Thread by @jasonlk

Demand Gen is #1 priority in marketing until you have a dominant brand and high market share

Then, Brand Marketing is more important

After that, Demand Gen becomes just a function, a department

But listen, that like almost never happens before $30m ARR

This is why, when you go a large tech company, “Demand Gen” is often run by mid-level marketers

After all, everyone has already heard of Salesforce, Adobe, really even Canva, Datadog, etc.

Brand marketing ensures you >stay< in every deal

Vs

Demand gen >gets< you into deals

So when you hire a VPM that never worked < $30m ARR, they just won’t know

They won’t really know what Demand Gen is

They may say they did, or had someone that worked under them with title

But brand got them into every deal

They never succeed in getting you >into< deals

Never

This isn’t to poo-pah or mock brand marketing

Once you have dominant brand, it’s super important

You have to always be present. Yes, you’ve heard of Datadog, Salesforce, Zoom. Of course you have.

But you need to reinforce the buying decision every step

Air cover does that

Finally, this is also the line when you should hire a CMO

When you have a brand on its way to becoming dominant

You can hire a CMO before then, but you give up having a demand gen expert running marketing

Be wary of hiring a true CMO before then

And a classic SaaStr post on the topic overall:

saastr.com/hire-the-right…