GTM Live

Creating a culture where people are not only allowed to test and fail but encouraged to, is a necessity for innovation. But how do you create a culture that breeds innovation? The short answer is—it starts at the top. The CEO sets the stage for what will (and won't) be tolerated and leads by doing to set the example for the rest of the org. In this episode, Chris talks about how Refine Labs has become a talent destination by combining innovation and culture.

What do B2B brands have to do stand out as more and more companies adopt demand generation strategies? First, most companies are still running the old playbook, and even though they’re calling what they do demand gen, it’s still lead gen. Companies who truly want to stand out running a demand gen playbook should focus on three things:Having a deep understanding of your customersHaving subject matter expertise in-houseHaving a clear point of viewIn this episode, Chris talks about how to stand out in a sea of information on social media.

Most B2B marketing strategies are reactive. They spend a lot of money to show up once the customer is in a buying motion. But the problem with that strategy is that it becomes way more difficult to stand out in the crowd. Buyer's don't know who you are until they're ready to pull the trigger and they have no idea what sets you apart. In this episode, Chris talks about how companies can re-tool their marketing strategy to win in Dark Social so that you are proactively getting in front of future buyers before they ever even realize they need your product. That way when they do need your solution, the ones running the old, reactive playbook, never even get a look.

Employees have more power than ever in the employer/employee relationship and it's because most companies are still playing from a legacy playbook. The best companies are attracting top-tier talent because they are becoming destination organizations. "Price's Law" is the mentality that 50% of the work at a normal organization is done by the square root of the total employees. For example, at a 50 person company, 7 people do 50% of the work. That makes it extremely difficult when one or more of those people move on. So how do you attract top talent to ensure that your entire team is built from A players? Chris and Joe dive deep on just that in this episode.

We started doing Demand Gen Live back in March of 2020 with an audience of 15 people. Two years later, we're still doing Demand Gen Live weekly to an audience of 100+ and many of the original 15 are still showing up weekly. We brought back the OG co-host, Gaetano DiNardi, for episode 100 to talk about SEO vs. Brand. With top Google content becoming more and more about optimization and less about content quality, people are going to communities like Reddit and private groups to get information. So is SEO still an approach you should be considering? Chris and Gaetano weigh in on the 100th episode of Demand Gen Live!

Community is a powerful tool in scaling a company. Marketo demonstrated just how powerful community was in B2B when they built Marketing Nation. It was one of the first communities of its kind in B2B and is one of the major factors that led to their domination in the CRM market. Today we're talking with Sarah Kennedy Ellis, former CMO at Marketo, and current VP of Global Growth & Demand at Google Cloud on how she used community to grow the company, as well as catapult her career.

We talk a lot about tactical execution on State of Demand Gen. But there’s another side of your marketing strategy that is just as important—your brand story. Your brand’s story is the backbone of your marketing strategy. It’s what creates deep loyalty to your brand over competitors. In this episode, we welcome back Dave Gerhardt to talk about the importance of building a story around your brand.

There has never been a better time to be a top-tier marketer. Demand is high and supply is low. But how do you become one of the top 1%? In this episode, Chris goes through his top 6 pieces of advice for marketers that are trying to become the best. These are all tips that he implemented himself and attributes to his own success and the success of Refine Labs.

Creating content in-house gives you a massive advantage in the market. Yet, content creation is still one of the most outsourced items for in-house marketing teams. When you outsource your content creation (and organic distribution) you lose key advantages. The first is that you don't give your in-house subject matter experts the ability to speak your company's unique value prop or opinions. The second is you aren't in the weeds on social media every day hearing what the market is saying about your industry, so you're always one step behind and end up being reactive, instead of leading the industry. In this episode, Chris talks about why it's so important to bring content creation in-house, and what parts you can outsource without losing value.

Modern demand gen practices have not yet been adopted by many companies in the EMEA region. In this episode of State of Demand Gen, Chris talks with Adam Holmgren on what companies across the pond need to do to get started using modern demand gen and how it can positively impact their business.