When do you include both net-new campaigns and expansion/upsell campaigns in a demand generation strategy?

There are three scenarios I can think of here: 

1. New product launch 
2. Thought leadership campaigns
3. Campaigns with the theme of Business / Technology / Industry Trends 

In all of the above scenarios, it is important to target both new business and existing customers for your campaign. In case of a new product launch, you would execute a full-funnel integrated campaign with content such as analyst reports (ToFu), best practice webinar (MoFu), video demos (BoFu) and promote it across digital channels to drive new business pipeline and create upsell opportunities.

Thought leadership campaigns and campaigns such as “2023 Trends” have a mass appeal. Buyers always want to stay on top of their game and topics such as these are sought after by new business prospects and customers alike.

From a messaging standpoint I don't think there would be too much variation between a net-new vs. expansion/upsell as you're attempting do educate both prospects and customers how your solution can help them solve a problem they are facing. So the determining factor is is the company objective of landing new customers or expanding/upselling existing customers. It seems likely that both are a priority for the company so determining which has the most likely chance of success or will bring in better ROI would determine the priority and resources (budget, channels, etc.) used to focus on each one as part of your overall strategy.

I start by identifying the audiences that will drive revenue and then work with sales to understand where the greatest need / where Marketing can make the biggest impact. I'm a firm believer that there's no "one-size-fits-all" demand strategy, which means you may have a particular audience (e.g., prospects) that require more of a full-on support - multi-channel - approach from marketing, whereas for upsell it could be more sales-led with some messaging support from Marketing. Long story short - know your audiences, where the revenue is forecasted to come from, and where sales needs the most help. Remember, Marketing can do anything but can never do everything! So make sure you always put your time and money into where you can make the biggest impact!

Account-based marketing programs are a great place to start straddling the line of new biz + expansion as a marketing organization. Most marketing and demand teams have more mature motions against driving new logo. Account based marketing is a long game, but you can get some early wins and indicators of success by adding in some expansion/upsell accounts into your account-based motions. For example, we developed an account-based marketing list that was 50/50 new business vs. expansion and we initially saw traction with the expansion accounts.

Also, expansion + upsell campaigns can be successful if you have a product-led growth motion, leveraging in-product signals to surface relevant customers to BDRs and AEs.

This truly depends on business goals. I typically have seen business goals broken out by both net new business and expansion. I consider weight of the ARR/pipeline goals per motion when planning out my team's time, strategy and budget, but it isn't the only factor to consider. There are so many areas outside of demand generation and marketing that can drive expansion - customer success, sales, etc. - so it can be more organic. That said, if expansion is a huge business priority, I have also had an entire headcount dedicated to just that so it is all really driven by the organization's goals.

It depends on the duration of your customer life cycle. Since I've been in mostly B2B where the sales cycle is 6 plus months, I would focus on one and then the other.

When to include net-new campaigns and expansion/upsell campaigns is largely dependent on what stage your organization is in. 

• Net-new campaigns: I tend to view this from the lens of proven channels and experimental. I recommend carving out a portion of your budget to support net-new campaigns separate from experimental. These can be proven tactics such as Google Ads through to experimental platforms.
• Expansion/upsell: When launching any type of campaign, I’m always thinking of ways to provide more value to customers which translates to more revenue. Define at what points in the product can you add more value where the natural next step is to upsell or expand what is currently being offered to the customer.

Net-new campaigns or experimental campaigns can also take the form of expansion/upsell campaigns. Think of it this way - you have many different types of tools at your disposal. What is the right mix at a given point in time? This can and will change depending on the maturity of the company, how much the culture values experimentation, and your business model.