Performance Marketing Report - MAY 2013

Look who’s 30 (thousand)!

By: Jerry Rackley

Sometime in the wee hours of the morning of April 25, 2013, our membership level surpassed the 30,000 mark! This may sound like we’re bragging. To be honest, we’re feeling pretty good about this, because our membership has doubled in just a year. But what we’re really trying to express is appreciation, because what’s a membership organization without members? We have you, the Demand Metric community, to thank for our rapid growth over the past year.

Jesse Hopps, the Demand Metric CEO, started this company in 2006. No one appreciates the implications of this milestone more than he, so let me share his thoughts with you from a recent conversation:

JR: How does it feel that this organization you created seven years ago now has 30,000 members?

JH: I’m certainly encouraged by the growth, because membership levels correlate to revenue, but what inspires me is what this growth represents.

JR: Talk about what that growth represents – the membership has doubled in size in just a year. What’s the driver?

JH: We have a singular focus – marketing – and we’re building the Demand Metric brand on the back of practical resources that help our members measurably demonstrate marketing’s contribution to their organizations. It seems like a simple business proposition, but I think our growth reflects the way we execute on that proposition, in a really practical way that helps our members.

JR: When you look at the way Demand Metric has grown, the principles you are using to build this business, are you doing anything differently than the things we are telling our members to do through our tools, resources and advisory? In other words, are we taking our own medicine?

JH: We’re not doing anything differently than we prescribe. I can’t imagine how we would grow by suggesting best practices, tools and resources to our members, and then not using them ourselves. If you look at the principles our resources embody – expressing a clear value proposition, understanding your customer, intentional planning and strategy implementation based on best-practices – these are the very things that have allowed us to grow the Demand Metric community. By joining our community, our members have essentially voted, and our growth results are telling us that our business model works for them too.”