AMA: WooCommerce CMO, Tamara Niesen on Building a Demand Generation Team

Marketing can be a black box to people outside of it, which is why transparency and education are so important. The last thing you want is for the rest of the company to think Demand Gen is just running ads and sending emails. The reality is, Demand Gen is highly strategic and directly tied to revenue, and it’s our job to make sure that’s clear. One of the ways we have started to do this is through Monthly Business Reviews (MBRs). These meetings focus on key areas: What’s in the market right now ...Read More

It’s not just important—it’s non-negotiable. Demand Gen doesn’t operate in a silo. Without strong cross-functional alignment, we’d just be a lead factory dumping names into the system with no real impact on revenue. Sales is the most obvious partner. If they’re not bought into our campaigns, conversion rates will suffer. We need to be in lockstep on lead definitions, follow-up cadences, and messaging alignment. I’ve seen situations where marketing thinks they’re driving a ton of pipeline, but Sa ...Read More

Demand Gen and Product Marketing need to work in lockstep, but their responsibilities should be clearly defined so there are no gaps. I see Product Marketing as the strategic foundation. They own positioning, messaging, and audience segmentation. They’re the ones gathering customer insights, developing solution narratives, and ensuring that we have a compelling story to tell. They also drive product go-to-market (GTM) strategies, which include things like product launch plans, competitive analys ...Read More

Scaling isn’t just about adding more people; it’s about adding structure so things don’t break. That means clear ownership, accountability, and a process for prioritization. A best practice I have taken with me from multiple organizations? Campaign and project briefs (and supporting processes). Every initiative should start with: What problem are we solving? Why is it worth solving? How will we measure success? What are the tradeoffs? If we can’t answer those questions, we’re wasting time. We al ...Read More

I see Demand Gen as a system—an engine that requires multiple areas of expertise working together to drive awareness, consideration, conversion, and retention. Especially in B2B, where you’re dealing with longer sales cycles and multiple decision-makers, you need a team that can build full-funnel campaigns that nurture prospects from “never heard of us” to “customer for life.” So, who makes up this system? You’ve got performance marketers and paid media specialists making sure we’re reaching the ...Read More

It depends on the stage of growth, but if I had to pick one, I’d say Marketing Operations & Analytics. You can have the best creative, a well-funded ad budget, and an airtight product positioning, but if you can’t measure what’s working, optimize campaigns, or prove impact, then you’re just throwing money into the void. Marketing Ops is what makes everything run smoothly. They make sure leads are getting scored and routed correctly, that attribution is set up so we know what’s actually drivi ...Read More