GTM Live

Dark Social consists of the places where B2B buyers are discovering new products where attribution is not available. Places like communities, organic social, groups, content platforms, meetups and internal comms. Why's dark social important to marketers? Because as Chris Walker says, "if you’re waiting on intent signals, you’re way too late." Dave Gerhardt, now Chief Brand Officer at Drift, joined Chris for a Demand Gen Expert Session to share insights into how to properly allocate resources to Dark Social in an effort to reach buyers where they're discovering new products.MJ Peters, VP of Growth at Refine Labs, is hosting a debate this Thursday (September 9th) at 12pm EDT on whether or not marketers should reintroduce conferences & trade shows into their marketing mix. Gaetano Dinardi, Kyle Lacy, and Nick Bennett will be participating in the debate. Register here for access. 

Chris Walker and Megan Bowen hosted another Demand Gen Live installment last night with a heavy focus on marketing in organic channels that can't be tracked easily, if at all. Chris built off of the Dark Funnel topic and introduced Dark Social, where most of B2B buying decisions are made. He commented that "if you're waiting on intent data, you're way too late." They also answered questions about determining which channels you should be focusing on as well as how to market to non-marketers, and they did a deep dive into LinkedIn organic brand and content marketing. Chris also touched on the second agenda topic: the problem with marketing-influenced revenue.   We are back with Dave Gerhardt, Chief Brand Officer at Drift, this Thursday September 2nd at 12pm EDT for another Demand Gen Expert Session. Register here to attend.

Allison Munro, CMO at Vena Solutions, joined Chris to talk about a topic we’ve never covered on the State of Demand Gen: how to present to the board to build credibility and trust, and what level of information you should provide. Allison shares what the recipe is for a successful board deck, as well as how to outline the work and results marketing is driving for the business as a whole, instead of siloing the marketing team. She details the importance of knowing your audience and creating the appropriate context within the storytelling. “The principles of storytelling don’t go out the window when you’re talking to your board.”

Chris Walker presented a MUST listen keynote on marketing strategy & innovation yesterday. He talked about how marketers often are fed the wrong information which leads to poor strategy decisions, and how they can change that and position themselves to be ready for opportunities they can capitalize on. He stated that "marketing is pure offense when done correctly" and proceeded to share that many companies are solely playing defense. He shared a step by step process that all marketers should follow if they want to hit their targets in 6 months, as well as frameworks for conducting customer research and how to build a B2B brand that people actually love. We are back with Dave Gerhardt, Chief Brand Officer at Drift, next Thursday September 2nd at 12pm EDT for another Demand Gen Expert Session. Register here to attend. 

After a week off of Demand Gen Live, Chris and Megan were back last night for the Tuesday evening installment where they covered the following topics: A big shift in B2B Search (SEO/SEM) dynamics, Is the MQA the new MQL?, Breaking down what happens when Marketing crushes their pipeline goals & sales misses quota by 50%, Word of Mouth is driving a lot of business for you that you don't recognize, Why the entire GTM motion should have some shared goals, andUngated content and the attribution dilemma.  Register here for our next DGL Keynote, on Thursday August 26th at 12pm EDT.

This conversation was repurposed from Chris Walker's appearance as a guest on the B2B Made Simple Podcast. They got into the weeds in regards to organic social content strategy. Sam asked Chris questions about channels for new user acquisition, experimenting, metrics and the nitty gritty behind podcasting and creating content. Chris shared that the opportunity on LinkedIn organic isn't over, but it's certainly more challenging than it was a year or two ago. 

Dustin Deno, SVP of Global Sales at Showpad, joined Chris on the podcast to address the following question: "when we stop generating leads that don't close, how are we going to keep our SDR team busy? They discussed an alternative for going outbound - intent, as well as how sales teams respond to this type of change. They also covered both the benefits and the challenges of this type of go-to-market and strategy change. 

Triana Mills, Creative Director at Refine Labs, joined us for another Back to Basics episode, this time on the topic of The Power of Creative in B2B Marketing. Triana and Chris answered questions about the advantages of using good creative in B2B and how marketers can better work with their creative team to drive more expansive tests and engaging creative. 

We recorded Chris’s LIVE session from the B2B Sales & Marketing Exchange 2021 in Boston, MA where he talks about how the marketers that are focusing on the dark funnel are the ones who are winning. This involves giving people information they want in the places they want to consume it, on their own time, as well as a fundamentally different mindset and measurement criteria. Instead of using the dark funnel to activate outbound sales, marketers should be focusing on driving signals in the dark funnel by putting valuable content there.

Chris Walker and Megan Bowen hosted another Demand Gen Live last night, breaking down the Refine Labs strategy for the community and talking about the more effective alternatives to buyer personas. Chris expanded on the dark funnel and connected that concept to splitting the funnel. He also answered questions about opportunities outside of your 9-5 in marketing, the most important questions marketers should be able to answer about their customers, and measuring the impact of marketing to prospects already in the buying cycle.