Why Do (Well-intentioned) B2B Demand Generation Efforts Fail?

David Raab outlined in a recent blog post his current research around the state of the B2B marketing automation marketplace.  Raab estimates total spending on B2B marketing automation platforms in 2010 reached approximately $200 million in revenue in 2010.  He further notes “… that the industry nearly doubled last year, so the current run rate is much higher.”  I had a couple of reactions to this number.

First, it made me think of another number.  $129 billion.  That’s the amount research firm Outsell estimated in a BtoB Magazine article in March last year would be spent in 2010 on all B2B marketing and advertising in the US.  Closely behind that number is the $26 billion Outsell further estimated (in the same report) would be spent on B2B company websites in 2010.  It subsequently strikes me that the $200 million spent on systems that are designed to orchestrate and run intelligent B2B demand generation programs still pales in comparison to what seems to be spent on brute-force execution.

Dreamforce 2010: Demand Generation Insights ‘from the Cloud’

I spent last week in San Francisco attending Dreamforce 2010 (Twitter:  @dreamforce).  The event was nothing short of impressive.  With 87,200 customers and $1.7+ billion in annual revenue, Salesforce.com is a major leader in the CRM marketplace, but Dreamforce is more than merely Salesforce.com’s annual CRM user conference.  Dreamforce increasingly has grown into the annual host of two critical, interdependent and growing ecosystems – and consequently was an event filled with great demand generation insights.

On one hand, Salesforce.com serves as the cornerstone for a growing software ecosystem around buyer-centric, demand management software.  This is a critical evolution – very much the doppelganger to supply-chain management – that is fundamental to businesses increasingly being able get control of and being able to predict and deliver revenue on a consistent and repeatable basis.  CRM is a backbone of this ecosystem, but marketing automation technology and related components, such as inbound marketing and analytics, increasingly are expanding the scope and capability of this ecosystem.  And this infrastructure is critical to supporting your holistic demand generation strategy and programs.

2 of 2: Elements of a Modern Demand Generation Plan … Program Translation

Today’s post is part two of a two-part series I started about two weeks ago.  In part one, I covered two main points:  One, the greatest challenges most B2B marketers face in building a modern demand generation program is that they have no idea how to do this or where to start.  Two, the first step in building a successful demand generation plan is to do some analysis.  I called this developing ‘buyer-targeting context’ – i.e., understanding the environment within which you are targeting your buyer, what your objectives are and what it will take to get there.  And I addressed the qualitative and quantitative analysis necessary to establish this context.   In part two today, I’ll dig into what it takes to translate this context into an executable demand generation plan.  ~ABN

Part Two:  Program Translation

Developing your initial buyer-targeting context gives you the baseline you need to start to build your demand generation plan.  By this point, you should have a clear idea of the following:  who your target buyer is; what constitutes a lead that is qualified to go to sales; what are the conversion steps and quantitative dynamics you’ll face in your nurturing programs; and what your overall ‘reverse-funnel math’ looks like.  These are all critical inputs.

1 of 2: Elements of a Modern Demand Generation Plan … Overview + Buyer-Targeting Context

How many posts a week do you find with ‘tips and tricks’ for improving your demand generation program or for leveraging marketing automation technology?  These posts are valuable, yet if you are part of the 97-98% of B2B marketers that either are not currently using marketing automation technology or that are not using it successfully – a reality I covered in parts one and two my ‘Real State’ of modern demand generation series – then you’ve got bigger fish to fry.

Where’s the gap?

I find B2B marketers increasingly ‘get’ the key building blocks.  They know – at least subconsciously – they need both process and technology (even if they don’t act on it).  And a growing group understands that in order to do successful online demand generation, they need some combination of marketing automation, together with lead management strategy and content marketing strategy.  B2B marketers also are increasingly aware of the importance of holistic nurturing.  Unfortunately, these remain mostly tactical considerations for far too many B2B marketers.  I think this is why demand generation remains a tactical, not strategic, consideration inside far too many companies, and why many have a narrow scope of what demand generation entails. 

A Layered Approach to Lead Nurturing in B2B Demand Generation

This afternoon I am speaking at the Boston-area Silverpop B2B Marketing University on the topic of “Succeeding with the Nurturing Dialogue.”  It’s a critical topic.  I truly believe that in the emerging era of Buyer 2.0 – i.e., in the era of a Web 2.0-empowered B2B buyer, who is now in the driver’s seat – it’s more important than ever for us to drive successful content-based dialogue at the core of our demand generation programs.  And lead nurturing is the holistic activity of managing this dialogue in a way that ties the buyer’s process to the marketing and sales organization’s ‘funnel’ – orchestrating our demand generation efforts.

How important is lead nurturing to B2B marketers?

If you polled a group of B2B marketers that have purchased marketing automation platforms, I’m sure 100% would say one of their top objectives is to drive email-based lead nurturing programs.  We know B2B marketers send out a lot of email.  In fact, approximately 89% of B2B marketers leverage email in their marketing efforts, according to Forrester at their Forrester Marketing Forum 2010.  And I’m sure an even higher percentage of this group is on the hook for supporting (at least) some portion of top-of-funnel lead generation via a combination of tactics that include email.

Pardot’s ‘Elevate’ User Conference: ‘Enterprise Grade’ Demand Generation Insights

I had the opportunity to attend the Pardot ‘Elevate’ user conference about two weeks ago.  Overall, it was a great event, and I want to extend my thanks to CEO David Cummings (Twitter: @david_cummings), COO Adam Blitzer (Twitter: @adamblitzer) and VP Sales Derek Grant (Twitter: @derekgrant) for inviting me to attend.

Let me first admit that given Left Brain Marketing’s focus on enterprise/mid-enterprise clients, I did wonder if the demand generation content at Elevate was going to be relevant for me and the segment I work with.  (Also, as a disclaimer:  Left Brain Marketing is 100% vendor agnostic – a policy recently highlighted by our founder, Malcolm Friedberg.  And as of the publication date for this blog post, we do not have any clients currently using Pardot.  So to be clear:  There is no sub rosa agenda in this blog post.)

Revising Our Demand Generation Definition as B2B Marketers

This is my first post as head of demand generation strategy at Left Brain Marketing (LBM).  (I think many of you know I recently departed from marketing automation vendor Silverpop, where I was B2B Marketing Evangelist and Director of Field Marketing.)

Given my new role, what is meant by ‘demand generation’ obviously is an important concept, and it’s something we definitely discuss internally at LBM – especially as it relates to online demand generation.  I’ve also had some interesting, recent interactions with marketing and sales professionals around the concept of demand generation, and these interactions have led me to believe this concept is nothing short of highly misunderstood.