Marketers, get your head out of your funnel — because time is definitely not on your side

Whether you’re a CMO who’s trying to figure out how to make substantive progress in the marketplace (the kind you can point to and say, “We’re really making a difference!”), or an experienced demand-gen pro who’s finding it harder and harder to achieve significant lift for your programs, I want to share something with you:

No matter how well you do content marketing, no matter how fantastic your inbound funnel seems to be working, you may be winning those battles, but you’re losing the war.

There are several obvious reasons why this could be the case. And there’s one that’s really worth solving.

First is that the world’s a big place, and most people who could use your product/solution/service simply haven’t heard of you yet. Yes, over time, with luck and some good content marketing, word will get out — to some of them, anyway.

Second, you could be in a very competitive market. Maybe there are a lot of other companies offering the same product. Best case, you have only, maybe, a one-in-10 chance of being found and then picked.

Third, you’re probably still building up your list, zeroing in on your target Ideal Company Profile (ICP), getting your outbound messages honed, testing and perfecting your demand-gen and nurturing programs to them. There’s a lot of work to do, and you want to do it right.

The real problem here is that while you’re working hard at making progress on all of this — while you’re laser-focused on understanding your demand waterfall and tinkering with list sources and nurture streams — the larger market is going its merry way, oblivious to and unaffected by your efforts.

[Read the full article on MarTech Today.]

Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Marketing Land. Staff authors are listed here.

About The Author

John Steinert

John Steinert is the CMO of TechTarget, where he helps bring the power of purchase intent-driven marketing and sales services to technology companies. Having spent most of his career in B2B and tech, John has earned a notable reputation by helping build business for global leaders like Dell, IBM, Pitney Bowes and SAP – as well as for fast-growth, emerging players. He’s passionate about quality content, continuously improving processes and driving meaningful business results.