How Intent Data Fuels Marketing at G2

Intent data is a powerful thing!

In fact, it’s a bit like sorcery. 

Knowing exactly when prospects might be ready for a demo, or if they need more information…How spooky? 👻

But here’s the truth. 

Intent data is great for marketing because it can help to target customers with the right content, at the right time. 

In fact, G2 is living proof that intent data marketing is taking off 🚀 

And recently, our CMO Alice de Courcy chatted with the VP of Revenue Marketing at G2: Robin Izsak-Tseng. She gave a full breakdown of G2’s approach. 

You can check out the insights below.

Just scroll 👇 or use the menu to get started. 

To kick things off, Alice wanted to get to the bottom of why G2 loves using intent data for its B2B marketing activities. 

For Robin and the rest of the team, G2's intent data is a great indicator of who is ready for a demo, and who might need more time:

“Usually, folks coming to G2 research products in the relevant category. They’re signalling that they’re in the market for a solution. If that’s the case, totally we should get them a demo. I like to map the content strategy to the data signal.” 

What does G2's demand gen team look like? 

G2’s demand gen team is far from small. 

They’ve really invested time to make sure segments and regions are covered:

“Some of our key hires have been on the marketing opps side. So we’ve got two open roles: an analyst and a campaign operations manager.” 

But G2 hasn’t stopped there: 

“We just hired our first EMEA senior marketing manager. And we’re about to close an offer for an ABM-focused manager.” 

These hires have been important because it now means G2’s marketing managers are “focused on each segment: APAC, EMEA, mid-market, enterprise, and ABM.”

Sounds like a dream team 😍

G2's approach to account-based marketing (ABM) 

Account-based marketing is a hot topic 🌶

It’s not every marketer’s first priority. But it’s always interesting to know how different companies approach it. 

And for G2, slow and steady wins the race 👇

“We’re taking baby steps when it comes to ABM campaigns. And what I mean by this is that we’re building on the alignment with our sales team. It always starts with a prospecting list with Tier A of Enterprise Accounts.”  

“And we have to understand: who do we have on the database, and how can we enhance this contact list?” 

For now, this is the approach at G2. And then as 2022 goes on, the plan for ABM will be fleshed out. Speaking in 2021:

“We’re not doing any specific ABM events where we invite top prospects and customers - that’ll come in 2022.”

Robin also gave us a sneak peek as to what ABM will look like more generally at G2, over the course of this year:

“Outreach will be hyper-customised. For example, we’ll organise mail sends and events for our top accounts that might need help with integrations. It’s going to be a custom white glove, 1-2-1 experience.” 🎯

What would you do if... 

When you get the chance to chat with another marketer, it’s always a great opportunity to ask some juicy questions. 

And Robin did not disappoint with her responses. In fact, it’s a great insight into where G2 is headed next 👇

What would you do if you had an extra $10,000 extra in your marketing budget? 

If only marketers had unlimited funds…

Even if it’s a hypothetical question, it’s still pretty handy to know the answer. Because it tells us the potential next big move marketers might be making!

For Robin, an ideal situation would be spending anywhere from $17,000 to $20,000. And we’re sure you can relate too!

But all jokes aside, she’d love to use the big bucks to spend on YouTube content: 

“I would invest into really compelling video YouTube content, and do super fun, engaging, bite-sized pieces of content telling marketers what they should be doing with G2 intent data.” 

And you might be asking, why YouTube? 

Robin believes YouTube has gone a little bit under the radar, and there’s been underpriced attention. Her remarks remind us it’s far from a channel that’s become obsolete:

“Google owns YouTube. So it’s great for SEO. And I also like how YouTube sends subscribers notifications when there are new videos.” 

So if there’s one thing we can take away: never underestimate the power of YouTube in your marketing strategy.

What would you do if you could build a marketing team from scratch? 

It's like being asked to build your ideal family on Sims.

Being able to build your picture-perfect team of people with the right skills and qualities. 

So, drumroll please… 🥁 🥁 🥁

Here’s Robin’s answer

“I would hire a demand gen person and a marketing ops person.”

Because people in these positions tend to go above and beyond the traditional realm of a marketing role: 

“What you get in a great growth or demand gen marketer is someone who’s not only capable of understanding the product, market, and audience. But actually someone who understands the channels and how to get the message out there.” 

For Robin, when these two people work together, they’re a bit like the dynamic duo of the marketing team. 

On the one side, you’ve got the marketer who thinks proactively and a little bit outside of the box:

“If you put a goal in front of the growth or demand gen marketer, they will go there. How much budget do I have to spend? How can I leverage all the tools in my tech stack? What channels should I use?” 

And then “the marketing opps person is there to check it’s all working properly.”

What needs to start, stop, and continue in 2022?

From one year to the next, marketing approaches are never the same. 

And it’s amazing how quickly some ideas become outdated. But sometimes, it’s not always super-clear what marketers need to prioritise. 

Luckily, this question tends to take some of the guesswork out. Because it’s valuable advice. 

Robin thinks that we should start: 

“Going back to our creative selves. I hate to reference the show Mad Men because it’s so wrong in so many ways. But I think we need to go back to agonising over every word, think about the hooks, and the things that’ll help cut through the noise.” 

And what should we leave behind in 2021? 👋

Robin said:

“It’s time to stop being so precious about your tech stack... Don’t let it get in the way of doing things and trying things. If you don’t have the reports don’t worry. It’s important to tell stories to your audience, the rest of it will follow.” 

And what should we continue to do in 2022? 

“Continue with the crazy hustle, especially if you’re in one of the high-growth SaaS companies. This is what makes us different from marketing teams at much larger companies. So continue to embrace the hustle.”

Listen to the podcast 

There’s plenty more where this all came from. 

You can check out the full conversation and learn more about G2's buyer intent data from Robin below. 

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