The Core Four: The Top Four Demand Creation Programs you should prioritize.

(2 you’ve already thought of – and 2 you maybe haven’t.)

Summer time means parties – lots and lots of parties. Pool parties, birthday parties, anniversary parties – you name it. In my family alone, we celebrate nine birthdays during the months of June, July and August. Combine that with my children’s friend-birthdays, and I’ve made more than my fair share of trips to the Target toy aisle.

When I was asked to deliver a workshop at the B2B Sales and Marketing Exchange this year, there was only one request: Make it PRACTICAL.

Well, luckily practical is my middle name. With so many parties on the brain, it occurred to me that creating demand is a lot like throwing a party.

First, you need to know who you’re inviting.

Second, you need to know where you are going to host the party, and please do not make it Fun City (if you attended my workshop, you know why).

Third, you need to know what you’re going to serve at the party.

And finally, you need to know when it’s going to be time for people to leave and the party to wrap up.

Similarly, when I am designing demand creation programs, I like to hash out the program in four parts:

• Entry: Based on implicit and explicit data, who is eligible for the program? Is there a need to further segment the audience for better relevance?
• Delivery Method: What tactics or channels are going to be the most effective for this audience?
• Content and offer strategy: What content, messaging, and offers are going to be the most impactful for each segment of the audience?
• Disposition: How do we know that they are no longer eligible for the program? What happens next?

It’s under this framework that I’ll discuss the four essential demand creation programs that you should prioritize and why:

The Reconstituted Program

The reconstituted program is the easiest program to implement because it doesn’t make a ton of waves and doesn’t require a lot of supplemental process. At best – you’re able to reactivate some demand that was otherwise being ignored. At worst, the status quo is preserved. 

Who are we inviting to the party?

• Marketable contacts
• Not currently a customer or member of an opportunity
• No measurable activity for 6-12 months
• Contain the ideal customer or buying center criteria
• Other segmentation options! (Job function, Product application, etc.)

Where are we throwing the party?

• While you likely have the email addresses of these contacts, it’s always wise to try to supplement the email channel if you can. Can you supplement by targeting these contacts on LinkedIn or enlist a direct mail company to help you with address verification?

What should we serve?

• Be mindful of what this group has seen already – you don’t want to send the same content to them and hope for a different result. Offer new research, a special address from an executive, or serve up a hub of 3-4 second tier pieces that they may be interested in. Most importantly, don’t be afraid to acknowledge with the subject line or email copy that you notice they haven’t been interested in the content as of late.

When is time for the party to wrap up?

• Any measurable activity should result in a re-score if lead scoring is in place. MQL or other qualification should follow typical lead management rules.
• If a member of the program consumes a transitional offer (an offer that represents a significant level of interest), the lead development and account leads should be informed immediately.
• Finally, if a prospect proceeds through the program but shows no engagement – they should be considered no longer marketable (at least via email). Got to protect that sender reputation, people!

Pipeline Acceleration Program

My perspective on pipeline acceleration is this: you’ve already spent so much time and money on acquiring and converting the demand – you need to make every effort to close it before end of quarter or end of year. Also, pipeline acceleration efforts help to keep forecasts more accurate, because they force an opportunity to be dispositioned as won, lost, or recycled.

Who are we inviting to this party?

• Stalled opportunities at 70% or higher. Is this an exact science? No! Your opportunity percentages may represent different buying intent than mine. The key is to look for an opportunity at 70% or higher combined with a deal cycle length that is outside the mean for the product or business.
• If it’s the end of year or end of quarter, you could manually select opportunities that you want to push over the finish line. 

Where are we throwing it?

• Channels for a pipeline acceleration program should be high touch and high value (ahem: think outside the Inbox).
• Pipeline acceleration programs are cross-functional motions, they should include the participation of your sales or customer success counterpart. 

What are we serving at the party?

• The content and offer strategy should reflect the level of commitment you are asking for. Nobody ever won a million dollar deal by sending someone a succulent. 
• When possible, enlist executive participation. Whether it’s a personalized video, or an executive’s presence at a dinner or sports event – the presence of your leadership team is very powerful – use it wisely!
• Whatever call-to-action your program includes, ensure that the opportunity you’re looking to close can be easily executed.

When is it time for the party to wrap-up?

• At the conclusion of your pipeline acceleration program, deals will be won or lost. 
• Deals that don’t close should be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. To ensure the integrity of Salesforce forecasting, be honest about what should remain in the pipeline and what should be closed lost or recycled.

The Seeding New Markets program

It can take 12-18 months to build awareness in a market or sector where you haven’t marketed or sold into before. As a marketing leader, it’s imperative that you understand the strategic priorities of your organization. It’s unrealistic to think that you’ll be successful in a new market without allowing time to build awareness and engagement. 

When the time comes to step on the gas in a new market, you should have had time to establish engagement (and maybe the beginning of a valid marketing database).

Who are we inviting to this party?

• Audiences from popular interest groups or publications that represent a good cross-section of your new market.
• Key named accounts that will give you instant credibility in a new market
• Accounts showing intent in specific areas

Where are we throwing this party?

Since you likely don’t have a contact database to market directly to, you’re going to be driving engagement through non-direct channels and acquiring contacts through syndication.

• Intent-based display advertising
• Content syndication
• Trade shows or conferences that are popular in the new market – try to land a keynote or case study if you can.
• Social media interest groups that attract an audience in your specific market

What are we serving at this party?

• Flagship content in the context of the new industry sector (IE: The 5 Essential Back-office Tools for Manufacturing Companies – you get what I mean).
• An interview (video or otherwise) with a prominent industry influencer 
• Virtual event series – even if no one attends, you can record the content and use it in future marketing.
• Sales enablement materials – tools to help a sales team sell into a market that they may not be familiar with. 

When is it time for the party to wrap up?

You’ll know it’s time to transition to active demand creation in a new market when you have enough content to support a 6-8 month program plan that aligns to specific lead generation targets. Also, you may be getting more direct inquiries for sales conversations from your new market. Finally, you will have sold a deal into the new market that can serve as a referenceable case study.

The Stakeholders in Transition program 

Meet the close cousin to your customer marketing efforts. Stakeholders in transition are champions and users of your solution who have moved on to new companies. Users and champions will convert at a higher rate with a lower cost, and it’s always a good idea to keep in touch with them. However, as it was discussed at B2BSMX, the biggest challenges with Stakeholders in Transition are operational challenges. In particular:

• Whose responsibility is it to indicate that a stakeholder has moved on?
• How do we know when they’ve landed a new position?
• How best to engage if we don’t know their email address?

Date/time stamps can be leveraged to indicate when someone has left a job and assumed a new one. The recommendation is to run a Stakeholders in Transition program every quarter to create a predictable cadence of activities. 

Who are we inviting to this party?

• Former champions, users or key points of contact who have changed jobs
• Yesterday’s manager is today’s Vice President! 
• Avoid spending too much time on people who have had a negative experience with your product

Where are we throwing this party?

• Marketing is typically in a supporting role with this program. The outreach is conducted by the account team member with the closest relationship to the Stakeholder. It’s facilitated through LinkedIn InMail (LinkedIn Sales Navigator can be helpful here). 
• Direct mail using a gifting service – Many organizations such as Sendoso, Alyce and Reachdesk will provide address capture and verification services
• Account-specific targeting on LinkedIn and through paid display and Google

What are we serving at this party?

• Dimensional Mail: Since you’re likely going to send something through the mail along with any supplemental materials, don’t be afraid to have fun with it! A lunch bag or a computer bag indicating that your Stakeholder can, “always take you with them” or headphones that remind them that you miss the sound of their voice are useful AND clever.
• Tools: If your Stakeholder is at an organization that isn’t a current client of yours, then you may have to equip them with tools to evangelize your solution up and across the organization. Quick start guides, promotional trials or deals on licenses, and customized business cases are a good start. 

When is it time for the party to wrap-up?

The goal should be to reach as many stakeholders as you can in a quarterly period. While the primary outreach will likely be from a member of sales or customer success, it’s marketing’s job to ensure that the team is equipped to understand the follow-up process, and how to disposition the Stakeholders appropriately in the CRM system.