Justin Carapinha

It's not too different from your traditional demand funnel/waterfall and KPIs, but instead of leads > MQLs > SQLs > Opportunities > $ pipeline, your funnel should start with web traffic, both from an aggregate perspective, as well as the core pages you want to drive users to sign-up for your self-service offering. Quality web visitors are essentially your "leads," and from there you measure conversions to your sign-up pages, web trial downloads and starts, paid users, and eventually ...Read More

Typically a content marketing function is measured on the engagement with the associated content put into market via paid, owned, earned tactics (i.e. content/asset downloads, social media engagements, webinar views, etc.), however when associating that content to demand generation programs and campaigns, It's important to understand how that content is impacting and driving the business. Essentially, how many MQLs did that content produce and ultimately what is pipeline associated to the conten ...Read More

Depending on your business model and offering, I recommend first and foremost partnering with your cross-functional stakeholders and building trust. For example, in a traditional B2B sales led go-to-market motion, you should make it a point to become best friends with your sales leadership team and understanding what is most important to them. If you're not aligned with what is important to sales, it'll be very difficult to see success. If you're part of a self-service SaaS go-to-market motion, ...Read More

So I actually end every interview with the same question, and for me it can be the most telling about someone's accomplishments and how much they value their work. The question is, "tell me about something in your career (related to demand generation or a certain campaign(s)) that you're the most proud of, and why?" For me this question allows individuals to let their guard down and speak more freely about something they likely would have not offered up otherwise. Most folks have pre-canned inte ...Read More

For me there are two major skills/perspectives that folks can benefit from that go a long way in having a successful career, and they're not necessarily specific to Demand Generation: 1) The value of ownership. This one is huge for me. If someone does not feel empowered or passionate enough to truly own their remit/responsibilities, then they will only go so far. Marketing professionals (are anyone for that matter) should own their respected area of the business as if it was their own small busi ...Read More

This is a great question as marketers can often times fall into the trap of wanting to measure everything or too much, which is not a luxury they can have at a startup. I'd start with what leadership and sales cares the most about. If it's a self-service SaaS offering, measure quality visitors to the website and core product pages, as well as conversions on the offering/trail downloads. If a B2B sales led motion, I recommend measure not just the number of leads you're generating and passing to s ...Read More

I personally interact with the sales organization daily, as most successful demand generation marketers should. Demand generation functions cannot be successful if they are not in lock-step with their sales partners as everything you are doing is ultimately to help drive quality pipeline and growth for the organization. In my most successful roles, I would have a seat at the table for sales leadership reviews, leadership meetings, and strategy planning meetings to ensure marketing and sales were ...Read More

I don't necessary think there are any KPIs that are "unimportant" as everything can be measured and provide value and insights to the business. However, there is a difference between marketing "inputs" and "outcomes." And "outcomes" should ultimately be those KPIs that truly impact that business (e.g. MQLs, SQLs, marketing generated pipeline, product demos or trials downloaded/viewed, etc.). While "inputs" are still important, they are those KPIs that help lead to or drive the business outcomes ...Read More

This one is easy for me. I just don't have a sellers mentality and I think most people know that early on. Don't get me wrong, the idea of working directly with customers every day and trying to solve their problems is very appealing (not to mention successful sellers can be paid very generously), but the idea of chasing a quota and the uncertainty that goes along with that just isn't for me. But working in Demand Generation still allows me the benefit of working closely with sales to understand ...Read More

Ultimately you want to work across the company's leadership team and determine what is most important to them and what success for marketing and demand generation looks like. If leadership is not bought into what marketing is measuring or finds important, then it will create a disconnect that is difficult to overcome. Now, seeing that all companies and leadership teams are different, I strongly recommend trying to tie your demand generation efforts as close to company revenue and tangible ROI as ...Read More