A blank piece of paper can the scariest thing in the world, particularly if you’re under a tight deadline or writing isn’t natural for you. I write emails, whitepapers, webinar decks, presentations and blogs all the time – there are days where it’s all I do. But even with a lot of…
“What’s in it for Me?” Marketing
“What’s in it for me?” may be the most important question in demand gen. Because that’s what your prospects and customers are wondering every single time they hear from you. They’re busy and have their own agenda, so they want your email, search campaigns, phone calls, social posts and website to focus…
The 10 Biggest Email Mistakes
Email is the foundation of demand generation. No matter what else you’re doing, if you want to reach a specific prospect with a tailored message, email is the way to go. Plus, compared to other channels, it’s cheap! However, it’s very easy to do email wrong. Here are some of the biggest mistakes…
How much is too much? Let’s talk about communications limits.
Even if you’re compliant with email laws, spamming is really in the eye of the beholder. Do you wonder if you’re contacting customers too often? Here are some tips on making your communications count. Start by documenting everything your prospects and customers are getting. That means from sales, customer support,…
Building your demand generation organization
Good demand generation requires strategy, planning and tools – and the right team. Here’s my advice: 1. If you’re smart, you’ll assign one team to own demand generation. Since most companies share a database and marketing automation, demand generation is particularly ill suited to execution in silos. Centralize demand gen…
Marketing to Small Business – Here’s my top tips
Out of all the audiences that I’ve marketed to, I have to admit that one of my favorites is small business. I took part in the launch of a small business credit card a long time ago and really enjoyed getting to know the quirkiness of this audience. If you…
Testing. One, two three, testing.
Testing is the most important function of demand generation, yet a lot of companies don’t maximize their testing efforts. Or worse, don’t test at all. That’s a shame because finding winning programs is what makes demand generation fun. And proof of return is makes demand generation budgets cut resistant. Here…
Top 10 Tips for Great Email Copy
Anyone who is in demand generation needs to write a lot of email copy. For nurturing, for prospecting, to promote events, to get referrals – you name it. It’s not hard, but I’ll share a few of my tricks for success: As always, set an objective. Since demand generation is…
Top 10 Tips for Landing Pages
Ah. Landing pages. One small part of demand generation, but a really important one. In my experience, this is one of the easiest places for companies to get in big trouble. Here are my hints for landing pages that work: Don’t buy into the “just ask for the email address”…
Best Practices for Tradeshow Follow Up
As you saw in last month’s blog, it’s tricky to get a good return on investment from a trade show. Good post-show follow up helps. Here are my recommendations on how to improve on the usual “Thanks for coming by the booth” emails. As always, planning before you go to…