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Ask Me Anything: Demand Generation at Startups
Hey Carl, thanks for taking the time to do the AMA! I work with several different HubSpot clients and I have a few questions I'd like to pass along:
- I've found that going educational with content surpasses the typical clickbatey ness of headlines: "Understanding how red light therapy affects your health" vs "9 tips and tricks to improve your health" Is it worthwhile to pursue both?
- Are webinars for B2C effective, if so, how long would you say? Especially with high average deal amounts (1K plus)
- I'm all about Inbound, but with demand generation sometimes there's a good amount of Outbound that might need to happen, do you agree? I've often found supplementing content generation with cold email referencing the content as a way to help.
Some non-demand generation topics
- What does the roadmap for E-comm look like? I don't have specific questions here, just looking for possible enhancements/additions (with what you can share).
- Is there any plan to enable more popup / welcome mat functionality like we have with Optimonk or Optinmonster?
Thanks again!
Ask Me Anything: Demand Generation at Startups
Hey Bryantworks! Thanks for reaching out - happy to answer to your questions.
- For the most part, I have also found that more educational and specific content performs better than clickbatey content. Typically this sort of content has a more 'lasting effect' and makes a longer impact when it comes to SEO and sharing. I also believe that consumers have become smarter and more alert when it comes to which content they choose to consume, as is reflected in the kinds of titles they choose to click through on. I think there is a place for clickbatey content, if your particular audience shows a preference for it or if the goal is more of an overview than in-depth education/engagement.
-Webinars for B2C are typically less effective than B2B, but become more effective as the deal amount goes up (as you alluded to). If the buying process is longer and requires a decent amount of research or comparison then webinars can absolutely be effective. As for the length of a webinar, I tend to find that about 30 minutes of content and 15-20 minutes of Q&A is the sweet spot. Most people's attention spans can't last that much longer than that on a webinar and other attendees will primarily be there to get their questions answered (so they won't want to wait a very long time for that to happen).
-Don't tell HubSpot I said this 
, but sometimes I do find that startups need to blur the lines of Inbound and Outbound slightly. When you're starting a new company you have little to no momentum to work with and it can take some creativity to get that ball rolling. I think the key here is remembering that, even if you are being a little Outbound, do you ultimately feel like you are being helpful or trying to drive value for an individual? If the answer is yes then it might be an action that you should consider going forward with. If the answer is no, then you're probably just spamming.
In reference to your questions about ecommerce - I actually don't know very much about the product roadmap for this area of the product and don't want to accidentally share something I wasn't supposed to. If you make another post with some specific questions around this I can try my best to surface it to the right individuals here at HubSpot to get an answer.
