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Christopher Lochhead, Author of Play Bigger and Host of the Lochhead On Marketing Podcast, joined Chris for an episode of State of Demand Gen. They shared insights on category design, what makes a legendary marketer, and why marketing is just sales at scale. Lochhead shared his thoughts and examples on why categories make brands as well as how to understand if a company really gets marketing. Disclaimer: This episode contains explicit language.  

Chris Walker hosted a European time zone-friendly episode of Demand Gen Live yesterday where he delivered a keynote on the Dark Funnel. He explained what the Dark Funnel is and what marketers can do to capture the attention of their buyers in the places and ways in which they ACTUALLY buy. He opened up the stage to a live Q&A after the keynote and answered questions about non-conversion-based paid social, whether or not you can measure the impact of marketing in the dark funnel, intent data, how to know if your messaging is resonating, and podcasting. Register for the Norwest Venture Partners event 'The New Rules of Digital Advertising' featuring our host, Chris Walker, here: https://newrulesofdigitaladvertising.splashthat.com/

Chris Walker hosted this week's Demand Gen Live from his new Boston podcast studio. The agenda consisted of: Why Marketing Teams Should Move to a Holistic Website-Sourced Funnel, Crash course: Revenue Ops for Marketers, and How to Measure the Impact of Brand. He answered questions from the audience in regards to freeing your marketing team from attribution, the dark funnel, pipeline marketing vs. creating demand, the purpose of landing pages, using brand and word of mouth to get in front of your buyers, the role of SDRs, and why not all leads are created equal.Make sure to register for Chris's keynote on the dark funnel, taking place tomorrow at 9:30am PDT / 12:30pm EDT: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUvcuqqqT4tG9KUwTtuYepZGuzxNHTBaUnX

Tom Wentworth, CMO at Recorded Future, joined Chris for a podcast episode last week. They discussed what happens when marketers make the shift from optimizing for leads to optimizing for pipeline, and Tom shared that getting more leads is not always good for the business. Chris and Tom talked through opportunity costs, the long term implications of optimizing for short-term metrics, the importance of brand in hitting pipeline goals, and why having a loyal audience creates a competitive advantage. They also debated whether a content marketer or journalist makes more sense to hire internally as well as what missed opportunities they are seeing marketers make often.

Chris Walker and Megan Bowen of Refine Labs hosted another Demand Gen Live last night. The agenda consisted of: Performance Marketing vs. Brand Marketing, Why You Don't *Need* SEO in 2021, and How Top Marketers Stay Ahead of the Curve. They also answered live questions about ungating content, adjusting your metrics and how that affects things downstream, the iOS 15 update, prioritization based on perceived or measurable impact, and creating content.Curious how you can win in the dark funnel and get buy-in from leadership to invest in these channels? Chris Walker is delivering a keynote on this topic in a one-off episode of Demand Gen Live on 6/17 at 12pm EDT. Register here for access: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUvcuqqqT4tG9KUwTtuYepZGuzxNHTBaUnX

Chris Walker, CEO at Refine Labs, hosted another small business consulting session where he narrowed in on a company's biggest opportunity to double down their efforts in what he calls the "white space." This is where there's a lot of organic reach and competitors are not executing properly. He also shared his take on their Google Search strategy and how he'd recommend taking their positioning to the next level.

Chris Walker went live yesterday with Dave Gerhardt, CMO at Privy, to have a discussion around the topic of how to prioritize your career path as a marketer. They talked through why it isn't necessary to be an expert at every function within marketing, but to have an understanding of what good looks like in all those functions as well as a broader understanding of how marketing interacts with other departments throughout an organization. Chris and Dave took questions live as they related to working for large corporations vs. startups, imposter syndrome, being a generalist vs. a specialist, and how to gain experience outside of your role. We host a these Demand Gen Expert Sessions with Dave Gerhardt on the first Thursday of every month where you can ask Chris and Dave marketing-related questions LIVE. To register for future sessions, click here.

Last night on Demand Gen Live, Chris and Megan covered the following topics:The truth about influencer marketing that executives need to recognizeRelationship building is at the core of B2B influencer marketingThe value of user-generated contentGreat marketing means sales isn’t needed in the same capacityWhat types of content drive the most engagementLeveraging trade shows in an unconventional mannerSales enablement contentAd consumption - is there a negative impact if no action is taken?Experiential marketingHow digital and offline channels intertwineUsing media to educate and entertain the consumer rather than making them feel like they are just being moved through the funnel

Christine Leonard, Director of Marketing Optimization at Amplify, came onto State of Demand Gen for an episode of Back to Basics about marketing optimization and the buyer experience. They touched on how to avoid a leaky funnel by making sure in ICP buyers are being handled appropriately, and how a phenomenal buyer experience can be a differentiator. Chris and Christine went back and forth on why marketers should be shadowing their sales teams so they understand what happens when a lead is passed over to sales. Chris suggested diving into lead-to-win percentage by source, and they discussed the varying role of RevOps. 

Kathleen Booth, VP of Marketing at clean.io, joined Chris on State of Demand Gen to talk about authenticity in marketing. They discussed how to build leadership's confidence when it comes to experimentation and testing, why a "checking the box" approach to content is a huge missed opportunity, and the nuances between subscription and membership models. Kathleen and Chris shared their thoughts on outdated marketing strategies and how to freshen them up, and why brand marketing for a large corporation looks drastically different than that of a smaller organization.