What are the core roles you consider essential on a best-in-class demand gen team?

A demand gen team in today’s world cannot exist without a content creator and a digital/SEO lead. These form the core and other functions can be build around them. So if you are starting from scratch, hire these 2 roles before you move on to other roles.

A content creator should be able to build diverse pieces of content, which can be leveraged across different platforms. They should be able to understand what works in the market and align product messaging accordingly.

A digital/SEO lead should be able to take that content to market and drive inbound as well as outbound leads to create a funnel.

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 right people at the right time. SEO experts and content strategists are constantly building our organic muscle and positioning us as a thought leader. Then you’ve got conversion rate optimization (CRO) folks ensuring that traffic isn’t just landing on our site—it’s turning into pipeline.

The campaign managers/demand gen managers are the ones tying it all together. They develop campaign narratives and motions that move people through the entire buying journey. They need to know the customer inside and out—who we’re targeting, what their pain points are, and how our product solves them. And to get all of that messaging in front of the right audience, we rely on strong product marketers, copywriters and content creators who can engage prospects, whether through ads, blogs, email nurtures, or long-form thought leadership content that builds credibility in the market.

On the backend, we need automation specialists and lifecycle marketers nurturing leads and driving expansion opportunities within our existing customer base. And none of this works without Marketing Ops—they’re the ones keeping the whole system running, tracking what’s working, and making sure we’re optimizing conversion rates and lead quality.

Finally, we can’t forget Sales. They’re a huge part of the Demand Gen engine, whether they’re doing outbound, working inbound leads, or giving us direct feedback on what’s resonating with customers. Without a tight feedback loop with Sales (and CS, for that matter), we’re just throwing leads into the void and hoping for the best.