How to Choose The Right Demand Gen Channel

So you want to get beyond PLG and word of mouth and have a sustainable organic growth channel you can scale with.

But what channel do you choose? How long should you test before seeing impact? What KPIs do you choose? What contingencies do you consider?

I break down high-potential organic demand channels in 2023 and how I would approach them.

Channel: Community Growth Play

Angle: Communities are a great long-tail play, and essentially there are two types, user communities, and topical communities. For demand gen, I think the play is topical communities, focusing on early experience and relationships. Note that affinity really matters for topical communities, so a group to help eCommerce brands with organizational hurdles going from 1-10m in revenue will outperform a more generic group.

Insights: The optimal price point based on Baremetrics is around $25-50/m for most horizontal communities (below $10/m tends to have very low CLTV). If you run an application-only, more exclusive mastermind-style group, obviously the price can be much higher. The idea would be to build thought leadership around a community directly tied to your Keystones. Running an alpha group with 10-50 members at a discount often works well. Use clear sub-channels (i.e. Growth (for Twitter users with 0-1k followers) or Sponsorships (for Twitter users with 50k+ followers) vs. sub-channels like “The Den” or “General Chat”). Dynamic events are key for engagement and retention (think workshops, member-only webinars, community pods, mentorship programs, hot-seat sessions etc)

KPIs: Months 0-3, total user signups, community DAU/MAU, then Months 3+ community conversion to pipeline (leads, trials, paid)

Impact Timeline: Medium - Long

Contingencies: Need software (Mighty Networks and Circle most common) and team collaboration to promote community. Videographer or graphic designer is likely when building community assets, LPs etc.

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Channel: Podcast Guesting

Angle: Guesting on podcasts provides amplification around keystone beliefs and creates a long-tail growth channel. The key with podcast guesting is as a TOFU awareness play, saturation in a niche matters a lot. Aim for 20+ MINIMUM podcasts in your industry or core topical area (customer success, eCommerce growth, SaaS retention etc.)

Insights: First, use a platform that allows you to easily filter the relevant shows and gives you contact information. Pitch via email, not Linkedin. For each pitch break it down into a Hook, Body and Conclusion. In the hook focus on addressing an issue from at least one episode and provide a meaningful comment around it (DONT just say “I loved episode 6 you did with Guy Kawasaki”). The point of the hook is to show you actually watch the show and you did your homework before reaching out. Then in the body paragraph build authority and the “why you”. Focus here on the host's audience and what is valuable to them, don’t use the body to just copy and paste a promo for the person. In the conclusion offer up 2-3 specific topics, and why you have a unique perspective on them, to the host.

KPIs: Months 0-3, look at leading indicators (total recorded), Months 3+ (trials, paid, Lead Velocity Rate). Need direct attribution

Impact Timeline: Medium

Contingencies: Use a paid platform like ListenNotes or Sparktoro to get the host's contact information. Helps to have a tracking platform like Notion to monitor pitches.

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Channel: Micro-Product Lead Magnets

Angle: This year we launched a  GIF signature creator at Bonjoro , which allowed users to create a GIF email signature. It took our team about a quarter to build the micro-product but we have gotten thousands of downloads and a great top-of-funnel with this. The idea was to replicate the Hubspot Website Grader angle and build something genuinely valuable for the market, that tangentially ties back to the product.

Insights: When launching a micro-product like this, immediately make sure you have a solid sense of the usecases. For example, telling users they can include a video GIF in their signature likely elicits a lot of “Okay…. So what? Why do I care?”. Instead, if you mention, “While prospecting, emails that have a video signature have a 28% higher reply rate. Send emails with the new signature for a day (takes 2 min to set up) and compare the results for yourself”, that has a lot more relevance. Distribution with something like this is key. What communities would share around this product? What niches is it most valuable to?

KPIs: Look at leads, opt-ins, LVR

Impact Timeline: Short* (Once launched you will quickly be able to see impact, but time to build micro-product is a notable consideration)

Contingencies: Product to build a genuinely useful widget, market coordinates on landing pages and promotional assets, marketing helps with distribution to user base.

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Channel: Starting a Podcast

Angle: Podcasts are flooded, but I still think there would be great reception for a novel idea/format, like a debate show or expert panel style with several guests with different opinions on an issue. I could imagine a lot of traction if you took a widely interesting top-of-funnel idea (that dovetails back to the product/keystones) and brought on say top industry experts with different opinions to respectfully flush out different approaches to topics.

Insights: Some software I recommend: Riverside for recording, Resonate for episode editing, Canva for the design of episode images or promo materials, and Buzzsprout for easy sharing of episodes to all the podcast channels. I think the big thing with starting a podcast is to think of it like a network building or even ABM play. Don’t look at starting a podcast as a short-term demand-gen lead generator. It might become that after it builds up for a year, but in the short term, it can help open partnerships and create valuable industry relationships. The other thing is, don’t do a generic 30-60 min episode where you and the host just nod along, agree about everything, and provide general inputs that people have heard a dozen times. The podcasts winning today provide unique perspectives and have unique formats.

KPIs: Months 0-6, look at leading indicators (downloads) and key relationships built (starting a podcast is a network play), Months 6+ look at leads/paid

Impact Timeline: Long

Contingencies: Video editor, graphic designer

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Channel: Ambassadors/Advisors

Angle: I think that influencers carry a lot of influence on buying decisions in the market today. At Bonjoro, at the start of 2023, we experimented with giving out 100 accounts to key influencers (we have only succeeded in giving out about 40) with no strings attached, just as a PLG/advocacy angle. So far it has driven us a few dozen accounts and seems promising. A partner manager told me that one of his clients has tried an advisor program where small amounts of stock are given to key influencers who then have skin in the game to co-promote and advocate for their software. There are a lot of ways this could look, but I think giving thought to how we can get more organic advocacy from players with trust within the market is a smart one.

Insight: Good partner motions are all about finding the right partners. It isn’t just who has a community of the right fit folks. It’s about who genuinely understands and loves your product. Who can talk about it organically in a way that feels less like a plug and instead reflects real excitement? Also, partners that have a steady inbound flow and can position your product as part of a package (think business incubators, membership communities etc.) work great as they have a continual inbound flow of new opps. Finally, successful partnership motions, from my experience, almost always start with giving, and then the reciprocity principle kicks in and from there you can create real momentum. So think about how you can give a thoughtful, personalized gift or do something meaningful for the partner as your outreach (driving someone's business is ALWAYS appreciated).

KPIs: Months 0-3 Partners secured for ambassador/advisor role, Months 3+ leads/paid from influencers. Direct attribution is required.

Impact Timeline: Medium

Contingencies: Resources to allocate to support the program (financial, co-promotion, etc.)

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Channel: Opening up new content channels (like Reddit)

Angle: With Bonjoro I started to drive inbound chats and interest by sharing dozens of growth insights in subreddits like /SaaS, /VentureCapital, /b2bmarketing etc.. The idea would be to share non-promotional insights, build trust, and ultimately use thought leadership to drive inbound interest. I think this is a slow channel (to date we have driven about 20 paid accounts through close to a million views on Reddit) but can have cumulative benefits.

Insights: I think of channel selection as a balance of competition vs. impact. Channels like Linkedin and Twitter have very high competition and very high impact. Channels like a niche slack community likely have low competition and low impact. Reddit, feels like it has the potential for high impact but has medium/low competition as it’s hard to “promote” on channels like Reddit.

Reddit comes down hard on promotional content, so one of the keys is posting thought leadership (and don’t include links or plugs to your product). Here are examples of top-performing subject lines on Reddit:

1. A post on r/Entrepreneur "Why Most Startups Fail and How to Avoid the Same Fate" received over 8,000 upvotes and 900 comments.
2. A post on r/technology titled "Why Artificial Intelligence is the Future of Business" received over 10,000 upvotes and 1,200 comments.
3. A post on r/webdev titled "The Pros and Cons of Popular Web Development Frameworks" received over 5,000 upvotes and 600 comments..
4. A post on r/BigData titled "How Big Data is Transforming Business and Society" received over 3,000 upvotes and 400 comments.

I always have found it's important to get specific on Reddit. I have learned from some of the best influencers in the SaaS industry, that if you do give advice (based on experience), the more specific, the more valuable. For instance, when Patrick Campbell says, “Raise prices every year if NPS is over 20”, the specificity is key. If you raise prices while your NPS is negative, you will have a nightmare.

Unlike other social channels, it is okay to be wordy and detailed on Reddit. The audience on Reddit appreciates depth and nuance.

KPIs: Months 0-6, look as leading indicators (views, comments, inbound chats), Months 6+ look at leads/paid. Need Direct Attribution.

Impact Timeline: Long

Contingencies: None

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The above is just a short sampling of a few common channels you can test. The key with organic demand gen is finding the right leading indicators that give you a sense of whether continuing on is worthwhile.

Unlike conventional or old-school demand gen (think Facebook and Google Ads), where the results are apparent nearly immediately, investing in building an organic engine takes time. If you quit every channel if you don't see deal flow after a month, you likely should stick to PPC demand gen.