This is a great question! Demand generation marketing and content marketing should work hand-in-hand to achieve broader marketing objectives. When identifying KPIs and metrics to measure demand generation and content marketing together, you should consider the type of content being distributed and the channels through which it's being distributed. This will help determine your KPIs. For example, a blog post may not have the same KPIs as a gated piece of content or a video. The channel mix of promotions will also factor into KPIs. Is this a larger integrated marketing campaign that will require a more extensive mix of promotions and budget? Or is this a smaller campaign, perhaps targeted at a specific/smaller audience, that won't require as much external distribution and promotion? Once you understand these components, you can determine your KPIs. Here are some general KPIs to consider: * Number of site sessions to a blog post * For gated content: Conversion rates, form fills * Number of video views * MQLs, SQLS, sourced opps and/or influenced opps from the content being promoted (how many deals/opps were generated or influenced by this content) * Impressions * Share of voice * SEO metrics - keyword rankings, organic search traffic to the content

As a DG leader, you play a critical role in supporting Sales by driving the acquisition and conversion of prospects into leads and converting them into customers. Here are some hard and nice-to-have skills (the list isn't extensive) Hard skills: Vision and experience building a multi-channel demand gen strategy - Having a good understanding of the levers that are available to you is necessary to build out your plan. This includes understanding your target persona so you can address their pain points, behaviors, and the channels they like to consume content. Data driven decision-making - This skill has become very important as finance and executives are interested in ROI and the results of your programs, so being comfortable around metrics/numbers and the ability to have deep inspection of funnel conversions will help you diagnosis and evolve your strategies. Strong cross functional collaboration - In this role, you are often the go between with Sales, Product Marketing, and Content teams. Strong communicator - Getting buy-in and alignment are important, so if you are able to provide the strategy, successes, and challenges to executives, they will more likely support your requests for resources. Nice-to-haves: Deep technical proficiency with marketing tools - basic knowledge is adequate Advanced graphic design skills In-depth product knowledge Sales-specific skills as you won't be negotiating or closing deals.

Great question! Thanks for asking. I joined JumpCloud for five simple reasons (a framework I'll continue to use as I evaluate future roles): First, it's a great business with strong SAAS performance compared to industry benchmarks (especially in this day and age). Second, it's the right scale and complexity for me. Big and interesting enough to be a challenge for years to come...but familiar enough that I knew I could hit the ground running and begin to contribute right away. Third, and to the previous point, I joined JumpCloud because I thought I could help. They have problems to solve, I have the relevant skills and experiences. Fourth, it's a great product. You can validate that on the G2 grid - exceptional product satisfaction. As a Marketer, there is nothing worse than trying to sell a product that has poor market fit and does not provide customers with real value. Finally, the people are great. The C-suite is great. The Marketing team is great. The sales team is great. No politics, no bad apples, all good vibes and open minds.

The biggest skill is an ability to learn. Learning and staying agile and relevant is extremely critical, as we operate in a highly evolving space, these day. Learning has become critical to stay abreast of not only the latest tech, but also of customers’ areas of interest. The next thing that good demand generation folks have is an ability to read data and contextualize it. This will help understand trends and patterns and identify customer behaviour, which can shape your campaigns.

* Net Promoter Score (NPS): While it’s a decent pulse check for customer sentiment, it doesn’t always correlate with growth or revenue. * Bounce Rate: Taken in isolation, it’s rarely actionable and often misunderstood. * Click-Through Rate (CTR) Alone: CTR without downstream metrics like conversion rate or cost-per-lead is incomplete. * Time on Page: Without context, this doesn’t tell you if the time spent was valuable.

Misalignment at the top. When marketing and sales leaders are not aligned, it will trickle down to confusion, frustration and a lack of efficiency for the business. While you cannot control who is in each seat and their opinions/relationships, you can do your best to vert it out during interviewing for new opportunities.

Demand generation often serves as a bridge between sales and product, but the way I collaborate with each team can vary significantly. Here’s my high-level approach: * Understand business goals and metrics: Focus on understanding the goals and metrics each team owns. Sales typically tracks revenue-related KPIs like pipeline and bookings, while the product team focuses on adoption metrics - such as activation and retention - and usage, including breadth and depth. In self-serve model, product might also prioritize the growth of paying customers and self-serve revenue. To align demand generation efforts, work to establish shared goals or, at minimum, clarify how marketing supports these objectives. * Use BI reporting for alignment: I eliminate silos with joint dashboards built in Tableau and Looker, tailored to each team’s needs - real-time pipeline for sales, usage trends for product. Understanding how data is captured ensures reporting aligns with their priorities, keeping everyone on the same page. * Create consistent rituals: We review these dashboards in weekly or bi-weekly cadence with respective teams, spotting business trends and adjusting demand gen/ sales/ product strategies. Note: You can also create separate reporting for operational purposes, tailored for the marketing team to use alongside joint dashboards Example of marketing/ sales alignment: * Marketing contributes % into the overall pipeline. * Marketing/ sales meet weekly using Tableau, pulling data from Salesforce and other sources and analyze top-funnel (eg. leads, MQLs, SQLs) and down-funnel metrics (eg. meetings, Stage 1 opps), tracking conversion rates between stages. This reveals issues - like slow MQL-to-SQL progression - prompting discussions and joint solutions. Example of marketing and product alignment: * Marketing plays a crucial role in driving customer acquisition and activation. * Collaborate with the product team to use Tableau or another tool to track and visualize performance metrics end-to-end, from acquisition through to retention and paid conversion.

Today, we have 2 people on our team: one dedicated to new business and one dedicated to customers. In the past, I have structured Demand Generation in other ways - from regional support, to regional + global coverage, to functionally based on channel. The most important thing will be to find what works best for your company and your business model. It is normal, however, to start with one or two "full stack" marketers who are responsible for all channels and the associated project management. As the team grows, specialists can be brought in to run each channel (ie, an email specialist, an advertising specialist).

Congratulations on this exciting opportunity! What a wonderful opportunity and an exciting ride that you're about to embark upon. As someone who has been in a similar position, here’s some of my advice: 1. Don’t underestimate the work culture. Demand Generation is a structured discipline, often relying on data, metrics, and a systematic approach to driving leads and revenue. Your colleagues with creative or brand-focused marketing backgrounds might find this way of working unfamiliar. Take time to understand the existing culture and their style of work—how decisions are made, how success is celebrated, and how teams collaborate. 2. Know that you live in a bubble. As a Demand Generation expert, you bring specialized knowledge, but you may quickly realize others in the organization don’t fully grasp the terminology, concepts, or value of what you’re building. Before you launch your programs, invest time in educating stakeholders and peers. Provide presentations to explain what Demand Generation is, how it works, and how it aligns with the company’s goals. Show teams what success could look like with concrete examples from similar businesses or industry benchmarks. 3. Take everyone on a journey, but know that time is against you. It’s essential to bring colleagues along, especially other parts of the Marketing organization as well as cross-functional partners like Sales, Product, and Customer Success. Build rapport, seek input, and actively campaign for their buy-in. But don’t wait for perfect alignment before getting started—prioritize quick wins to build momentum. For example, launch a pilot campaign targeting a low-hanging fruit segment and share the results to demonstrate early success. 4. Communicate often and clearly. Your role and its impact may not be immediately apparent to everyone. Regular updates—whether through team meetings, email updates, or dashboards—are critical to keeping stakeholders and colleagues informed. Share not just your activities but also your progress against goals. 5. Emphasize the critical nature of your work. Demand Generation is the lifeblood of pipeline creation, and your programs will directly impact revenue. Frame your role as a key partnership with Sales to fuel business growth. Use data to illustrate this connection, such as projecting how your campaigns will contribute to pipeline targets or revenue growth. Position Demand Generation as one critical component to the company’s success—without it, scaling will be nearly impossible. 6. Set up strong foundations. Before diving into tactics, focus on laying the groundwork. Define clear goals and KPIs, establish alignment with Sales on lead definitions and qualification criteria, and ensure your tech stack (e.g., CRM, marketing automation) is ready to support scalable programs. 7. Celebrate small wins and learn from failures. Building something from scratch is a marathon, not a sprint. Celebrate milestones like your first campaign launch, the first MQL that converts to an opportunity, or the first deal influenced by marketing. These moments will help rally the broader team around your efforts. At the same time, learn to fail fast. Be prepared for setbacks and treat them as learning opportunities. Your success in your new role will set the tone for how the company views Demand Generation in the long run so stay curious, adaptable, and focused on driving impact.

Lately, I kid you not I've been asking ChatGPT for suggestions. I found a GREAT prompt via The AI Journal (https://aijourn.com/) that has been super helpful (I put it below). You have to constantly test, constantly change, and constantly personalize. One other thing I'll recommend is to think about a world in which you have HUNDREDS of landing pages. I ask my teams to make landing pages for each ad-group in Google Ads that personalize the H1 to the group, I ask for landing pages for each audience type, etc. etc. We also try different templates where we shift the order of the content because different personas might want different things first. Prompt: BEST PROMPT FOR IMPROVING LANDING PAGE CONVERSION RATE Act like a professional digital marketing expert with over 15 years of experience in optimizing conversion rates for online businesses. You specialize in landing page optimization, A/B testing, user experience (UX) design, and persuasive copywriting. Your goal is to increase the conversion rate of a given landing page through a series of strategic improvements. Context: I want to improve the conversion rate of my landing page. The current conversion rate is [X%], and I aim to increase it to [Y%]. First check the content of my landing page: [Your Website URL] Structure: Here’s a step-by-step guide on what I need tailor to my landing page: Evaluate the Current Landing Page: - Analyze the overall design, layout, and structure of the provided landing page. - Identify any immediate issues or barriers to conversion (e.g., slow load times, poor mobile optimization, confusing navigation). Enhance Visual Appeal and Usability: - Suggest improvements in design elements such as colors, fonts, images, and videos. - Recommend ways to enhance the usability and user experience (e.g., clearer calls to action, simplified forms, better mobile responsiveness). Optimize Content and Messaging: - Assess the clarity, relevance, and persuasiveness of the headlines, subheadings, and body text. - Provide tips for improving the copy to better communicate the value proposition and benefits of the product or service. - Suggest any additional content that could enhance trust and credibility (e.g., testimonials, case studies, trust badges). Improve Calls to Action (CTAs): - Evaluate the current CTAs in terms of visibility, wording, and placement. - Recommend best practices for crafting compelling CTAs that drive action. A/B Testing and Data Analysis: - Propose A/B testing strategies to test different elements of the landing page (e.g., headlines, CTAs, images). - Outline a method for analyzing test results to make data-driven decisions.