Using Demand Generation Marketing To Attract Qualified Leads

An effective B2B demand generation campaign increases traffic to your website, secures qualified leads, and creates a reliable funnel for your sales team.

The marketplace is competitive, no matter your industry. Therefore, developing brand awareness is critical to your company's ability to grow, attract quality leads and drive revenue growth.

In this article we’ll talk about

• What is demand generation marketing
• How does demand generation differ from lead generation
• Winning demand generation strategies.

What Is Demand Generation

Wikipedia defines demand generation as "the focus of targeted marketing programs to drive awareness and interest in a company's products and services."

However, demand generation is not a short-term fix to meet your sales goals. Instead, demand generation helps you build long-term relationships with your customers, built on trust and loyalty.

Demand generation strategies are heavy on content and include digital assets such as

• webinars
• podcasts
• blog articles
• thought leadership content
• video
• influencer marketing
• SEO
• paid ads.

Demand Generation vs. Lead Generation

Demand generation is not the same as lead generation. You might see the terms used interchangeably, but they have different goals.

Demand generation aims to build awareness of your company and the solutions you bring to the table before your target customers realize they have a problem. Your goal is to generate demand before the first stage in the B2B buyer journey: "we have a problem."

Lead generation comes into play when your audience has identified a problem and is looking for a solution.

Demand generation leads to awareness and interest.

Lead generation focuses on converting your audience into qualified leads.

You need both strategies to drive revenue growth.

B2B Demand Generation Requires A Long-Term Commitment

B2B demand generation campaigns are educational and, therefore, last longer than lead generation and inbound marketing campaigns. Your goal is to educate your target audience about the challenges they may face and how your products or services are the solutions they need. You want to reach them before they start looking for vendors. Then, by being visible everywhere your target customers go, you'll build recognition and trust and imprint your company in the mind of future customers.

If properly executed, your demand generation campaign should result in a significant increase in qualified leads.

Demand Generation Strategies

Digital content is the name of the game in B2B marketing today. Your potential customers are online, and you need to be there too. Demand generation content should nurture and engage your prospects, gently moving them through the buyer journey until they become qualified leads.

Here are six types of B2B content that we have found to be effective in generating demand.

1. Lead magnets

Publish original research, white papers, e-books, toolkits, or templates. You'll build visibility for your brand and provide valuable information to your target audience that can be used in the future when making a purchase decision.

2. Blog articles

Write blog articles that address your target audience's pain points with helpful information and tips. Your articles should focus on educating and introducing your solutions to your customers' problems. In addition, well-written blog articles published on the proper channels build trust in your company.

3. Webinars

Produce webinar content that helps your target customers overcome their pain points, address problem areas, and learn about your product offerings.

4. ABM

Account-based marketing campaigns such as LinkedIn ads, InMail, and direct mail, guides your target audience to your website. Once there, they can access case studies, white papers, and industry data that you have originated.

5. Podcasts

B2B buyers are consuming information from multiple data sources. Podcasts are an excellent tool to build thought leadership, brand recognition, relationships with your potential customers, and trust in your company.

6. Video

Videos are a powerful demand generation tool. According to researchers, visual content is recalled at a far higher rate than written content. For example, 95% of people remember what they see, compared to 10% of what they read. So an inspiring video can plant your company in the minds of your potential customers for the long term.

Make Your Demand Generation Strategy Customer-Centric

When designing your demand generation campaigns, your target audience needs to be front and center. Therefore, take the time to develop buyer personas that represent your target buyers. Then, dive into the available research and data to understand their pain points and specific problems in the industry. Once you've done this, you'll be able to create customer-centric content.

Use Data to Drive Your Demand Generation Strategies

Tapping into the power of data will make your demand generation strategies successful. You need to know which messages are working, are your personas accurate, which personas are converting, and which pieces of content or topics are resonating. At a minimum, you'll want to track

• Organic traffic
• Website traffic
• Conversion rates
• MQLs
• SQLs.

A demand generation campaign is long-term, so you'll want to keep testing strategies and measuring outcomes. If you're not getting the quality leads you want, shift strategies. Examine your conversion rates, and track how your results are changing throughout your campaign.

Top Takeaways

You want your target audience to remember you. Therefore, focus on publishing valuable content that your audience will keep and remember later.

Keep it original. If you merely regurgitate what's already out there, you won't stand out from your competition. Moreover, your target customers won't remember if they saw a solution from you or another company. So instead, take the time to create and publish new data and original industry insights. Do your research and stay on top of emerging trends. Be a unique voice.

Demand generation marketing requires a long-term commitment. So don't stop testing, measuring, and pivoting when necessary.