A strong demand generation program helps to build brand awareness and authority, produces thoughtful and engaging content that drives interest, and cultivates leads. Demand generation is a very substantial part of a healthy B2B sales and marketing strategy. Let’s understand what demand generation is, what it entails in B2B, what are the typical roles on a demand gen team, and what steps are involved to make this a successful strategy.
What is demand generation?
Demand generation is a marketing strategy that is focused on building reliable brand awareness and interest that results in high-quality leads. You know how important marketing messages are and demand generation makes these marketing messages sound more compelling and authoritative carrying more weight when it comes to enticing prospective clients and finally helping to increase revenue by forming strong leads.
It is the process of creating and nurturing interest in a product or service in order to attract potential customers and ultimately drive sales. It involves a range of marketing tactics designed to build awareness, generate leads, and convert those leads into paying customers. Effective demand generation requires a deep understanding of the target audience, their needs and preferences, and the channels and tactics that are most likely to resonate with them.
Steps to build a successful demand generation B2B strategy:
An effective B2B demand generation strategy must include these five key steps:
1. Building Awareness:
Brand awareness is essential for a steady flow of leads in the highly competitive sales and marketing environment. Even if it might seem obvious, promoting a brand does more than only catch the eye of potential customers. Customers in the future are left with a lasting, favorable impression of an organization thanks to a long-lasting brand awareness strategy, which gives them confidence in the business when it provides solutions to suit customers’ complex needs.
How then can you gain more credibility and visibility with customers? You require a few current, sincere, and favorable reviews. Since genuine customer reviews provide a succinct, peer-provided product overview to aid buyers in focusing on and searching for the product, businesses must prioritize them.
These reviews reflect honest consumer input that is unaffected by marketing spin and connected to actual use. Customer reviews as a whole offer high-level insights that aid purchasers in swiftly and accurately filtering through a wide selection of products.
2. Build a content strategy that works:
In addition to brand recognition, developing industry knowledge is a crucial element of an effective demand generation strategy. Expertise in the industry means that the brand is recognized as a leader in the field from the very first engagement with a potential customer. This level of experience aids in gaining the client’s trust and prepares the foundation for crucial discussions regarding the problems that customers have and the solutions that the company can provide.
A successful content marketing strategy provides clients with relevant and beneficial information at each stage of the purchasing process, which is the most effective approach to developing expertise. You must execute your content strategy and creation so that the issues and concerns of the customers are addressed throughout their purchasing process. Only then will you win the confidence of the customers along with improving the brand’s credibility.
If you have marketing resources, create curated, unique content that appeals to the needs of the audience to generate high-value leads. Therefore, it implies that you receive trustworthy leads that may be converted and that the customer is willing to spend money with your business. Utilize the segment-specific data to help you create content and calls to action (CTAs) that will help buyers through the buying process and address any common issues or concerns among your high-value leads.
The barriers must be removed as soon as a lead discovers your product so they can inquire about the purchase in detail. When in doubt, focus on the main factors that consumers would take into account when choosing a product or service.
3. Nurture high quality leads:
It takes more than merely transferring leads to the sales team after the initial contact to effectively generate demand. A thorough plan that leads potential customers through the whole decision-making process must be in place in order to successfully nurture leads.
Teams from marketing and sales should collaborate closely to make sure they are aware of the buyer’s queries, worries, and attitudes at all times. Marketing teams should keep in touch with high-value leads by providing relevant content that addresses frequent queries throughout the purchasing process.
Prospective customers should receive content that is customized to their needs and distributed through the most effective channels. The intention is to give them the appropriate information when they need it most by doing this thing. Lead feedback should be regularly watched in order to make sure the nurturing effort is effective. The messaging and nurture tracks can be changed as necessary to get the best results by examining lead nurture track performance statistics and identifying stages with higher engagement or unsubscribe rates.
4. Use Account Based Marketing
Account-based marketing (ABM) is a marketing strategy that focuses on targeting specific high-value accounts, rather than a broader audience. With ABM, marketing and sales teams work closely together to identify and prioritize target accounts and then develop customized marketing campaigns that cater to the specific needs and pain points of those accounts.
Once your demand generation tactics have begun producing a steady stream of leads, you should think about how to give high-value leads top priority. This is where your team’s success can be drastically improved by using an account-based marketing (ABM) strategy.
Understanding the accounts and audiences you’re aiming for in great detail is essential for a successful ABM strategy. To carefully choose accounts that they can nurture with individualized engagement and assistance, marketing and sales teams must work together.
Marketing teams should examine high-value clients who are most likely to convert or expand in order to create effective target company personas. As well as the key milestones in their buying journey that lead up to a purchase, identify the company objectives and values that these target accounts tend to share. These personas can be used by your team to provide marketing content that is specifically customized to each lead’s individual needs and concerns.
5. Invest in partner marketing:
Digital marketing is more important than ever as the business world is moving towards face-to-face virtual interactions. While businesses are increasingly resuming secure in-person meetings, it is likely that digital interactions will continue to be a crucial aspect of daily operations.
Pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns are frequently used by businesses to efficiently reach their target audience online. However, running these initiatives alone might be difficult. Here is when working in conjunction with a third-party source can really help.
Many businesses begin by using social media or general search engines, but they have trouble adjusting their messaging to their intended audience. Businesses can collaborate with partners who have already developed a strong online presence among the target demographic in order to swiftly and efficiently reach the right people.
Customers are always waiting to be reached, regardless of the product or service that is being provided. Businesses may put their products in front of the appropriate customers at the right moment by working with outside partners.
What demand generation entails in B2B?
In the context of business-to-business transactions, demand generation refers to the process of raising awareness and generating interest in a product or service among prospective clients with the ultimate aim of producing qualified leads for the sales team. It involves a variety of marketing techniques used to draw in, hold the attention of, and persuade prospects to become clients.
Reaching out to specific target audiences and producing pertinent, valuable content that speaks to their particular difficulties and pain areas are the main goals of B2B demand generation. The purpose of distributing this content through many channels—including email, social media, webinars, white papers, and events—is to grab potential consumers’ attention and persuade them to take action.
Careful planning and execution are essential to the success of B2B demand generation. The target audience must be identified, their wants and preferences must be understood, a clear value proposition must be developed, compelling content must be produced, and marketing efforts must be evaluated for efficacy.
Overall, the sales and marketing process in the B2B sector is extremely dependent on demand generation. It promotes brand awareness, establishes credibility, and produces leads that can eventually grow into devoted customers.
Demand generation marketing has become highly relevant and important in the B2B sphere across all industries because B2B demand generation campaigns offers many benefits. It is observed that demand generation brings great success as compared to other traditional marketing efforts so if you have the best demand generation strategies, tools, and a plan in place, it can bring your company huge success. Let’s dive into these strategies now:
Demand generation strategies:
There are many different demand generation strategies that businesses can employ to reach their target audience and generate interest in their products or services. These may include content marketing, social media marketing, search engine optimization, email marketing, paid advertising, influencer marketing, and referral marketing, among others. Each strategy has its own unique advantages and can be effective when used in the right way.
Content marketing involves creating and distributing valuable and informative content that attracts and engages potential customers. This can include blog posts, videos, infographics, and more. Social media marketing involves using social media platforms to reach a large audience and build relationships with potential customers. SEO involves optimizing a website and its content to rank higher in search engine results pages.
Email marketing involves creating personalized and targeted email campaigns to nurture leads and build relationships with potential customers. Paid advertising involves paying for placement on search engines, social media platforms, and other websites. Influencer marketing involves partnering with influential people in a particular niche to promote a product or service. Referral marketing involves incentivizing existing customers to refer their friends and family to a business.
The main goal of demand generation marketing is to build and speed up a predictable pipeline for your sales team. The initial campaigns are first included in order to encourage your target audience to sign up for your mailing list. It also encourages people to interact with your content, come to your events, and do other things. The objective is to lead the qualified lead through multiple means until it converts.
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Here are seven effective demand generation strategies:
1. Content marketing
Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach that involves creating and sharing valuable and relevant content with the goal of attracting and retaining a clearly defined audience. The content can take many forms, including blog posts, videos, infographics, social media posts, podcasts, webinars, and more. The aim is to establish a business or brand as a thought leader and build trust with potential customers by providing them with valuable information and insights.
The key to successful content marketing is understanding the target audience and creating content that speaks directly to their needs and interests. This means conducting thorough research to understand their pain points, questions, and preferences. By addressing these needs and providing value through the content, businesses can build trust and establish themselves as credible source of information.
Content marketing can also help drive traffic to a website and improve search engine rankings through search engine optimization (SEO) tactics. By using targeted keywords and creating high-quality, informative content, businesses can improve their visibility in search results and attract more organic traffic to their site.
One of the advantages of content marketing is that it can be cost-effective compared to other marketing tactics. It can also be a long-term strategy that builds on itself over time. As businesses create more content and establish themselves as thought leaders, they can attract more followers and establish themselves as trusted resource in their industry.
2. Social media marketing
Social media marketing is a digital marketing strategy that uses social media platforms to promote a brand, product, or service. It involves creating and sharing content on social media channels to build engagement, increase brand awareness, and drive traffic and sales. Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and TikTok have billions of users worldwide, making them an effective way to reach a large audience.
The first step in social media marketing is to identify the target audience and the social media platforms they use most. Once the platforms have been identified, the next step is to create content that resonates with the target audience. This can include a mix of posts, images, videos, and stories, with the aim of building engagement, trust, and loyalty.
Social media marketing can also involve paid advertising, which allows businesses to target specific demographics and interests with their ads. This can include sponsored posts, promoted tweets, and targeted Facebook ads. Paid advertising can be a highly effective way to reach a larger audience and drive conversions.
One of the biggest advantages of social media marketing is its ability to build relationships with customers. By engaging with customers on social media platforms, businesses can build trust and loyalty, as well as gain valuable feedback and insights into customer needs and preferences.
3. Search engine optimization (SEO)
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of optimizing a website and its content to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). The goal of SEO is to increase the visibility of a website, attract more traffic, and ultimately drive conversions. SEO involves a range of tactics, including keyword research, content optimization, link building, and technical optimization, among others.
Keyword research is a critical part of SEO. It involves identifying the keywords and phrases that potential customers are searching for and then optimizing website content to target those keywords. This can include creating high-quality, relevant content, optimizing page titles and meta descriptions, and incorporating keywords into URLs, headers, and body copy.
Content optimization is another important aspect of SEO. This involves creating high-quality, informative, and engaging content that is optimized for both users and search engines. This can include blog posts, articles, videos, infographics, and more. By creating valuable content to users and incorporating relevant keywords, businesses can improve their search engine rankings and attract more traffic to their websites.
Link building is another key component of SEO. This involves acquiring high-quality backlinks from other websites to your own. Backlinks are an important ranking factor in search engines and can help increase the authority and credibility of your website.
Finally, technical optimization is also important for SEO. This involves optimizing the technical aspects of a website, such as its site structure, mobile-friendliness, page speed, and more. By ensuring that a website is technically sound, businesses can improve their search engine rankings and provide a better user experience for their audience.
4. Email marketing:
Email marketing is a type of digital marketing that involves sending targeted messages to a specific audience through email. It is a highly effective and cost-efficient way to nurture leads and build relationships with potential and existing customers. With the rise of mobile devices and the ease of accessing email, email marketing has become one of the most popular marketing channels for businesses of all sizes.
Email marketing allows businesses to communicate directly with their audience, delivering personalized and relevant content that is designed to meet their needs and interests. By segmenting their audience and tailoring their messages to each group, businesses can increase engagement and drive conversions. Whether it’s a promotional offer, a newsletter, or a simple reminder, email marketing is an effective way to stay top-of-mind with customers and encourage them to take action.
One of the key benefits of email marketing is the ability to measure and analyze the results of each campaign. By tracking open rates, click-through rates, and conversions, businesses can gain valuable insights into what is working and what needs improvement. This allows them to optimize their campaigns over time and ensure that they are delivering the best possible results.
However, there are certain best practices that businesses should follow to maximize the effectiveness of their email marketing campaigns. This includes crafting engaging subject lines, creating personalized and relevant content, segmenting their audience, ensuring their emails are mobile-friendly, and providing clear calls-to-action.
5. Paid advertising
Paid advertising is a marketing strategy that involves paying for the placement of ads on various channels such as search engines, social media platforms, and other websites. Paid advertising is a popular choice among businesses because it allows them to reach a larger audience quickly and target specific demographics based on their interests, location, and behavior. The key advantage of paid advertising is the ability to generate immediate results. Businesses can start driving traffic and lead to their website or landing page as soon as the ads are live.
One of the most popular forms of paid advertising is pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, which involves paying a fee each time a user clicks on the ad. PPC ads are typically displayed at the top of search engine results pages (SERPs) and can also be displayed on social media platforms, websites, and mobile apps. The success of PPC ads depends on careful keyword targeting and bid management to ensure that the ad is displayed to the right audience at the right time.
Another popular form of paid advertising is display advertising, which involves placing banner ads on websites and mobile apps. Display ads can be targeted to specific demographics based on their interests and browsing behavior, and can be displayed on a variety of websites and apps that are relevant to the target audience.
Social media advertising is another popular form of paid advertising, with platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn offering a range of advertising options. Social media advertising can be highly targeted and allows businesses to reach specific demographics based on their interests, behaviors, and demographics.
6. Influencer marketing
Influencer marketing is a type of marketing that involves partnering with influential individuals or groups to promote a product or service. Influencers are typically individuals who have a significant social media following and are considered experts or thought leaders in a particular niche or industry. By leveraging the influencer’s reach and credibility, businesses can reach a large and engaged audience, build trust with potential customers, and ultimately drive sales.
Influencer marketing can take many forms, including sponsored posts, product reviews, guest blogging, and more. The key is to find the right influencer who aligns with the brand’s values and has a relevant audience that is likely to be interested in the product or service being promoted. It is also important to ensure that the influencer’s content is authentic and engaging, as this will help to build trust with their audience and increase the likelihood of conversions.
One of the main benefits of influencer marketing is that it allows businesses to reach a highly targeted audience in a more organic and authentic way. Instead of using traditional advertising methods that can be seen as intrusive or annoying, influencer marketing involves creating content that is valuable and informative to the influencer’s audience and is therefore more likely to be well-received. This can result in higher engagement rates, increased brand awareness, and ultimately, more sales.
However, it is important to note that influencer marketing also has its challenges. It can be difficult to find the right influencer who aligns with the brand’s values and has a relevant audience, and measuring the ROI of influencer marketing can be challenging. Additionally, there is a risk of influencer fatigue or oversaturation, where audiences become overwhelmed by the number of sponsored posts or product placements.
7. Referral marketing
Referral marketing is a type of demand generation strategy that involves incentivizing existing customers to refer their friends and family to a business. By leveraging the power of word-of-mouth marketing, referral marketing can be an effective way to generate new leads and drive sales.
Referral marketing programs typically offer some type of reward or incentive to customers who refer new businesses to the company. This can include discounts, free products or services, or other perks. In order to encourage referrals, businesses may also offer rewards to new customers who are referred. This can help to create a positive experience for the new customer and increase the likelihood that they will become a repeat customer themselves.
One of the main advantages of referral marketing is that it is based on trust and personal relationships. People are more likely to trust the recommendations of their friends and family than they are to trust traditional advertising. By tapping into these existing relationships, businesses can create a sense of social proof and increase the likelihood that potential customers will take action.
Referral marketing can be an effective strategy for both B2C and B2B businesses. In B2C settings, referrals may be more likely to come from satisfied customers who have had a positive experience with the company’s products or services. In B2B settings, referrals may be more likely to come from professional networks and industry associations.
Some fascinating statistics around demand generation:
Due to shifts in consumer behavior, technological improvements, and the advent of new venues for client engagement, the discipline of demand creation is always evolving. Demand marketers must therefore continue to be flexible and modify their plans as necessary.
Marketers should pay close attention to industry data if they want to stay up to date on the newest demand generating trends and insights. Marketers should make sure they are staying ahead of the curve by using data to inform their strategy and initiatives.
- The biggest marketing problem for B2B marketers, according to a survey by HubSpot, is generating traffic and leads.
- 91% of B2B marketers use content marketing to contact clients, making it a popular method for B2B demand generation as revealed by the Content Marketing Institute
- Another efficient method for generating B2B demand is email marketing, which typically returns $42 on every dollar invested. (DMA) Although email marketing is still effective, B2B marketers need to be cautious not to inundate their own databases with too many notifications of new content. To expand their reach and target new audiences, many marketers collaborate with third-party publishers and various media partners to syndicate their content. This approach can provide substantial exposure to fresh audiences.
- 86% of organizations use video content as a marketing tool, which shows the growing popularity of video marketing in B2B demand generation. (Wyzowl). Video content is more engaging and memorable than text-based content. Videos are better able to capture and hold the attention of viewers, making them an effective tool for B2B marketers to convey their messages. With the increasing availability of high-speed internet and mobile devices, it is easier for B2B marketers to distribute video content to their target audiences.
- Demand generation for B2B is becoming more popular to drive account-based marketing (ABM). A SiriusDecisions study found that 92% of B2B marketers consider ABM to be a key component of their overall marketing strategy.
- Only 56% of B2B companies, according to Marketing Sherpa, verify leads before sending them to the sales team. Conflicts between the marketing and sales teams may occur from low-quality leads generated as a result. Additionally, using various lead sources at the top of the funnel might result in “spreadsheet hell,” where manually entering leads into the CRM database takes a lot of time. Thankfully, there are data quality solutions that enable marketers to validate lead data before incorporating it into crucial marketing and sales processes.
- 75% of B2B marketers utilize marketing automation to create leads, making it a crucial technology for B2B demand generation. (Emailmonday)
- LinkedIn is the most widely used social networking platform for B2B marketers, and it serves as a significant channel for B2B demand generation. by the Content Marketing Institute
Roles and teams assigned for demand generation:
The goal of any demand generation team is to tap into new markets, attract the potential leads and keep them intrigued. It is a complex data-driven execution that requires a talented team to execute the tasks.
You need team members with a variety of abilities and specialties who can identify your target audience, ascertain their preferences and behavior, and effectively market your products or services if you want to generate demand generation for your brand. A committed team of demand-generation specialists who can cooperate to produce the necessary results is needed because this is labor-intensive. Six typical positions in a demand creation team are listed below:
- VP of Demand Generation: The VP is in charge of directing growth and formulating the overall demand generation strategy in this key position. They must have great leadership qualities and collaborate with other departments to engage and inform the target audience while generating income.
- Director of Demand Generation: The Director of Demand Generation oversees a group of sales and marketing experts and directs their efforts to generate interest in the goods and services of the brand. They assign assignments, control inbound and outgoing channels, and work well with numerous teams across the entire enterprise.
- SEO Specialist: To improve the brand’s online presence and increase awareness, the SEO Specialist supervises, coordinates, and maintains search engine optimization for content and campaigns, making sure they perform effectively across all search engines.
- Marketing operations manager : Marketing operations manager oversees the technology and tools used to carry out marketing and demand generation campaigns, analyzes and reports on campaign data, and ensures brand compliance. This position is crucial to the success of the demand generation team.
- Content strategist: The content strategist manages copywriters and collaborates closely with the marketing operations manager and SEO specialist to produce content and methods for delivering it at the correct time and through the appropriate channels for optimum impact.
- Copywriter: Writing and revising marketing content for a variety of deliverables, including website text, marketing emails, social media advertising and posts, blog articles, and more, the copywriter serves as the demand generation team’s spokesperson.
Your brand can promote improved brand awareness, increased sales and revenue, and a smoother customer experience with a committed demand-generation staff that collaborates to keep the ship running smoothly.
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Top tools for demand generation:
To level up your demand generation strategy a demand generation software tool can help you work smart and hard. For a perfect demand generation plan you need the right tools and here is the list of the best tools that can help you win the game.
1. Leadfeeder
For a B2B team searching for insights, it works well. This application is intended to assist businesses in tracking website visitors, even when no contact details or form submissions are made.
You can identify which businesses are visiting your website and which pages they are seeing thanks to IP tracking. Leadfeeder also has a powerful filtering system so you can find the best leads right away. You may learn which members of your target market visit, as well as their geographic region, industries, and organization sizes. The dashboard is rather simple to use, and a thorough knowledge library can assist you with any additional questions.
The premium subscription starts at $199 per month, and the free plan is available for up to three days. There is also a free two-week trial available.
2. LinkedIn Sales Navigator
If you want to connect with leads more efficiently then LinkedIn sales navigator is the best tool. Users of Sales Navigator can carry out extensive searches to identify the best prospects based on a range of factors, including industry, job title, firm size, and more. As a result, demand generation teams may be able to create more precise prospect lists for their campaigns.
Sales Navigator gives users insightful information on prospects, such as employment changes, business news, and content engagement. Utilizing this data will allow you to tailor your outreach efforts and make them more pertinent to the prospect. You can use the advanced search, to prioritize and qualify leads in your sales funnel. It is simple to use so most users do not need any additional training.
Plans begin with a free two-week trial and cost $79.99 a month after that.
3. Voila Norbert
For B2B demand generation teams, Voila Norbert can be a useful tool because it gives them access to fresh leads, validates email addresses, and integrates with other marketing platforms. By utilizing these capabilities, marketers can create a demand generation plan that is more productive, produces high-quality leads, and increases revenue for their business.
Users of the application can look for leads using a variety of criteria, including company name, job title, location, and industry. For B2B marketers trying to broaden their reach and target new demographics, this capability might be quite useful. Making sure the leads created are precise and current is one of the major issues in B2B demand generation. By checking email addresses and ensuring that emails sent by the marketing team reach their intended recipients, Voila Norbert can assist in resolving this issue. This feature can decrease the likelihood of emails bouncing or being designated as spam and increase the efficiency of email marketing campaigns.
Salesforce, HubSpot, and Marketo are just a few of the marketing technologies that Voila Norbert can interact with. Because it enables marketers to import leads straight into their CRM or marketing automation platform, this interface can help to expedite the demand generation process.
You get 50 free searches and paid plans start at $49 a month.
4. Zapier
Zapier is a platform that enables the fusion of many apps, enabling the automation of processes and the development of workflows that increase productivity. Zapier is an ideal tool for anyone who wants to add automation to their demand generation strategy. For example, You can program a workflow to automatically send new leads a follow-up email, after which you can plan to send them a series of subsequent emails over time that contain pertinent information and address their problems.
In the context of demand generation, Zapier can assist in streamlining numerous lead generating and nurturing chores, giving demand generation teams more time to concentrate on other crucial facets of their strategy.
Utilizing Zapier, you can connect your customer relationship management (CRM) or marketing automation platform with lead collection forms on your website. This can facilitate the automation of the process of adding new leads to your database and launch automated workflows that assist in nurturing and converting these leads into customers. Zapier can help increase productivity and the efficacy of your demand generation activities by integrating several applications and automating repetitive processes.
100 tasks a month are free and paid plans start at $19.99
5. Leadpages
A software program called Leadpages assists companies in creating landing pages and websites that are geared for lead generation and conversion. Leadpages can be used by the demand generation team to build landing pages that are optimized for lead generation. These pages can be utilized for numerous initiatives, including PPC ads, social media posts, email marketing, and more.
You can conduct A/B testing. The demand generation team can use Leadpages to design various iterations of the same landing page and test them to discover which one converts more leads. The team can then improve the conversion rates of their landing pages.The demand generation team can use the various templates it offers to make lead magnets like eBooks, webinars, and whitepapers. Additionally, the group may design opt-in forms that can be added to landing pages or websites to gather leads.
Leadpages can be combined with additional technologies including CRMs, webinar platforms, and email marketing providers. The demand generation team’s lead generating and follow-up activities may be automated with the aid of this integration.
Free trial is available and paid subscriptions begin at $37 per month, payable annually.
Final Words:
Demand generation encompasses every touchpoint of the customer journey, taking a holistic approach to connect with potential customers from the very first interaction. As its name suggests, it all starts with generating demand.
The subject of B2B demand generation is rapidly changing, with new tools and techniques appearing all the time. B2B marketers may continue to provide high-quality leads and promote business growth by keeping abreast of the most recent trends and best practices. The best tools can help the demand generation team to work more effectively and save time when they need to execute some monotonous tasks.
With a strong demand generation strategy, you can achieve a lot, including organic traffic, branded search traffic, a higher lead-to-quote ratio, consistent landing page creation and testing, iterative CRO experiments, a successful PPC conversion experience, brand partnerships for increased visibility, and much more.
