AMA: Addigy Director | Head of Marketing, Laura Lewis on Building a Demand Generation Team

Today, some Demand Generation teams still work off of leads and not pipeline/revenue. Leads are only a leading indicator to revenue - they should not be goals or tied to compensation plans. While marketing cannot directly impact revenue (this is sales' job in most cases), they can directly impact pipeline build with campaigns, tech, processes, and sales enablement. Tracking lead targets should be a step on the road as you build out your revenue reporting - not the final goal.

The best candidates do a few things during the interview process: 1. They answer the question asked, with specificity. Don't stay theoretical in your answers - choose a specific project you worked on and explain that project and what you did in your answer. 2. They ask thoughtful questions. These questions show that they are thinking about the business and the role. It could be anything from current campaigns, to team structure, to average deal sizes and revenue targets. 3. They are humble and willing to learn. Every business is different, and will require you to learn the business. Applying a specific marketing playbook is never the right approach. A large company with a large sales team may be ready to call into content syndication leads, while a small company with a small team is not, for example. Never assume you know what to do and offer solutions during an interview, unless specifically asked.

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).

Key processes you should implement when expanding a marketing team mostly align around good project management: 1. Creating a marketing calendar. You want to ensure that you don't overlap communications. Creating a calendar to track email communications, content releasing, webinar schedules, etc, becomes critical. The calendar should note which channel the communication is on, as well as which segment of people will receive it. 2. Campaign creation templates. When launching a campaign, you're going to want to have everyone think about the pieces required and where they fit into it. A guide with relevant steps, due dates, and owners will help to keep everyone on track with deliverables. The template should also highlight goals of the campaign and targeted segments. 3. Copy review. If you have content support, it's a good idea to always have externally-facing copy reviewed by this team before being sent out. You don't want to accidentally spell something wrong, or use a word that doesn't resonate well with the audience. 4. Backend process guides. Syncing leads to Salesforce, ensuring data is uploaded into the correct fields, how to set up a webinar and get the attendees' data afterwards... these are all things that you'll want to create a process around, and ideally templates or step-by-step guides for new hires to follow.

Partnering with other internal departments is incredibly important for success in marketing. You should be meeting with your counterparts on other teams regularly. Some topics to discuss and stay aligned on: * With Sales - How is pipeline build looking? Are leads converting the way you expect? Are there gaps to reaching targets currently? What are reasons opportunities are being closed lost today? * With CS - Are retention numbers on track? Are there key feature or other requests from customers? Are there gaps to reaching targets currently? * With Operations - How are the numbers trending? Are all reports working as expected, are there more reports needed? How is the database quality? Is there opportunity to improve processes to get better results?