AMA: Second Nature VP of Marketing, Sam Clarke on Channel Mix

Here’s what I think are the first three steps in identifying the best channels to drive the right demand: Audit the lead source/channel for every closed-won customer from the past quarter. While other channels might drive more demand, this report will show you the channels that are bringing in the highest quality prospects. You are going to want to invest in these channels first.  Compare your current channel mix to your competitor channel mixes. This might show you key channels that your compan ...Read More

If you find that volume is sparse in digital channels like organic and paid, here are a couple suggestions: Conferences Your prospects will always try to be leveling up. If they aren't using the world wide web for this, then they are attending their industry specific conferences. Experiment with trying a few different conferences in a calendar year just to determine if it's worthwhile to fish there. Referrals Spin up a referral program and use the network of your existing customer base to spread ...Read More

I incorporate online review sites into my overall organic strategy. Online review sites typically rank very well for non-branded terms in search engines like Google. So well actually that they are particularly difficult to leapfrog. What I'll do is list out the most important non-branded search terms for my company and then identify the review sites that rank in positions #1, #2, or #3 for those terms. I then pick the top two review sites that make up the most amount of this search real estate. ...Read More

Here at Second Nature, we've been investing a lot in identifying our TAM. We've been able to identify our target accounts through a backlinking audit from a couple of softwares that our ideal customers use. But when it comes to enriching those accounts with useful information, we are using the tool Clay. Initially I thought there was no way this tool could do a better job than enrichment platforms like Zoominfo and Clearbit but I was wrong. It's been incredible and definitely worth checking out. ...Read More

I would prioritize paid search and co-marketing. Here's why: 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 ...Read More