Successful demand generation keeps your marketing funnel full, your sales phones ringing, and your business in the black. But many businesses find demand gen to be the gold at the end of the rainbow: illusive, intangible, and potentially a myth.

So, when it comes to demand gen, what really works?

At our Partner Marketing Kickoff event in April, Michell Garzon, Managing Director of the Americas Marketing team, talked about the areas where Citrix was successful in 2020 when the pandemic changed the marketing playbook. With double-digit growth last year in total marketing pipeline (34 percent), marketing qualified leads (38 percent) and marketing- and sales-sourced pipeline (35 percent), Michell shares the most effective strategies in today’s new demand gen environment:

Design a Winning Digital and Demand Campaign

When it comes to webinars, virtual events, digital media, and email campaigns, work through these three critical steps to set yourself up for success.

  1. Identify the customer problem(s) and business need: Starting with market and industry trends, determine the customer pain points your business helps solve.
  2. Design your campaign for customer engagement: Armed with insight on your customers’ needs, now it’s time to get creative. Reimagine use cases and customer stories into webinars, immersive virtual events, forums, and more to maximize customer engagement.
  3. Launch your campaign and measure results: Social media, web personalization, paid media, editorials, and other tactics can drive your campaign’s views and engagement. Don’t forget to have goals in mind and measure the results of your campaign.

Engage with Executives

To get in front of C-level decision makers, executive engagement is table stakes. Here are three stages to consider when planning your executive engagement strategy.

  1. Earn a seat at the table: Gaining access to the C-suite requires establishing credibility and earning a right to have a conversation. Look to branding (the ability to set yourself apart from your competitors) and thought leadership as credibility builders.
  2. Network: Once you’ve earned your seat at the table, nurture your strategic accounts with C-level outreach, such as executive insights, virtual briefings, and roundtables. And don’t forget to network with new leadership at third-party events, industry shows, and virtual tradeshows.
  3. Nurture: As execs move through your funnel, maintain and expand the relationship by engaging them with opportunities like customer councils, leadership forums, executive advisory boards, and ELT sponsorships.

Prospecting More Successfully

Prospecting campaigns or call blitzes can also be a good way to supercharge your pipeline. Check out these four steps for better results.

  1. Identify the focus: Choose a specific offering to promote by aligning it with current industry trends and your sales priorities.
  2. Set the targets: Sift through your customer data to identify target profiles, accounts, and best contacts so you’re reaching the right person with the right problem.
  3. Provide enablement: Prepare and/or curate relevant content and collateral for your sales team. This can include email templates, battle cards, use cases, customer stories, specific training, and more.
  4. Establish success metrics: Identify and measure key campaign metrics and consider adding a competitive element to your campaign to keep your sales team engaged.

Learn More

Watch Michell’s talk for a deeper dive and examples of each of these activities in the Citrix Partner Marketing Kickoff 2021 video library.


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