I’m not a CMO but there are a few backgrounds I see consistently showing up in top CMOs. Two I see often are a background in product marketing or demand generation. Demand generation is a solid foundational skill set for understanding marketing, but if you aspire to be a CMO one day, you’ll want to push the boundaries of your knowledge. Perhaps doing a rotation in an area of marketing you don’t know much about if your in demand generation consider field or product marketing. Folks with well-rounded skillsets will be the ones who are able to truly lead a department well and represent its efforts to the broader organization.

Employee retention is almost always top of mind for me. I think as a people leader, it is very important to communicate the company goals and tie it back to that individual no matter what role or level. Everyone's contributions matter and being able to translate that back to what they are doing gives the individual 1) a sense of belonging and purpose and 2) motivation that their impact connects to a bigger picture. There are factors that drive people to look for new roles, maybe it's the pay, or career advancement, or they just want to solve new problems. I have had some incredible people leave my team due to various reasons. I was sad to see them go but supportive nonetheless and happy for them.

I answered this more comprehensively in another question, but to summarize: 1. Vanity Metrics: Anything that can be gamed or doesn't directly reflect impact with your target audience (e.g., raw traffic, followers, engagement metrics, etc.) 2. "Leads" Without Context: There are lots of low-value, scam-y ways you can incentivize someone to fill out a form on the internet. For that reason, "lead" volumes without context (qualification criteria) tell you very little about whether demand gen efforts are working.

* Understand the Funnel: Map out the buyer journey and identify key points where demand gen has the most impact. * Collaborate With Sales: Agree on definitions (MQL, SQL) and where demand gen takes ownership. * Start Small: Focus on a few key metrics initially (e.g., pipeline contribution, MQL to SQL conversion). * Evolve Metrics: As the function matures, layer in additional KPIs like cost per lead and velocity metrics.

There isn't a single, linear career path to landing a senior demand generation leadership role. The field of demand generation is multifaceted and draws on various disciplines within marketing and beyond (including pretty much any GTM role). That said, I think there are a couple of commonalities: Some folks start in an entry level Demand Generation role (coordinator), and move straight up the ladder (specialist, manager, director). Moving into these mid-career roles involves focusing specifically on strategies to generate and nurture leads, often in close partnership with the SDR or BDR team. This path offers so many learning opportunities: proficiency in building relationships with Sales, marketing automation tools (e.g., HubSpot, Marketo), Inbound strategy, Outbound strategy and ABM, email nurture programs, funnel conversion rate programs, as well as data/funnel analysis. Many folks get their start in digital: Many professionals begin their careers in roles such as paid media manager, digital marketing specialist, content marketer, or social media manager. You'll gain a ton of critical skills on this path: Understanding of SEO, PPC, email marketing, content strategy, and social media marketing. Other senior demand generation leaders come from generalist backgrounds, and there's nothing wrong with that. That might be product marketing, customer marketing, community, brand or field marketing. Fostering a broad understanding how different marketing functions interact can provide a holistic view of the marketing ecosystem, one that is absolutely critical when you are responsible for the whole enchilada. In this case, you might be leaning harder into broader marketing strategy, cross-functional collaboration, as well as capturing and leveraging customer insights. Those are some common paths and any one of them offers real paths to leadership. But if you are looking to improve your chance to land a Demand Generation leadership role, you can focus more on developing attributes. Those include: * Analytical Mindset: Ability to interpret data and make data-driven decisions. * Technological Proficiency: Familiarity with marketing technologies and platforms. * Creative Thinking: Innovative approaches to campaign development and problem-solving. * Leadership: Inspiring and managing a team effectively. * Communication: Clear communication with stakeholders at all levels. * Relationship building: Often forgotten and neglected, it's one of the very most important skills at the upper most levels of leadership. Final point: I could be wrong but my experience tells me that growth stage startup C level roles (the only space I know) come from one of two backgrounds: PMM or Demand Generation. They are going to hire to solve the problems they are facing. It's usually driving predictable demand first, with a measure of brand building second. Worth considering as you navigate your path towards an upper management role in Marketing

For marketers transitioning into Demand Generation, the key is to demonstrate a strong grasp of marketing fundamentals and a strategic mindset. Start by showcasing your understanding of marketing channels, the funnel, and key Demand Generation metrics like conversion rates, pipeline contribution, and ROI. Employers want to see that you can think both analytically and creatively when executing campaigns. Leverage your existing marketing experience to highlight relevant skills. For example, if you come from product marketing, emphasize your expertise in messaging and positioning—both critical for demand programs. If your background is in content marketing, illustrate how storytelling and content strategy play a role in lead generation. Understanding how different marketing functions collaborate to drive demand is a huge advantage, so demonstrate your ability to work cross-functionally to execute campaigns. Creativity is also essential. Be prepared to discuss how you would activate a campaign in the market, optimize performance, and scale results. Employers value candidates who can not only strategize but also roll up their sleeves to get things done. Finally, show initiative by familiarizing yourself with Demand Generation best practices, tools (such as marketing automation platforms and CRM systems), and emerging trends. Demonstrating a proactive learning mindset will reinforce your ability

I would prioritize paid search and co-marketing. Here's why: 1. While paid search can get very expensive, you can learn a lot from this channel that can then help you optimize other channels. I love paid because it's very easy to measure performance. I can see what prospects are clicking on, how many are converting to leads, and then what the overall CAC is (spend divided by customer sign ups). In addition to this, I can learn a lot about how to optimize my funnel. Ad copy can be optimized, landing page design can be optimized, even form fields can be optimized. Best thing is all of this CRO improvement will raise the performance of the other channels I've invested in. 2. The reason why I like co-marketing is because it's the opposite of paid advertising: it's cheap! Co-marketing is a fantastic way to generate net new leads cost effectively. Co-host a webinar with a company that serves your target customer. Then in exchange for you promoting it to your mailing list, ask them to promote it to theirs. After the event, agree to share the registration and attendee lists. You will have a lot of net new leads to nurture and work.

It depends on the stage of the company and your goals. If you have huge brand recognition and can rely on organic (web or social) or word of mouth, you may not need ads to amplify your programs. Otherways, advertising is a great way to get in front of an audience. Another amazing (and often forgotten) application is that ads are a fantastic place to test and learn and then apply to other channels. In ads, you can control the audience, the test, and the message.

This is tricky because lead generation providers want you to measure based on CPL or mqls. That's wrong. The truth is that none of these leads will be qualified or sales ready at the start. It's your job to identify your ICP and work with these vendors to receive leads that match your ICP. So I analyze vendor performance and match rate of my ICP. I also evaluate them based on lead quality, rejection rate, and data quality

Typically a content marketing function is measured on the engagement with the associated content put into market via paid, owned, earned tactics (i.e. content/asset downloads, social media engagements, webinar views, etc.), however when associating that content to demand generation programs and campaigns, It's important to understand how that content is impacting and driving the business. Essentially, how many MQLs did that content produce and ultimately what is pipeline associated to the content. I think it's also important to understand how marketing content is driving business outcomes via a direct attribution, as well as influenced attribution as customers will engage with multiple pieces of content throughout the customer journey. However, if your company is not at the state of having a sophisticated multi-touch attribution model that provides a weighted measure of the content's impact, you'll have to align on a first-touch or last-touch model to determine which content gets "credit" for driving downstream impact. It's also important to understand the type of content your organization is creating and the purpose of that content. For example, thought leadership content is not typically intended to drive short term pipeline, but it can impact a weighted multi-touch attribution model. Content on a company's website also has a very different purpose which is to engage and convert customers/prospects to the next action in the customer journey. Therefore it's very important to align on clear expectations of the purpose of the content being produced before it goes into market.