AMA: Sentry Head of Demand Generation, Fanette Jobard on Digital Marketing Strategy

It depends a bit on whether you're using a PLG or Sales-Led model. PLG: Usually, the first sign is that trial leads aren't activating, or not enough inbound leads (demos, trials) are turning into paid customers. These are your red flags. Sales-Led: Conversions are important here too, but it's trickier. Sometimes it's just the season, sometimes it's lead quality, sometimes it's the process. The best thing is to talk to sales and SDRs. What's happening with the leads? Are they totally wrong for us? Are they just not interested? Listening to sales calls, or gathering notes from tool such as Gong, can help you surface lead/ICP misalignments. Regarding optimizing for lead conversion: Basically, you have to ask yourself: * What kind of leads do we want more of? How do we get them? What content and channels work best? * What's the best way to get them to convert? Is pushing everyone into a free trial the answer? * You have to be careful and maintain a critical mindset. You'll always get some bad leads, and the bad leads tend to be more visible than the very good ones. You don't want to stop a campaign just because you have a handful of visible bad leads, you might loose the good one as well.

I usually think it's a matter of education. You might be doing great at the top of the funnel with awesome, entry-level content, or maybe you're using channels that bring in colder leads, like content syndication. But the question is: how do you get those leads more engaged and create a sense of urgency? * One thing I'd do (if cookies were still a thing at Sentry!) is go all-in on retargeting. But retargeting doesn't have to be creepy! You can get creative and use it like a way to keep the conversation going – almost like email nurturing, but with ads. You can even create different stages and engage people at each stage. * Of course, email nurturing is still super valuable. It's a great way to introduce your company and product and really focus on how you solve your target's pain points. * Another tactic is to see if you can connect with other leads at the same account. Think about adjacent ICPs, like your ICP's manager or a colleague on a different team. It's like "meeting the family" and getting them on your side. * Depending on your target audience, you could also try direct mail or event invites to try and speed things up.

Is there such thing as offline channels in 2025? :D I recall a conversation with a CEO skeptical of out-of-home (OOH) advertising, like billboards. When I asked if he knew of Shen Yun, the Chinese performing arts troupe, he immediately recognized them and proved my point about billboards! We've also seen positive results from OOH campaigns, but the key is creating impactful billboards: simple, clear, and distinctive (always tricky). Measuring their effectiveness can be done through brand surveys, tracking traffic increases from specific geographic areas, or monitoring booth traffic at events. Speaking of events, they offer a valuable opportunity to extend digital campaigns into the offline world. Maintaining consistent messaging and branding between our digital and event presence reinforces our go-to-market strategy and strengthens branding.

SEM can be implemented as soon as you have dedicated marketing resources. While it can seem complex initially, the barrier to entry is lower than many believe. SEM tools are generally affordable, and campaigns can be launched quickly, even with a modest budget. Collaborate with your product and engineering teams to identify relevant keywords. Even in highly competitive markets, focusing on niche or long-tail keywords can be a successful starting point. Leverage Google's recommended initial budget guidelines to begin experimenting and gathering data. Above all, ensure your ad copy is clear, accurate, and avoids misleading potential customers.

This is a great question, and there are many ways to approach segmentation. Each digital marketing team often develops a unique approach tailored to their specific business. Beyond the typical segments like company size, job title, and industry, I find segmenting by pain points particularly effective. This approach aligns well with product content and customer success stories. Ideally, I would focus on a specific pain point, connect it with relevant "jobs to be done" content, and nurture the conversation with the customer story (using retargeting if available or email) Another valuable segmentation strategy is based on the target company's tech/business maturity. Understanding where they are in their technological journey allows for more targeted and relevant messaging.

The best landing page is the one that converts best, right? But it's not always that simple! Relevance is key. You want to give people exactly what they're looking for. Search engines are smart – they want to show users the most relevant content, too. So, content that answers a question perfectly is what drives conversions. It's a process, though. Like ABM, you can build up to it: First step: Create one or two great landing pages for all your paid ads. Be super clear about what your product does, what happens when someone signs up, and why they should stick with you. Second step: Make landing pages for specific keywords or ads. These should match what people searched for. They usually convert better because they're more targeted. You can also make pages for different industries or problems people are trying to solve. Third step: This is the big one: personalized pages for specific companies. This takes a lot of work from the whole marketing team, not just digital. You're talking about account-based marketing here. You have to really know the company you're targeting. The trick is to be helpful, not creepy!

It depends entirely on your marketing objectives. If your primary goal is lead generation, then lead volume is a key metric. You'd want to identify which channels are driving the highest volume of leads—perhaps it's Google Ads, YouTube, or a specific social media platform. However, volume alone isn't enough. The next critical question is which of those channels are delivering the most valuable leads, meaning the ones that ultimately convert into users or paying customers. If your focus is more on brand awareness or a highly targeted strategy like Account-Based Marketing (ABM), you'll want to prioritize reach and engagement. Which channels are exposing your brand to the largest and most relevant audience (or accounts), and which ones are generating the most interaction? A balanced approach to ranking lead sources considers the long-term impact. Instead of simply looking at initial touch points, consider which sources are driving the most signups, regardless of the initial landing page. This requires solid tracking of referrers and UTM parameters to attribute sign-ups to their original source. Finally, I'd caution against ranking lead sources solely based on cost or Cost Per Lead. While cost is a factor, it's not always directly correlated with lead quality. A high-volume, low-cost channel might generate a lot of leads, but if those leads aren't converting, it's useless.

For SEO, especially rankings and links, it's really important to keep URLs and pages the same if possible. There might be a few bumps along the way, and some pages might get missed, but that's where 301 redirects come in – they help us find those pages and keep the rankings as stable as possible. Sometimes you just have to change URLs, which isn't ideal, but it might be necessary in the long run. When that happens, we use 301 redirects to tell search engines where everything went and make sure the link equity stays intact. Hope that answers the question

Website optimization is an ongoing process—a continuous refinement. There's always room for improvement in your KPIs. However, certain red flags signal immediate attention is needed: declining conversions, slipping SEO rankings, slow page load times, and increasing bounce rates.These are clear indicators that your landing page requires optimization and a little CRO love. A customer-centric approach is key. Ask yourself: Are users finding what they need? Are they frustrated? Is the messaging unclear? Answering "yes" to any of these questions means it's time to prioritize page optimization. Understanding your users' pain points ("user misery") is crucial for identifying areas that need optimization. Finally, always keep your ultimate goal in mind. What are you trying to achieve with this page? If it's more sign-ups, then focus on optimizing elements that directly impact sign-up rates. This might include improving the form, clarifying the value proposition, or adding stronger calls to action. Every optimization effort should be tied to a specific KPI.