AMA: Qualia Director, Demand Generation, Laura Lewis on Demand Generation Skills

When starting an entry-level role, no one will expect you to have the hard skills figured out. They'll train you on those. What they will be looking for is the soft skills: can you communicate well, are you organized, hard working, a good writer, or whatever else is important for that specific role. For a mid-level role, say a Digital Marketing Specialist, the skill set flips. You will be required to be an expert in that discipline, advise and train others on that discipline, and be able to figure out how to tackle a project in the best way possible. Additional training is always needed to stay on top of the latest developments in any field, and companies will always be looking for someone who fits their culture well and will get along with the existing team in place, but this has now become a secondary requirement after the hard skills. Finally, for a higher-level role, Director or higher, soft skills now take precedence. You do need domain expertise, but its more important that you can manage people, get alignment on project priorities from different teams, present to executives about results, and review data and make determinations about the direction you should focus on next.

Know what Demand Generation is, why you want to go into it, and show that you've done from preliminary work to build skills relevant to the field. Many times, recent graduates are looking for any job, not necessarily this job. That's the very first thing I look for in an interview for an entry-level role: why this field and why this function. If you can answer that, you're already going to be ahead of many others interviewing for the same job. Show that you've done some marketing work as well. Perhaps you majored in marketing in school and had an internship in marketing, but if not, show that you've been able to get Hubspot, Google Analytics, or 6Sense certified. Many of these (if not all) are free and you can take courses online. This will give you a second leg up on other candidates and show with even more clarity that you are interested in this role and are a go-getter.

A short list of a few skills that immediately come to mind: Soft skills: * Organization * Time management * Project management * Drawing conclusions from data * Presentation skills Hard skills: * Google Analytics * Marketing Automation platforms * Writing * Design * CRM systems, such as Salesforce * Marketing funnel * SEO

You don't have to agree with feedback. But you do have to be open to hearing it, especially from a boss who has power over your career and performance reviews. And - I hate to say it - but not all bosses will have your best interests at heart, so not all feedback might be valuable. The best thing you can do is to take a step back and think about the feedback and where it might be coming from. Ask for specific examples and how they would have preferred you handle the situation or the work. And try to think about where they might be coming from - is their boss on their case about something, and that is trickling down to you? Is there an urgent deadline coming up that they're worried about missing? etc. Choose one thing that you do agree with to actively try and make a change on. Work at that, and give your boss clear updates on how you have been working on that item so they can't miss it. Once you feel confident that that item is no longer an issue with your boss, move to the next item. You do have to make a change since the feedback is from your boss - but take the time to understand it so the change also benefits you and your career.

Planning, process, and following the data. Planning - a campaign goes through a robust cross-functional process before it launches, and involves milestones with dates on a project plan and getting deliverables in a few days early for review cycles. Other functions can benefit from planning their initiatives thoroughly. Process - the most successful campaigns follow a process. Usually, that's ideation, planning, execution, and monitoring results. This isn't specific to marketing or DG. Following the data - after a campaign or a month or a quarter, whatever the milestone is for your organization, the results are reviewed and recommendations are made for how the campaign could be better, or for a new project that can be launched to improve the data further. This, again, is not marketing specific, but can be used by other teams whenever a new initiative is launched.

That depends on what "extensive marketing background" means. If you've been, say, a Social Media Marketer and are looking to make a change, I would suggest having a conversation with your boss and the DG leader at your current organization to see if there is any between-teams movement available. There might not be anything right now, but that could change in 6 months or 1 year and then you will be top of mind. In the meantime, they might even be able to have you work on some small projects to learn more about the function and what you can do. If you've had internships and majored in marketing, but no formal work experience, then I would instead recommend learning about the role through reading forums like this one and talking to people in the role currently. When interviewing candidates for entry-level roles, one of the things I look for most is fit - does the candidate actually want THIS job, not just any job. But showcasing that you understand and really want the role, you will have a leg up on others.

This is one of my favorite topics! Usually, the answer is no difference at all. The term "Demand Generation" came first, and over time has evolved into "Growth Marketing." Many organizations still use DG as the term, even through they actually mean Growth Marketing and the DG leader is responsible for Growth Marketing. Officially, however, Demand Generation is a subset of Growth Marketing. Growth Marketing encompasses all of the marketing tactics focused on Pipeline and Revenue: funnel management, events, marketing programs, ABM, SEO, social media, lead generation, etc. Demand Generation is a subset of Growth Marketing - typically focused on digital marketing programs, inbound, and lead generation.