purposes, companies—Metadata included—work hard to get new customers up and running with their products and then let them control their marketing destinies. 

Eventually it’s our vision to make every b2b marketing org a profit unit in the company, powered by our optimizer AI.

For the duration of the contract, it’s on the customer (or agency) to make things work (aka generate positive results). 

For our customers, that means creating compelling offers (content, incentives etc), building a solid paid strategy, executing on the strategy using Metadata and optimizing daily towards their goals. 

So, we were at a fork in the road: 

• Path #1: Keep things the same and risk losing customers who weren’t seeing value because they applied a failed strategy (eg spent $dollars on ebook leads when what they needed are prospects who raised their hand for a demo) or didn’t utilize the product well (didn’t take advantage of the audiences, intent signals, automation or optimizer)
• Path #2: Own our digital zones of excellence (demand generation and Metadata) and actively guide our customers to successful paid advertising outcomes – showing them how to bypass the psychological limitations of experimenting, fine tuning to profitable campaigns, adhering to a scientific methodology with predictable outcomes etc).  

We chose the latter option and built and tasked our Marketing Services team with leading our customers down this new path rich in revenue and pipeline. To the extent that every metadata customer will have a profitable marketing function.

The better path: Metadata’s new approach as a platform and strategic partner 

Metadata’s only goal is to help our customers achieve theirs. If something isn’t working—be it a tactic or Metadata feature—we do everything possible to fix it. 

Here’s a prime example: We cut display advertising from our platform. Why? Abdallah Al-Hakim, Metadata’s Head of Growth, said it well: “Our platform supports display, but the return on investment (ROI) has been playing hard to get.” An alarming number of clicks on display ads are accidental or fraudulent and never seen by a human. Display ads are also the opposite of engaging. This is something we, and the rest of the industry knows for years – but we have taken a strong position and removed that. 

Abdallah continued, “We’ve given display ads a fair shot, but building an entire strategy around them? That’s a road we’re a bit skeptical about…We’d rather see our customers get actual ROI than try to justify a channel that doesn’t quite hit the mark for us.”

That’s why we’re going all in on social and search—because we know these channels work—and we’re introducing Strategic Marketing Services that guide our customers to B2B marketing success. Metadata is no longer just a tool our customers use independently. We’re a platform and strategic partner driving our customers down a proven path to success. 

If you’re still reading this, you’re either a Metadata customer, thinking about becoming one, or just genuinely curious why the heck we’re getting rid of our CS team. In any case, I want to dive into what our Marketing Services team does so you know what to expect.  

Here’s how I explain our Marketing Services team to anyone who asks: The team gives marketers (our customers) the ability to talk to other marketers (this new team at Metadata, some of the members are actually former customers) about b2b marketing. 

And the best part? These other marketers, aka Marketing Service Directors (MSDs), know the ins and outs of Metadata and have access to the playbooks our customers need to maximize their budgets in good times and not-so-good ones. They understand the lives of our customers. They’ve walked 10 miles in their shoes—they understand all of the pressures, demands, and internal obstacles marketers need to overcome in order to run best-in-class campaigns. 

What our customers can expect from Marketing Service Directors

Our MSDs represent a fundamental shift in how we work with Metadata customers. The new team also signals a change in how we ask our customers to think about their strategies, and how we keep them accountable for executing that strategy.

Those changes start when our customers and MSDs zoom out to get a bird’s eye view of their current strategy and where they want to take it in the short and long term. And no, I don’t mean more leads or demo requests from qualified prospects (although those are solid underlying objectives). 

I’m talking about understanding their strategies, campaign objectives, and how they roll into their company’s overall goals. More importantly, our MSDs will use some good old-fashioned math to help our customers understand if their goals are even realistic given their current budget.

How? By asking questions like: 

• What’s their current annual recurring revenue (ARR) and ARR target for the year? 
• How much ARR is their team responsible for this year? What about the Sales team?
• What’s their current cost per lead (CPL)? 
• What’s the Lead to ClosedWon conversion rate by content type and channel?

We will understand all the controllables so we can form a plan to hit or exceed those – trickling down to the interesting board-level KPIs like pipeline, CAC and ARR impact. Then, we’ll do the math to figure out if it’s possible to hit their pipeline and revenue goals with their current strategy and budget. If the answer is yes, we’re on the right track. If the answer is no, we need to figure out what’s not working—and then set a realistic goalpost.  

From there, we can plot a path to success by asking questions like:

• Are their current campaigns aligned with their company’s greater objectives? For example, if they want to expand their total addressable market (TAM) by entering a new region, do their current audiences, ads, and assets reflect that? Or are they carbon copies of assets from campaigns targeting other areas?  
• Are they investing in the right channels based on their ideal customer profile (ICP), goals, and budget? 
• Are they targeting high-intent audiences in the market for their product or service? 
• Is their messaging what their target audience wants to hear? Does the ad creative resonate with their needs and pain points? 
• Are the ads promoting an offer their audience gives a sh*t about?
  

Our MSDs will ask these questions (and more) until every marketer they work with has an airtight strategy that can realistically help them reach their marketing goals—and see the value of Metadata. 

Maximize Metadata’s value with your MSD

I get it; Metadata is a Ferrari, and the learning curve can be steep. That’s why MSDs not only help our customers set realistic goals and craft a strategy but also make sure they’re unlocking Metadata’s full potential.

If you copy and paste the exact approach you’ve been running natively into Metadata you’re going to miss out on the massive performance lift our patented features provide. If you fill the gas tank with corn-based ethanol, your Ferrari isn’t going to get you there very fast. Similarly, if you scale and automate a bad marketing strategy, no amount of experimentation or AI will prevent you from wasting your budget—you’ll just do it faster.

That means helping our customers with: 

• Building multivariate experiments to give them insight into the impact of their audiences, ads, and assets
• Understanding what it means to budget at the ad group level—and how to do it correctly
• Setting auto-pause rules based on custom key performance indicators (KPIs) 
• Configuring the artificial intelligence (AI) to make manual marketing a thing of the past
• Enabling pipeline optimization to make sure they’re delivering real business value
• Optimizing campaigns based on what’s generating revenue (Metadata automatically optimizes campaigns in the background, too) 

MSDs can even help build engaging ad creative and copy to make sure the core elements of paid advertising—the actual ads—aren’t holding our customers back from realizing the ROI of Metadata.

Recap: What does this change to MSDs mean for Metadata customers? 

I just threw a lot on the table and understand you probably still have some questions (or maybe even concerns). I welcome those. 

For existing customers, you may be going through some account handoffs or having conversations with your new MSD about taking your strategy and budget to uncharted waters. I know that can be tough. 

For newer customers or prospects, you might be wondering why we’re moving away from a model almost universally adopted by SaaS companies. I understand that potential confusion, too. 

In short, we’re trying something new, and we’re confident it’ll be good for you. By turning the page on CS and introducing Strategic Marketing Services, everyone using Metadata will have the tools, knowledge, and resources they need to maximize the technology’s value and drive the most pipeline and revenue. 

As I said earlier, this change is all about giving our customer base — demand gen marketers — the ability to talk to marketing experts about marketing. It just makes more sense than status-quo CS. 

Want to learn more about Metadata’s Strategic Marketing Services team and how it can help you drive more pipeline and revenue? Let’s talk.

P.S. Want to do all the fun parts of marketing and skip the downsides? Are you excited about experimentation and want to help forward-thinking B2B marketers hit their goals? Join us as a Marketing Strategy Director. 

The post Why We Killed Customer Success at Metadata appeared first on metadata.io.

Seriously: our lead-to-conversion rate increased by 15X and our cost per opportunity (CPO) went from $40k to $800.

I was instantly hooked.

As a user for three years and now Metadata’s Head of Growth, I’ve seen firsthand how our platform can help B2B marketers of all stripes move the needle with smarter audience targeting, more accurate measurement, and optimizations aimed at actual dollar signs.

Here’s a closer look at my journey, why I joined the Metadata team, and how our users can realize Metadata’s total value.

My life before Metadata

My path to Metadata as a user and employee was far from ordinary. Back in the early 2000s, you could find me in the United Kingdom working toward my Ph.D. in biochemistry, which eventually led me to Toronto, Canada and the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute, where I worked as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow.

After a few years, I decided it was time for a change, so I made a big one and started my career in marketing at a company called Influitive, which is the technology behind the customer communities at companies like Adobe, ADP, and IBM. I wore many hats there, but the core of my role was developing and executing their paid ad strategy.

Fast forward a few years, and I landed a gig at Armorblox (now a part of Cisco), which was a cybersecurity start-up at the time. I ran demand and operations, so my job was simple: generate and optimize leads. This was when Metadata entered my life.

I won’t bore you with all the details, but I want to pull back the curtain some since my time at Armborblox influenced my career at Metadata.

When I joined Armorblox in 2021, my marching orders were to run paid campaigns, primarily on LinkedIn. Keep in mind that this was my first time running any sort of paid social campaign, but from what I knew about B2B marketing, a LinkedIn-first strategy was par for the course.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get much of a return on that spend. In fact, the ROI was so bad that I started asking myself whether my target audience of IT and security professionals even had active LinkedIn profiles.

I was pretty sure the answer was “no,” but to make sure, I teamed up with a small agency—after all, maybe I just didn’t know enough about LinkedIn ads to execute my strategy correctly.

Fast forward a few months, and I was more convinced than ever that LinkedIn wasn’t the answer. To be honest, I was a nail away from shutting paid social’s coffin for good when I heard about Metadata from a colleague. I wasn’t any less skeptical of paid social, I knew a test run of Metadata wouldn’t hurt.

Within weeks of using Metadata to build and launch my campaigns, my doubts about paid social were gone. Not only were qualified prospects filling our pipeline, but they were coming in at a great price. For context, our cost per lead (CPL) was around $1,000 before we started using Metadata. With Metadata, our CPL dropped to about $50.

Not only were the leads coming in more consistently and at a better rate, but I also could actually see which ads were doing the most heavy lifting. I could lift up the hood and see every optimization happening and all the metrics I could ever need to make the most of my ad dollars.

For someone with an ops background, this clarity made me fall in love with Metadata, especially after struggling to get any concrete insights from the native ad channels.

It also helped me learn the B2B marketing ropes quickly and served as my “oh shit” moment that kicked off an ROI-rich relationship with Metadata, which eventually led me down the path to becoming their Head of Growth.

The biggest lesson I learned as a Metadata user

If you take one lesson away from my time as a Metadata user at Armorblox, let it be this: don’t let anyone—even the “experts” on LinkedIn—tell you how to spend your budget. I continue to see so many marketers fall into this trap, and it’s holding them back from maximizing their budget.

Facebook isn’t good for B2B marketers (or paid social in general)…

Ungated content will piss off your Sales team…

Text-based ads, like LinkedIn’s Conversation Ads, won’t catch anyone’s attention…

The list goes on and will only grow as more B2B marketers fall in line and buy in to what’s theoretically “working” for their peers. I don’t blame them, either. While the economy will hopefully rebound this year, buyers will almost certainly remain cautious with their budgets. When times are tough, it’s easy to stick to the “safer” channels that have “walked the walk” before.

I understand this cautious mindset, but here’s my advice: ignore the noise around you and experiment as much as your budget allows, even if the channel, tactic, and strategy aren’t #trending. Give those experiments a chance to shine, figure out what works for your business, and double down in those areas.

At the end of the day, the only thing that matters is if your paid strategy or tactic is helping your company grow. If it is, who cares what anyone else is saying in the LinkedIn echo chamber?

How my time as a Metadata user forever changed my approach to paid advertising

Metadata (and the Metadata team) made me a way better marketer; it fundamentally changed how I think about paid advertising. To explain what I mean, travel back to my time at Armborblox with me again.

When I started using Metadata at Armorblox, the leads were coming in (to an extent), but few were turning into revenue. A lot contributed to our low lead-to-conversion rate, but the Metadata team and I pinned most of the subpar results on the fact that we were aiming our ads at ebook downloads and passing those low-intent leads to Sales.

At the time, downloads seemed like a smart move. With leads coming in, I felt like the Marketing team was doing its job. We held up our end of the bargain—to fill the pipeline with leads—and it was time for the Sales team to hold up theirs. In hindsight, our strategy and my line of thinking were both missing the mark.

Not only did the Metadata team help us realize that we were off track, but they put us on the right path by steering us toward metrics that actually impacted revenue. For the first time in my marketing career, my goal didn’t revolve around MQLs and pipeline (although the latter was still important).

My goal was now all about getting high-intent leads in front of our Sales team and helping them turn those leads into customers. Our ads started looking more like this—and they worked.

The pivot paid dividends almost immediately. Remember: Our lead-to-conversion rate went from around 2% to more than 30%, while our CPO went from $40k to around $800.

We also saw a:

• 120% increase in triggered opportunities
• 49% decrease in cost per triggered opportunity
• 105% increase in lead to triggered opportunity

And the best part? We sustained those numbers and started venturing outside LinkedIn’s trusted walls to uncharted B2B waters like Facebook.

In short, Metadata and their team flipped Armorblox’s paid ad strategy on its head in 3-6 months, pulling our focus away from “vanity” metrics to ones tied to revenue. I’ve carried this revenue-first mindset with me into my role at Metadata and firmly believe that the success of every modern B2B marketer—regardless of their budget, industry, and maturity—relies on their ability to do the same.

The only way they can do that is by remaining open to the road less traveled, running experiments like their lives depend on it, and iterating in the best interest of their audience and budget.

How I carried this experimental mindset from Armorblox to Metadata

Metadata changed how I thought about paid advertising at Armborblox, but I didn’t ditch those learnings when I joined Metadata in 2023 as the Head of Growth. In fact, I embraced what I’d learned more than ever and leaned heavily into Metadata’s commitment to experimentation.

Our incentivized demo ads are a perfect example of that.

Was running incentivized demo ads a risky and out-of-the-box move? Absolutely. At the time, few B2B companies like ours were doing it. But it was worth a try, and the experiment paid off big time.

More recently, we’ve started experimenting with a new channel like Instagram and we’re even looking at ways to use ads as a lever to increase customer retention, reach new personas at companies (upsells), and help our Sales team accelerate deals in the pipeline.

Create value, partner with Ops, and keep experimenting

I’ll leave you with one final piece of advice that every B2B marketer must embrace to be successful moving forward: focus every ounce of energy on generating revenue for your business.

Your job isn’t done when you pass an MQL to the Sales team.

• MQLs and pipeline are still fine measures of success, but the next phase of B2B will revolve around creating value for your business. That means ditching MQLs and other vanity metrics and turning your attention to revenue-related ones, like CPO. Study how your marketing efforts are accelerating the sales cycle or helping your teams reduce churn. If they’re not doing either of those things, it’s time to adjust how you’re spending your time and money.
• Partner closely with your ops team to get a better understanding of the sales cycle, friction points along the way, and why you win (and lose) deals. Then, build your strategy around those insights and pivot as you go.
• While I’m a bigger fan of measurement and attribution than most, don’t feel like you have to perfect your analysis. If you think something is moving the needle for your company, keep doing it. Don’t fall into the fallacy that you have to measure everything…because you don’t.

Want to learn more about how Metadata can make you a better B2B marketer? Reach out today.

The post How Metadata Fundamentally Changed My Approach to B2B Marketing appeared first on metadata.io.

You can’t do that if you’re solely focused on MQLs.

According to Kim Roman, Senior Director of Global Campaigns and Programs at Okta, “Content is king, data is queen, and revenue is the royal family. Revenue is the lifeblood of every company…without it, there are no resources to do the jobs we love, including creating content, collecting data, and everything else we need to do to keep the kingdom running.”

So, what’s the opposite of tracking MQLs and holding on to demand gen tactics of the past? Introducing your company to revenue marketing.

What’s revenue marketing?

Kim answered this question by sharing what it’s not during her session at DEMAND 2023: “[With traditional tactics], there’s a heavy focus on activities aimed at generating new pipeline, and most often, everything stops there. Budget allocation, resources, and measurement all seem to stop at opportunity creation, if not even sooner, with some Marketing teams stopping at the MQL.”

Conversely, revenue marketing focuses on the customer journey and long-term goals such as retention, customer lifetime value (CLTV), and expansion. Sales and Marketing teams work together to make decisions about budget, channels, and messaging—not just leads.

3 steps to bring a revenue marketing approach to your company

A mindset shift of this magnitude certainly won’t happen overnight. After all, you’ve used traditional lead generation tactics as the foundation of your strategy for years, so moving away from them—and convincing your company this is a smart play—will take time.

That said, there are steps you can take to slowly introduce this new mindset to your company, and it starts by getting on the same page with your Sales team.

1. Break down silos with Sales and find a shared vision

Historically, Sales and Marketing teams have mixed just about as well as oil and water, but things are changing.

40% of Sales professionals say that Sales and Marketing teams have become more aligned as of late; they’re waking up to the deal-closing benefits. Case in point: 87% of Sales and Marketing leaders say that collaboration between their teams enables critical business growth.

But we’re not just talking about scheduling weekly meetings with Sales, sharing a dashboard, or attending quarterly business review (QBRs). Revenue marketing is so much more than that.

Kim said, “[Revenue marketing] is more than just having a good relationship with your Sales team. It’s about having one shared vision between the two teams and aligning on the same expectations and metrics, so everyone’s on the same page.”

Obviously, that’s easier said than done, so here’s a trick: Start the conversation with a blank slate by throwing away any biases you have about your marketing strategy—and ask your Sales team to do the same.

Then, pose these questions to both teams:

• How do you measure success?
• What’s your system of record?
• Where’s your focus?

Then, compare answers. They’ll be different—and that’s ok. Your goal is to find common ground. Once you do, keep the conversation going. Goals change. Teams adopt new technology. As a result, expect the answers to these questions to change often. You can only do that if you obsessively communicate with Sales.

The graphic below from Kim’s DEMAND session, Moving from Demand Generation to Revenue Marketing: 3 Critical Steps, illustrates how Sales and Marketing teams can come together to agree on a shared vision and bring revenue marketing to life.

2. Understand your customers and *actually* personalize their experience

We know you already support your customers—maybe by thinking about their pain points and aligning your message with them—but are you truly supporting them across their entire journey from prospect to power user? You may not be.

Remember: Revenue marketing doesn’t stop at lead and opportunity creation—it requires you to think about every touch point after that, too.

How can you do that?

Start by diving into your customers’ minds. What’s your product helping them solve? There likely won’t be one answer, but notes from your Sales team and CRM data will help you pinpoint patterns. Kim suggests focusing on the top pain points or challenges, which will “help to take some of that guesswork out of what’s actually going to resonate [from a paid advertising standpoint].”

From there, you can personalize their experience. For example, you could:

• Have your chatbot recognize customers when they land on your website
• Tailor your ad copy and creative your customers’ immediate needs
• Launch campaigns across the most relevant channels, including LinkedIn, Facebook, and Google Search

You can take it a step further by using your CRM data to create laser-focused audiences that maximize your budget, build pipeline, and increase customer lifetime value (LTV) via upsell and cross-sell opportunities.

Pro Tip: Create targeted audiences with your best-fit customers in mind (aka the ones who close the fastest, have the greatest lifetime value, and renew early). To do this, create a report in Salesforce or HubSpot with recent closed-won deals and pull those customers. Then, create an audience in the native tools or Metadata and deliver campaigns across channels to those highest-intent groups.

Quick aside: Here’s how to build a complete customer journey

To build an accurate customer journey, start with what you know about your customers’ pain points, challenges, and key events in their journey, like the frequent actions they take before requesting a demo. Then, once you start creating demand, note how your customers are engaging with your ads, which channels are getting the most clicks, and the messages that resonate the most.

As your campaigns run (give them a few months), your audience will “tell you” what they like and don’t. It’s your job to pay attention, pick up on those signals, and optimize your campaigns accordingly. Or you can just have Metadata do it for you.

One more thing: Your customers’ journeys will change over time, so don’t go into this exercise with the expectation that you’re etching something in stone. In reality, you should do this at least once a year.

3. Measure metrics far beyond the MQL

Have you ever wondered how Forrester feels about MQLs? We think it’s safe to say they’re not the biggest fan.

Kim isn’t the biggest fan, either, but not quite to the same extent. She said, “It’s not to say that we shouldn’t track MQLs, but that the metric is no longer the be-all-end-all of marketing performance. You and your team should focus on new metrics such as marketing-sourced pipeline and opportunities, CLTV, and ROI.”

If you asked us what we think of MQLs, we’d say they’re too far removed from revenue, meaning you’ll never be able to use them to accurately show your boss how your paid campaigns are impacting your company’s bottom line.

So, what should you do instead of tracking MQLs? Agree on an attribution model and start looking at the metrics that really matter.

Although there’s no perfect attribution model, here are the most common variations:

• First touch or click
• Last touch or click
• Linear
• Position-based or U-shaped
• W-shaped
• Time decay
• Multi-touch

Once you land on your attribution model, you can start making decisions based on the entire funnel—not just leads—and optimize accordingly (or, again, have Metadata do it for you).

Kim hits the nail on the head toward the end of her DEMAND session: “Being able to confidently explain your strategy because it’s backed by where you’re seeing wins and generating revenue is truly priceless.”

Become data-driven with this end-to-end scorecard

The proof is in the pudding, or in this case, in the end-to-end scorecard. To introduce a revenue marketing approach at your company—and keep it in place for the long term—you need a central hub that Sales and Marketing teams can rely on to understand how their efforts are impacting revenue.

“A comprehensive scorecard will increase visibility, communication, and transparency across your entire organization and allow leaders from both Marketing and Sales to identify gaps or hotspots that might have a downstream impact,” Kim shared.

She continued, “Having all of these metrics as part of your scorecard means that everyone is more prepared to have meaningful discussions with other teams.” These conversations are essential to evolving your revenue marketing strategy in the best interest of your company and customers.

Want to learn more about Metadata? Book a demo today.

Want to hear more smart marketers like Kim share their genius? Watch more DEMAND sessions.

The post Look Beyond the MQL: 3 Steps to Introduce Revenue Marketing to Your Company appeared first on metadata.io.

Try that new channel.

Drive more pipeline.

Get more high-quality leads.

This go-go-go mindset is part of what makes B2B marketing such a thrill, but it can put you in a tough spot at times, too. Instead of slowing down, you shift tactics and priorities our of low confidence or pressure from the brass.

But how do you know what’s working and what’s not without time to, well, wait and see?

Graceanne McDonald, co-founder of Storybook Marketing, said it well during DEMAND: “The idea of slowing down means taking the time to understand our programs holistically in order to make decisions more sustainably.”

This article dives deeper into the why and how behind slowing down your paid advertising strategy.

Why slow down your paid ad strategy?

Here’s the short answer: Because no effort can overcome an incorrect strategy.

Imagine yourself in this situation: You’re working for a Series A startup in the tech industry. Your budget is big—say $50,000 a month—and you want to use most of it to drive demo requests.

After a quarter, a few learnings come to light, namely, that despite spending thousands on conversion ads, they’re only generating 25% of your pipeline. Meanwhile, ads promoting ebooks and industry reports you typically reserve for brand awareness make up the lion’s share.

Clearly, your intentions (to get more demo requests with conversion-based ads) don’t match the outcomes of your campaign (demo requests are coming from brand awareness ads).

via GIPHY

Liam Moroney, also a co-founder of Storybook Marketing, said, “…in a lot of programs, the intentions of your budget don’t necessarily match the outcomes—and it can be hard to see that picture because [your campaigns] often happen individually in different platforms. Stitching that view together is something that takes time and slows you down.”

Given your C-suite’s “what-have-you-done-for-me-lately?” attitude though, slowing down isn’t something you can afford to do, right?

So, you react like any B2B marketer and force those intended outcomes, when in reality, the smarter move would be to take a breath, slow down, and ask yourself the tough questions.

It may be hard to embrace this mindset in the moment, but the answers you get from slowing down will give you a more holistic understanding of your campaigns, help you make more informed decisions, and ultimately set you up for sustainable growth.

How to *actually* slow down your paid advertising strategy

Take Graceanne’s advice: “It starts by looking at your program across all channels. What were the intentions of the specific tactics and the spend across those channels? What were you trying to do with each of them? Having clarity on that is a really important starting point.”

Start by assessing everything to determine if the intentions of your spend match the outcomes you set out to achieve with your program. To do that, look at your entire demand generation strategy across channels, goals, and everything in between. Lay it all on the table. It’s no-holds-barred here.

Once you understand your program, you can slow down, isolate variables, and figure out what’s not quite right. For example, are you getting a ton of leads, but your Sales team disqualifies them after the first call?

The key is to look at performance from the outcome level, not the ad level. While ad performance is often a good proxy of success, it’s not guaranteed. You can have a kickass ad with a low cost-per-lead (CPL), but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’ll turn into actual pipeline and revenue.

Here’s what to do instead.

1. Focus on how you’re targeting your audience

The key word here is “how.” This isn’t necessarily about who you’re targeting but how you’re reaching them and when. According to Liam, it’s more about focusing on the right people in the right way.

For example, are you reaching a meaningful slice of your total addressable market (TAM) on the channels they use? Are you using ad types that are actually engaging your audience? Are you delivering targeted ads across channels to give people a true multichannel experience?

Liam said, “You can get the right leads, but you can get them in the wrong way, on the wrong channel, and through the wrong lens.” In other words, you can reach the right people, but if you’re not engaging them when they’re in the right mindset and actively looking to make purchase decisions, your campaigns are largely for naught.

2. Optimize your content

If your campaigns aren’t lighting up the scoreboard, it might be because your content’s not aligned with your goals.

Think about it: If you create content on best practices or industry trends, it’d make sense that the leads coming in from these ads aren’t quite ready to buy or don’t have enough information when they talk to the Sales team.

In reality, if your goal is to drive demo requests, your content should show off your product; it should educate your audience and highlight the benefits. While this may bring in fewer leads than a flashy trends report, you can bet that the people who do raise their hands are doing so with intent. And who cares, anyway? MQLs are so 2015.

3. Align your message and timing

If you’ve tweaked your targeting strategy, optimized your content, and still aren’t happy with your results, look at your message and when you’re delivering your ads.

From a messaging standpoint, how clearly are you communicating product value to your prospects? Have you removed the fluff and jargon? You know which words we’re talking about—innovative, disruptive, game-changing, best-in-class.

Ultimately, if your audience doesn’t understand what you do and how your product can help them, your campaigns will always miss the mark.

In the same vein, evaluate whether or not you’re reaching your audience at the right time in their buying journey. For example, are you asking a cold audience for a demo request before they understand how your product can help them—or before they know that your product even exists?

We know you’re under pressure to deliver, but that doesn’t mean you can rush people into buying something (or having a conversation) they’re not ready for.

What are the benefits of slowing down?

We already looked at the “why” behind slowing down your paid advertising strategy, but if you’re still not convinced it’s one of the smartest moves you can make, here are three more reasons:

More time

It sounds counterintuitive, but bear with us. Slowing down can actually win you back time. Here’s what Liam had to say: “When you slow down, you start to realize that there are things that you just didn’t get to look at correctly that were foundational elements of a program.”

Said another way, slowing down means you’re not wasting time on things that aren’t driving your intended outcomes. Instead, you get insights that serve as the foundation and blueprint of your future campaigns.

A more detailed blueprint

With this blueprint, you can make more informed decisions. Are you targeting the right audience on the right channels? Are you building and optimizing the right content? Is your messaging clear, and are you showing parts of your product that mean something to your audience?

When you have these answers, you can move forward with fewer questions and ensure you’re making every cent of your budget go the extra mile.

Better, more sustainable results

With a more detailed blueprint and more time to dive into your campaigns, you can scale because you know what’s working and can stop spending on the campaigns burning through your budget (you can also have any underperforming ads automatically).

Liam said, “When you have a clear understanding of the audience, the message, the content and the timing, you can put more budget into it [your campaigns] because you’re not testing. You’re optimizing based on understanding.” He continued, “Ultimately, there’s clarity in the program; it gives you a mindset shift that focuses on how to execute in a scalable and sustainable way.”

Use AI to slow down and scale

Many B2B marketers think of artificial intelligence (AI) as a way to speed things up—and rightfully so. AI can absolutely help you market faster, but Liam and Graceanne think of AI through a slightly different lens. According to the two co-founders, AI can help you slow down, too.

With tools like ChatGPT and Writer, you can hand off some time-consuming tasks tied to program ideation and creation. For example, you can use Writer to draft headlines and copy for your ads. At the same time, you can tap into ChatGPT to turn a recent webinar into a handful of social posts. You can even use a tool like Canva to speed up the content creation process and Notion to help with brainstorming and note-taking.

By using AI to offload some of these tasks, you now do have the time to slow down, look at your strategy holistically, and figure out how to drive more pipeline and revenue with your ads.

Liam’s advice? “While we look to things like AI for ways of doing more, what we really encourage is looking at AI as a way of getting time back to spend on tasks you just haven’t had time for. It’s one of the most valuable things to do for a successful program.”

Want to watch more DEMAND sessions? You can watch all of them here.

The post Hey Marketers, It Might Be Time to Slow Down. Here’s Why (and How) appeared first on metadata.io.

In fact, research conducted by Frederick Reichheld of Bain & Company, who’s also responsible for creating the Net Promoter Score (NPS), found nearly a decade ago that a 5% increase in retention can increase profits by 25-95%.

While Reichheld’s research isn’t surprising anymore, it’s still true for SaaS companies, big and small alike. It also serves as a constant reminder that keeping your customers happy—largely via product adoption—can seriously impact your bottom line.

That’s easier said than done, but it all starts with a thoughtful product launch strategy like the one Megan Pratt, owner of Product Marketing House, outlined in her DEMAND 2023 session.

Let’s dive in.

Product launch vs. release: What’s the difference?

Before we get into the details of Megan’s tiered launch strategy, let’s take a step back and clear any confusion about the difference between product launches and product releases.

• Product release: A release involves a finished product that’s passed through the Quality Assurance (QA) team, approved by the Product team, and is typically generally available (GA) to your customers. That said, there’s no big marketing push.
• Product launch: A completed product you’re ready to take to the market with all your marketing muscles. The goal? Drive traffic and adoption. (This is what this article dives into.)

Why does the distinction between a product launch and a release matter? Because they determine the Marketing team’s involvement. We’re generalizing here, but a product release typically doesn’t require much of your time. At most, you upload release notes to your support center or email customers letting them know something new, albeit small, is available. Think of this communication as more of a “heads up” than anything else. You’re not trying to make a big splash.

A product launch demands all you’ve got to make sure you position the product correctly, your Sales team is ready to sell it, and your customers actually use it.

The graphic below from Megan’s DEMAND session outlines the product lifecycle. While we’d campaign for the Marketing team’s involvement throughout this lifecycle, that’s typically not how the cookie crumbles. In reality, your team probably steps in after product development and before optimization.

Back to why you’re here—to learn about a tiered product launch strategy. Here’s what you need to do.

1. Build a rockstar launch team

A product launch is only as strong and successful as the team behind it. Although launch teams will vary based on company size, budget, maturity, and a host of other factors, Megan notes a handful of non-negotiables that are in your control:

• The team should be as small as possible: You want all the necessary stakeholders in the room, including Engineering and Sales, but try your darndest to keep the team as small as possible. A product launch has many moving pieces, changes quickly, and often forces you to pivot on a dime. You can’t do that if every decision must go through a dozen stakeholders.
• Everyone must understand their role: Just because your team is small doesn’t mean there won’t be criss-crossed wires; confusion about roles and responsibilities is inevitable. To that point, set clear expectations with every stakeholder from the start. What are their responsibilities? Which action items and tasks do they own? How will everyone work together to make the biggest splash possible on launch day?
• The entire team should be part of the planning process: While the product launch is primarily your responsibility, don’t make decisions in a silo. Instead, work closely with the entire team to get different perspectives.

Megan said, “Long before there’s even a launch on the table, figure out how you’re bringing your team into the process of figuring out launch tiers, activities needed, and timelines—all of that should really be a team effort. Yes, Product Marketing leads that, but that [the planning process] should be a team effort.”

2. Use launch tiers to set realistic timelines and expectations with the team

Each product launch will look different, thanks to a different set of expectations, marketing tactics, resources, and involvement from internal stakeholders. Launch tiers will help you get (and keep) your ducks in a row.

Megan says, “The goal of launch tiers is really to build expectations for timelines and activities. [With launch tiers], we want to give the organization and everyone we work with a solid reason for the treatment we give launches.” Said another way, launch tiers help you communicate with everyone outside the Marketing team about why you’re doing what you’re doing.

Here’s the matrix Megan uses to help her clients set those expectations and timelines:

To set your launch tiers, ask yourself two questions:

• Is this product new and innovative, or will it help us match the market?
• Will this product help us win new customers or retain existing ones?

Megan said she uses this matrix to have concrete conversations with the Product team. “After [my Product teammates] have their roadmap set up and understand what they’re building, I’ll look at their roadmap and say, ‘Okay, it looks like we have a priority #1, a couple of priority #2s, and a priority #3.’ How does that square up with your understanding of what you’re building?”

From a high level, this matrix—and launch tiers, in general—allow you to have thoughtful conversations with the teams building the product, prioritize Marketing resources appropriately, and understand what’s required to make the most noise possible when it goes live.

3. The launch

It’s time. You’ve laid the groundwork and have most of the hard parts out of the way. While your job’s not quite done yet, Megan says this stage of the launch is more about keeping the train on the tracks than anything else. But to do that, you need to take another step back.

Define your product position and message

Before you launch your product or create any marketing materials, it’s important to define and document your product’s overall position and message. To do that, sit down with your Product team to understand what they’re building and the research that’s led them to these decisions. Then, put that information into a positioning and messaging doc.

What should that positioning and messaging doc include? Not as much as you think:

1. A sentence or two that tactically defines the product. For example, our product does X to help our customers do Y.
2. The primary users of your product.
3. Your product’s top 3-4 benefits.

Here’s a graphic Megan shared during her session:

Keep this doc simple and avoid fluff at all costs so it’s easy for everyone involved with the launch to understand at a glance. Megan said, “This [the messaging and positioning doc] serves as the foundation for all the planning, whether it’s sales enablement, content, lead generation, etc.” From there, tie each benefit to specific product features and why they matter.

For Metadata, that could look something like this: Metadata’s Demand Hub helps B2B marketers automate paid campaigns, drive more revenue, and increase ROI by up to 149%. It’s not fancy, but it packs a punch and lets everyone know—internally and externally—what Metadata’s Demand Hub is all about.

Once you have this document in order, present it to the launch team.

Don’t forget to celebrate your success

We know, we know. Product Marketing is a very forward-focused thing, and we’re always thinking about the next big deliverable and launch. That’s part of what makes our jobs such a blast, and we wouldn’t have it any other way. But there’s a downside to this fast-paced mindset: We tend to forget to celebrate our wins with our team and the rest of the company.

So, when a launch goes live, pop the champagne and let the rest of the company know what you’ve been up to and your impact on the business. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, either. A simple Slack message to the company channel can make all the difference, especially if you include metrics or stats showing how your launch drove product adoption.

Then, clean up the confetti and start preparing for your next product launch using this tiered strategy.

Want more DEMAND sessions? We’ve got you covered.

The post Nail Your Next Product Launch with The Tiered Strategy of a Product Marketing Pro appeared first on metadata.io.

“We built a brand by punching up, being memorable, conducting a lot of experiments, and taking big bets,” shared Melissa Rosenthal, ClickUp’s former Chief Creative Officer. “We’ve experimented with new forms of storytelling to really humanize the typically stale world of enterprise sales, SaaS, and B2B.”

Here are four tactics Melissa and her team used to catapult ClickUp to stardom and go toe-to-toe against an industry giant with a head start of more than a decade. (Psst…we’re talking about Jira.)

1. Refuse to be B2B-oring

Most B2B marketers read from the same script:

LinkedIn ads with similar messaging.
Websites with the same buzzwords (supercharge, anyone?).
Blog posts targeting the same keywords.
Emails with nearly identical subject lines.

Marketers are stuck swimming in a sea of sameness, and that’s making B2B marketing oh-so-bland. The brands that stand out—like ClickUp—are the ones that consistently think outside the box by being bold, colorful, and provocative with their content.

ClickUp’s “Return to Work” campaign perfectly exemplifies this out-of-the-box mindset. Launched in August 2021, the campaign features six videos about the awkwardness and absurdity teammates put up with if they return to the office.

In B2B marketing, it pays to be different; ditch the status quo and cringy buzzwords, take calculated risks, and figure out unique ways to engage with your audience. It worked for ClickUp and can for you, too.

Pro tip: Organically join the conversation with trend-jacking

You might see a trend in ClickUp’s long list of marketing magic… actually, you’ll see several trends, because Melissa and her team perfected the art of creating content around timely sounds, topics, and events.

Here’s an example:

When everyone’s first, second, and third connections on LinkedIn were talking about Chat-GPT, Melissa and her team jumped into action by creating a video. But not just any video. A video with a script penned by…you guess it: Chat-GPT. The team even followed the GPT-generated shot list (a checklist of each shot or scene) and wrapped up filming the same day.

“Our social team is constantly creating valuable content to jump on existing conversations,” Melissa shared. “And our creative team is producing multiple videos a week that we’re leveraging on social media about different workplace trends and hot topics.”

She continued, “The key is to be responsive to what’s happening in the world around you and then to seize those opportunities when the timing is right.”

2. Be just as creative with your distribution strategy

Recreating ClickUp’s marketing magic starts by creating content that stands out, but you’ll waste your blood, sweat, and tears if you don’t deliver that content in a way that resonates with your audience.

And, no, we’re not talking about launching paid campaigns on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Google Search—although you definitely should, because paid advertising is still worth its weight in gold. You just can’t rely only on these channels to hit your pipeline and revenue goals.

Why? Because there’s only so much inventory available on popular channels. Melissa said it well: “When you’re utilizing brand channels, especially LinkedIn, you’re fighting with your competition for 20% of all organic reach dedicated to brand pages.”

So, what’s the alternative? Create multiple brand funnels by tapping into your executives and employees.

“Having your employees consistently share product tips, videos about your company, behind-the-scenes looks at projects they’re working on, and relevant thought leadership is the funnel that keeps giving,” she said. “You already have influencers on your team, so start using them.”

Trust us. We love a good ad campaign as much as anyone, but there’s no getting around the fact that B2B buyers unwaveringly trust their peers. Case in point: Over 90% of respondents to a 2023 Forrester survey said they completely or somewhat trust peers in their industry.

But it’s not just people on your payroll who’ve got creative chops. You likely have an entire army of superfans and champions ready to sing your praises. Find them and treat them like your firstborn.

“You can reward your champions by giving them achievements and building a brand ambassador program that enables them to shout from the rooftops about how great you are, how much they love your product, and how cool it is that you interact with them.”

3. Punch above your weight class and make your competition chase you

ClickUp raised $400M at a $4B valuation just a few years ago—but the brand wasn’t always among the top dogs. ClickUp did always have a seat at the “adult” table though, thanks mainly to the team’s ability to punch up with branding and make the competition chase them.

“Just because you have a smaller team doesn’t mean you can’t outsmart your competition,” Melissa noted. “It’s actually the opposite. With a smaller team, you can run faster, move faster, extract more value from your company, and make your competition want to follow your playbook.”

For ClickUp, that coveted playbook has historically included a hefty dose of out-of-home (OOH) ads placed in high-visibility locations where customers—and competitors—will surely see them.

Not only are these ads “in your face” in a good way, Melissa noted that they’re also one of the only forms of advertising where you don’t have to worry about ad fraud and improper placements, the former of which Forbes called the biggest threat to the advertising industry.

ClickUp isn’t stopping with OOH ads anytime soon. Melissa and her team punched up to an entirely new weight class in 2022 when they ran their first Super Bowl commercial that brought millions of viewers back to a time before the Internet.

“One of the best parts about having a small, but brilliant, in-house creative team of writers, directors, actors, and more is that we all can get into a room together and riff on ideas, dig into the ones we all love, polish them up, and then present them around to people in other departments to make sure we’re hitting the mark outside of our little incubator,” Melissa wrote in an article leading up to Super Bowl LVI.

Last thing here: ClickUp isn’t scared of its competitors. For example, when Jira mentioned ClickUp’s slogan at one of its conferences, ClickUp took that footage and created a video. Unsurprisingly, the video went viral in B2B circles.

4. Never stop experimenting

Thinking outside the box with your content and distribution strategy will undoubtedly take you sailing into uncharted waters. That’s exciting—but it’s also intimidating, especially in a down economy where you have to account for every penny of your budget.

So, here’s a trick to help you succeed: Experiment with your audiences, ads, and assets.

Test as many campaign elements as possible across channels to see which out-of-the-box tactics resonate with your audience and which ones miss the mark. Then, double down on what works and ditch what’s burning a hole in your pocket—or have Metadata do it automatically.

Remember: ClickUp’s marketing magic didn’t happen overnight.

Sure, many of Melissa’s campaigns hit big, and competitors copy her tactics now, but getting to this magical marketing point took time, a lot of experimenting, and even more failure.

“Experimentation is powerful, but it’s a process,” Melissa told us. “Chances are you’re not going to hit a home run on your first swing, but if you hit one out of every five experiments, you’re crushing it.”

She continued, “We’re always testing behind the scenes in product and advertising. What you see is best-in-class, but much of what we do doesn’t make it out in public.”

So, build a solid experimentation framework, consistently think outside the box with your content, figure out what your audience likes, and then iterate.

Make your brand your competitive advantage

Product differentiation isn’t a thing anymore, even for a company like ClickUp. It doesn’t matter which industry you’re in; you’re competing with dozens, maybe hundreds, of companies offering products that basically do the same thing.

But not all is lost. Far from it. While you can’t rely on features to stand out—at least not as much as you used to—you can build a brand that’s memorable, human, and willing to take risks.

“Your brand has the power to be your company’s key differentiator,” Melissa concluded. “Think about fun and creative ways that can help you make noise. There’s a sea of status quo, but you can stand out if you do things right.”

Those things? Think outside the box with content creation and distribution, punch way above your weight class, and never stop experimenting.

B2B marketing doesn’t have to be boring—ClickUp is proof of that. So, take a leap of faith, be bold, and jump on spontaneous opportunities because you never know what will elevate your brand to the next level.

Think Metadata could help you maximize your budget and create an unforgettable brand? Schedule a demo today.

The post 4 Advertising Strategies That Helped ClickUp Grow to 8M Users appeared first on metadata.io.

But what may surprise you is how quickly marketers have picked up where they left off. According to Bizzabo, 98% of event organizers planned to host at least one in-person event in 2023, while 85% planned to host at least three.

So, yeah, events are definitely back, which means it’s time to get your strategy in order. Here are a few pre- and post-event tactics you can steal to do just that, including some pretty nitty ones that take advantage of the latest in artificial intelligence.

Events are back, but they’re not perfect

Events are emerging from the shadows, but according to Lindsay McGuire, Associate Director of Content and Campaigns at Goldcast—and presenter at DEMAND 2023—you could be leaving money on the table.

How? By making either of these missteps.

Misstep #1: Your events are run and done

Most events march to a similar drum:

1. The opening keynote
2. Sessions and networking opportunities
3. The closing keynote (and maybe a mic drop)

We know there’s more that goes into B2B events, especially on the planning front, but you get the point. That’s typically how events go.

Here’s the problem with that agenda: That mic-drop moment often signals the end of the event for everyone. Marketing teams shift their focus to the next event or campaign and attendees, well, forget 90% of what they learned. At best, attendees get a follow-up email that goes something like, “Hey, thanks for attending our event. Wanna buy our product?”

These follow-up emails are important and should play a big part in your post-event distribution strategy, but that can’t be the only button you press.

Events can’t be a one-off thing. There’s so much more you can do to keep the momentum and make sure you’re getting a return on the months of work you put into the event.

Misstep #2: You build your events in siloes

Try as you might, silos exist at your company, so it’s not unrealistic to say that your teams may be running events without any idea that other teams are hosting them, too.

For example, your Customer Success team could host an event about increasing customer lifetime value (LTV), while your Customer Support team could plan one about customer service best practices. While both events might be valuable for the business and attendees, here’s the problem with building them so independently: There’s likely no central theme or connection to your overall go-to-market (GTM) message.

In Lindsay’s DEMAND session, she said,

She continued, “At the end of the day, this impacts your bottom line, and makes events seem a lot more expensive than they probably are.”

See the problem?

Pre- and post-event tactics to make your events shine

Connecting the dots between your events will pay immediate dividends, but you can do more to make them even better—both before and after they wrap up.

Pre-event success: Plan and promote

What’s worse than an event with empty seats? That’s a trick question. Nothing. Avoid the potential crickets by aligning your teams before the event, sticking to one story, and promoting it like it’s no one’s business.

Align everyone on their roles and responsibilities

It all starts here. If the marketers, salespeople, support, and CS folks aren’t aligned on their roles and responsibilities, you’re up a creek without a paddle.

The best pre-event strategies are built on a foundation in which everyone involved—and we mean everyone—understands not only what they’re doing, but what everyone else is up to as well. It doesn’t matter if you’re planning the event, writing ad copy, or coordinating with the speakers; you need to make expectations crystal clear.

Stick to one story

Imagine attending two conferences from the same company…that revolve around two completely different stories. It’d be like HubSpot hosting INBOUND only to follow it up with one about outbound strategies.

While that may be an extreme example, you can imagine the mixed message those conflicting narratives would send to HubSpot’s audience.

The companies with the most successful events, like HubSpot INBOUND, build them around a central theme.

For Lindsay and her team at Goldcast, their recent conference, AI Summit: How Marketers Can Harness the Power of AI, revolved around AI (go figure). But she also synced up the conference with the launch of Content Lab, their new AI-powered feature designed to help customers repurpose content at scale.

By aligning on one story, HubSpot, Goldcast, and others put a stake in the ground and send a message to the market—and then tell that story across their social channels, ads, blogs, videos, and larger marketing assets.

Use AI to spark creativity

While we’re all excited to welcome hybrid and in-person events back, that doesn’t mean you should completely kick technology to the curb. Actually, you should embrace it more than ever, especially artificial intelligence (AI).

AI-powered tools can help you:

• Come up with creative titles
• Digest attendee feedback
• Brainstorm ideas
• Create unique graphics
• Draft copy for emails and social posts
• …and so much more.

You can also use a tool like Tableau to comb through event data and build visual reports that inform future events.

That said, don’t turn over complete power to the robots. Lindsay said,

Post-event success: Keep the momentum across channels

What’s better than an event that shines beyond the closing keynote and generates pipeline and revenue for months to come? That’s another trick question. Nothing. Make this goal a reality by implementing a post-event strategy that repurposes your content across channels and reaches an even larger audience.

Repurpose your content across channels

Multichannel repurposing is the name of the game here. Seriously. You have a goldmine of content, so tap into it and spread the wealth wherever your audience spends their time online.

Once you wrap up your event, let your sessions (or engaging chunks of them) run free across social media, your blog, and in email sequences from your Sales team. Take it a step further by turning your most engaging and well-attended sessions, which you can figure out with AI, into larger assets like guides and ebooks. (We’re not the biggest fans of gated content, but you do you.)

Here’s an even easier post-event win: Put the full, on-demand sessions on YouTube to drive organic traffic and get in front of a new audience. We hate to say it again, but doing more with less is still important, which means you should still be looking for ways to increase efficiency and maximize your time. Don’t waste a second recreating the wheel—you have plenty of content at your fingertips.

Get the entire crew involved

It’s not just on you to keep the momentum going; get other teams involved, too. For example, ask your Sales team to send prospects emails highlighting the event’s main takeaways.

At the same time, ask your Customer Success team to reach out to their customers who attended and see what resonated with them. This will help you plan even better, more tailored events in the future. You can even draft social posts about the event and encourage the rest of your company—regardless of the team—to share it on their social channels.

Lean on AI…again

There are benefits of using AI after your event as well. Use tools like Writer to draft copy for emails and social posts. Meanwhile, take advantage of tools like Content Lab to break your videos into bite-sized chunks for social media.

Think of AI as a way to get the ball rolling. Lindsay said it well during her session: “Whether you think about AI as your little intern, buddy, friend, or sidekick, it should be able to help you create a sh*tty first draft.” At the end of the day, AI will get you 80% there and then you can use your noggin to make it *perfect.*

The benefits of using AI in your events strategy

For better or worse, AI still has a somewhat negative connotation, and that’s fair. There’s still so much unknown about the technology and, frankly, the potential is a bit intimidating. From a marketing and events standpoint, however, AI-powered tools have benefits you can’t ignore.

For Lindsay, there are four benefits:

1. Personalization: AI can analyze attendee data and personalize the experience. For example, you could recommend speakers and sessions relevant to individual attendees or create personalized email sequences based on which sessions someone attended.
2. Optimization: With AI, you can evaluate attendee behavior and identify trends to ensure you’re delivering content that’ll resonate. At the same time, you can use AI to pinpoint underperforming content.
3. Lead scoring: A less common, but no less valuable benefit of AI? Enhanced lead scoring. Use AI to track prospects’ engagement on social media, aggregate that data across channels, and pinpoint the most qualified leads.
4. Efficiency: We can’t talk about the benefits of AI without highlighting the efficiency gains. Tap into AI to automate repetitive tasks, quickly analyze mountains of data (without a ton of manual work), and predict outcomes related to attendance—all without relying on other teams.

And the best part? These benefits create more memorable events that build demand, which trickle down to a greater return on your investment in B2B events.

Want more from DEMAND 2023? Check out all of the on-demand sessions.

The post How to Optimize Your B2B Events Strategy (and How AI Can Help) appeared first on metadata.io.

Navattic and ChiliPiper teamed up and requested demos from 100 leading SaaS companies.

Guess how long it took these companies, on average, to reply. We’ll wait…because they certainly did.

Two. Days.

Oh, it gets worse.

Over a third of them (35%) didn’t even respond.

That’s how Natalie Marcotullio, Head of Growth and Operations at Navattic, kicked off her DEMAND session.

In a world where we can get anything in less than 24 hours, how can it take two days for companies with potentially thousands of employees and millions in revenue to send a simple email or pick up the phone? Or, you know, set up an automated email to say yay or nay to the demo request.

The B2B buying experience is in complete shambles. B2B demand gen marketers, we gotta step it up. There’s a blue ocean of opportunity to improve the buying experience and set yourself apart from the competition.

Here’s how Natalie did that at Navattic and how you can, too.

1. Make it easy to talk to Sales

Looking for an absolute layup to improve the B2B buying experience?

Here’s one from Natalie: Get rid of any form fields you don’t need. If your Sales team says they don’t need the information, kick that field to the curb. (Even if they do say they need it, consider kicking it.)

Your buyers don’t want to fill out forms. It’s human nature, especially in today’s privacy-conscious world. In fact, Unbounce found that the median conversion to form-fill rates among their customers was only 3%. It makes sense why 81% of technology buyers choose not to fill out forms for gated content. Translation: If people won’t fill out forms for content, you can bet your bottom dollar that they won’t fill them out if it means talking to Sales next.

The moral of the story? Keep your forms short and sweet. Factors.ai found the sweet spot to be between four and six fields, but run some experiments and let your buyers tell you how much info they’re willing to give away.

Pro Tip: Use lead and data enrichment tools, which pull from external data sources, to fill in any gaps and help you get a complete picture of every lead—all without extra form fields.

2. Double down on prospect self-qualification with interactive demos

Want to one-up your competitors with short forms? Ungate everything on your website, including your product, via interactive demos that give prospects a hands-on walk-through experience.

Your buyers, especially ones from younger generations, don’t want to interact with people during their purchasing journey early on. In fact, according to Gartner, 75% of B2B buyers prefer a “rep-free sales experience.”

So, what do they prefer? Easy-to-access resources that allow them to decide if a product is a good fit for them. Interactive demos fit the bill. Natalie suggests putting them above the fold so that almost every website visitor sees them. If the interactive demo is solid, informative, and resonates with your buyers, they’ll naturally raise their hands and get in touch with Sales.

Pro Tip: Keep your interactive demos short and value-focused. Navvatic recommends keeping the first demo section to around 10-15 steps and letting your buyers choose which features to explore next.

3. Shift to transparent pricing (this is a big one)

Does pineapple belong on pizza?

Is it “car-a-mel” or “car-mel”?

People will disagree on just about anything, and for B2B marketers, public pricing is no exception.

In Natalie’s opinion, though, pricing should be front and center.

“Just this year, [Navvatic] launched a v1 of pricing on our website. This included actually showing the pricing and not hiding anything; no hidden upcharges. If you go to our website, [the price you see] is most likely the price you’ll pay.”

A screenshot of Navvatic’s pricing page.

Transparency is one of the most powerful levers you can pull right now.

Case in point: 60% of consumers said they believed that trustworthiness and transparency were the most important traits of a brand. That includes pricing and transactions, with 83% of B2B buyers saying that they prefer ordering or paying through digital commerce.

Public pricing is so much more than a green flag—it’s a full-blown competitive advantage that can help you close more deals. Natalie said, “Public pricing isn’t just a nice-to-have for your prospects; it can show early on that you’re a partner they can trust.”

Unfortunately, most B2B companies keep the dollar signs behind lock and key (or a button that says some flavor of “Talk to Sales”).

Why? Because they can’t get leadership buy-in.

If you’re nodding your head, you’re not alone—Natalie was in the same boat not too long ago. You can turn the tide in your favor, however, by taking the same three steps she did:

A. Gather external data

Support why you need transparent pricing on your website with outside sources. “When we’re making pitches to our leadership teams [as B2B marketers], it can often feel like just our thoughts or opinions.” She continued, “By gathering external data though, you can show that this isn’t just what you like or think—this is what industry experts say are best practices.”

Getting this data doesn’t have to take you down a long and winding road, either. Natalie got the data she needed by interviewing industry experts for this blog post: Buyer Experience Tips That Take Less Than a Day to Implement.

She asked these experts a simple question: How can companies improve the buying experience?

Unsurprisingly, many of their responses aligned with the changes she wanted to make to the buying experience at Navvatic.

B. Gather internal data

External data is great; internal data is even better.

In Natalie’s words, “Even if you’ve proven [public pricing] is an industry best practice, you have to prove this is actually what your prospects want.”

Again, you don’t have to get fancy to source this data. Natalie added a simple field on her demo form that said, “Please share anything that would help us prepare for our meeting.”

Shocker: Many of her prospects asked for pricing info. You’d be surprised by how many of your prospects are hopping on that first call just to learn about the cost.

So, not only will public pricing make your buyers smile, but it can potentially save your Sales team from spending time on a call with a prospect they’d immediately disqualify due to budget constraints.

C. Get Sales and Product buy-in

Natalie said this is the most important step. “Before you convince the rest of leadership to hop onboard for public pricing, you really need to make sure that Sales and Product are bought in.”

Because let’s be honest—the decision to put pricing on your website impacts their jobs a little bit more than yours. Your Sales team, for example, will likely see the effects of public pricing in the form of different annual contract values (ACV), win rates, and quotas. You know, the numbers they use to keep their jobs.

Here’s a tip from Natalie that’ll help you get your Sales team on board: Gather Gong clips of prospects hounding them for pricing.

On a previous podcast with Natalie, Ben Pearson, Head of Sales & GTM at Navattic, said, “The breaking point for me was imagining you worked at a company, and you had prospects telling you all day long they needed feature ABC, and you refused to build it. Natalie was hearing about public-facing pricing constantly. [The Sales team] heard it on every call. Our prospects were craving and dying for it, so eventually, it was a decision we made.”

And guess what? Public pricing works. Here’s a direct quote from a Navvatic customer.

Start small and experiment

Making any changes to the buying experience is scary, especially when it comes to pricing. Luckily, you don’t have to dive in all at once. Instead, Natalie suggests starting small and experimenting with changes along the buying journey.

“Experimentation can help get more people aligned and onboard and make it feel like they were part of the decision versus it being thrown on them.”

When it came to pricing, Natalie started small by asking Sales reps to email certain prospects pricing information (specifically the ones who asked for more pricing information in the demo form). From there, she measured the deals and compared their time-to-close with deals that didn’t have transparent pricing from the start.

Surprise, surprise: Deals closed faster when Sales reps were transparent about pricing.

What are other experiments you can run? Natalie shared a handful:

• Automate lead request routing
• Share interactive demos to target accounts
• Give website visitors a pricing range or an idea of your plans

Remember: The bar for B2B buying experiences right now is painfully low, so any moves you make in the right direction will make waves with your buyers. (The good kind!)

Then, as you run these experiments, zoom out and take note of how they’re impacting sales. Share those findings with your leadership team and continue securing buy-in for future changes in the best interest of the buying experience and your bottom line.

What other DEMAND sessions should you watch? All of them.

The post How Navvatic Cut Its Sales Cycle By 59% in Less Than Two Years appeared first on metadata.io.

According to Roger Breum, Head of Demand Generation at Alpine Investors, allegiance to the core B2B marketing fundamentals is something that will never go out of style.

During DEMAND, he said, “I’ve worked with basically every type of company out there…and every company can benefit from focusing on the fundamentals and doing them with fidelity.” He continued, “The fundamentals allow you to focus on your core buyer, be more efficient, and stop wasting money and time on trying new things just because others are doing it.”

So, what are Roger’s fundamentals?

1. Identify and understand your market (segmentation and targeting)
2. Get to know your customers (buyer personas)
3. Define your product differentiators (positioning)

Clark Barron, Founder and CEO of Demand Gen Therapy, spoke on a similar topic at DEMAND, and we’re adding a fourth fundamental to this list, courtesy of him: Treat your prospects and customers like people. In short, be human.

Embrace these four core fundamentals, and you’ll concoct the perfect recipe for B2B marketing longevity, even when fads fade.

1. Hone your target market with segmentation

We can hear you now: But Metadata, we already know our market and target audience.

We’re not saying you don’t know them, but this exercise is worth another visit because according to Roger, even the best CEOs and Marketing leaders struggle to get segmentation right.

To segment your market the right way, you need three things:

1. An in-depth knowledge of what your customers want from your product
2. An objective understanding of your offering and your competitors’ offerings
3. A full grasp of your costs and profitability (by segment and customer type)

Only then can you start segmenting your market. While there are many ways to do this, Roger suggests starting someplace simple, like with company size and industry.

Here’s an example he shared that shows what this could look like if you segmented by industry and company size. Based on his example, you have two primary target markets: Small-to-medium businesses (SMBs) in Industry C andMid-Market companies in Industry B.

As a marketer, those teal boxes tell you where to spend your time and money. Be ruthless. You won’t get an award for more teal boxes, nor will you get extra points for being everything to everyone.

To segment your market and find your customers, you need to narrow your sights as much as possible—only then can you dedicate your energy and every penny in your budget to getting the right people to buy your product.

That said, those orange Xs are even more important. Why? Because they tell you what—and who—to ignore (for lack of a better word). Roger even encourages Xs. “At Alpine Investors, we always, always, always force our companies to have healthy portions of Xs on their segmentation table.”

The more focused you are with market segmentation, the more focused you can become with your demand generation budget.

But remember: Choose your axes with care

While Roger says industry and company size are good axes to start with, he also makes it clear that they don’t have to be your jumping-off point. His only requirement with axes? Make sure they’re meaningful and actionable.

The meaningful requirement is pretty self-explanatory. The actionable requirement is the one to focus on—and Roger’s example illustrates why.

Imagine yourself on the Marketing team for a healthcare company. Your goal? Promote an at-home medical device to people with X, Y, and Z conditions. That’s a sound strategy, right? Of course. Targeting people who’ll actually use your product is a no-brainer.

Pump the brakes. Marketers can’t have a list of patients’ medical conditions. It’s literally illegal, which means “medical condition” as an axis is the furthest thing from actionable. So choose wisely.

Need inspiration for your axes? You could segment your market by:

• Geography
• Product use case
• Willingness to spend
• Job title
• Company maturity (start-up, established player, etc.)

There’s no right or wrong way to segment your market, but Roger said it’ll be pretty clear when you hit the nail on the head. “Your prospects will feel the pain you’re trying to solve [with your product], and your deals will close in the timeline you expect. Plus, you can profitably serve those customers, and your customers understand and need your product as it exists today.”

Pro tip: Find in-market customers with Metadata

Not sure which audience segments to target? Metadata can help.

With Metadata, you can build laser-focused audiences with first- and third-party data and experiment with them across channels, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Search, and display networks. As your experiments run, Metadata will automatically allocate your budget to the top-performing segments based on the performance metrics that matter to you, like cost per lead (CPL).

The result? Campaigns that impact your bottom line, but also instant insight into which audience segments respond to your ads. From there, you can double down on these high-intent audiences and deliver ads that’ll land on the screens of people who are more likely to sign the dotted line.

2. Zoom in on buyer personas

Most Marketing teams spend hours building buyer personas, putting them in a slide deck with some stock images, and forgetting about them for eternity. This is a huge problem because every part of your job should revolve around buyer personas, including the paid channels you tap into, how you position your product, and the ad types you use to engage your prospects.

“Your team needs to live and breathe these personas; they need to know the inner workings of these people better than the individuals in those jobs do,” Roger shared. The only way to reach this level of understanding is to sit down with your prospects (and customers) and talk to them.

Roger suggests starting with the company decision-makers, champions, and influencers. “Write out a consistent list of interview questions, and then split up the work. Have your CEO talk to prospects, have your Marketing leader talk to them—even get your CX team involved.”

Find out everything you can about your prospects by asking them questions like:

• What trends are influencing their strategic decisions?
• What does their day-to-day life look like?
• What are their most frequent frustrations and annoyances?
• Which metrics do they use to measure success?
• How do they evaluate products and services like yours?
• Which newsletters do they read and which podcasts do they listen to for industry insights?
• Which events do they attend?

Conduct these interviews for a few months, and you’ll end up with 3-5 core personas you can use to inform your strategy, build experiments, train new employees, and do a helluva lot more.

P.S. If you want a template of personas, send Roger a message on LinkedIn. He said he’d be happy to share his!

3. Define your differentiator and let the world know

Knowing your customers and prospects is key—but you also need to intimately understand your competitors and their position in the market, and subsequently yours, too.

You can figure that out by asking yourself two questions:

• What matters most to our customers?
• What do we do better than our competitors?

The overlap between these answers is where you can win today. It’s where you can put a stake in the ground and let the world know that you do this better than anyone else.

To find that overlap, Roger suggests two tools:

• A feature matrix: A visual that lists all of your available features and how they stack up to your competitors. Think of a feature matrix as a side-by-side comparison of your product and your competitors’ products.
• A value proposition canvas: A framework (see below), originally developed by Dr. Alexander Osterwalder, that ensures your product or service is positioned around your customers’ values and needs.

Either of these tools can help you identify what matters most to your customers and what your product does better than alternatives.

4. Be human

This bonus fourth fundamental is courtesy of Clark Baron, Founder and CEO of Demand Gen Therapy. He didn’t hold back during his DEMAND session, From intruder to ally: a hacker’s guide to marketing on hard mode.

“The LinkedIn marketing echo chamber is making us dumber,” he said. “Marketing advice is rarely applicable to your organization’s situation, so stop following big marketing influencers and start following your ICP and engage [with them] in a meaningful way.”

Said another way, marketers often get so caught up in the trends and buzz that we forget the most fundamental part of marketing—that we’re selling to people. At the end of the day, your prospects and customers are humans. Your campaigns, messaging, and positioning must reflect that.

“Practice some self-awareness and empathy,” Clark advised. “When you’re developing your campaigns, evaluate them from the perspective of your audience. You’ll notice you start talking to your audience, your buyers, and your current customers in a more meaningful way.”

Do that—and ask for nothing in return. The results will follow.

The B2B marketing fundamentals matter more than ever

Somewhere along the way, many B2B marketers have lost their way and ditched the basics of marketing in lieu of trendy tactics and buzzwords. We get it. Chasing trends and keeping up on the latest tactics is fun and can help you stand out, but obsessing over them instead of the fundamentals is a strategic mistake that’ll cost you far beyond 2024.

“If you have the fundamentals in place, you’ll go light years ahead [of the competition],” Roger encouraged. “Until you really know who you’re marketing to, how to reach them, and what messaging resonates, stick to these fundamentals. They’re the key to consistent growth”

Want more from other DEMAND sessions? Watch every on-demand session here.

The post Know Thy Audience: Why Segmentation, Experimentation, and Empathy Will Never Go Out of Style appeared first on metadata.io.