What better way to kickoff 2024 than a discussion around the ethical dilemmas marketers should be concerned about as we launch into this new year? With data laws ever changing, email regulations coming down, and AI continuing to evolve, there are lots of ethical dilemmas marketers need to consider and address in 2024.

That’s exactly why we added a brand new segment to Donuts & Demand, our monthly show for demand generation marketers, called Sticky Bun Situations. This new show segment invites our guests to chat about a modern ethical dilemma in marketing or B2B.

Angela Romero, Director of Demand Generation at Spekit, and Goldcast’s very own Kelly Cheng, Head of Marketing & Growth, tackled this topic and a whole lot more during the episode. Here’s just a taste of what they discussed when it comes to hot topics in demand generation in 2024.

📺 Rather watch than read? Catch the full Donuts & Demand episode here!

Will demand generation marketers ever stop arguing about what data is (or isn’t) important to track? Probably not, so that’s why we’ve added an entirely new segment to Donuts & Demand called The Data’s in the Donuts!

This brand new segment allows our guests to dig into the true meaning, or even worthlessness, of some marketing data points. Do you agree with the points Kelly and Angela made? Let’s dive into their takes on this ever-evolving topic.

We started this segment off a little hot with Kelly’s point of view on intent data. “I think this is probably going to be a hot take,” she stated.

“My issue lately has been more so the label, the label of intent data. Intent data has been this big thing. It's been a buzzword in B2B marketing for years, so many years.”

So what’s the issue with intent data, exactly? Here’s what Kelly had to say:

In short, Kelly believes it is best to rely on your own data, pulled from first party sources, like your website, app, and product. “I think that when we buy data off the shelf, we miss a lot of the understanding of where this data comes from and how we can best use it.”

Think the only metrics that matter when you’re working in demand gen are MQL, SQL, sourced and influenced pipeline? According to Angela, you should probably get a little more basic.

So what are these broad data points you should be paying more attention to? Here’s what Angela suggests:

• Revenue growth
• ARR (Annual returning revenue)
• Churn rate
• Retention rate
• Average deal size

Why do these data points matter? First, it gives you a better understanding of your organization as a whole, your customer base, and the average sales cycle. But it can also help you form hypotheses on what you can adjust in marketing to help improve your overall org data points as well as the more marketing-focused ones.

There’s a lot to be worried about when it comes to ethical dilemmas in 2024. We all must figure out how to keep up with changing regulations in data security, email compliance, and the phasing out of cookies. Add in AI and there is quite a bit to be concerned about!

Yet Kelly’s ethical concern is not related to any changes in tech or regulations. Her ethical dilemmas challenges a marketing practice that could be old as time: offering an incentive to take a demo.

“I have noticed a lot of demos that were like, you know, join a demo and get a $100. These pay to play kind of demos. I'm not sure if it's ethical number 1 and number 2 effective. You know, I think on both ends, ethical to accept a gift card for attending a demo and ethical to offer a gift card,” she stated.

One thing Kelly points out that could make this marketing strategy not only more ethical, but work better, is to target those who are in-market with campaigns like this.

“I'm clearly not in market for certain offerings that I'm getting bribed for. Knowing that I'm not in market for certain things and seeing certain messages, seeing the ad dollars being spent on me, me knowing the workings behind all that, just makes my heart break a little.”

For Angela, data privacy is very top of mind as her team plans for 2024. Why? “The reason it's top of mind is because for myself, and I think in 2024, a lot of other demand gen managers, we are starting to host and coordinate a lot of our own events, whether they're in person or virtual,” she said.

And what often happens with these events? You add sponsors, who then get the lead list. But Angela believes many demand gen marketers have not done the best job at putting the right steps and processes in place to protect attendee data. She explains:

Here’s what Angela suggests doing to avoid running into data privacy issues when setting up events:

• Have solid data privacy standards, policies, and practices in place
• Understand that you can’t simply rely on tech to handle data privacy
• Be clear with partners and sponsors about data handling practices
• Ensure teams are not going to market too quickly and cutting corners

But what if your leadership doesn't see the value in putting some of these policies and data privacy steps in place?

Here’s Angela’s advice: “I think the best approach is just use the legal terms and the data behind it and just show the ramifications. Say hey, I know this feels like something small, but here are the ramifications of using this data incorrectly or sharing it incorrectly or even if there was any data loss and we were responsible for it in the way that we shared it.”

Every episode of Donuts & Demand includes time for Q&A, and this episode’s audience was laser focused on how to improve their virtual events. Here’s just a few of the questions asked about virtual event strategies and the answers our experts provided.

The first question Kelly and Angela tackled was around getting people to attend an event live versus having them wait to watch the on-demand recording. Remember how Kelly was iffy about using incentives for demos? Well, it’s a great strategy to try out for your virtual event strategy!

“I think in my personal experience, the best tips for getting people to attend live has been incentivizing them,” shares Kelly. And I’d agree! In fact, this topic recently came up in Goldcast’s community, The Event Marketers Club. Gifting and incentives came up as a strategy for getting more people to attend live, and here’s what I added to that convo:

Angela agrees that incentives are a great play, and also adds that the way you position the webinar’s content is also crucial for getting people there live.

“The content of the webinar is make or break it. It depends on what the urgency is for that person to learn what you're going to be offering in that webinar. So really honing in on content that's relevant, timely, and is going to give the viewer something that they can take away and apply in their role.”

If you’re like most event marketers, email is probably an important channel for boosting event registrations. Yet what are the best ways to optimize this channel? Angela and Kelly shared some excellent tips:

Want the TL;DR? Here’s a few of their best event email invite best practices:

• Test subject lines
• Add in emojis
• Be clear and concise
• Use questions
• Add in personalization

When it comes down to it, being clear will win out over being clever.

“What we find is that the more clear you are with what the landing page is going to be about, the better. Be very clear so that the person has a really good idea of what they're clicking on. I think it's really fun to get catchy and throw fun things in, but sometimes the less relevant they are, the less likely they are to actually convert the person that's seeing it in the email,” shared Angela.

Angela and Kelly gave us some great insights into what demand generation marketers should be thinking about as we head into 2024. Which topics resonated the most with you?

The marketing tips above are only a sprinkling of wisdom shared by Angela and Kelly. If you want to catch the entire episode, you can watch it here.