Hi .

I'll kick off this newsletter issue with great news: we've finally found an editor for Trenches. Meet Adechina!

He'll be working alongside me (Andrei Zinkevich) on all community content.

Now the best part?

We've collected lots of insights from the guests that have joined Full-Funnel Live Podcast and Trenches events.

Adechina will write down and send you actionable summaries of these events. So every Trenches newsletter will become a source of tactics you can apply immediately.

Let's dive into accelerating demand & warm-up strategic accounts (giving a word to Adechina).

How to accelerate demand & warm-up strategic accounts

Last year we chatted with Dennis Yu from Blitzmetrics about accelerating demand gen. Here are 2 key takeaways.

Key 1: Produce content that demonstrates your expertise.

“The thing that works best in B2B, which unfortunately most B2B marketers don’t do, is having content that shows how knowledgeable they are.”

Share content that shows your prospective clients you understand fully well their pain points and that you can meet their business needs in ways no other company will ever do.

Now, the most common question I hear:

Who will listen to me?

That brings us to the second key.

Key 2: Leverage interviews with subject-matter experts 

Who are the big names that move the needle in your industry?

Who are the trendsetters in your niche?

Find out people that your prospects trust and interview them. Your interview can take the form of a podcast, webinar, or blog post. 

That helps to establish trust with your audience and carve out a reputation for yourself.

You can create short video clips out of these interviews and target with them your strategic accounts to warm up and create demand. Mixing this with organic thought leadership helps to accelerate demand.

Now let's touch on how to warm up the buying committee of strategic accounts

HOW TO WARM UP THE BUYING COMMITTEE 

Let's say you want to target Jason Crook who is a fractional CMO. 

Step 1 - Open LinkedIn and see how many friends you have in common.

Sometimes, it's easier to strike up a conversation with someone that doesn't know you if there’s someone you know who can vouch for you. 

So, if you have mutual friends with Jason, try asking one of them to introduce you. That mutual connection could start a group message and share how they know each of you and, afterward, you can send a DM.

Step 2 - Engage with Jason’s content, so he'll notice it.

Look for his latest content on LinkedIn or any other platform he uses and engage on it. That way, he will notice it and that will create a warm touch. 

Mind you, you don’t need to mention your service in the comment section or ask Jason to get on a call with you. 

Step 3 - Use a custom audience and honor Jason.

If you use ABM and have a list of prospects that are all very similar, you can put them into a custom audience. 

After creating your custom audience, you can write an article about 7 things people need to know about Jason or write a post that honors him. That post can be boosted for $1/day for people that are friends and fans of his audience. 

If you don’t know anything about being a fractional CMO or you don’t have enough time to write highlights, you can use an online tool like Jarvis.ai.

RUNNING ADS TO ENGAGE YOUR ENTIRE BUYING COMMITTEE                               

Like it or not, organic reach is increasingly hard to achieve. The days of going viral and engaging your buying committee with little to no budget for ads might be gone forever. 

So, if investing in ads with the aim of building brand awareness or increasing reach scares you out of your wits, here’s what you need to know.

Key 1: Write a compelling ad copy.

Ads increase your visibility. But if the copy isn’t right, it won’t cut it.

When you interview someone well-known, when you post an article that honors someone in the industry, or when you generate a high-value blog post, people will want to engage with you, and then you can use ads as an amplifier. 

“It’s only when you’ve succeeded in crafting a killer ad copy that you should use Facebook ads as a megaphone to get it out there. Facebook is merely a delivery company. And when DHL delivers you a package you’re unhappy about, you don’t get mad at DHL because DHL simply delivered the product.” Dennis Yu.

The underlying message is crystal clear. It is not so much about how you set up the ad campaign. That’s mechanical. If you don’t put in the right ingredients, you’ll get no engagement with your buying committee.

Key 2: Meet your audience where they are.

Having part of your content on a limited number of platforms means that you’re imprisoning your content. And of course, that is quite unfortunate, because what is the point of producing content that people can’t see?

Use a variety of platforms to let people have access to your content.

Some people in your audience might prefer listening to podcasts. Some others might prefer subscribing to webinars. Some might just like reading blog posts. And some are out there scrolling on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and the likes. 

“Instead of wanting more podcast episodes or more articles, you can concentrate on having more out of the episodes and articles that you already have.” Dennis Yu

Leverage this, and you'll see the results soon.

- Adechina

P.S. That was my first try. Could you, please, reply back and let me know if it was valuable.

P.P.S. If you are interested in a full interview with Dennis and want to see the live examples, tune in here: https://youtu.be/XhML320npk4

Upcoming community events

Below is the list of the scheduled events. Click on the events you are interested in to save your spot. You're very welcome to join the conversations, ask your questions live, or share your experience.

• 9 steps to go from 0 to ABM with Vladimir Blagojevic - Thu, 20 Jan, 5 pm CET - 11 am EST
• Buying triggers and full-funnel marketing with Katelyn Bourgoin - Thu, 27 Jan, 5 pm CET - 11 am EST
• 3 Enterprise Sales Strategies That Took us From $0 to $30mil with Ryan Staley - Thu, 3 Feb, 4 pm CET - 10 am EST

Full-Funnel Summit (29th -31st March)

You can attend and learn from the best B2B marketers for free.

Save your spot here.

Best Shares From Trenches Community

• The ABM warm-up playbook with 70%+ responses and 36% contact-to-conversation rates.
• 7-Figure ARR In 4 Years: How Surfer Is Growing With Content + Community
• B2B marketers are near-perfect people who are almost always right, except for this one thing
• Measuring and creating a brand through data-driven experiments 

Questions from fellow Trenchers

Let's help each other. If you can contribute or answer any question below, just click the link and share your thoughts.

• I have a website domain + page on the site and want to know what % of all of their traffic goes to that page. Any thoughts / ideas?
• A recommendation for a data platform that is better than Apollo?
• Are there some platforms that can guarantee to send emails straight to the Inbox, not to Updates or Promotions tab?
• Who is looking for a Senior Demand Gen?
• Any ideas for a quick and cost-effective way to do some marketing research on how our ICP wants to buy in our target market?

See you in Trenches 😉

Andrei Zinkevich