Marketers =/= Technologists

Can I let you in on a secret? Most digital “marketers” you have worked with are imposters.

Most freelancers or agencies you work with don’t view digital marketing in a marketing lense.

They view it as a game. They are overly concerned about optimizing for conversion rates or dropping cost per acquisition…

Which don’t get me wrong - aren’t bad to focus on - but shouldn’t be what your strategy is centered on.

In this blog, I am going to walk through demand capture and demand generation. Each of these take place in what is called the client awareness funnel. These 3 phrases are foundational to marketing and if your digital “marketer” hasn’t brought all 3 of these up to you - then you are working with a technologist… not a marketer. And there’s a big difference. Let’s dive in.

What is the client awareness funnel

This funnel is all about how people discover things. Meaning, people usually take these steps before ultimately buying from you.

The steps are shown below…

Breaking the funnel down

I will walk through an example in the next image, but to summarize this simply for you, it goes like this.

In most B2B companies, you have a manager/director/vp level position that is in charge of something. That something usually comes with a set of problems. Those problems are usually solved or simplified with a piece of software/service. There are usually multiple different softwares/services that provide this solution - with nuanced differences between them. Once the manager/director/vp reaches most aware, they theoretically deeply understand their problem, the solutions available, and the vendors to choose from. This is broken down more below.

But in short, your ads & content your marketer is developing for your company should be addressing 1 of these parts of the awareness timeline.

Where most digital marketers fall short

They ask your prospects to marry them on the first date. Meaning, their ads assume that the prospect is already at least product aware. By doing this, they are completely skipping over half of this timeline.

It would be like meeting your dream girl at the grocery store and asking her to get engaged with you. You are thereotically assuming she already knows who you are, what your life mission is, how you would be a great husband, and how you are better than her other options.

Crazy right? Well, it's what most digital "marketers" do. So the awareness timeline must be first and foremost, what your ads are referencing.

The difference between Demand Capture & Demand Generation

To keep this simple, demand capture get's to skip steps 1-2 and go right to step 3. Examples of this are when someone goes into google and searches "best digital marketing agency near me."

This person is already aware that digital marketing is crucial to driving consistent inbound leads for their business. This person also already knows that it's a problem that they can't solve in house and needs help.

They are in the vendor selection mode.

Examples of tactics for this kind of marketing include Google Ads & SEO. Essentially any ad / media placement that includes capturing a prospect's intent behind a search.

Now, Demand Generation starts at step 1 - meaning even though you are selecting a ideal customer profile (ICP) that would be a prime prospective client for your business - you still need to take them through the client awareness funnel.

If your "marketer" isn't developing campaigns with the awareness timeline in mind…

Then you must work with someone else.

There is no amount of hacking that will get you to consistent inbound leads without a system in place that takes your ICP all the way from unaware to most aware.

Any success you see from your digital campaigns will be about as consistent as your word of mouth / referral marketing you are already doing.

Think you are working with an imposter?

Well, you can always reach out to your friendly neighborhood agency or freelancer and have them "check under the hood" of your campaigns.

If there seems to be a lack of strategy - then there probably is - and that means it's time to make a switch.

Just make sure the freelancer you ask to do this is a real marketer. Meaning, ask them how they generate leads for their B2B clients.

If they don't mention different ad formats, messages, and copy to build trust/authority - then you might be asking just another marketing imposter to look at another imposter's work.

Or at the very least… listen to me on this.

Don't work with people that only talk about the ad platforms or optimizations.

Sound strategy is what you need. Ad platforms and optimizations are just ways to help your strategy do better.

Hope you found this useful. Shoot me an email or leave a message if you have any questions.

Until next time,

Ian Binek